Shannon Sharpe Gets Real About Mac McClung’s Dunk Contest Dominance: “I Don’t Look at LeBron James as a Creative Dunker”

For the third straight year, a player who doesn’t even play in the NBA took home the Slam Dunk Contest trophy. That’s no disrespect against Mac McClung here. But it is true that other than the few weeks surrounding the All-Star Break, he is not considered an NBA-caliber player. And yet, he puts on a show every year because no real NBA players are willing to take the risk.

Nowadays, the dunk contest is reserved for athletic fringe players or confident rookies like Stephon Castle, who should be immensely commended for his performance and willingness to put his name in. If this thing was more about athletically freaky dunks than gimmicks, he might have actually beat McClung.

Following McClung’s three-peat, one of the best in-game dunkers in basketball, Ja Morant, tweeted that “Mac might make me decide to dunk”. That was already exciting enough. But then Giannis Antetokounmpo chimed in, saying he would do it if Morant signed on the dotted line. Unfortunately, the Giannis part of it was too good to be true, as Shannon Sharpe revealed on Nightcap.

“Mac McClung wins the dunk contest, three-peat. Giannis, we seen you in the dunk contest. No,” said Sharpe.

Ochocinco replied hinting at the shortcomings of Giannis’ dunking game. “You don’t have the creativity to go deeper into the rounds for the dunk contest, man,” said Johnson.

Sharpe continued sarcastically: “He said, ‘I got hacked, my kids tweeted that, they came next to my nightstand, took my phone out of the charger, went to their room and tweeted’.”

While the Greek Freak might be out, Morant doubled down by asking if Zach Lavine and Aaron Gordon, the legends of the modern dunk contest, would be interested. LaVine responded in the affirmative, which gives us some optimism that this dark era of Slam Dunk contests could be nearing its end.

Slam Dunk contest should not be about gimmicks

The Slam Dunk contest used to be a rite of passage for the top young players in the league. Julius Erving. Michael Jordan. Dominique Wilkins. Kobe Bryant. Vince Carter. Even more recently, stars like Dwight Howard, Blake Griffin, and LaVine tried their hand at the competition and succeeded.

Sharpe and Ochocinco also talked about LeBron James and how he has never participated despite his insane athleticism, even now at the age of 40. However, Sharpe doesn’t believe LeBron would perform well in the Slam Dunk because of a lack of “creativity” — a strike which the pair also ascribed to Antetokounmpo earlier.

“But see, that’s the thing, people get upset about LeBron. I don’t look at LeBron as a creative dunker, I look at LeBron as a power dunker,” said Sharpe, before comparing James to Carter and Jordan.

“You look at a Vince Carter, you look at guys like that, they are creative dunkers. You see when Jordan came with the creativity, doin’ all this, and the up and under stuff we hadn’t seen before… Because before that, it was one hand, power dunk, dunking from the free throw line,” added Sharpe.

But really, the Slam Dunk contest is not all about gimmicks, props, fads, and creativity. It’s supposed to be an unbelievable showcase of the level of athleticism these NBA athletes have. Sharpe talks about MJ’s creativity, but MJ never reinvented to wheel with any of his dunks.

Jordan was always tweaking dunks he knew were already crowd-pleasers, like the cock-back on the free-throw line dunk or adding some flare to the cradle dunk. Dominique Wilkins was one of the legends of the Slam Dunk contest, and he relied almost solely on his thunderous windmills.

Creativity is great. Dwight Howard’s double-tap, or his Superman-inspired dunk. Gerald Green blowing out a candle on the rim. Aaron Gordon going under his freaking legs. Nate Robinson jumping over Howard. LaVine doing a windmill from the free throw line. Guys should be creative and original with their dunks. But just don’t make them all about the gimmick.

Guys need gimmicks more than ever now, though, because they don’t have enough name recognition. Instead of getting the most athletic stars in the game competing, we usually get a trio of unknown youngsters (Castle was an exception this year, so once again, credit to him) and a G-League guy who the NBA drags out of bed every year to do some dunks.

There’s no denying McClung’s ability. He is a great dunker and an entertaining one. As Sharpe said, his vertical is probably in the “48 to 50 inches” range. But he relies way too much on gimmicks, and the fact that he’s not a real NBA player takes away some of the aura.

While Sharpe may not think the King and the Greek Freak have enough “creativity” to win the Slam Dunk contest, they surely have the athleticism, star power, and confidence to put on a show that would surely be more well-received and entertaining than these recent B-list Slam Dunk contests.

They’re not as big as those two legends, but if Morant, LaVine, and Gordon do sign up for next year’s event, it will be the biggest and best contest since that iconic showdown in 2016 in Toronto.