Jaime Jaquez Jr., a rookie with the Miami Heat, made a statement before starting his dunk parade in the AT&T Slam Dunk Contest.
NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal was part of a dunk that Jaquez executed. His windmill slam over O’Neal earned him a 47.4 out of 50 rating from the judges, who were Fred Jones, Gary Payton, Mitch Richmond, Darnell Hillman, and Dominique Wilkins.
Along with him in the competition are forward Jacob Toppin (New York Knicks), Mac McClung (Osceola Magic), and standout Jaylen Brown (Boston Celtics).
Watch the superb dunk below :
Bringing in Big Diesel!
47.4 for Jaime on his first dunk. pic.twitter.com/hLQDH9HLBO
— Miami HEAT (@MiamiHEAT) February 18, 2024
Jaime Jaquez Jr. talks about preparing for the contest with Shaquille O’Neal
On his podcast, Jaquez described how he trained with NBA star Paul George for the tournament. He said,
“I didn’t realize how serious this process was gonna be. That’s what I was telling myself the whole time. I’m just banking on the adrenaline. Obviously, taking a lot of inspiration from a lot of different places, everybody can do crazy dunks, so you gotta put your own little twist on things,” “That’s what I’m looking forward to doing. I think you got a lot of great jumpers and great dunkers in there. In game dunking is one thing, but a dunk contest is another. It’s about, you know, being creative and having good tricks and stuff like that.”
Jaime Jaquez Jr. has some tricks up his sleeve for Saturday's dunk contest 👀@ATT pic.twitter.com/PLnvMR56WO
— Podcast P with Paul George (@PodcastPShow) February 12, 2024
Jaquez is averaging 49.2 percent shooting, 12.9 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 2.6 assists. Before suffering a groin injury that kept him out of action for six games, he was trailing both Chet Holmgren and Victor Wembanyama in the race for Rookie of the Year. NBA.com reports that as of February 14, he is ranked No. 5.
