Muhammad says LaVine practicing 'new generation' stuff for Slam Dunk contest

Most agree the NBA Slam Dunk contest has fallen on hard times. It seems to lack the ineffable glow it emanated before Vince Carter went and ruined everything in 2000, and ever since, people have been talking about how to "fix" or "save" the once-hallowed event. 

Things got so dire that last year the league decided to overhaul the format. The participants were grouped into teams and cycled through an ongoing, collaborative series of dunks. A Dunker of the Night was eventually named by some hazy process that occluded any understanding of who, if anyone, had actually won the competition.  

The whole thing was met, at best, with a shrug. To the NBA's credit, that format has been ditched, and the league's reverting to the classic look for this Saturday's dunk-off. And the participants - Zach LaVine, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Victor Oladipo and Mason Plumlee - present all kinds of enticing possibility. 

Perhaps none have as much pure wow potential as LaVine, whose Minnesota Timberwolves teammate Shabazz Muhammad is already whetting appetites with some cryptic, pre-contest appetizers:

Color us cautiously optimistic.