Mac McClung’s thrilling leap in the NBA All Star Game dunk contest: he surpassed Shaquille O’Neal and achieved a perfect score

The no longer so unknown Mac McClungG-League champion, won his second consecutive dunk contest in the early hours of this Sunday NBA All-Star Game and after leaving everyone speechless “climb Everest” violently deposit the ball into one of the hoops of the Gainbridge Fieldhouse from Indianapolis.

The fact is that the 1.88 meter tall point guard, with a wandering step in the basketball elite – plays very well in the development league – He surpassed the 2m18 height and the increasingly generous humanity of a Shaquille O’Neal dressed in the contestant’s XXXL high school shirt, to snatch the ball from his hands and earn five perfect scores on his final attempt.

McClung finished with a total of 98.8 points on his final two dunks, a one-point lead Jaylen Brown, Star of the Boston Celticswho came away empty-handed in his debut in the competition.

“Shaq felt great wearing that high school jersey, man, I was thrilled he did it.”said the winner of the test, who achieved the dunk on the first attempt and was rewarded by the demanding judges who until then had lowered the price of his aerial pirouettes.

McClung picked O’Neal out of the crowd and asked him to help him make the dunk of the night. In reality, the NBA legend was the gigantic obstacle that the player of the Osceola Magic, affiliate of the Orlando Magic in the G-League, had to overcome to celebrate again.

“It was like, okay, you have to bring something, and I think they want us to do it on the first try. So I knew it was time to secure the final., he summarized. And McClung did it and He became the sixth player in All-Star Game history to win the contest twice. and since then the first to do so in consecutive seasons Zach LaVine He achieved it in 2015 and 2016.

Will he aim for an unprecedented third consecutive title next year? “I don’t know. We’ll think about it. “I’m not sure yet,” McClung said. The only player with three dunk contest wins is Nate Robinson, but they haven’t been consecutive.

The winner needed a high score after Brown, the judges’ favorite, averaged 49.2 in his final dunk over another person in a sequined white glove — an homage to Michael Jackson? – on the left hand.

McClung had jumped two people, one piggyback on the other, in his first dunk of the final round. Brown, meanwhile, paid tribute to the deceased Terrence ClarkMassachusetts High School star, who died in a car accident at age 19 in April 2021.

Lillard, the king of triples

Before there was also a two-time champion. The thing is Damian Lillardnow a star for the Milwaukee Bucks, he defended his 3-point title by finishing with 26 points in Saturday night’s final round.

Lillard, who won as a man with the Portland Trail Blazers last season, became the eighth player to win at least two three-point crowns and the first to do so in two consecutive years since then. Jason Capono He achieved it in 2007 and 2008.

Trae Young (Atlanta Hawks), Tyrese Haliburton (Indiana Pacers) and Karl Anthony-Towns (Minnesota Timberwolves) had finished tied with Lillard for the three spots in the final round. However, Local Credit was eliminated in the playoff.

Already in the final Young and Towns scored 24 points each, giving Lillard the opportunity to win it with a series of shots that gave him the title.

The skills challenge has been left at home

In the skills challenge, Haliburton hit the tiebreaking shot from midcourt with 20s5 remaining to give Team Pacers the crown over Team All-Stars.

The point guard, paired with Myles Turner and Bennedict Mathurin, won the first two races of the evening (relay and pass) at Lucas Oil Stadium, a few steps from the arena where he usually plays.

The All-Stars Team, meanwhile, had won the shooting competition after a score of 200, forcing a tiebreaker. However, it took him 58.8 seconds to make his first half-court shot, while Haliburton needed just 38.3 seconds to seal the victory, which continued Indiana’s dominance on All-Star weekend.

Mathurin was selected as the Most Valuable Player of the Rising Star Game, played on Friday, after leading the Jalen Team to beat the Detlef Team, which faced two former legendary Pacers players now as coaches: Jalen Rosa AND Detlef Schrempf.

Curry left with new ‘Battle of the Sexes’

There was another three-point game, which marked a milestone: Stephen Curry lit up and with a series of successes beat Sabrina Ionescu by three points.

It was 29-26 for the Golden State star and leading three-point scorer in NBA history. It was the first time a man tackled a woman during celebrations before Sunday’s main match.

Ionescu, a player for the New York Liberty, became a legend in the 2023 WNBA All Star three-point tournament. In that game she missed her first shot, but then made 20 in a row and with a total of 25 hits on 27 attempts she managed to round off the best performance in basketball history regardless of gender.