Mac McLung experienced the most glorious day of his discreet basketball playing career this Saturday. After excelling in high school and excelling in college, McLung failed to break through to basketball’s elite. He signed a 10-day contract with the Chicago Bulls, coached with the Lakers and the Warriors but couldn’t find his place. He was playing in the Delaware Blue Coats, the NBA G League, something of the second division this year when he received an invitation to compete in the NBA All Star Dunk Contest. The unusual winner was.
Of the two dunks in the finals, McLung hit one with the Philadelphia 76ers jersey (which he joined this week) and another with the high school where he was the star, Gate City, Virginia. Pat Ewing saw him at a college game and recruited him to Georgetown University. Ever since high school, he’s stood out from his buddies.
It cannot be said that his win this Saturday was a surprise as he had ballots. What is certain is that he does not fit the profile of a winner of a competition who had his greatest heyday in the late 1980s with the duels between Michael Jordan and Dominique Wilkins and has since lost much interest.
McLung, 24, is white (African Americans had won all but one of the competitions), relatively short and wasn’t even a player for any of the Pro League teams when he was invited, but none of that stopped him from winning. triumph.
In the history of NBA dunk competitions, short players have a winning tradition. Nate Robinson won it three times at 5’7″, and Spud Webb, the shortest player in NBA history, also claimed the title despite being 5’6″. McLung was the shortest of the four participants this Saturday, although he played the role of the little one at 1.88 meters in a professional league with increasing centimeters.
In the dunk final, McLung defeated Trey Murphy, a six-foot-tall player for the New Orleans Pelicans, by far superior physical strength. But McLung played with skillful staging and demonstrated his skill and power, fulfilling the Breakout Winner script. The newcomer to the Sixers has twice had the highest score with his dunks, which the judges liked better than those of his competitors.
In the more objective triples competition, the Portland Trail Blazers’ Damian Lillard was the most successful in the moment of truth, although the Indiana Pacers’ Tyrese Haliburton had the best shootout in the qualifying round. In the final, however, he failed more than necessary, allowing the trophy to escape.
The highlight of the All Star weekend comes this Sunday with the game between Lebron James’ team and Giannis Antetokounmpo’s team. The selection of the teams is part of the show and takes place just before the game. Each captain chooses his companions, like a schoolyard game, but with the eyes of the whole world. There is a possibility that one of the starting line-ups will be American players and the other players will be from the rest of the world. There has been speculation about this, but it would require a tacit pact between LeBron (who will have a big day with new records he will show off and put in his bag) and Antetokounmpo.
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