Latest news with #McClung
Yahoo
27-02-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Magic notebook: 3-point woes, McClung available, Baker headed overseas
It's no secret the Magic haven't consistently hit their long-range shots this season. Through 60 games, Orlando still holds the lowest 3-point percentage in the league (30.4%) and has shot below 30% in 32 contests. But it's not for a lack of effort. Entering Thursday's matchups against the Warriors, the Magic have generated the ninth-most wide-open 3-point attempts this season (1,157), according to A look from distance is considered 'wide-open' when the closest defender is 6-plus feet away. While some of those attempts have come from opposing teams leaving Orlando open on purpose, others have come from designed plays or when players such as Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner take advantage of double teams by swinging the ball to an opener shooter. Although they're inside the top 10 in 'wide-open' 3-point tries, the Magic are last when converting those shots (32.3%). Even on 3-point attempts that are considered 'open' (defender is 4-plus feet away), the Magic are tied-for-last with Toronto in shooting percentage (30.2%). Naturally, it's bound to take a hit on their mental psyche. But coach Jamahl Mosley wants Orlando to continue to put the work in from 3-point range regardless of whether they make or miss them. 'When it comes to anything that may not be going well — and in this instance, it's shooting — you have to be able to trust your process, trust your work, [and] trust what you know you've done,' he said Thursday morning. 'And then you've got to watch, maybe some highlights of watching that basketball go through the hole and knowing what you're capable of doing. 'These guys continue to work,' he added. 'Not one guy has taken a day off when it comes to being able to get their body of work, watching the film, studying it, just knowing how good you are and how teams are going to play you and register that.' Magic two-way guard Mac McClung was made available for the first time since mid-December on Thursday morning ahead of Orlando's matchup with Golden State. Eligible to play up to 50 games on a two-way deal, McClung has only been active five times for the Magic while spending majority of the season in the G League with Osceola. Although he's only appeared in one NBA game this season — played 5 minutes against the Grizzlies on Oct. 26 — McClung doesn't take any opportunity for granted. 'At the end of the day, I'm playing basketball on an NBA roster,' he said at Thursday morning shootaround. 'Gratefulness is always key for me. I'm really big on God's timing. When it's supposed to, it'll work out. I know who I am. 'I'm trying to take myself out of it and just put winning into it and try to contribute any way I can,' he added. Under coach Dylan Murphy, McClung has averaged 24.3 points, 5.9 assists, and 4.1 rebounds during 32.8 minutes in 17 games with Osceola. He recently became the first player in league history to win three straight dunk contests at NBA All-Star weekend. But McClung believes he's more than just a dunk specialist. 'Mac is just a pro,' Mosley said. 'The way he approaches the game, the way he approaches his work, the way he approaches everything … He's just a true professional. 'It's so important that what he's done in the G is just being able to facilitate, being able to playmake, being able to score when needed to, being able to get teammates involved,' Mosley added. 'All of those things that he has been able to do down there, if he gets an opportunity it'll be the same thing we're asking of him up here.' Osceola Magic center Robert Baker agreed to sign with EuroLeague club ALBA Berlin, Osceola general manager Kevin Tiller announced Thursday. The signing comes after Baker recently played for USA Basketball during the 2025 AmeriCup Qualifiers last week. The news was first reported by BasketNews' Donatas Urbonas. Undrafted out of Harvard, Baker began his pro career with BK Iskra Svit in Slovakia in 2020-21. From there he spent time in the G League with Stockton and College Park before joining Orlando's affiliate club. Named the first President of the Next Gen Basketball Players Union in December, Baker averaged 10.4 points, 5.4 rebounds and 1.1 assists during 21.5 minutes in 32 games this season with Osceola. Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@ Magic vs. Raptors When: 6, Sunday, Kia Center TV: FanDuel Sports Network Florida
Boston Globe
22-02-2025
- Sport
- Boston Globe
‘Magic in the Air' is a slam dunk on a game that was defined by its joyful pursuit of aesthetic brilliance
