most players in the NBA still didn’t want to do it even after he wasn’t competing this year lol

the NBA is trying to arrogantly pretend NBA players are the best dunkers when compared to a professional dunker they are very mid

bring on the pros, the NBA players can be the judges

and then when an NBA player can actually hang with the professional dunkers it will be that much more special, and it will celebrate the world of basketball that the NBA is the largest ambassador of

pro dunking does not exist without the NBA, but the NBA ignores that it exists instead of celebrating what it has helped create

NBA needs to take a different more mature role with the entire game of basketball and help celebrate more than themselves, it would be better for the game and the NBA over the long run

That article completely chopped up what he said.

In the Yahoo/Basketball Network article:

“After the third year, I decided that’s probably going to be it, and I told everybody. Then the NBA contacted me, maybe three months before, and I thought, ‘Why not?’” McClung told HoopsHype. “Then some things came up, and then things just kind of got a little… I don’t know, hesitant on both sides, and just decided not to do it this year.”

In the actual interview:

Mac McClung: Originally, I told everybody I was done. I retired after the third year, and they’re good friends of mine. We’re in contact a lot, and they were talking about this next year, and I was pretty much saying: ‘I’m not going to do it’. But I prepared anyway, just in case maybe I would. I think there was just back and forth of us being like this, and then they were calling me, being like ‘People didn’t want to do it if I was doing it’, and I thought it’s best if I just sit out this year and let it be, no matter what.

Interviewer: It looks like because you’ve won it so many times, people didn’t want to compete against you.

I don’t know if it was that. I know they were after a lot of big-name guys, and the situation may not have been clear, but they’re good friends of mine. It wasn’t anything like ill will. We were just trying to figure it out together, and I felt there was a little bit of hesitation on both sides. So I thought we’ll let this year happen and then let the people kind of feel the way they do. I don’t know if it’ll ever be in my future or not, but I’ve definitely enjoyed it these last three years.

The other article makes it sound like he was trying to get in and they boxed him out when he didn’t really sound that excited about doing it again anyway.

They asked Edgecombe if he would participate and he was like nah. That says everything. He is a rookie and he has been doing everything. The dunk contest has become a joke I think. Just get rid of it at this point. 

I think he made the right call either way. Whenever people talked about him, it was mostly disrespect like “he is not even an NBA player, he shouldn’t be in it, might as well get random dunkers outside the league”. And some of that is fair criticism, but he did not need to hear all that talk, especially when he was the main reason why the dunk contest didn’t suck like this year

Even if he never gets an actual roster spot, I just hope he keeps getting in at least one game a season.

That’s all you need to count for one year of nba pension.

That’s it. Under contract for one game even if inactive.

After 10 years he meets the cap for maximum benefits and is set for life.

Right now he is at 4.

So that’s why we had superstars competing like checks notes Kesha’s Johnson

I don’t get McClung. He’s the Dunk Champion…thats what he has going for himself…3 times, 5 times…why not do it? Its not like you are gonna be signed by a contender…

Why not shine where you can?
A shame because on the video he made, the dunks he was gonna do are still original and amazing…he would have won %100.

No way he didn’t do the dunk contest because of that. He won $100k each dunk contest. That’s like half his salary with the bulls in one night..

nah that’s weak

Is he even in the League?

All your favorite players are scared of this white midget

he’s literally not in the NBA why is this a discussion

I can see why they didn’t want Mac going he would have four-peated easily

sounds made up

The four guys in the contest average 9.1, 6.2, 3.4, and 5.1 points per game. McClung didn’t compete, yet still “nobody” did it

If it would’ve kept Jaxson Hayes out I would’ve had a judge issue a court order to compel him to attend

Dunking has evolved to its own sport enough so that even if you had a 50 inch vertical, you couldn’t pull off some of these dunks without a ton of practice. NBA players, who are paid to be good at basketball, can’t hang with dudes who are paid to dunk.

Now, is Mac McClung a pro dunker? I don’t think he’d identify as one, but he’s had more motivation (and if we were being honest) more time to devote to dunking really good than someone like Ja or Zion. It’s an understandable lose-lose for NBA guys to compete with Mac.

NBA stars don’t care enough to be good enough at dunking for us to watch. This was the most forgettable dunk contest with the most forgettable field. It’s time to end the dunk contest and replace it with 1 v 1 contest. King of the court qualifying round and 2 guys with most points advance. Divide it up by positions - guards, wings, bigs. 5 second shot clock and you can pick where to start (top of the key, wing, or mid post).

They still didn’t get anyone good tho

I’m feeling what he’s saying. It’s some kind of bizarre world where he’s such a good show dunker that no one else can compete, but at the same time no team respects him enough to sign him to a roster for actual basketball… I don’t even know what the answer is…

And him being called up from the G league to compete has been dumb the whole time. Dunk contest is a joke now a days.

make it public, winner gets \(250k or life time tickets or something, have 15-20 dunkers and let fans scores be one of the judges. Offer \)10k to one lucky fan voter.

Incentive for the dunkers and creates instant interaction and engagement from the fans, even those that don’t watch NBA

And still we got nobody. All Star has become such a joke in every respect.

Oh, well thank goodness they banned him so we could see superstars like Keshad Johnson and Jaxson Hayes..

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Time for the whole allstar weekend to be scrapped.

Simply, it’s just extremely insanely hard to beat him. Players want to feel like they have a good chance of getting that trophy, but they can’t feel this way if they know who they’re up against. Yes it seems pretty cowardly, but at the end of the day those who turn up to win turn up to win.

