INDIANAPOLIS – The names on the trophies in the NBA’s premier tournaments on All-Star Saturday night have not changed from year to year.
G-League journeyman Mack McLaughlin, who shocked the world last February in a dwarf contest in Salt Lake City, did it again in Indianapolis when Jaylen Brown won by leapfrogging 7-foot-1 Shaquille O’Neal in the final round. Perfect 50 judges.
And earlier in the 3-point contest, Damian Lillard hit the last money ball in the backcourt by Trae Young for his second straight victory in the event.
The 25-year-old McClung, who has played a total of four NBA games in his career, won his second G-League honor against Jacob Toppin, brother of 2022 NBA dunk champion Obi Toppin. McClung, too, jumped two men for a dunk, and on his way to the rim, he placed his high school jersey on top of Shaq’s giant frame before catching the ball again and kicking for another. .
“Shaq was too cool to wear my high school jersey,” McClung said. “Man, it can blow your mind that he’s going to do that. ‘Well, you put it,’ I said. He said: ‘You had better not lose your tent.’ I was like, ‘Well, I won’t miss it.’
The two NBA players in the dunk contest did not fare well. Miami Heat rookie Jamie Jaquez Jr. was the first player to be ejected, and Brown, the Boston Celtics’ star, almost signaled from fans that the score was too high for his dunks. Especially compared to McClung.
Brown, the first star to participate in the dunk contest in years, put “pressure” on McClung by putting a Mickey Mouse-sized glove on his left hand for the final dunk, then jumped and scooped a ball over someone’s head, stunning him with his gloved hand.
“At the end (in this media age) I think some players are afraid to turn into a meme or something like that,” Brown said. “I just wanted to go out and have fun with him and that’s what I did.”
MacKlong, who now plays for the Orlando Magic’s G League affiliate, is the first back-to-back Dunk winner since Zach LaVine in 2015 and 2016. Dwarf races.
“This is my story, and I’m embracing it,” McClung said.
Lillard became the first back-to-back 3-point champion since Jason Capono in 2007 and 2008, joining Capono, Larry Bird, Craig Hodges, Mark Price, Jeff Hornacek and Peja Stojakovic to win the 3-point contest in consecutive years.
It was Young and 2022 NBA 3-point winner Karl-Anthony Towns in the Finals, who had to endure a four-way playoff in which the three finalists and Indiana’s Tyrus Halliburton hit for 30 seconds (normal rounds are 70 seconds). Out of the first round.
Cities came out on top in the final with 22 wins. Young beat him at 24, and Lillard was stuck at 24 on the last rack until the final shot.
“Once I got to that three-pointer, I knew if I went deep I could win,” Lillard said.
“I didn’t know my exact score when I got to the last rack, but when I missed by a couple, I heard the crowd cheering and cheering. Once they did it over and over again, I knew I was still alive because if it was up to me they would have stopped me. The next two balls, I missed again, and I caught the next one and knew I needed that to win.
Sandwiched between the 3-point and dunk contests was the historic showdown between Stephen Curry and WNBA star Sabrina Ionescu, which Curry won. The annual All-Star Saturday was held on a new, forgiving, LD glass court at Lucas Oil Soccer Stadium built by German company ASB GlassFloor for All-Star Weekend. The floor changed colors, graphics and messages throughout the night.
The Pacers’ trio of Halliburton, Myles Turner and Benedict Maturin — the MVP for the Racing All-Star Game Friday night — won the annual skills challenge, winning individual rounds of the obstacle course, passing competition and shootout. Halliburton, who would miss the playoffs to enter the final round of the 3-point contest, finished off the half-court shot in a skill contest to finish for the Indiana Pacers.
“It’s home cooking, hold it down,” Turner said.
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(Photo: Stacy Rivers / Getty Images)