In the aftermath of last weekend's NBA's All-Star debacle — which felt not like a celebration of the sport, but more like a corporate retreat hosted by an achingly obnoxious Kevin Hart , with intermittent basketball interludes — Sielski's lines more than lingered. It felt like a diagnosis demanding an overdue treatment. Advertisement So I asked him: How do we get back there again? ' Adam Silver sure would like to know,'' said Sielski of the NBA commissioner. 'You know what I think it is? I think there's an aesthetic aspect that basketball is missing.' Not entirely, and not all the time, he noted. We agreed that Stephen Curry sticking long-distance daggers into Team France, for instance, during the gold medal men's basketball game in the Paris Olympics is about as aesthetically pleasing as sports can be. But familiarity and redundancy has sapped a sense of wonder, Sielski said. Mac McClung — the G-Leaguer and gymnast-in-basketball-gear who jumped over a car on his way to winning the dunk contest for the third straight year — is the rare exception. And even McClung comes with a bit of a sideshow aspect considering he has played all of five NBA minutes this season. 'The true joy of basketball derives from watching these athletes do what they do in a breathtaking way,'' said Sielski. 'The reason McClung is brought back for the dunk contest, and the reason why people remain interested in him, is because physically he defies every stereotype. He's a short white guy, which suggests to the average viewer that there's a challenge in him dunking the ball. It seems extraordinary when we see him do it and I think that sense of wonder has been lost because we've seen so much that it's impossible to match the feeling of seeing Julius Erving or Michael Jordan dunk for the first time. That feeling is retained a little bit with someone like McClung, sort of like with [5-foot-6-inch dunk champion] Spud Webb in the '80s. Advertisement 'Basketball right now needs more of those feelings, the sense that you're watching something extraordinary and maybe even unprecedented. The NBA has to find a way back to that somehow.' Such joy is easily found in Sielski's book, which is not a chronological narrative history of the dunk, but structured rather as a series of compelling chapter-by-chapter stories that could stand as exceptional long-form features on their own. My favorites were on Joe Fortenberry , a massive Texan who played for the 1936 US Olympic team in Germany and was credited by New York Times sportswriter Arthur Daley with the first dunk, and David Thompson , the sky-walker for North Carolina State at a time when dunking was banned by the NCAA, and later an ABA and NBA superstar who became a what-if with the Denver Nuggets. 'I wanted to write a book that would be in-depth and tell the story of something in full, but also would be something that someone could pick up and read Chapter 8, and then Chapter 4, and each one would just be it's own self-contained entity,'' said Sielski, who said he was inspired by his friend Tyler Kepner's book, 'K'', which told the story of baseball through history of all the different pitches. 'I realized that the dunk would allow me to write about all of these gigantic figures in sport — Jordan and Dr. J and Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain — and tell some lesser-known stories too, like Joe Fortenberry's. Advertisement 'The end result, I think,'' he said, 'is that the book itself is full of joy.' Netflix's "Court of Gold" is worth a Thirty Ink Basketball docs are must-watch While the NBA may be searching for certain answers, we might just be in a golden age of documentaries about basketball. Netflix's 'Court of Gold,'' a behind-the-scenes look at the men's basketball competition at last summer's Paris Olympics, will turn you into a Kevin Durant fan if you're not already. And not just because he wears a Bruins hat through much of the six-part series. HBO Max's 'We Beat The Dream Team' doc — a way overdue telling of the band of US college stars that beat the original (and, really, only) Dream Team in a scrimmage during their tuneup for the '92 Olympics — is also excellent. And, around here, the most anticipated basketball doc of all – HBO Max's epic nine-part 'Celtics City' docuseries, executive produced by Bill Simmons – drops March 3. ESPN, MLB to end partnership The word Thursday night that ESPN and Major League Baseball will mutually end their 3½ decade rights partnership after this season wasn't a surprise, though it was not expected to be announced this soon. But for those of us that permanently have the 'Baseball Tonight' theme song rattling around in our heads, it is sad news. As Celtics radio voice Sean Grande noted on Thursday night's broadcast, it's disconcerting that ESPN is splitting with baseball, and TNT and the NBA are going their separate ways in the same year. Two sports television divorces that we couldn't have imagined even a few years ago … Ch. 7 is carrying four Red Sox spring training broadcasts, starting with Sunday's 1 p.m. matchup with the Blue Jays … Joe Buck will call a national MLB game for the first time since leaving Fox in 2021 when he handles play-by-play for the Yankees-Brewers Opening Day matchup on ESPN. I've missed Buck on baseball, so count me among those who have longed to hear it. Advertisement Chad Finn can be reached at
Fox Sports
18-02-2025
- Sport
- Fox Sports
5 ways to fix NBA All-Star Weekend after widely panned 2025 event
