Orlando Magic forward Aaron Gordon got an assist from an unlikely partner during last Saturday's National Basketball Association All-Star Slam Dunk Contest: a drone.

The contest was part of the NBA All-Star Weekend in New Orleans, Louisiana, where a game was scheduled to take place.

For his first dunk, reported the Orlando Sentinel, the 21-year-old tried something never done before at an All-Star Weekend - dunk a ball dropped from a drone.

The drone was Intel's AscTec Neo, said GeekWire. The tech firm's drones had appeared two weeks earlier at Lady Gaga's Super Bowl half-time show.

With the theme from Star Wars blaring over the Smoothie King Centre's loudspeakers, Gordon collected the ball after it hit the floor, switched it from his left hand to his right between his legs, and tried to dunk.

Gordon made three attempts and failed. On his final try, Gordon was successful and received a score of 38 out of 50 possible points.

Gordon flubbed his second dunk and got 34 points. His combined score of 72 was not good enough to earn a spot in the final round. The Indiana Pacers' Glenn Robinson III won the title.

"I just wanted to do something new, something innovative," Gordon said afterwards. "It didn't go my way."