The 2015 Sprite Slam Dunk returns in its purest form at this February's NBA All-Star Weekend in New York, which is good news for the best pure dunker in the field: Zach LaVine.According to an official release, the convoluted conference split that led to so much confusion last year (quick, try to remember who won. You probably can't, and you're not alone) has been scrapped. It'll be back to basics this time around:Returning to a classic format, the Sprite Slam Dunk will be a two-round event in which the four participants can perform any dunk they choose without time limits. The players will have a maximum of three attempts to complete each dunk in both the first round and the final round.In other words: Every dunker for himself.This means trouble for Victor Oladipo, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Mason Plumleeall strong aerialists in their own rightwho simply can't measure up to LaVine's raw, fast-twitch athleticism.And LaVine knows it:If there were still some kind of team format or gimmicky tweak like the notorious Dunk Wheel, it would be easier to term this an open competition. But in an old-school, stripped-down contest like this one, LaVine is the clear front-runner.And it's not just the format that favors the Minnesota Timberwolves rookie. It's also his specific dunking skills, which are perfectly suited to exhibitions like this one.LaVine seems like he was born to slam. He told Complex (via TriangleOffense.com) that his first dunk came as a 5'9" eighth-grader: a left-handed spike he only decided to throw down after realizing with some surprise that he was up high enough to put layups behind him forever.By the time he got to UCLA, he already had a contest-ready repertoire.Fast forward to his pre-draft workout with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2014, where he logged a record-setting 46-inch vertical leap."I've gone higher than that before, but, yeah," he nonchalantly explained, via Mark Medina of InsideSoCal.com. "I was pumped a little bit."The crowd at the Seattle Pro-Am was pumped last July when LaVine broke out a routine that, if replicated at All-Star Weekend, would probably be good enough to earn him an easy win. You name the eye-opening airborne trick, and LaVine flashed it.Through the legs' Check.Looking down at the rim on a high-rising one-hander' Sure.Super-clean windmill' OK.How about a mid-air behind-the-back'Another windmill, this time from a step inside the free-throw line' Yes, please.And I'm not even sure what to call this one:You get the idea. LaVine has the variety and bounce necessary to keep crowds hyped and voters wowed. More than the array of dunks in his arsenal, it's the quality of his slams that will make him the odds-on favorite this February.He jams with violence. There's a ferocity to his throwdowns that few athletes can match. Hewhips the ball through the rim crisply, actually accelerating as he brings the rock closer and closer to the goal. It's fair to say his dunks are angry, but not entirely. Watching him, you're also struck by the serene sense of control he exhibits.LaVine creates the illusion of effortless flotation, then snaps the viewer out of the trick with the speed of a scorpion strike.It's vintage Vince Carter stuff, updated with variations we haven't seen before.His NBA peers, like J.R. Smith for example, know a phenom when they see one:And he's captured the attention of the media just as easily:If you're inclined to make a case against LaVine in this year's contest, you'd start by noting he's only completed 17 dunks in his first 935 minutes on the floor for the Wolves. Five Minnesota players (including the since-traded Corey Brewer) have logged more jams this season, and every participant from the 2015 contest field has dunked more often.In addition, LaVine is almost exclusively a one-foot jumper. That limits his options in actual games, as he generally needs a run-up to elevate.But if you think about it, that stuff hardly matters in this context. Winning a dunk contest isn't about having practical basketball athleticism. It doesn't matter how quickly a player can gather or how effectively he can create space to lift off.The dunk contest has rewarded plenty of great dunkers whose makeups didn't produce much in games. For every Blake Griffin and John Wall (who won last year, since, again, we'd all forgotten that), there's been a Fred Jones, a Jeremy Evans, a Harold Miner (twice).That's not to say LaVine won't someday develop into a useful NBA player. He's only 19. Just because his game is better suited for exhibitions than actual competition right now, it doesn't mean it'll stay that way.But the competition is all we're concerned with here, and LaVine is best equipped to win it.Follow @gt_hughes
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