I’m sorry, but all star weekend is legitimately the most uncreative version of what it could be. These lame high school style events that haven’t changed in decades with absolutely nothing on the line. 

Or just make the current contests actually fun for the audience and players with proper incentives. Here’s a list of ideas just because it bothers me so much. These one-coffee ideas probably aren’t even good. I’m just on one this morning. 

• every team picks one player to represent them in events (tournament style). The whole team gets comp’d $500k if they win. 

• change all star designations to be purely quantitative. The whole voting shit is lame useless. Being an all star should actually mean something. 

• quit with trying to use competitive sentiment to make things interesting. NBA vs The World is so fuckin dumb. Put something that’s actually motivating. This isn’t the Olympics. 

• get the fans involved - if you’re a season ticket holder for a player that wins. You should get a gift. A jersey, bobble head, a signed t-shirt. Idc, people rip each others skin off for free shit. 

• quit having celebrities do shit to build interest. It so corny. Absolutely no gives a shit about Druski and Two Chains throwing hospital passes over to all stars. It’s a chotski gimmick and everyone knows it. 

• honestly, no one cares about “who the best dunker is.” People want to know who the best dunker “in the NBA” is, stop it with these G-League guys. No one cares about the best guy at LA fitness. 

• BUT, if you wanted to open up the dunk contest to everyone. You should add in high- profile NBA prospects.

• the regular season, cup games, lottery, and playoff should stitched together in some way. They are so disjointed. There is a huge opportunity to do something here. 

• quit playing it safe with the ideas. Adding in a ball worth double points, and adding celebs are the most uninspiring ideas ever.

Ya ok pal. Good thing you didn’t do it or there woulda been no names!

Shameful to have the greatest dunker ever associated with any form of the league not compete in the dunk contest. Especially when a dunker has a limited amount of years in their prime. This would be like the NBA sitting Jordan during the 96 all star game

Lol they got four losers anyway who cares

NBA players are not hungry anymore…Once they get that 1 or 2 big multi-million dollar contracts - Its a wrap

Business of sports has killed off the spirit of many games around the world. Nowadays I just watch on and off most pro sports.

I saw a guy last night do a standard 1 hand dunk that high schoolers can do in the dunk contest. At this point either kill the contest or bring in anyone who can actually do a nice dunk. It’s officially hit rock bottom.

Since we have seen pretty much every dunk possible to the point where doing something new and just as breathtaking as Vinces or some other all time great dunk costest dunks is not reasonable.

I want stars to participate so I think they should just add sensors on the ball and shoes and lets measure their pure athletic ability.

Strongest dunk, Longest dunk, Highest jumping dunk as the three categories.

Would be awesome.

Well I watched some of it. Tuned off when they confirmed that guys down at the Rec could do better.

Pretty embarrassing honestly. Somehow that weird little shootout game they did was more entertaining.

It started off a straight win-win. Contest was weak, expectations were low, and he overdelivered, everybody loved it. Now it’s kinda a lose-lose. Stars ain’t tryna risk getting beat by a two-way player, and even if he withdraws, the stars still not signing up

They should just do horse with dunks.

Ihe integrity of the contest not only got destroyed by all of the gimmicks (Cars, ladders, moving backboard, etc.) and (lack of) stars that refused to participate in it, but also having non-nba/G-League players in it as well. I thought Keshad did a pretty good job but the level of competition just wasnt there to make it interesting… also the decimals in the scoring was a bit dumb

You can ‘recruit’ shooters for the 3pt contest who would win the contest but they don’t do that.. right? .. you can get a trampoline dunker who does a 1080 degree dunk, doesn’t mean you should put them in a contest meant for nba players

Wow. This makes me want to stop watching. The superstars don’t take part in the dunk contest and the defending champ can’t or the other players will have a problem because he might win again. He was the only reason half the people been watching because the superstars don’t do it like back in the day. And here we are now everyone saying how bad it was.

Fuck it, bring dudes from the g league the winner gets a shot a ten day contract or bring guys from Europe and offer the same.. i dont know man dam…

Also nba didn’t want to make him a 4 time champ

Cool so we got Johnson, Carter, Richardson, Hayes!

It’s at the point where the contest is so bad that we might as well just have a Mac McClung showcase where it’s literally just him putting on a show for an hour lol

Castle beat him last yr

Just eliminate All Star weekend altogether ffs

Pretty on brand for the NBA honestly. None of these dudes actually like to compete.

NBA players might be the most fragile humans in existence. It’s astounding the narratives that they bring upon themselves.

We missed out on a show cause of massive tiny egos.

NBA is cooked 

The contest is over, just accept it

Feel like Mac’s career has benefitted everyone but himself

I would have rather just watched Mac alive then whatever the hell they gave us

Aww

He went out on a high. Constant pressure to outdo what he did the year before. Perfect time for him to stop imo

Make the prize for winning 10 million.

McClung is a dunk contest legend! He would’ve smoked the guys that participated this year

I honestly believe that

They might as well open this up to college players at this point. The NBA players are either too scared to do it or are completely apathetic. 

Well there was no interesting players who did do it anyway so…. Also why are there only 4 contestants? I know it’s been that way for a few years but I miss when there were more

thank god he didn’t participate so we could get the all star roster we did this year

This is the curse of AG. Dunk contest is never reaching that glorious height after that snubbing.