Zach LaVine Wins Second Slam Dunk Contest in a Row

Reigning dunk champ Zach LaVine had his work cut out for him, going up against Magic forward Aaron Gordon in an epic dunk-off.

Gordon's goal was to break out four dunks that had never been seen in the contest before, and he succeeded.

Wilkins had been one of the more vocal critics of the dunk contest, saying that it was hurting because the big stars were too afraid of failure to compete. But then Gordon with his prop mascot and LaVine with his doing a LOT more with the Jordan dunk than Jordan ever did... well, this was a classic duel.

The night started as a coronation when on his first dunk LaVine grabbed the ball off the bounce, wrapped the ball around his back before cupping it with his right hand and threw it down. Ultimately, this felt not so much like a new standard being set, the way that J.R. Rider going through the legs has led to EVERYONE going through the legs, as every standard being thrown out the window.

Gordon and LaVine reached the finals after knocking off Andre Drummond of the Detroit Pistons and Will Barton of the Denver Nuggets. The last two dunks for each guy were made up on the fly.

Both Towns and Thomas hit the pass on the first try in the final round and came screaming up to the three-point arc at the same time.

With LaVine's corner dunk, we had yet another tie.

This was Grendel and Beowulf, Hector and Achilles, evenly matched but opposing forces fighting a war of attrition.

Toronto Raptors Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan arrived in style for the National Basketball Association all-star game, judging from a black and white photo of the two posted on Lowry's social media.

Aaron Gordon, Sixth Dunk Frankly, this was an incredible dunk that Gordon rightly assessed in his press conference as being "kind of hard to see without a replay". "KD can dunk on anybody, he's got bounce and he's long", he said.

LaVine finished with one he didn't even know he could do. They sent clips of some of the best dunks, and he worked out a routine with one of the men who plays his team's mascot.

For anyone who watch this year's NBA Slam Dunk Contest it was quite clear that the fix was in from the beginning...Zach LaVine would repeat as champion.

Needing a 50 to stay alive, LaVine took off again from the free-throw line. We all would have died happy.