NBA Betting Online: The league’s signature above-the-rim showcase event of All-Star Saturday night is the Verizon Slam Dunk Contest.
Minnesota's Zach LaVine will defend his title in the 2016 Verizon Slam Dunk contest. LaVine, who won the NBA's signature above-the-rim showcase in spectacular fashion as a 19-year-old rookie last year, is joined by three first-time competitors: Will Barton of the Denver Nuggets, Andre Drummond of the Detroit Pistons and Aaron Gordon of the Orlando Magic.
Verizon Slam Dunk is a two-round event in which the four participants can perform any dunk they choose without time limits. The players have a maximum of three attempts to complete each dunk in both the first round and the final round.
Five judges score every dunk on a scale of 6 to 10, resulting in a high score of 50 and a low score of 30. All four competitors get two dunks in the first round. The two dunkers with the highest combined score for their two dunks advance to the head-to-head final round. The player with the highest combined score for his two dunks in the final round is crowned the champion.
2016 Verizon Slam Dunk Participants
Will Barton (Denver Nuggets)
Andre Drummond (Detroit Pistons)
Aaron Gordon (Orlando Magic)
Zach LaVine (Minnesota Timberwolves)
Last year, LaVine took home the NBA Dunk Contest hardware in convincing fashion. Victor Oladipo held his own, but LaVine was just too good. Everyone should be aware by now of the aerial stud’s prowess, and he was widely expected to win.
But LaVine lived up to the hype – maybe even exceeded it. And that’s nearly impossible to do in this modern age. This year he will be the favorite, likely by a huge margin.
Remember Aaron Gordon? He was a superstar at Arizona and then got taken No. 4 by the Orlando Magic in 2014. He started slow, missed a number of games and finished poorly. This year has been more of the same, minus the injury.
Still, despite his struggles in real-time action, Gordon is a super-freak of an athlete and has thrown down his share of impressive dunks. He’s a Blake Griffin-type dunker – big, but still athletic. He won’t knock LaVine off his throne, but the 6’9” forward will remind fans why the Magic spent a lottery pick on him.
Barton has already set career-highs in minutes, rebounds, assists, blocks, free throws and field goals. He’s 67 points away from a season total that would surpass his previous three years combined and he’s emerged as Denver’s second-leading scorer.
So, how many people are talking about Barton? Not as many as there should be. He will use his long, athletic frame to his advantage and earn some overdue national attention.
Drummond might be the most impressive in-game dunker of all involved. The Pistons’ big man has made a habit of testing out the strength of rims around the league. He often catches defenders off-guard as he explodes underneath the basket.
But, there are no defenders to posterize and nobody to physically dominate in this contest. Getting those 10s and cheers from the crowd are all about creating awe. We just don’t think the big fella can do enough. And as we saw with Mason Plumlee last year, power isn’t everything.
LaVine is the favorite to join Michael Jordan (1987-88), Jason Richardson (2002-03) and Nate Robinson (2009-10) as the only solo back-to-back winners of Verizon Slam Dunk. But he will be tested and a slip up opens the gate for Gordon or Barton to sneak through.
The NBA owes much of its All-Star Weekend popularity to the old American Basketball Association, which adopted the three-point shot and introduced the Slam Dunk competition during its 1976 All-Star Game. That was the same year the NCAA turned the lights on and legalized dunking. Julius “Dr. J.” Erving of the Nets won the inaugural Slam Dunk competition.
Along with gambling on futures odds for the Verizon Slam Dunk Contest winner, BookMaker will also offer a multitude of betting options for the 2016 NBA All-Star Weekend in Toronto. Wager on NBA lines for the BBVA Compass Rising Stars Challenge, the Taco Bell Skills Challenge, the Foot Locker Three-Point Contest and the 65th All-Star Game. Good luck!
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