2) Donovan Mitchell’s Coming-Out Party; February 17, 2018
By the time NBA All-Star 2018 rolled around, people in Utah already had a good idea that this Donovan Mitchell kid was pretty darn good. That year’s Slam Dunk Contest was the moment that the rest of the basketball world realized Mitchell was a star in the making.
Not just on the court, but as a personality and a presence in the sport.
The Rookie of the Year runner-up was second to none on that All-Star Saturday. During the course of the Dunk Contest, he bounced the ball off a second backboard for a jam, dunked over his sister, Jordan, and Kevin Hart, while sporting Darrell Griffith throwback duds, powered down a tomahawk jam off a backboard oop that was poetry in motion and wrapped things up with a tribute to Vince Carter’s legendary reverse 360.
Along the way, he illicited multiple perfect 50s from the judges and registered one of the more complete Dunk Contest performances you’ll see.