Wolves' LaVine gets dunk contest advice from NBA legend

Timberwolves rookie Zach LaVine wandered into the Target Center media-dining room before Monday's game against Atlanta looking to swipe a cookie and instead ended up shaking hands with the man once nicknamed the "Human Highlight Film."

Minutes later, teammate Kevin Martin asked All-Star Saturday-bound LaVine what it felt like to be the second-best dunker in the arena that night.

"Second-best?" LaVine asked, somewhat incredulously.

Martin deemed the man LaVine had just met — the great Dominique Wilkins, now an Atlanta Hawks television analyst — the best around that night.

"I don't got him," LaVine said, agreeing with Martin's assessment. "He's got the scoring, too. I've seen all of his dunks, but I watched more of his scoring, him and [Michael] Jordan battling back in the '80s. They were always No. 1 or 2 for the scoring title. I always used to watch that on the Hardwood Classics."

Wilkins participated in five All-Star slam dunk contests and won two of them, beating Jordan in the 1985 final round and Kenny Smith in 1990.

That last title came five years before LaVine was born, so the man who won twice but claims he really won four times has some advice for a 19-year-old rookie who will participate for the first time Saturday in All-Star weekend's slam dunk contest at Brooklyn's Barclays Center.

"Don't leave anything at home, don't save the best for last," Wilkins said. "Come out strong in the beginning. You've got to make a statement. If you do, even if your second or third dunk is not as good, the judges and people think it is."

Getting here by accident

On Friday, LaVine and Wolves teammates Andrew Wiggins, Shabazz Muhammad and Gorgui Dieng will play in the Rising Stars Challenge that showcases first- and second-year players. On Saturday, LaVine steps into All-Star Saturday's bright lights all alone, perhaps even as the dunk contest's favorite to win just six years after he dunked for the first time, by mistake.

He did so as a growing, gangly, springy eighth-grader who participated in a summer-league game back home near Seattle.

"I went up with my left hand to lay it up and I dunked it," he said. "After that, I didn't dunk again for about a month. I didn't know how I did it. Then I finally figured it out."

Three years later, after he had grown to nearly 6-5, LaVine handled the ball through his legs and slammed down a dunk for the first time. The rest, as they say …

"I was just trying stuff one day and did it on accident," he said. "I tried it and it went in. Then I started to figure out the timing and it started to become my thing."

Now he is considered something of the favorite to defeat fellow dunk-contest newcomers Victor Oladipo of Orlando, Giannis Antetokounmpo of Milwaukee and Brooklyn's own Mason Plumlee because of his 46-inch vertical leap and a treasure trove of YouTube highlights in which he sends summertime audiences into a frenzy with his combination of natural hops and practiced tricks.

Privy to LaVine's preparation leading to Saturday, Muhammad predicts the contest will be no contest if LaVine simply relaxes and lets shine gifts that Muhammad calls "new generation" for an act in which everything good seemingly has been attempted before.

"The things I saw him do last night, I can't tell," Muhammad said. "I've been watching the dunk contest for a long time now, but it's some crazy stuff I haven't seen before. It's going to be pretty special. I'm telling you, if he just relaxes and does his thing, it'll be ugly."

Muhammad is prepared to help out as a partner and a prop, although LaVine said he is partial to keeping it simple.

"I'm more of an old-school dunker," LaVine said. "I just like to go out there and do my dunks. It's just you, your hang time, your creativity, all that. I don't want to say I jump higher, but I think that's my strength. I think I can be in the air a little longer."

In-Vince-able?

Wilkins concurs, agreeing the old-school approach is best in a year when the NBA is reverting back to an old-school, two-round format intended to bring back some of the aging contest's lost shine: Participants can attempt any dunk they choose without a time limit and get three chances with each dunk.

"The element of surprise is important," Wilkins said. "Don't make your dunks so obvious with all the props and stuff. I'm not a believer in cupcakes and teddy bears. Just bring it: Get your shoes, your basketball and let's go."

LaVine calls Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady his three favorite dunkers, none of whom blew out a lit cupcake set on the rim like former Wolves guard Gerald Green once did.

Then LaVine reconsiders.

"Oh, shoot and Vince," he said, referring to Memphis forward Vince Carter, who is still playing 14 years after he turned heads in winning the dunk contest. "Yeah, Vince …"

At age 38, Carter admits he no longer can "fly" like he once did when his year 2000 performance became the gold standard.

"Everybody's different," Carter said. "My approach is probably slightly different. I used to study it like it was a final exam. Honestly, I critiqued it, I broke it down, I had an appreciation for it. It's all about wowing the crowd. When I'm looking at it, I want to see style and different tricks because anybody can go out and dunk from a long ways. It's all about the tricks you can pull out and the degree of difficulty. It's like a diver."

LaVine says he has a good bit of that stuff planned for Saturday night.

"I've seen him before," Carter said. "Not bad, actually pretty good. I think he has ability. I don't watch 'em much anymore, but I'll definitely hear about it. He's a guy who has tricks and is not just an in-game dunker. He'll put on a show."