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It is time for plan B. Former Los Angeles Lakers forward Larry Nance Jr. will make his first appearance in tonight's NBA Slam Dunk Contest, facing rookies Dennis Smith Jr. of the Dallas Mavericks and Donovan Mitchell of the Utah Jazz, and second-time participant Victor Oladipo of the Indiana Pacers.
With tough competition ahead, players need to get more creative as years go by. Apparently, Nance Jr. asked his then-teammate Lonzo Ball to help him in one of his dunks.
Bill Oram of the Southern California News Group reports that, after the Rising Stars Challenge last night, Ball told reporters that he was supposed to help Nance before he got traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“I was gonna be part of a dunk, so we’re gonna see how that goes now.”
To make dunks more interesting and flashy, participants commonly ask one of their teammates for some help; whether that is in the form of an alley-oop pass, an off-the-backboard pass, or simply as a prop to jump over. It does not come as a surprise that Nance wanted one of the best passers in the league to feed him some on-point dimes.
There are two takeaways from this: one, Nance had already been preparing some dunks over a week before the event, which speaks about how seriously he takes the contest; and two, we will have to wait and see who ends up helping Nance with his dunks. The fact that Ball said ‘I was gonna be a part of a dunk' suggests that he will no longer be. If he has to choose a teammate, the most logical option is ex-Laker Jordan Clarkson, who was traded in the same deal as Nance.
There are high expectations for Nance Jr. His in-game dunks suggest he is more than ready to participate in this storied event, and he should add to his family's legacy if he wins. His father, Larry Nance Sr. won the first-ever Slam Dunk Contest in 1984. If his son gets the win tonight, they will be the first ever father-son duo to win a Slam Dunk Contest in history.
