Yes, understandably so, you’re reading this and going ‘here we go again, someone reaching for a comparison’.
Don’t go there quite yet, not until you read a little bit more.
Zach LaVine won the 2015 NBA Slam Dunk contest and he has catapulted into the tops of the NBA’s most searched player in a matter of 24 hours.
LaVine may have led the charge of bringing back the NBA dunk contest (with a little help from Victor Oladipo) and he has the NBA, its fans, writers and even players wondering about this kid.
Those who know who Zach LaVine is, this performance comes as no surprise.
There has been video, after video, after video showcasing Lavine’s dunking talents and athleticism but, the real question is.
Where does LaVine go from here?
He can’t go anywhere else besides up and rightfully so, everyone wonders what his ceiling might be as he continues to develop his game and grows into his 19 year old body. LaVine has some tremendous skills including freakish athleticism, great speed and some fantastic ball-handling but his stats early on in his rookie season, might not show it. The stats instead show a slow start to a hyped up rookie season.
LaVine shouldn’t worry though, there was another rookie who started off very slow in his historic NBA career and that former rookie actually has some similarities to LaVine and how he is starting now.
Lets compare where Zach LaVine is right now in his career, fresh off winning the 2015 NBA Slam Dunk Contest to another man who won the dunk contest early in his career, Kobe Bryant.
Tale Of The Tape
Kobe Bryant
(1996-97 rookie season)
Team: Los Angeles Lakers
Position: SG
Height: 6’6
Weight: 190 lbs
Draft: 1st round, 13th pick in the 1996 NBA Draft
Jersey Number: 8
PPG: 7.6
APG: 1.3
RPG: 1.9
SPG: 0.7
BPG: 0.3
FG%: 41.7
FT%: 81.9
February 8, 1997. Los Angeles Lakers rookie Kobe Bryant is the Slam Dunk Contest winner at age 18, thanks largely to an impressive between-the-legs dunk in the final round.
Bryant’s dunk Contest
Zach LaVine
(Rookie season so far)
Team: Minnesota Timberwolves
Position: PG/SG
Height: 6’5
Weight: 183 lbs
Draft: 1st round, 13th pick in the 2014 NBA Draft
Jersey Number: 8
PPG: 7.6
APG: 3.2
RPG: 2.1
SPG: 0.8
BPG: 0.1
FG%: 41.4
FT%: 80.8
February 14, 2015. Minnesota Timberwolves rookie Zach LaVine is the Slam Dunk Contest winner at age 19 as he also used some of his between-the-legs dunks to seal the victory.
LaVine’s dunk contest
Check out how LaVine’s set in the dunk contest compares to some of the dunks shown in this classic Adidas commercial featuring a young Kobe Bryant.
The similarities between the two players are just so uncanny and can not go unnoticed and to put the cherry on top of it all, LaVine has said that Kobe Bryant was his idol growing up so that might be the reason for a little bit of LaVine’s motivation behind his dunk contest set.
LaVine also wore Kobe’s signature shoe during the dunk contest.
LaVine is an amazing talent and has so much athleticism that it would be hard to see him digress or go into a state where he doesn’t progress at all. He definitely needs to work on developing a mid-long range shot, improve his defense and his consistency but then again, Bryant also didn’t hit the ground running either when he first came into the league.
While the two teams the rookies played for are vastly different in every shape in form, there are some things that LaVine can learn from Bryant as Kobe’s rookie season saw him be the third guy off the bench in his position, behind an up and coming guard in Eddie Jones and a seasoned veteran in Byron Scott. Looking at LaVine, he has a similar scenario, being third on his positions depth chart behind Ricky Rubio and Mo Williams (until Williams was recently traded).
The judgement is still out for LaVine but the eyes will be all over Zach and how he continues his rookie season. He does have a lot to prove and hopefully he won’t fizzle out and underwhelm on the court much like former dunk contest winners like Fred Jones, Desmond Mason and Terrence Ross.
In Lavine’s first game against his idol and favorite team growing up, he actually outscored Bryant by dropping 28 points in Los Angeles. Bryant put up 26 and missed a late shot to win the game for his Lakers.
The window of opportunity is here and either LaVine can take what is being given to him, a chance to over perform on an underwhelming Timberwolves team, or he can just fade out like those in the past. It’s unlikely though, that a kid as confident and driven as LaVine will allow that to happen.
Just remember, history repeats itself and that’s just how it goes.
