Anfernee Simons pays tribute to Raptors legend Tracy McGrady during Dunk Contest

While NBA fans might be complaining the NBA Dunk contest 2021 was a 'snoozefest', Portland Trail Blazers youngster Anfernee Simons made a name for himself and shot to fame on Sunday night (Monday IST). The 21-year-old won the contest beating the likes of the New York Knicks' Obi Toppin and Cassius Stanley of the Indiana Pacers. The contest was held during the half-time of the NBA All-Star 2021 game, which Team LeBron won with relative ease, beating Team Durant 170-150. 

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Anfernee Simons dunk: Trail Blazers youngster pays tribute to Tracy Mcgrady at Slam Dunk contest 

The 2000 NBA Slam Dunk Contest is widely known for Vince Carter's iconic series of dunks, including the "it's over" gesture. And while the world witnessed 'Vinsanity' at its peak, a young Tracy McGrady had also shown his class only to come second behind Carter and Steve Francis in the final round. 21 years later, a young Anfernee Simons paid homage to the Toronto Raptors legend, sporting a vintage McGrady jersey from his time with the Raptors, then re-created McGrady's third dunk from the 2000 contest to perfection. McGrady had won a perfect 50 for his show in 2000, while Simons went with a 360 dunk off the bounce to bag 49. 

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Simons ended up winning the NBA dunk contest 2021, over Toppin in the final round via a new rule called the "Judge's choice".The contest was judged by five former dunk champions: Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins (1985, 1990), Spud Webb (1986), Dee Brown (1991), Jason Richardson (2002, 2003) and Josh Smith (2005). Simons and Toppin had one dunk each in the round, and instead of a score, the five judges selected a name, with Simons receiving three votes to Toppin's two. The 21-year-old said that Tracy McGrady was his hero growing up, and he wanted to honour the former Raptors superstar during the Dunk Contest. The likes of Josh Smith (Dominique Wilkins jersey), DeMar DeRozan (Vince Carter jersey), Larry Nance Jr. (Larry Nance Sr. jersey) have all done it before and Simons was one of the latest to join in on the NBA's dunk tradition. 

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For his final dunk, Simons started in the corner and lobbed the ball up. As the 21-year-old caught it, he jumped as high as he could and blew a kiss to the rim while being as level with it as possible. Although he missed actually kissing the rim, he did show off his vertical leap. The Trail Blazers youngster said that his goal for the last dunk was to kiss the rim, but he also wanted to make sure he didn't hit his head. 

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(Image Courtesy: Trail Blazers Twitter)