It takes a lot to get a near-unanimous opinion on any sports matter these days, but the 2025 NBA All-Star Weekend achieved that. The festivities in the Bay Area were panned across the board, with almost everyone disliking the tournament-style All-Star Game and some of the events on All-Star Saturday. In fact, Draymond Green, who was a part of TNT's coverage for Sunday's game, called the format "ridiculous," adding that it was a "zero" out of 10 on the excitement scale. So yeah, it's time for NBA commissioner Adam Silver to get back in the lab and tinker around with not just the All-Star Game, but the contests leading up to it. Luckily for him, we've got five ideas to revamp the whole weekend. 1. Make at least two current All-Stars participate in each contest on All-Star Saturday This one is mostly aimed at the Slam Dunk Contest, as the Skills Challenge and 3-Point Contest regularly have multiple All-Stars compete in each event. In recent years, though, the Slam Dunk Contest has been filled with players who can't even crack their respective team's rotations, with the likes of Mac McClung, Jacob Toppin, Kenyon Martin Jr., Cassius Stanley and Hamidou Diallo having participated. This year, Boston Celtics wing Jaylen Brown was the only contestant who also played in the All-Star Game on that same weekend. Suffice to say, there's just no star power in the Slam Dunk Contest, at least not to the level there was in the 1980s-2000s. Nowadays, the league office would have to incentivize All-Stars to want to take part in the Slam Dunk Contest, but they could get creative. Maybe they could mandate that to play in an All-Star Game, you have to have participated in at least one All-Star Saturday event at some point in your career. Luckily for the NBA, a couple of All-Stars have floated the possibility of performing in next year's event. Ja Morant and Giannis Antetokounmpo both shared on social media that they were interested in doing the event after watching McClung three-peat on Saturday. We'll see if they stick to their word or pull a LeBron James. This fix would also allow 3-point and dunk specialists to still participate in the event. McClung's slams to win Saturday's Slam Dunk Contest were certainly exciting. Stephon Castle also had a couple of memorable dunks in the final round. Adding a pair of All-Stars to go up against those two might have added much-needed pizzazz. Of the All-Star Saturday events, none have been fiddled with as much as the Skills Challenge. There's a reason for that: It's not very good. San Antonio Spurs stars Victor Wembanyama and Chris Paul proved that this weekend. The two thought they had found a loophole in the competition, quickly tossing balls to the side when they were supposed to shoot them. They were disqualified as a result, creating one of the highlights of the weekend due to their willingness to not even try in the event. The other highlight of this year's Skills Challenge was watching Green stumble his way through the course in the final round. Beyond Green's struggles, the course seems relatively easy for NBA players, considering all they have to do is dribble, pass, and make a few jump shots and a layup. So, let's get rid of the Skills Challenge and bring back a contest that honors the history of the game and shines a light on the WNBA: the Shooting Stars Competition. If you need a refresher, the event featured an NBA All-Star, an NBA icon and a current WNBA player from the same city or state teaming up to go head-to-head with another trio, all while making shots from around the court. The final shot was from half court, showcasing more difficulty than the Skills Challenge. This year, we could've seen Karl-Anthony Towns, Carmelo Anthony and Sabrina Ionescu represent New York, or Pascal Siakam and Caitlin Clark partner up with Reggie Miller to represent Indiana. The possibilities for this are endless. 3. Make the 3-Point Contest an eight-player tournament, but with a twist The 3-Point Contest has been the most reliable event of All-Star Weekend over the years, with several All-Stars competing for the crown and providing a handful of exciting moments. But like everything else during All-Star Weekend, it can get better. In order to provide a little extra drama, the NBA should change it to an eight-player tournament, but with participants who are shooting at the same time. They wouldn't be shooting at the same basket, though; rather, each would occupy one side of the court. This would remove the target score element of the 3-Point Contest, in which players typically know how many points they need in order to advance. Instead, they'd be trying to get as many 3-pointers up as they can and wouldn't know if they were safe or not until the end. Another 3-Point Contest-related idea for the NBA: Get rid of the balls that are worth more points. The winner shouldn't be determined based off a player shooting worse from their moneyball rack than their opponent. 4. Have the winner of the 3-Point Contest take on the winner of the previous year's WNBA 3-Point Contest In this scenario, whoever wins the 3-Point Contest wouldn't stop there. They'd have to go for one more round of 3-point shooting, going head-to-head with the winner of the previous year's WNBA 3-Point Contest in a "battle of the sexes" competition. This idea was inspired by the memorable Steph Curry vs. Sabrina Ionescu 3-point duel at All-Star Saturday in 2024, when the WNBA star nearly took down the NBA's all-time 3-point king. That event was arguably the best All-Star-related highlight of the last few years. After this year's 3-Point Contest, Tyler Herro would've had to take on Atlanta Dream guard Allisha Gray, who won the WNBA 3-Point Contest in 2024. That might not have the name recognition that Curry-Ionescu had, but it still would've added more fun to the evening while also providing another chance for the WNBA to showcase itself. 