While intended to be the crown jewels of All-Star Saturday, the NBA Slam Dunk Contest had been sitting in the backseat more and more in recent years.
Just too many uninteresting contests with fewer and fewer stars of the league.
While this past dunk contest’s participants from the 2023 All-Star Weekend in Salt Lake City didn’t scream superstars at first glance, too, the dunk contest was somewhat saved by Trey Murphy and, more importantly, two-way player Mac McClung.
McClung’s performance not only had him win the Slam Dunk Contest, but also helped generate a hype around his person. The high flyer gained millions of social media followers and fans worldwide… all while remaining incredibly humble.
During last year’s All-Star Game, Mac revealed to me, that he will show dunks that have never been done before in an NBA dunk contest. He definitely delivered on that.
Fast forward to today… NBA Rising Stars media day in Indianapolis. The setting was very similar to last year, only that there likely will be more pressure on McClung to perform, since people now know what he’s capable of.
When talking to him, I brought his statement from last year back up, asking him if he’ll double down on that statement this year, again. That’s when Mac even one up’d himself, saying that he’ll have three dunks that have never been done before in an NBA dunk contest, two of which have never been done by any dunker.
“I think there’s three dunks that haven’t been done before, and two, I don’t think anybody has ever done. Hopefully I make ’em. That’s the big thing…”
GET READY:@McclungMac just told me that he has three dunks that never been done before in a dunk contest, two of which no one ever has done.
–#nba #NBAAllStar2024 #NBAAllStar pic.twitter.com/gIjPf6cZWZ— Len Werle (@RealLennyCarlos) February 16, 2024
With this in mind, I approached fellow NBA Dunk Contest participant Jacob Toppin and asked him if he also had something is store for us, that we may have never seen before. His response, while mysterious, at least points towards that direction.
“Yeah…. I guess we’ll see, and find out tonight.”
Dunk Contest wird glaube ich geil. Nur blöd, dass die Hoffnungen auf zwei G-Leaguern liegen. ♀️ pic.twitter.com/AjMZV4XwYP
— Len Werle (@RealLennyCarlos) February 17, 2024
