Zach LaVine’s dunk contest was just one big Kobe tribute

I was in the building for Zach LaVine’s sublime dunk contest performance. I can tell you from being there, he electrified the crowd and owned the building. LaVine’s effortless gliding through the air makes you wonder if he held anything back just so he can wow us again someday.

Yet I couldn’t help but wonder why, with the crowd in the palm of his hands, LaVine kept going to variations of the between-the-legs dunk. Yes, it takes an amazing amount of athleticism. Yes, it’s fun to watch. But there had to be more in the arsenal… so why would he pick this particular array of dunks?

The Kicksologists figured it out… it was all one big tribute to Kobe Bryant.

Fifteen years ago, Kobe Bryant was with Adidas and to announce the launch of The KOBE, Adidas put together a commercial where Kobe is seen messing around on a court with some dunks that people thought were computer generated because they’ve never really been seen before. Whether they were all CGI or not is still going to be debated, but what we know now is that most of them were completely possible.

And wouldn’t you know it… they were right. LaVine pulled all of his dunks straight from that commercial featuring his boyhood idol.

I’m actually kind of impressed that he remembered the ad and used it as an inspiration. I’d forgotten all about this ad.