NBA Rumors: Mac McClung Invited to Defend Title at 2024 Slam Dunk Contest
Last year's Slam Dunk Contest winner, Mac McClung, has reportedly been invited to participate in the 2024 edition of the competition, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium.
McClung, 24, has spent the 2023-24 season playing for the G League's Osceola Magic, averaging 25.4 points and 6.3 assists per game.
McClung provided one of the more memorable performances in the history of the Slam Dunk Contest last year.
LeBron James was among the NBA players impressed with that showing.
"He solidified himself as one of the greatest slam dunk competitors we've had in the history of the game," he told reporters, saying the young guard put himself in the same conversation as the legendary Slam Dunk contest performances from players like Michael Jordan, Vince Carter and Aaron Gordon.
Both Shaquille O'Neal and Magic Johnson, meanwhile, said McClung "saved the Dunk Contest" after his performance:
But that hasn't translated to a lengthy shot in the NBA. McClung has only made four NBA appearances in total—and just two since his Dunk Contest tour de force—averaging 8.3 points and 2.5 assists in his limited opportunities. That did include a 20-point game in one of his two chances with the Philadelphia 76ers last season, however.
He's no stranger to his dunking prowess providing a glow-up—he was well-known among basketball junkies during high school, who discovered his hops on YouTube—but the real dream is an NBA career.
"This game is becoming more and more of a business, more influence with agents and more influence in social media," McClung's G League coach with the Delaware Blue Coats last season, Coby Karl, told GQ's Howard Beck in April. "You can kind of see the guys that make that choice, and one thing that's unique about Mac is, he is 100 percent devoted to becoming an NBA player, figuring out ways to do that. I think he's mastering the skill of utilizing these other things to help him get there."
"He's in this weird place where everyone treats him like he's made it—but he doesn't feel he's made it," his agent, Daniel Poneman, added at the time.
But this year's Slam Dunk Contest would provide another platform for him to keep his name in the spotlight for executives around the league. And NBA fans would get another chance to see what creative and impressive dunks he's cooked up since last year.
