"It’s over!" Barkley stood up from the commentator’s seat, raising his hands high.
The venue was already drowned in the cheers of the fans.
Recognized as several of the most difficult dunk moves: dunking two balls at once, a 720-degree spin, and then there’s the free-throw line 360.
Raven also stood up to applaud Hansen at this moment.
If he was confident in doing a free-throw line 360 in overtime, then he would have been the winner.
So when Hansen successfully completed this move, he knew he had lost, and he accepted the defeat wholeheartedly.
The judges quickly gave Hansen his score for the second dunk.
A perfect score for all five dunks!
Hansen became the ultimate winner of this peak slam dunk contest.
He also became the first player in NBA history to win both the Three-Point Contest and the Slam Dunk Contest in the same All-Star event.
So, has anyone ever won both events but not in the same year?
The answer is still no.
As for James? Follow current novels on 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡⁂𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚⁂𝙣𝙚𝙩
Like on the court, he was overwhelmed by Hansen, the kind of defeat without any power to fight back.
But unlike during the contest, as a participant of the Slam Dunk Contest, he couldn’t leave the court early.
Hansen then gave his acceptance speech.
He thanked all the contestants of tonight’s event, including James.
After all, without James’s participation, this year’s Slam Dunk Contest would have truly felt like something was missing.
For Gordon, he offered more encouragement and affirmation, and expressed his hope to see him become the Dunk King one day.
Of course, he mentioned Raven the most.
Because it was the peak duel between him and Raven that created this unique, peak event.
After Hansen gave his acceptance speech, Jokic cleverly handed the Three-Point Contest trophy to Hansen.
With one hand holding the Three-Point Contest trophy and the other the Slam Dunk Contest trophy, the trophies shone together, creating a new world-famous image.
The day of the All-Star was extremely lively.
Hansen’s performance in the two individual events not only achieved various milestones for himself but also pushed the All-Star Weekend to a traffic peak.
This also attracted unprecedented attention to the last day’s main event.
And in that game, Hansen really did as he said on media day, not cooperating with Kobe’s performance.
But in reality, although Curry on The West kept passing the ball to Kobe, Kobe didn’t shoot much.
He, like he said on media day, didn’t have much thought about the MVP.
It was interesting with James because he perfectly embodied the saying that accompanied his whole career: say what you will, but do what you must.
This time in the main event, his offensive desire was very strong, and he also continued his excellent season performance, scoring 38 points in the game.
However, unfortunately, The West ended up losing the game.
Hansen scored 31 points and won his second All-Star MVP trophy.
At the end of the game, Kobe came over with a smile to congratulate Hansen and even hugged him.
In fact, Kobe was thankful to Hansen because if not for Hansen, he would have been pressured by James and others to do things he didn’t want to do.
After the All-Star Game, Hansen kept his promise and gave the $50,000 from the Slam Dunk Contest to Jokic.
The first thing Jokic did after returning to Cleveland was to get a bigger house, perfectly embodying the idea, "No one knows better than me how to enjoy life."
With the end of the All-Star Game, the first half of the season came to a close.
Following closely was this season’s trade deadline.
The Cavaliers were very active in the trade market.
The Cavaliers’ rotation was relatively set, and it was time to address their shortcomings.
Their biggest problem now was the lack of a big, strong, and tough center.
Centers in the league were scarce, but there were still some.
For instance, Howard from the Brooklyn Nets.
The Nets had a poor performance this season, now only ranked ninth in The East.
If the Cavaliers faced them in the first round of the playoffs, letting Jokic or Garnett go up against Howard would be very challenging.
This was the type of player who might not necessarily get into the rotation, but was essential to have.
And with Hawes now basically losing his spot in the Cavaliers’ rotation, a trade was just a matter of time.
However, because of the special milestone coming next year, teams maintained a relatively cautious attitude towards trades.
If nothing unexpected happened, this year’s trade market would be a lot quieter than in previous years.
Time flew, and on the deadline day, trades were gradually completed by the teams.
The Cavaliers ultimately reached a trade with the Magic Team, after sending out the veteran Prince and a future second-round pick, they brought back third-year player DeWayne Dedmon from the Magic Team.
Dedmon was undrafted in the 2013 draft, having bounced around the Warriors and the 76ers before getting some opportunities with the Magic Team.
Standing 2.13 meters tall with a 2.24-meter wingspan, he had virtually no offensive ability, but his defense, including shot-blocking and bodying up opponents, was decent; this season as Big Lopez’s backup on the Magic Team, he averaged a respectable 4 points and 4 rebounds per game.
Other teams also made similar minor moves.
When the trade deadline was nearing its end, and everyone thought it was over, a last-minute blockbuster trade caused turmoil in the League.
The Brooklyn Nets, Celtics, and Hawks reached a three-team trade.
The Celtics traded Amir Johnson, Jared Sullinger, and a future first-round pick, acquiring Al Horford;