Chicago Bulls star Zach LaVine has reportedly agreed to participate in the 3-point contest during NBA All-Star Weekend.
Zach LaVine was hoping he’d be spending NBA All-Star Weekend preparing to play in the big game on Sunday night. Unfortunately, the Chicago Bulls guard won’t be playing in said game. He’ll be around, though.
Per Shams Charania, LaVine will participate in the 3-point contest.
This is good news, Bulls fans! I know it’s not the same as an actual All-Star appearance or even an appearance in the dunk contest, but how sad would it be for Chicago to host the All-Star festivities and not have anyone representing the team all weekend?
Having LaVine in the 3-point contest is better than not having LaVine at all.
Zach will be an interesting 3-point contest participant. He’s not your standard spot-up shooter that typically does well in this setting. He’s no Klay Thompson or Joe Harris. LaVine takes a lot of threes off of step-back moves and out of isolation sets. In the 3-point contest, having the ability to make tough threes off the dribble won’t help him at all. It’s all about pure shooting.
That doesn’t mean LaVine won’t excel, though. He has the ability to heat up with the best of ’em. Remember when he became the third player in NBA history to make 13 threes in a game? The other two guys are arguably the two greatest shooters of all time (Steph Curry and Klay Thompson). Oh yeah, and remember how LaVine did it on a mere 17 (17!) attempts? It was one of the greatest shooting performances the NBA has ever seen.
LaVine probably won’t be the favorite to win the 3-point contest, but if he gets hot in front of the home crowd, he could easily be the one hoisting the trophy.