Who Will Take Home Tomorrow's Dunk Contest?

NBA Slam Dunk Contest

As a kid, my favorite thing in the world was the Slam Dunk Contest. We got to see creativity, excitement, and wild dunks that you’d likely never see in the game. We had some of the biggest names in the game competing. My friends and I would watch then go recreate the dunks or have our own dunk contest on a lowered outdoor hoop or one of the indoor ones that you hang on the back of a door. Since then, the Dunk Contest has lost some of its luster, but there have been some good ones – namely the one between Zack Lavine and Aaron Gordon. There could be a decent challenger here as we have some pretty exciting dunkers tonight. 

The favorite for tonight is Mac McClung, if you aren’t familiar with him, that’s not really a surprise. He is a G-League player that is technically, occasionally, on NBA rosters. I am fairly certain the first time he won the NBA Dunk Contest he was on a G-League team. At least this year he has been on the bench of some NBA games before this one. That was mostly due to injuries to the Magic roster though. If you’ve never seen him, he is a short-ish white guy that does some pretty impressive dunks. He has won the past two years and will once again be the favorite.

Feb 17, 2024; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Osceola Magic guard Mac McClung (0) celebrates after winning the AT&T Slam Dunk Contest during NBA All Star Saturday Night at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports

Stephon Castle, to me, is more of an in-game dunker type. If you watched last year, Jaylen Brown participated. He was… boring? I mean there really isn’t a better way to describe him. I’m sure he thought the dunks were challenging, but they didn’t look like it. He kind of tried a no look dunk, but he also looked while doing it. It was garbage. I bring that up because Castle reminds me of that style. I don’t know that he is going to have the creativity to win this. 

Andre Jackson Jr. is the guy I’m probably least familiar with, but most of his best dunks of his career (thanks, YouTube) have been on tips. The guy has very serious hops though. On some of these dunks his eyes are at the rim. The thing is, I don’t know if there will be much creativity here, either. He seems like he is more about jumping high and power slamming the ball. 

A sneaky pick, and a guy that I think could pull out a win is Matas Buzelis. Buzelis is the Bulls rookie and is a really athletic guy. You might not have seen him this year because he is underutilized on a bad Bulls team – something rather difficult to do. I’ve watched some Bulls social media content and one of the big things that stood out to me is that he was practicing for the contest with former winner and dunkeroo Lavine. If he can take some of the suggestions and ideas from Lavine and excute them, he could make it really tough to have McClung grab a 3-peat. 

I’m backing Buzelis here as I think he has the ability and has talked to the right people about creativity for the contest. McClung may hoist his third straight award, but this could also be a voter fatigue situation with the judges. One thing I truly hope is that the players stop dunking over people. Its boring, been done a million times, and we need to stop it. Another rule they should implement is you CANNOT get a 50 on a dunk if you attempt and miss at any point in your turn. It takes away from the excitement and it isn’t perfect any longer. Rant over. Bet Buzelis in this one. 

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