Salt Lake City (United States), 18 Feb. – With “only” 1.88 meters, Mac McClung, who has only played two NBA games in his entire career, swept the All-Star dunk contest this Saturday, which is being held this weekend in Salt Lake City ( Utah, USA). .
McClung delivered a spectacular and astonishing performance: he landed all four dunks on the first try, scored the best score on three of them (50 points) and was very close to a perfect performance if there were no not had one of his dunks remaining on the ground “only” 49.8 points.
“It’s awesome. I feel really blessed and grateful to the NBA for giving me this opportunity,” said McClung, who had become the first G-League development league player to enter the contest. dunk.
He also promised to return next year to a slam dunk contest that has lost a lot of traction among NBA fans in recent years.
“If you invite me, I will come back,” he assured.
The point guard played for the Delaware Blue Coats when he was picked for this contest, but this week he was given a contract by the Philadelphia 76ers.
At 24, McClung has only played two NBA games so far: one with the Los Angeles Lakers and one with the Chicago Bulls (both last season).
McClung beat Trey Murphy III (New Orleans Pelicans) in the final, also left speechless by the antics of this blond “short” almost unknown to the general public.
In the first round, Jericho Sims (New York Knicks) and Kenyon Martin Jr. (Houston Rockets) were eliminated.
The competition jury consisted of Jamal Crawford, Lisa Leslie, Karl Malone, Dominique Wilkins and Harold Miner.
MCCLUNG HODGES THE SHOW
Murphy III started the contest by turning to teammate Puerto Rican heist specialist José Alvarado, who picked up his bag before assisting against the backboard for a 360-degree dunk (46.6 points).
For his part, Sims, who had extraordinary athletic abilities, hung up his first dunk until he put his elbows in the ring (47.6 points).
Martin Jr. started with doubts (he missed his first two attempts) and, with an assist from Jae’Sean Tate, he dunked from the bottom line and passed the hoop (46 points).
Then McClung’s dazzling show began.
For his first impressive dunk, he placed two people on top of each other with a ball, jumped over it catching the ball, touched the backboard and dived back.
McClung left stars like Giannis Antetokounmpo, Shaquille O’Neal and Donovan Mitchell speechless and won his first 50 of the night.
Already in the second round, Martin Jr. turned to his father, former player Kenyon Martin, who gave him a 3D-printed ball to close his performance with a dunk of 47.2 points (93.2 points at total).
Next, Murphy III asked Vivint Arena fans if they wanted a tomahawk dunk or a windmill dunk, ending up with a beautiful mix of the two (49.4 points, 96 overall).
Then it was the turn of Sims, who put an envelope on the net, put his arms back well inside the hoop and took out of this kind of letter a sheet that said “50 points” but he had 47.8 and 95 left. .4 in total.
The crowd was already lip-smacking when McClung appeared and he didn’t disappoint at all: he used just two seconds of his time to land a 360-degree dunk with the ball up and down and finish two-handed (49.8 points, 99, 8 overall)
“I’ve got a few dunks left,” McClung promised now with all the Salt Lake City fans by his side.
Murphy III started the final with a sneak pass from the 3-point line to finish without dropping the ball and scored 48.8 points.
But McClung continued flawlessly: he jumped over a person running along the baseline, faked it in the air, and the second time he finished from behind (50 points).
There wasn’t much left for Murphy to do and he sealed a 360 dunk to the last ring (49.2 points, 98 points overall) before McClung ended his big night on a high.
Wearing his “Gate City” high school jersey, McClung ended his impressive performance with a 50-point dunk that was not far off the 720-degree turn and which, reminiscent of the unforgettable Vince Carter, he completed with a clear : “It’s finish .” (It’s finish).