Jaylen Brown No Match for Mac McClung in NBA Slam Dunk Finals
It was a pretty good showing for the Bay Area on Saturday night at NBA All-Star Weekend at Indianapolis.
Warriors superstar Stephen Curry outgunned former East Bay prep legend Sabrina Ionescu in a special battle-of-the-sexes 3-point duel and Oakland native Damian Lillard captured the traditional 3-point shootout by making his final attempt.
But Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown, who spent one season at Cal, could not get over G Leaguer and defending champion Mac McClung in the Slam Dunk Contest.
Mac McClung soars over Shaq for his winning dunk.
Photo by Kyle Terada, USA Today
McClung won it on the final sequence of the night, leaping above massive Shaquille O’Neal, taking the ball out of his hands from atop his head and flushing a reverse dunk to log a perfect across-the-board score of 50 points.
The basketball celebrity judges, including Oakland’s Gary Payton, drew the ire of the Lucas Oil Stadium crowd throughout the competition for what they believed to be misguided judging.
But make no mistake: McClung deserved the victory, giving gave him two in a row on the big stage.
He is otherwise an unknown, a 6-foot-2 product over Georgetown and Texas Tech who has appeared in just four regular-season NBA games.
Brown hoped to restore star power to the dunk contest, which in the past has featured the likes of Michael Jordan and Dominique Wilkins. He was the first player to participate in the event the same year he was playing in the All-Star Game since Victor Oladipo in 2018.
His dunks in both the preliminary round and in the finals were impressive and emphatic, but the crowd seemed more energized by McClung’s performance.
Brown did get creative in his two finals dunks. On the first one, donned a Brewster Academy jersey No. 5, a tribute to Boston native Terrence Clark, a one-and-done Kentucky player who died in a car crash at the age of 19 in April 2021.
Brown scored 48.6 points on that dunk.
He came back wearing a white glove on his left hand, soared above fellow All-Star Donovan Mitchell, snatched the ball and dunked with his left hand. Brown earned a 49.2 score for that one.
McClung dunked over someone on the shoulders of another person in his first finals try, scoring 48.8 points.
He then gave O’Neal a Gate City jersey — a nod to his Virginia hometown — and the 7-foot-1, 320-ish pound Hall of Famer cradled the basketball atop his head. McClung needed 49.1 points to win the competition — his dunk got him 50s from each judge.
As the TNT commentators repeatedly suggested, Brown is a spectacular in-game dunker. But in this setting, the better man won.
McClung because the fifth person to win the event in back-to-back years, but stopped short of committing for a third one.
Brown will play in his second All-Star Game on Sunday.
Cover photo of Jaylen Brown by Kyle Terada, USA Today
Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo
