..By Paul Moser
..Special to AllAroundPhilly.com

In front of a capacity crowd at the First Union Center Saturday afternoon, Hawk and Macdonald beat their toughest challenge to date — younger counterparts in their prime Bob Burnquist and Bucky Lasek — for their sixth consecutive X Games vert doubles gold medal.

Though Saturday might go down as the team's most impressive run, it might also be the pair's last as Hawk hinted he may retire from the X Games after this season. If that happens, the crossover megastar will head back to California with an X Games-record 14 medals to his credit with one more event - vert best trick — left tonight.

Since the doubles discipline was introduced to the X Games in 1997, Hawk and Macdonald (Team Boom-Boom) have not been defeated. Normally, the scores are not even close. For those that know the pair it is no secret why.

"We've been doubles teammates since before it was in the X-Games," said Hawk, considered the best skater ever. "We traveled together and made routines on the spot before this.

"It's experience more than anything that helps but it's trust too. When you're with this caliber of skaters you don't' have to worry about what they're doing, you just have to worry about yourself."

Though Burnquist and Lasek — considered by many the heir apparents to Hawk - made the older guys come from behind to win, Hawk and Macdonald's years of experience were simply too much to overcome.

That's not to say they didn't come close.

Half tongue-in-cheek, half seriously, Lasek and Burnquist (The Killer Bs) had talked up the proposed match and put in the work to give the veterans competition. Each said they were tired of seeing Hawk and Macdonald win, both felt the match was the perfect solution to their frustration.

"I think this is the first time I felt good about the doubles run and wanted it to be put together," said Burnquist, who practiced feverishly with fellow Carlsbad, Calif., resident Lasek. "All the other years it was like, 'Oh, doubles, whatever,' and you would then get a run checked up a few hours earlier than the competition."

Hawk, for one, welcomed the challenge.

"We wouldn't look at each other," joked Hawk of his close friends before the contest. "Almost everyone else who enters the doubles contest tries to do something in the one or two hours of practice beforehand. These guys were practicing before they got to Philly and it showed."

Indeed.

With their last run -- one which earned them a 93.5 -- Burnquist and Lasek hit every move with gold-medal grace in unison before failing on the showstopper, a tail-slide board transfer. Both felt if they would have hit the maneuver the streak would have ended.

"We knew we could do it if we stayed on," Lasek said. "It was possible to win if we had that transfer."

As it turned out the champs defended, Lasek and Burnquist settled for silver and teammates Rune Glifberg and Mike Crup (82.25) finished with bronze.

Not without a little drama for the crowd, however.

Following a rare miscue by Hawk on a varial 540 (when the board is spun backward to forward while rotating one-a-half times) in the team's first run, the six-time gold medallists had to pull out a perfect run to best Burnquist and Lasek's 93.5. With perfect symmetry the duo did just that, resulting in a medal-clinching 95.5 run and a deafening First Union Center reaction.

It is a well-known fact such is a familiar sound for Hawk after his runs. What is a mystery is whether Saturday was the last time he will hear such applause at the X Games.

"I don't know if I'll be coming back," Hawk said.

Lasek and Burnquist, for one, do not want to see that happen.

"You better come back," Burnquist joked. "We want a rematch."

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