NBA All-Star Saturday Night Grades

Zach LaVine—A-

Zach LaVine is not iconic and heralded like MJ. But I will say that what makes him special in the Dunk Contest is that he has something just like MJ, Dr. J and others did. When you watch it back, he honestly looks like he can fly.

What gave LaVine the victory was that when it came time for the dunk off, all he had to do was take flight and trust that he would have the answer in mid-air. And he did.

Now, LaVine does not get an A+ because I don’t believe that he had an answer for the use of Gordon’s props and power. Looking at his face, he was worried that he did not have a response for Gordon’s mind-boggling use of the mascot.

Down the stretch it did not matter, he was able to pull out another way to bring down the basketball from mid-air consistently while Gordon’s ideas ran out of steam. Did he have the dunk people will remember forever, no. But in his defense, they will remember that he could fly.