McClung: ‘I was probably thinking about hanging it up after this one’

On February 12, 2000, at Oracle Arena in Oakland, Hall of Famer Vince Carter put on a show in the Slam Dunk Contest, and 25 years later, Carter’s epic performance may have been surpassed by Orlando Magic two-way player Mac McClung.

On Saturday night at Chase Center in San Francisco, McClung won his third straight Slam Dunk Contest, which has never been done in league history.

San Antonio’s Stephon Castle was the runner-up. 

On his first dunk, which was probably his best dunk, McClung, who had four perfect dunks(50), took the ball out of the roof of a car and finished it off with a reverse dunk.

While preparing for the contest, McClung said he was reluctant to do the dunk.

“Yeah, I want to shout out to Isaiah Rivera,” McClung said. “He let me borrow his car. That’s a brave thing to do. And the first probably 45 minutes, I was like, I can’t do this dunk. I’m landing on the car, I can’t do it. Then Chuck (Millan), the guy I work with for dunks, he helped me. He just was like, just jump over the car. I was like, it’s not that easy, man. They taught me the technique, how to do it. We got it like three or four times in a row, and I felt confident doing it. So shout-out to them.”

McClung had another impressive dunk when a person was on a hoverboard moving around with a ball and another ball was on the rim; he dunked both basketballs.

“It kind of started with him standing still,” McClung said. “Then you do the dunk with the two balls, and I was like, it’s missing one thing; I need something more. I thought of Aaron Gordon on when he had the hoverboard doing the 360. And timing I think is one of my strong suits, so we just practiced over and over, second turn. Shout-out to Nate. He was literally on the hoverboard for about five hours a day each day for the last two weeks.”

Ja Morant and Giannis Antetokounmpo said that they could be interested in doing the contest next year; the former G League MVP said he’s flattered by those guys wanting to be a part of the contest, but he said this could be his last one.

“I’m flattered,” McClung said. “Those guys are so fun to watch. Ja, I love watching him. I think he’s incredible. He’d be awesome in the Dunk Contest. I’d love to see that. As far as me, I was probably thinking about hanging it up after this one, but I don’t know. I never want to say never.”

Hopefully, McClung will come back next year. He is the best dunker in the world, and the best dunker in the world should continue to be the Slam Dunk Contest until he loses.