Aaron Gordon shocks the world in the best NBA Dunk Contest ever!

Two former Pac-12 basketball players, Aaron Gordon, and Zach LaVine battled it out Saturday night during one of the greatest NBA All-star Slam Dunk contests ever.

Former Arizona Wildcats forward Aaron Gordon was selected to compete in the Verizon NBA All-star Dunk contest along with last year’s winner former UCLA Bruin Zach LaVine, and two other NBA stars, Stanley Johnson‘s teammate Andre Drummond and Denver’s Will Barton.

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In past contests, Blake Griffin dunked over a car, Michael Jordon dunked from the free throw line, Vince Carter dunked and stuck his arm into the rim (elbow dunk) and held on, and then pulled the first reverse 360 in 2000. This year NBA fans were looking forward to the 3-point competition more than the Slam Dunk contest which has been going down hill for awhile now since it has been hard to get the best NBA dunkers to join up.

Last night’s contest? Gordon and LaVine raised the bar for good and made NBA history!

Former Laker great Shaquille O’Neal was in attendance in 2000 to witness Carters revolutionary dunks and was wowed, but last night, he was a judge sitting to the right of his fellow Laker great Magic Johnson. These two judges were the only two who would score Gordon perfect ten’s throughout the competition.

The two NBA dunkers were nearly perfect in the finals competition. There should have been a tie at the very least, but for some reason, the folks in charge pushed for one winner in a purely opinion-judged competition. So one winner had to go home a loser, and Wildcats fans who took to social media were not happy about it.

If you missed it, you are in luck, here is how it went down.

Dunk No. 1 Aaron Gordon – Score 50

Gordon’s Orlando Magic’s mascot Stuff, The Magic Dragon, comes out on the court on a hover board, fun right? Well, he wasn’t done, Stuff starts spinning in a circle. Gordon is waiting at half court for the right time to take off. After about three rotations, Gordon charges down the court, jumps up, puts his left hand behind his head, grabs the ball with his right hand out of Stuff’s furry hand, and dunks the ball. The timing was spot on, a perfect dunk with pizzazz and flash.

Dunk No. 1 – Zach LaVine – Score 50

LaVine starts at the 3-point line with the ball, lobbed the ball in front of him, grabbed it with his left hand, pulled a 360 and slammed it home with the same hand. Amazing. We couldn’t find any video of Zach’s second dunk in the finals; it kind of looked like this one from the qualifiers.

Dunk No. 2 Aaron Gordon – Score 50

Utilizing Stuff again, and again on a hoverboard, Gordon starts baseline from the right side, jumps OVER his mascot, grabs the ball while flying over him, then puts the ball between his legs with his left hand and dunks the ball with his right hand, his head even with the rim. UNBELIEVABLE!

Dunk No. 2 Zach LaVine – Score 50

Channelling Michael Jordon, LaVine starts at half court, catches a lob with both hands from ‘The Professor’ Andre Miller, and launches from the free throw line and slams it down with his right hand.

Dunk No. 3 Aaron Gordon – Score 50

Aaron Gordon will go down in history for his third dunk. Aaron, utilizing stuff again, runs from the right side of the 3-point line, grabs the ball out of Stuff’s hands while flying over him in a pike position (sitting with legs straight), puts the ball under both legs, then still soaring mid-air, slams the ball down with his right hand in a skyhook dunk.

This is the dunk that should have sealed the deal, the dunk that has been retweeted thousands of times. This dunk should have ended the contest.

In slow mo….

Dunk No. 3 Zach LaVine – Score 50

LaVine takes it from the Free-throw line all the way to the basket with a little windmill. Meh. It was good, but not as good as Gordon’s in our opinion. That said it was still nearly perfect, Jordan style with a twist.

Dunk No. 4 Aaron Gordon – Score 50

Gordon asked Elfrid Payton for help this time. Payton tosses the ball up to bounce off of the side of the backboard. Gordon grabs the ball off of the bounce with both hands, puts a windmill on it, then turns mid-air and dunks it over the back of his head.

Dunk No. 4 Zach LaVine – Score 50

LaVine started behind the basket to the left for this lob, then between his legs slam over his head.

Final Dunk Aaron Gordon – Score 47

Gordon, out of ideas and never thought it would go this far, decides to take the ball with him baseline. Aaron runs with the ball, jumps to the basket backward (back facing the basket), and while hanging in the air, brings the ball behind his head then down between his legs, and then brings it back up over his head, and dunks the ball over his head backward into the basket.

Three judges not named Shaq and Magic, gave Gordon a ‘9’, leaving him with 47 points.

Final Dunk Zach LaVine – Score 50

This dunk won the contest…

ZonaZealots, Wildcats fans everywhere and the TNT announcers agreed, the contest should have ended in a tie! Zach LaVine and Aaron Gordon just brought the Dunk contest back to prominence, both class acts. LaVine showed a ton of love paying homage to Gordon as soon as he was given the microphone. And to make it even sweeter, Lavine dedicated the trophy to Flip Saunders, his NBA coach who passed away recently, posting this to his Instagram account.

“I dedicate this dunk contest and the trophy to my late coach, Flip Saunders, and the Saunders family. He’s the one that always believed in me and drafted me! We all loved Flip, and his memory will live on forever! #loveyacoach #2016dunkchamp”

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BearDown Aaron, you are number one in our book.