Zach LaVine Addresses Potential Dunk Contest Return

Zach LaVine

Getty Zach LaVine holding the trophy from the 2016 Verizon Slam Dunk Contest.

Zach LaVine is headed to the NBA’s All-Star weekend once again, but for the first time, as a member of the actual All-Star game roster. He was named to the reserves in the Eastern Conference on Tuesday night.

He’s participated in the three-point contest once before and won the dunk contest on two occasions in 2015 and 2016. As the NBA’s top in-game dunker, fans have been waiting on his return to the competition ever since.

Because there have been few more controversial dunk contests throughout the history of the NBA than the two which saw Zach LaVine emerge as the victor over Aaron Gordon.

While the jury’s still out on whether or not we’ll ever see a third installment in this saga, the Chicago Bulls guard has no current plans on reentering that arena. LaVine gave reporters, via NBC Sports, a firm no when asked if he would be interested in participating this year in Atlanta:

I don’t think I’ll do the dunk contest…Even last year, I was thinking about doing it because it was in Chicago. But I’m a little bit past that now, man. And we’ve got a lot of games left. I don’t want to lose my legs.

But, he didn’t rule himself out of both competitions that will be held during All-Star weekend:

I want to go out there and try to do the three-point contest again, I’ll definitely take part in that.

Fans will remember that LaVine made his three-point contest debut last year, at the All-Star weekend in Chicago. He was eliminated in just the first round with a score of 23.

There’s a strong possibility however that he would fare better in a potential shootout this year.

LaVine’s knocking down a career-high 43.4 percent of his 8.1 attempts from deep this season. He entered last year’s contest shooting just 38 percent on the same number of attempts.

While a return to the dunk contest isn’t completely off of the table for Chicago’s All-Star, you can consider it incredibly unlikely for this year’s competition in Atlanta.

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