By John Denton

Jan. 27, 2015

ORLANDO – Twice in the past two seasons, Orlando Magic guard Victor Oladipo has showed off his extraordinary leaping abilities by unleashing jaw-dropping 360-degree dunks.

Next month, Oladipo will be trying to pull off spectacular dunks just like those on basketball’s grandest stage.

The NBA announced on Tuesday night that Oladipo, a 6-foot-3 guard, will be one of the four players participating in the Sprite Slam Dunk Contest at the NBA All-Star Game on Feb. 14 at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. Oladipo, a second-year pro, will be competing against Mason Plumlee, Zach LaVine and Giannis Antetokounmpo in one of the marquee events at the NBA All-Star Game.

``I was excited when I got the call and it’s something that I’ve been looking forward to doing,’’ Oladipo said on Tuesday. ``This was one of the things that I wanted to be able to do in my NBA career and I’m fortunate enough to be able to do it in my second year. I’m really looking forward to it.’’

Oladipo, who missed all of the preseason and the first two weeks of the regular season with knee and face injuries, has just 19 dunks this season and doesn’t register in the top 50 of the league in that category – one that is led by Clippers’ center DeAndre Jordan’s 139 dunks. But Oladipo has proven himself to be a spectacular dunker because of his explosive power off the floor and his showmanship in big moments.

Oladipo put the final exclamation point on Orlando’s big win against Houston recently by pulling off a 360-degree dunk after getting the ball out ahead of the opposition in transition. He pulled off a similar dunk during his rookie season after he stripped the ball from Brooklyn’s Deron Williams at midcourt and finished on the other end.

Oladipo said he’s been in a variety of dunk contests through the years while playing AAU, high school and college basketball and he added, ``I used to win those things all of the time.’’ Oladipo said that some of his Magic teammates have already started giving him suggestions on what dunks to try, but he prefers to just go with what he’s feeling at the time on the court. But he added that he will go into the contest having done some planning on skits, props and dunks that he will try.

``It’s a little bit of both because you will always go in there putting some stuff in your mind that you can use,’’ Oladipo said. ``It should be cool. Everybody already has their ideas of what I should do. They are going back to the (past head-to-head format) and I think the biggest thing for me is just making my dunks. I have to make them.’’

Guards have fared well in the event through the years. John Wall, a versatile guard with similar size as Oladipo, won last season’s competition. Shooting guards Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant were the most famous guards to win the competition, while Spud Webb and Nate Robinson were the two smallest guards to capture the dunk title. Dwight Howard was the only player to win the award in a Magic uniform, doing so in 2008.

Oladipo’s favorite dunker of all time is another former Magic player who convincingly won the title in 2000 in Oakland.

``Obviously you can go all the way back to the battles that Michael Jordan and Dominique (Wilkins) had before my time. But the contest that I’ll never forget is Vince Carter’s contest,’’ he said with a laugh. ``That was insane. It was something that we’ve never seen before. The stuff that he was doing was ridiculous and amazing.’’

Oladipo is coming off one of the best months of his career, averaging 20.6 poiny, 3.8 rebounds and 3.8 assists in January. And in the past 10 games – two of which Oladipo topped 30 points – he’s averaged 21.3 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.6 assists a game. For the season, Oladipo is averaging 16.5 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.8 assists a game.

Asked if he might break out the 360-degree dunk that he’s used to electrify Magic fans the past two years, Oladipo cracked: ``We’ll see, but I’ll probably have to break out my patented move (with the spinning dunk).’’

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