INDIANAPOLIS — The judges handed out only one 50-point dunk all night and it decided everything.
Mac McClung threw down a reverse dunk over Shaquille O’Neal to close out the night and that earned him a 50 — and made him the repeat NBA Dunk Contest champion.
Giannis is all of us watching Mac's winning dunk 🤣 https://t.co/3z2iZnd5kb pic.twitter.com/YTcXYhffWn
— NBA (@NBA) February 18, 2024
“Shaq is so cool to put on my high school jersey” Makes me emotional that he did that,” said McClung, who plays for the Osceola Magic (Orlando’s G-League affiliate). “When he put it on, he said, You better not miss a dunk. And I was like, All right, I won’t miss it.”
On a night with tough judging, McClung just edged out Jaylen Brown, who had boos rain down on him from the Indiana crowd at one point when, as he finished a dunk, the LED court being used looked like the Celtics’ parquet. Neither the boos or coming in second bothered Brown.
“I wanted to be creative and bring some more entertainment to show at the end of the day. I thought it was cool,” Brown said. “I thought the setting was great. I thought the court was great, the LED lights. I just wanted to be as creative as possible.”
Jaylen Brown with homage to Dominique 🙌
— NBA (@NBA) February 18, 2024
48.8 for the lead#ATTSlamDunk x #StateFarmSaturday on TNT pic.twitter.com/BowLrT9LQ7
There were a lot of quality dunks on the night. The Heat’s Jaime Jaquez Jr. isn’t known as a high flyer but for his first dunk he also went over Shaq.
Jaime Jaquez Jr. goes OVER Shaq for his first dunk 😳
— NBA (@NBA) February 18, 2024
47.4 from the judges#ATTSlamDunk x #StateFarmSaturday on TNT pic.twitter.com/sp5khf5qC8
The theme of the night seemed to be dunking over someone else, which included Jacob Toppin over his brother (and former Slam Dunk champion himself) Obi Toppin with the reverse.
Jacob Toppin takes AIR for a 47.8 🛫#ATTSlamDunk x #StateFarmSaturday on TNT pic.twitter.com/L34mcfd1DX
— NBA (@NBA) February 18, 2024
However, McClung was consistently the most creative.
“Just a lot of thinking,” he said of his process to come up with these dunks. “I don’t think I’ve worked so diligently on something so far away for a long time. I can’t lie to you and be like, oh, man, I just came up — it took a long time.”
That's absurd, Mac. https://t.co/uK3T6Ibu4W pic.twitter.com/uhbCraLW2F
— NBA (@NBA) February 18, 2024
It paid off. McClung has two Slam Dunk Contest trophies to his name now.
