Mac McClung Will Attempt To Make NBA History By Winning His 3rd Straight Dunk Contest

Stacy Revere. Getty Images.

A few weeks ago when we learned that Stephon Castle of the Spurs and Matas Buzelis of the Bulls were the first players to commit to this year's Dunk Contest, in that blog I talked about how when it comes to this event, I don't need big names, I just need big dunks. I don't really care who you are as long as you

1. Show me something awesome

2. Execute the dunk on your first try

That's really it. While it's fun to get "stars" involved, at the end of the day this event is about the dunks to me. You can have a solid contest with no name players in my opinion as long as they bring the goods with their dunks. A few days after that initial announcement we learned that Andre Jackson Jr of the Bucks was also joining the festivities.

It really seemed like the NBA was putting my theory to the test. All young intriguing players who certainly have legit hops, it doesn't exactly blow your dick off from a marketing perspective.

Then today, we got the news of the final entrant.

3 peats are so hot right now. The Chiefs and their quest for a third straight Super Bowl and Mac McClung and his quest for a third straight Super Bowl. I'm not sure what it means that McClung was also a Sixer once upon a time and the Eagles are in the SB, but there may be some #signs at play here. Take that however you want.

Now, in the terms of a Dunk Contest 3 peat, much like the Chiefs winning 3 straight SBs, we've never seen it. MJ went back to back in 1987 and 1988, but Kenny Walker won in 1989. Jason Richardson won back to back in 2002 and 2003, but Fred Jones won in 2004. Nate Robinson won back to back in 2009 and 2019, but Blake Griffin won in 2011 (Nate had a stretch of 3 in 5 years). Zach LaVine won back to back in 2015 and 2016, but Glenn Robinson III won in 2017. Since then, only McClung has been a repeat champion

I will say it's a little funny Shams references McClung as "The Orlando Magic's" which is technically true considering he plays for their G-League team, but he has just 1 appearance with the Magic this year and he played 5 minutes. We all know who he is and we know he's not in the NBA (but maybe he should be), and honestly, you don't need to frame it that way just to get people interested. 

Even if you think the Dunk Contest stinks, it's still pretty interesting to see a guy go for 3 straight considering it's never happened before. I'm all for seeing history be made, regardless of what it is. His dunks are also actually pretty impressive as well, so I say why not? 

Sure it's not big names like Ja or Zion or Ant etc, but it's never going to be that way. Jaylen Brown threw the NBA a bone last year and did it, and frankly, his entire performance was stressful as fuck as a fan. All I did was pray he didn't land wrong and get hurt. 

As long as these 4 guys do some cool shit and execute it on their first attempt, I can get behind the pursuit of the Dunk Contest's first 3 peat. If we're talking about saving the All Star Weekend, how about we get rid of the Skills Competition and do King Of The Court instead or something along those lines. Begging for big name dunkers in the Dunk Contest is unfortunately a thing of the past, but that doesn't mean it still can't produce a good product.