In a completely miserable season for the Knicks and a completely mediocre one for the Nets, it's hard for New Yorkers to get excited about professional basketball right now. But the NBA All-Star Game Weekend has brought fun back to NYC for the first time this season, give or take a very respectful James Dolan email or two. The main event is tonight, but between Mo'ne Davis spinning around Kevin Hart and yesterday's skills competition, the best moments have likely already happened. And the only thing better than watching Stephen Curry knock down three-pointers like a stoned Abbi in Whole Foods was watching Zach LaVine dominate the dunking competition.
Below, watch the best six seconds of the entire competition: all four of LaVine's fantastic dunks, including the epic "Space Jam" dunk.
LaVine, a 19-year-old Timberwolves rookie, easily won the the dunking competition, even with some great dunks by the Magic's Victor Oladipo. LaVine really went all-out with the "Space Jam" dunk, wearing Michael Jordan's #23 Tune Squad jersey from the movie, as well as bringing some of the actual Quad City DJs to sing the theme song. Watch the full presentation, plus LaVine gushing about the film's impact on his life, below.
As for Oladipo, whom Deadspin called "the living and sole justification for the existence of the Orlando Magic," his best moment was his first dunk: he came out singing "New York, New York" very off-key before throwing down what the announcers dubbed a "540 dunk" (though it was more of a 360 reverse one). Watch that below.
Brooklyn's Mason Plumlee, the only hometown player participating in the dunking competition, didn't do too well, but it was fun running into him!
