In successful the NBA Dunk Contest a 3rd time, Mac McClung might have completed one thing even larger: save your entire occasion… not less than in line with some headlines from across the web the subsequent morning.
Deadspin wrote a narrative trumpeting “How Mac McClung May Simply Save (the) NBA Slam Dunk Contest,” speaking up how his participation had gotten stars like Giannis Antetokounmpo and Ja Morant speaking about getting into the sector, as if the lesson from a comparatively unknown G League journeyman beating out an NBA subject with a few of the most fun dunks ever 3 times was that we would have liked the celebrities who’ve been too afraid to lose to him to even compete for it to be a enjoyable occasion.
To that time, The Athletic/New York Instances argued the alternative, saying that McClung had simply confirmed “the NBA Slam Dunk Contest doesn’t want stars, simply passionate showmen.” The Washington Put up known as him and his efficiency “the right antidote to NBA all-star malaise.”
All that reward makes it exhausting to think about a world the place McClung had chosen to not leap over a Kia and save a largely underwhelming 2025 NBA All-Star Saturday night time from being principally remembered for Chris Paul making an attempt to cheat to win the NBA Abilities Competitors. However in line with McClung himself, in an unique interview with SB Nation the day earlier than he defended his title, that’s precisely what nearly occurred.
On Friday, McClung gave our personal Katie Heindl a dunk lesson at a fan occasion, and in addition gave a fairly profound and trustworthy motive why he nearly didn’t even try to go for the threepeat — as exhausting as it’s to consider given the dunks he in the end pulled off, McClung was afraid he’d already used his greatest stuff, and that he’d fail to win once more:
“I wasn’t going to do it 3 times,” he admits, “however that motion can be out of worry and never love.”
“I feel every little thing in life, there’s completely different actions. I at all times attempt to verify I’m doing one thing out of affection. You are able to do actions out of worry, out of failure, out of ego, out of jealousy, and I attempt to act out of affection as a lot as I can,” McClung says, including that if he had in the end determined to not be on this 12 months’s contest a little bit half at the back of his head would at all times know.
Satirically, these quotes had been a part of an interview for a narrative on how the dunk contest doesn’t really need saving, however merely exists in a unique context than it did pre-internet and social media. Nonetheless, McClung’s efficiency on Saturday was so awe-inspiring that it appeared to move all of us again in time to that no-smartphone period by way of the facility of marvel.
I imply, simply take a look at this compilation of his efficiency from the NBA’s YouTube account. I don’t learn about you, however this blogger definitely felt like a child once more watching Mac narrowly pull off his first try to dunk over a Kia, particularly when seeing in slow-motion how shut he got here to catching his ankle on the roof and a catastrophic touchdown:
McClung’s closing quotes from Heindl’s story additionally come out looking back, now that we’ve seen what he had deliberate:
“The nervousness and the worry to lose might be larger than the worry to win, typically, for me. And that simply makes me put together increasingly more,” he says. “Each time I get right here I simply begin making ready, and that places me in a spot the place it’s like holy crap,” he says, noting that it’s been folks like his associates and oldsters stating that most likely nobody is working tougher than him that basically underscores his preparedness.
“One factor I often do is my hardest dunk first,” McClung notes. “Simply because I wish to put that strain on myself, trigger I adore it.”
It might be hokey — and it isn’t misplaced on me that we’re chatting on Valentine’s Day — however love as a main driver is how a few of the greatest issues in life get completed. Massive or small image.
“I feel the power of what you do, something in your life, determines the end result. I attempt to convey the power of affection into it. As a result of I love it,” McClung says. “I needed to stroll out on prime. For me, that is my greatest set, and if I make it I’ll really feel joyful it doesn’t matter what occurs.”
McClung definitely tried his hardest dunk first, and it’s additionally secure to say that if that is it for him within the occasion, he’s positively strolling out on prime with what might need been his greatest set. In his post-event interview on TNT, nonetheless, he left the door open to a different look.
“This is likely to be it for me, however we’ll see,” McClung informed Allie LaForce whereas holding his third trophy. “If they need me again unhealthy sufficient, I’ll give it some thought.”
None apart from Vince Carter, possibly probably the most iconic contest winner ever, tried to bait McClung into making an attempt to defend his title once more by merely saying “no person has ever gained 4 in a row” to him on the studio set following the night time, and I feel Vince is talking for all of us in hoping McClung chooses love of dunking over worry of not having any extra concepts to wow us yet another time subsequent 12 months in Los Angeles.