By Josh CohenFeb. 13, 2016
TORONTO – Aaron Gordon made his 2016 Verizon Slam Dunk Contest entrance to the hit song “Classic Man” by Jidenna.
After what we witnessed on Saturday night in Toronto, a remix may need to soon be released titled “Classic Men.” That’s because Gordon and Zach LaVine’s dunking duel was an instant classic and arguably the greatest one-on-one competition the game has ever seen.
It took multiple tiebreakers to determine a winner after the two high flyers racked up continuous perfect scores from the judges. LaVine eventually outlasted Gordon with a between-the-legs dunk from the free throw line. But even he admitted during the trophy presentation that the award should be shared and that history was made.
“It might have been, definitely up there,” Gordon said when asked whether he thought this dunk contest was the best in NBA All-Star Weekend history.
Gordon’s dunks – most we’ve never seen before – were creative, powerful and precise. Several involved Orlando Magic mascot STUFF on a hoverboard and all of them encompassed some combination of acrobatics and trickery.
One example was Gordon flying over STUFF, who held the ball on top of his head, and then switching the ball from one hand under his legs to the other hand and jamming it home.
Another had him catching the toss off the side of the glass from teammate Elfrid Payton, double clutching and flushing it down with the reverse.
And one more dunk described for the sake of accentuating just how amazing the show was; Gordon grabbed the ball from STUFF as he was spinning in circles on the hoverboard, did a 360 and powered it in.
Perhaps most impressive about Gordon and LaVine’s performances was how accurate they were. In fact, they were successful on the first try most of the time (12 dunk attempts combined). Gordon and LaVine had a stretch of six straight perfect scores.
"That's been my dream all my life to compete in an NBA Dunk Contest and I'm at a loss for words," Gordon said. "It's awesome, win or lose, I had so much fun. It's a dream come true. I'm really speechless."
On social media, there are already campaigns for a rematch at next year’s NBA All-Star Weekend.
This was the second year in a row that a Magic player challenged LaVine in the dunk contest. Last season, Victor Oladipo finished runner-up to LaVine.
Gordon was the sixth player in Magic history to compete in the dunk competition (Otis Smith, Nick Anderson, Darrell Armstrong, Dwight Howard and Oladipo were others). The judges in Saturday's contest included former Magic players Shaquille O'Neal and Tracy McGrady, NBA legends George Gervin and Dikembe Mutombo and Gordon's childhood hero, Magic Johnson.
"You've got an incredible panel of judges that you looked up to," Gordon said. "So I definitely appreciate the moment and the best way that I can appreciate that moment is taking it all in and being extremely present."
In a season that has already featured so many mesmerizing moments, including a few game-winning shots, it would only be appropriate to suggest that Saturday's performance from "Air Gordon" was Pure Magic.