NBA All-Star Saturday: Mac McClung Makes Dunk Contest History, Chris Paul And Wemby Caught Cheating

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With Friday night’s celebrity game over, it was time for one of the most anticipated parts of NBA All-Star weekend, thanks to Saturday night’s festivities, which included the Skills competition, 3-point contest, and Dunk contest. Peep a breakdown and the highlights from each event below.

Skills Challenge

First up was the skills challenge, where the Cleveland Cavaliers’ Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley took on the Warriors’ Draymond Green and Moses Moody, the San Antonio Spurs Chris Paul and Victor Wembanyama, and Alex Sarr and Zaccharie Risacher, the top two picks in the 2024 draft.

The competition usually isn’t too exciting, so the Cavs’ win wasn’t even the most memorable part of the event. Instead, Paul and Wemby attempted to hack the system by not focusing on making shots but on aiming to have the quickest time. So, instead of shooting, the Spurs teammates just knocked the balls off the rack and ran to the next station. While at first, it seemed like they successfully skirted the rules, as they flew through the challenge, they were later eliminated.

3-Point Competition

Next was the 3-point Competition, which featured some of the league’s sharpest shooters from beyond the arc, such as Jalen Brunson, Darius Garland, Buddy Hield, Cade Cunningham, Tyler Herro, and Damian Lillard, who was looking for athree-peatt. Unfortunately, Dame was eliminated in the first round. However, the first round proved to be a success for the home crowd’s Hield, who tied teammate Steph Curry’s record with a 31-point performance. Despite finding his groove, Hield couldn’t keep it up in the final round, coming in second place with 23, compared to winner Tyler Herro’s 24. Others, like Cam Johnson, Norman Powell, and Cade Cunningham, didn’t make it past the first round.

Dunk Contest

One of the events at All-Star weekend that hasn’t dwindled in the hype is the Dunk Contest, and Mac McClung was back to make history as the league’s first-ever participant to win three in a row. At 26, he was the elder statesman, joined by Matas Buzelis, Andre Jackson, and Stephon Castle, with whom he battled it out in the end.

Castle ditched any props, relying on his athleticism, highlighted by his third dunk, where he caught a made layup falling out of the net and went between the legs before slam dunking it. For his final, he did a 360 behind the back, ending with a one-handed dunk.

However, he couldn’t be topped by McClung, who started the competition by jumping over a Kia, grabbing the ball from someone poking out of the sunroof, and then going for the reverse dunk. It was followed by a 360-degree two-handed dunk as he leaped over Nate Dougherty. His final two were even more creative, including his third, where he jumped over and grabbed the ball from someone spinning on a hoverboard while simultaneously grabbing another ball atop the rim and dunking both. In the final round, he cemented the three-peat by jumping over 6’11” Evan Mobley and tapping the ball on the rim before dunking it. Sidenote: The Super Bowl may have had a Kendrick Lamar halftime show, but it was no match for LiAngelo Ball taking center court to perform his nostalgic hit, ‘Tweaker.’ See social media’s reaction to the NBA’s Saturday night all-star weekend festivities below.

NBA All-Star Saturday: Mac McClung Makes Dunk Contest History, Chris Paul And Wemby Caught Cheating