RIP to the Zach Lavine vs Aaron Gordon Dunk Contest Rematch

Sad news spread across the league yesterday.  The Minnesota Timberwolves’ 21 year-old starting Shooting Guard, Zach Lavine, suffered a torn ACL during Friday’s loss on the road to the Detroit Pistons.  The injury will cause Lavine to miss the remainder of the season, and of course, the NBA Dunk Contest, the highlight of All Star Weekend.  For those who aren’t familiar with Lavine, he is the reigning back-to-back champion of the NBA Dunk Contest.  Putting on a stellar performance last year in a head to head battle against the other 21 year-old rising star, Aaron Gordon of the Orlando Magic, the Lavine vs Gordon matchup is easily one of the greatest Dunk Contest matchups in NBA history and can easily be compared to the historic Jordan vs Wilkins battle in 1988.  Lavine is one of 5 players to ever win the contest back-to-back, and if he were to participate this year and win, he would join Nate Robinson as the only two players to ever win the contest 3 times.  Lavine would also be the first player ever to win the Dunk Contest 3 years in a row.  However, with this recent devastating injury, it is impossible for Lavine to go for yet another win in the Dunk Contest.

Earlier this year my prediction for the NBA Dunk Contest was that the four contestants would be Zach Lavine, Aaron Gordon, Larry Nance Jr., and Terrence Ross, with Gordon pulling off the revenge win against Lavine in the final round.  The NBA has since announced that this year’s matchup will actually feature Aaron Gordon, DeAndre Jordan, Glenn Robinson III, and Derrick Jones Jr., so unfortunately I was way off with my prediction.  I’ve honestly never heard of Glenn Robinson III or Derrick Jones Jr., but apparently, in the league’s mind, they have both shown dominance in high flying, impressive dunks.  Personally I still think Larry Nance Jr. and Terrence Ross should be in the Dunk Contest this year.  Their highlights from this season alone include some scary good throwdowns that are mind blowing to say the least.  In fact, Larry Nance Jr.’s dad was actually the first person to win the Dunk Contest in 1984, knocking out the legendary Julius Erving in the final round, so it would only be fitting for his son, Larry Nance Jr., to follow in his footsteps and create a NBA Dunk Contest performance of his own.  Terrence Ross is a familiar face to the Dunk Contest.  Winning the competition in 2013, Ross is still a high flying, Small Forward for Toronto that would easily be welcomed back to the competition.  There’s enough evidence this year to prove why these two veterans should be in the Dunk Contest, so hopefully Glenn Robinson III and Derrick Jones Jr. can prove to the league why they deserve to be in the contest over Nance Jr. and Ross.  I’m actually pretty excited to see DeAndre Jordan’s performance this year, especially since he’s never been able to participate in any NBA All Star events, but to be honest, it should be extremely easy for Aaron Gordon to walk away with the win this year.  Hopefully next year’s matchup not only features Larry Nance Jr. and Terrence Ross, but it also features the highly anticipated rematch between two of the best dunkers in modern Basketball, Zach Lavine and Aaron Gordon.

Of course, this torn ACL injury is a very serious injury for Zach Lavine.  Having to miss the rest of the season, Lavine has a lot of recovery to go through before he can return to the court.  Having a career best season, and proving to both the Minnesota organization and the rest of the league that he is more than just a historic Dunk Contest winner, Lavine is forced to put an end to his impressive season, but shows that he will be a standout player in the near future.  Not only will this injury make the Timberwolves’ chances of seeing a playoff run this season practically impossible, but it will mean that Zach Lavine will have to work even harder to get back to the level of performance he was playing at before this injury.  I without a doubt believe Zach will recover smoothly from this injury and continue to impress the league with his performance as a prominent piece to the on the rise Timberwolves.  I hope he has a speedy recovery and can’t wait to see him return to his starting position as a Shooting Guard.  Relive the 2016 Dunk Contest below and check out Aaron Gordon’s return to the competition on February 18th on TNT.

Written by Erik Clark