Orlando Magic forward Aaron Gordon gave Timberwolves guard Zach LaVine all he could handle, but in the end LaVine prevailed victorious in one of the best dunk contests the NBA has ever seen.

This contest was so close between Gordon and LaVine that LaVine was running out of dunks to do:

“We were looking in our bag of tricks. Ain’t nothing left,” LaVine said. “I just found a little piece of dust.”

LaVine found a pretty good trick in his bag, though. He pulled out a between-the-legs dunk, coming from the free throw line on the second tie-breaker to win his second dunk contest title, going back-to-back to do so.

Him winning his second straight dunk contest puts him in the conversation with Michael Jordan. While we aren’t talking about historic greatness here with LaVine just yet, it’s still pretty cool to be grouped with Jordan in anyway possible. I’m sure Nate Robinson and Jason Richardson are saying the same thing. Those four guys are the only players in NBA history to win the contest twice in a row.

Many would say that Aaron Gordon was robbed by LaVine this contest because Gordon himself was incredible. LaVine had high praise for Gordon afterwards:

“I’m so happy I prepared some extras because usually you don’t need them,” LaVine said. “People usually aren’t that prepared to go up against you. But he deserved the title just as much as I did. He … did some crazy, ridiculous dunks. I’m just glad I got the last laugh.”

Gordon had the more crowd pleasing dunks, but LaVine was overall the most consistent one there.

“If I knew it was going to be like that, I would have prepared better and we would have been here dunking all night, going back 50 after 50 after 50 after 50,” Gordon said. “We would have been here all night. I didn’t know it was going to be like that.”

Gordon earning a 47 on a dunk in the tie-breaking round set the stage for LaVine to end the contest, and he did just that.

“Zach’s an incredible dunker,” Gordon said. “He went through the legs from the free-throw line. That is insane. So off that dunk, you’ve got to give it to him. That’s why the trophy’s with him and not with me.”

The dunk contest is back!!!

— Dominique Wilkins 🏀 (@DWilkins21) February 14, 2016

Nuggets guard/forward Will Barton and Pistons center Andre Drummond also competed in the slam fest, but Gordon and LaVine really rocked the Air Canada Center on Saturday, and rightfully so.

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