The NBA’s All-Star weekend is an opportunity for the league to showcase its talent. The main event is the All-Star Game, but the 3-point Contest, Rising Stars Game, and the Slam Dunk Contest are also important fixtures of the festivities.
For any NBA player, being involved in the weekend is an honor, but for Jaxson Hayes, it means a bit more. He was asked to participate in the Slam Dunk Contest and accepted.
With the All-Star Game happening in LA, Hayes will represent the Lakers in his home market.
Sure, the game is at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, where the Clippers play, but he’ll certainly be a fan favorite.
This will be Hayes’ first time participating in the Slam Dunk Contest, but it’s something he’s wanted to do his entire career.
After the Lakers beat the Warriors, he spoke to the media about participating in the competition.
“I’ve always dreamed of being in the dunk contest,” Hayes said. “That’s something you do as a kid. I mean, obviously like making it to the NBA, being an All-Star and stuff like that, but like for me, I was always big into the dunk contest, if you guys can’t tell by the way I play, I was just excited, so when I got that call, I was definitely down.”
Hayes is certainly elite at dunking the ball. He has 75 dunks on the season, which is the 19th most in the NBA. He has only 46 made field goals that are not dunks.
Coming off the bench for the Lakers, Hayes electrifies by attacking the rim and elevating the energy of the arena when he slams one down. A prime example occurred when the Lakers faced the Bulls earlier this year. Hayes went coast-to-coast and executed a fantastic East Bay Funk Dunk.
The hope is that he can bring some of that action to the All-Star stage.
Hayes also has some experience winning these kinds of competitions. He won the Ohio-Kentucky All-Star Game Dunk Contest as a senior in high school and executed an impressive windmill from the free throw line.
It’s great that the NBA selected a player who wants to be in the dunk contest and will put his best effort forward, representing the Lakers on this stage.
Kobe Bryant is the only Laker ever to win the Slam Dunk Contest, so if he could pull off a victory, it’d be a historic moment in LA and a great reward for Hayes, who has been a star in his role for the purple and gold all season long.
You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.
