The two times I have seen Zach LaVine on a basketball court he looked like a world-beater.

I was at Staples Center, back in November, when he scored 28 points on 11-of-14 shooting, including 4-of-4 from three-point range, in a one-point victory over the Lakers.

And then I saw LaVine’s impressive victory in the Slam Dunk Contest at the NBA all-star weekend in New York.

That kid is in the air a long time.

But what does it mean, going forward? Is that display of athleticism, along with scoring 28 at least once (career high, so far) in an NBA game mark him as a future star? Or could his rookie season by an indication of struggles to come?

To demonstrate, anew, how an American can lose touch with college sports, when in another country, I had no idea who Zach LaVine was until November 28, and not until he came into the game (the 10th player from the Minnesota Timberwolves to enter the contest at Staples) and lit up the Lakers for 28, a lot of the points coming against the ineffectual defense of Jeremy Lin.

A fan sitting nearby said, “That’s the UCLA kid Minnesota took in the first round.” With the 13th pick overall.

And I wondered how UCLA could have a first-rounder in the NBA and I had never heard of him. And how he could look so good despite being so buried in the rotation.

To be sure, he didn’t do much in his one season at UCLA,  averaging a bit over nine points a game and ending his one year there in a shooting slump.

And he wasn’t killing it with the Wolves. And still isn’t.

But we saw he had the ability to shoot. He is big (6-5, 180) and will be a matchup problem for most point guards trying to defend him, and I can see why some (apparently) have suggested he could be a player like Russell Westbrook, another former Bruin who looked raw, in college.

LaVine certainly is an athlete, as he demonstrated in the dunk contest, where he was awarded two perfect scores by a panel of retired NBA greats.

Let’s go to the video.

Yes, some serious air in there. The between-the-legs and the round-the-back stuff, that’s impressive. The NBA players watching are going slightly nuts.

But what does it mean in the context of a rookie season in which he is averaging 7.6 points, in 21.7 minutes per game, and shooting 28 percent from three-point range and 41 percent overall? And turning over the ball twice for every three assists he registers?

Hey, he’s a rookie. He’s 19. Second-youngest dunk contest winner, after Kobe Bryant, who was 18.

Or, hey, maybe he’s got holes in his game we will never see in the dunk contest. Or when he’s being guarded by Jeremy Lin.

One thing I found curious, when considering Zach LaVine, is this bit of video way back from when he was in high school, in Washington — all of two years ago.

If you looked at that … and the bit from the dunk contest … you noticed that he is doing the same dunks.

Which suggests he may not have grown much as a player, at least when it comes to dunking.

Zach LaVine probably will know that guys like Harold Miner and Brent Barry and Fred King won the dunk contest. And never were considered significant players.

He also will know that Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant won it, too.

Where is Zach LaVine headed? Stardom? Superstardom? Journeyman? At the moment, he is the backup point guard with the Wolves, behind Ricky Rubio — though the competition did get thinner, earlier this week, when the Wolves traded Mo Williams.

Too early to tell about LaVine, but it will be interesting to find out.