G League Proclaims Mac McClung All-Time Scoring Leader

Mac McClung etched his name in the G League record book on Tuesday night with an all-time performance. McClung scored a career-high 59 points in a Windy City Bulls loss to the Birmingham Squadron and in the process passed Renaldo Major to become the league's all-time leading scorer.

McClung played 42 minutes and made 19-of-34 shots including 8-of-17 three-pointers. He also had 10 assists, five rebounds and one steal. The 59 points bests his previous career high of 54, which happened the day after Bam Adebayo’s 83-point game so it seems to have been lost in the shuffle. McClung’s career-high is also the third highest scoring game in G League history behind Russ Smith (65) and Jordan McRae (61).

As for McClung claiming the crown as the league's all-time leading scorer, there’s some fuzzy math involved. If you Google the G League’s all-time leaders you’ll find him currently sitting in 14th place with 3,579 points on the Basketball Reference list. That's about 400 points behind the No. 6 all-time leading scorer David Stockton and 1,500 behind No. 1 Renaldo Major.

To make it more confusing he's also No. 14 on the official G Leauge website while being credited with 3,584 points.

So how is Mac McClung the G League’s All-Time Leading Scorer?

While McClung may be an ethical scorer who put up 59 with just 10 free throw attempts in the natural flow of a one-point loss, it's unclear how he’s actually the league’s all-time leading scorer.

On the G League’s home page they are celebrating McClung as the league’s “all-time leading scorer across the Tip-Off Tournament, regular season, and playoffs.”

Mac McClung is the G League’s all-time leading scorer according to the G League. | GLeague.nba.com

In the homepage graphic they count Major's 241 playoff points for a total of 5,299. If you look at the list you’ll see that Vander Blue's 315 playoff points which would get him up to 5,160.

If the league added up his 3,584 regular season point total from their own website with the 285 playoff points and 1,168 points Tip-Off Tournaments points he's credited with on Basketball-Reference that's only a total of 5,037 points. If you assume the numbers haven't been updated from yesterday and add McClung's 59 from last night he's up to 5,096, which is still behind Blue and Major.

Weirder yet, the G League site has him at 144 regular season games played while Basketball-Reference has him at 145.

So the exact math remains pretty fuzzy, but if the league says he's scored the most points, he must have scored the most points, right? They wouldn't just make this up for a headline while worried that the Bulls only have one regular season game remaining and the Windy City Bulls aren’t going to make the playoffs.

After all, with just one more season McClung would crush all these numbers. Between the tournament, regular season and playoffs he’s played in just 212(-ish?) G League games. Major played in 416. Blue played in 251.

McClung just turned 27. There's no reason he can’t come back for a few games next year and make sure he breaks this record that I had never thought about before this morning but am now extremely emotionally invested in.

Celebrating Mac McClung for the right reasons

Mac McClung doesn’t seem like he’s going to end up being an NBA rotation player and that’s alright. He’s one of the most electric players the internet has ever seen. From the moment his high school mixtape first went viral, it’s been a joy anytime he’s come across our timelines.

He’s been in our lives for nearly a decade. He’s one of the greatest dunkers ever. He's so undeniably good at dunking a basketball he was invited to NBA All-Star weekend without being in the NBA. And he did the unthinkable and made the Slam Dunk Contest interesting multiple times.

His name will live on forever for any basketball fan who has followed the sport on a smartphone and its not because of how many points he amassed in his illustrious G League career.

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