Mac McClung, once again, came out as the NBA Dunk Contest champion in Indiana on Feb. 17.McClung bested Boston Celtics star forward Jaylen Brown in the final round of the competition.
Brown, known as one of the more intellectual stars in the league, had creative props throughout the contest, including a glove on his left hand, a man dressed as Dominique Wilkins, a Terrence Clark high school jersey, Kai Cenat and Jayson Tatum.
Brown is from the Atlanta area, and Wilkins was one of the judges, so he paid homage to the legend by reenacting one of his more legendary dunks. Clark was a young basketball star from the Boston area and had a friendship with Brown before being involved in a tragic car accident weeks before getting drafted in the NBA.
Tatum, Brown’s star teammate, threw an alley-oop to Brown as he jumped over Cenat in a chair. Cenat recorded the entire dunk on his phone. As Brown came down, he put his arm over his eyes, as a tribute to former Celtics dunk contest winner Dee Brown as the court turned into the Celtics’ court.
crowd booing after Jaylen Brown dunks over a 5’3 Kai Cenat SITTING DOWN 😭😭 pic.twitter.com/Gz3TtVD4sc
— ryan 🤿 (@scubaryan_) February 18, 2024
Brown’s props were the most creative throughout the contest, but the execution of the dunks was underwhelming. McClung had the most impressive dunks across the board, but a couple of his dunks were repeats from last year’s memorable performance when he won the first time around. A clean jump over Shaquille O’Neal, who was wearing his jersey, gave him the perfect 50 he needed to repeat in the contest.
Watch all 4 of Mac McClung's dunks, including his contest-winning perfect 5⃣0⃣
The back-to-back #ATTSlamDunk champion put on a SHOW 🤩 pic.twitter.com/YcTrNDMvwz
— NBA (@NBA) February 18, 2024
The judging of the contest was also interesting, to say the least, as impressive dunks from Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Jacob Toppin weren’t good enough to advance.
Jaime Jaquez Jr.'s second round dunk was NASTY 🔥 pic.twitter.com/h5uzJ1RPVC
— JJJMuse (@JaimeJaquezMuse) February 18, 2024
JACOB TOPPIN 🔥
OBI WAS HYPE. pic.twitter.com/fjRlACURXL
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) February 18, 2024
Damian Lillard repeated in the Three-Point Contest, the Pacers won in the skills challenge, but the story of the night was the battle between Sabrina Ionescu and Steph Curry. Ionescu broke Curry’s contest record in the WNBA All-Star Weekend last year, to which Curry challenged her to a shootout. In the Feb. 17 showdown, Ionescu competed with Curry from NBA range while using a WNBA ball and finished with a score of 26. Curry still defended his record with a score of 29. Ionescu said her goal in the contest was to show kids it doesn’t matter if you’re a boy or a girl on the court because if you can shoot, you can shoot.
"If you can shoot, you can shoot. It doesn't matter if you're a girl or boy, I think it just matters the heart that you have."
Sabrina Ionescu’s message after her and Steph Curry’s 3-point contest 🙌pic.twitter.com/7aFq1Ez5UN
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) February 18, 2024
The NBA All-Star Game begins on Feb. 18 at 8 p.m. ET. The game returns to the Eastern Conference vs. Western Conference this season after a few seasons of having team captains pick their teams from a roster pool of All-Stars.
