All-Star Weekend Rewind: John Wall Wins 2014 Slam Dunk Contest

The Freestyle Round

What the freestyle round may have lacked in drama, it more than made up for in sheer activity. For those that complain that there’s too much downtime in the dunk contest, the freestyle round was an answer to all of their prayers. The 90-second rounds played out like highlight-reel dunk videos from YouTube. Nonstop rim-rattling windmills and gravity-defying 360s.

While Team West elected to keep it more individual, with each guy soaring to the rim in spectacular succession, Team East went the ensemble route. With more creativity, inclusion, and (most importantly) alley-oops, Team East was able to take the freestyle round, capping off their session with Ross throwing it off the backboard to Wall who tossed it off the shot clock to George for a windmill. Just beautiful.