NBA Dunk Contest: Signs of life

This past week the NBA dunk contest happened during All-Star weekend. This was a highly, or lowly anticipated contest due to the recent continued disappointment of the dunk contest.

The four dunkers selected this season were reigning champion Mac McClung, Spurs’ rookie guard Stephon Castle, Bulls’ rookie forward Matas Buzelis and Bucks’ guard Andre Jackson Jr.

The latter two continued the disappointment while they attempted to complete dunks that could have thrilled the crowd but after multiple failures that made the crowd silent Buzelis failed his final dunk whereas Jackson Jr would continue to be unable to complete his elaborate dunks and then opt to make a simple dunk to at least put a score on the board.

This is exactly the action that makes the dunk contest closer to flatlining and being pronounced dead, but the other two dunkers, especially Mac McClung, may be the CPR the NBA Dunk Contest needed.

We will begin with the runner-up, Stephon Castle had a fairly disappointing first round but with Matas Buzelis and Andre Jackson Jr. failing to record a real dunk, he received an easy path to the finals. When in the finals Castle truly woke up and provided a finals that was truly memorable.

The first dunk Castle did in the final was a between-the-legs dunk from behind the basket off of a layup by an assistant that truly made the crowd excited like it was truly a close contest again. That dunk would score a 49.6

He followed that dunk up by going with a reverse 360, behind the back with the left hand, a dunk that is spectacularly difficult that he made look incredibly simple. Scoring 50s across the board to make this a very close contest into the final dunk by Mac McClung.

But let’s talk about the reigning back-to-back champion. McClung had wowed the crowd all night, with his second dunk to punch his ticket to the finals he rolled out a KIA to place in front of the basketball and had someone inside the car, with the ball and his head poking out of the sunroof.

With this setup McClung decided to one-up Blake Griffin by going over the entire car, putting the ball in between his legs and making the reverse dunk. The crowd was electric, Mac McClung was even more hype than the crowd, after falling from the dunk he got up pounding his chest because he knew what he had just done.

But the Magic Mac would have more in store for the fans in San Francisco.

With his first dunk he would go over an assistant, look to the crowd and then turn his body all the way around to slam it home, he received a 50 for the dunk, which may be a bit generous but the way the crowd responded to McClung showed how much that dunk was doing for them.

He would send it home by bringing 6’11” Cavaliers Forward Evan Mobley onto the court, placing him on a platform to make him well over seven feet tall and going completely over him, holding the ball to the rim mid-air before slamming it through.

This well-thought-out performance by Mac McClung would provide him with his third dunk contest championship, becoming the first player in NBA history to three-peat the dunk contest.

This individual performance brought attention from the NBA’s elite, garnering interest for the next dunk contest, some headliners were Ja Morant, Zach Lavine and even Giannis Antetokounmpo. This one man, Mac McClung, may have just saved the dunk contest.

But that will be something we must wait and see for future dunk contests to determine, all you must remember is the greatness that was Mac McClung in the dunk contest.

Massimo Manfra is a first-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email mgm6116@psu.edu.