5. Change the All-Star Game format to USA vs. the World As you've likely noticed, there haven't been any suggestions yet on how we'd tweak the actual All-Star Game. But there aren't many organic ways to change the All-Star Game that the NBA hasn't tried yet. It's done the All-Star draft. It's tried the Elam Ending. This year, it had a four-team tournament, with the winning team from the Rising Stars Challenge making up a quarter of the players in the All-Star Game. There is one idea, though, that could encourage players to put up a little more effort: having the United States' best basketball players take on the rest of the world's best. In recent years, we've seen the United States struggle to hold on to its basketball dominance in international events, finishing fourth in the 2023 FIBA Tournament before needing dramatic wins to take home gold at the 2024 Summer Olympics. If hockey's Four Nations Faceoff is any indication, this would also provide some country pride. The NHL-created event saw the United States and Canada get in three fights in the first nine seconds of their game on Saturday as that tournament replaced the NHL's All-Star Game. The only concern here is if you'd have enough international players to participate in the event without costing a handful of notable American players All-Star spots. There were nine foreign-born players in this year's All-Star Game, though one of them was Kyrie Irving, who has played for the United States in international tournaments in the past. Luka Doncic likely would've been an All-Star if he had appeared in enough games and Domantas Sabonis certainly had a strong case to be named an All-Star this year, which would've helped the international team. But it still would've needed to fill out two spots on the roster. Maybe a couple of American All-Stars could volunteer to play for the international team? Even though there's a hoop to jump through with this one, it seems like the only idea left that would bring more of a competitive spirit to the All-Star Game. Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily. recommended Get more from National Basketball Association Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more
Yahoo
16-02-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Watch Mac McClung jump over car and into history books winning third straight Dunk Contest
SAN FRANCISCO — Mac Clung owns the Dunk Contest. He may not be an NBA player — he is currently on a two-way contract with Orlando and has played five NBA minutes this season — but he is the best dunker going. After stringing together four perfect scores in a row to win the Dunk Contest again on Saturday night, he became the only player in NBA history to win the NBA Dunk Contest three consecutive years. Nobody — not Jordan, not Kobe, not even three-time winners like Nate Robinson — did it three years in a row. "I think the biggest thing is I genuinely love this contest, and I'm very honored to be here and just very appreciative," he said. McClug was what All-Star Saturday night needed. He changed the energy in the Chase Center. Throughout All-Star Saturday night, things felt a little flat until two-time defending champion McClung got the building on its feet with his first dunk, re-creating the Blake Griffin dunk over a car. MAC MCCLUNG ARE YOU KIDDING ⁉️@Kia | #KiaK5 — NBA (@NBA) February 16, 2025 McClung didn't stop there — for his second dunk he threw down two balls, one taken from a guy spinning on a hoverboard and knocking in another up on the rim. McClung got a perfect score of 50 on that one, too (all of his dunks got perfect scores). San Antonio's Stephon Castle would have won a lot of years, he just had some John Stockton/Karl Malone timing. Still, the Spurs rookie was impressive on his way to a second-place finish (Matas Buzelis and Andre Jackson Jr. competed but were eliminated in the first round). STEPHON CASTLE BRINGING THE CREATIVITY!TIMING WAS IMPECCABLE #ATTSlamDunk on TNT — NBA (@NBA) February 16, 2025 "I mean, [McClung's] dunks are crazy. I would give all his dunks 50, too, but I feel like he earned it and he did a great job," Castle said. McClung wasn't done. For his final dunk of the night, he jumped over 6'11" Evan Mobley standing on a board that raised him about five inches — and McClung tapped the front of the rim then dunked it. Steph Curry couldn't believe what he saw #ATTSlamDunk — NBA (@NBA) February 16, 2025 It's just wild to see — and it's inspiring other big name players who hint they may jump into the Dunk Contest down the line. If you do it. I'll do it with you — Giannis Antetokounmpo (@Giannis_An34) February 16, 2025 McClung is the reigning G-League MVP and now three-time Dunk Contest champion, but he still has yet to stick in the NBA. "I love hooping more than I love dunking," McClung said. "I really just am at peace with that, that I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be, and I'm going to keep applying pressure [to get into the NBA], for sure." Whatever happens on that front, McClung owns the Dunk Contest.
Fox News
16-02-2025
- Sport
- Fox News
Mac McClung, who has played in 1 NBA game this season, wins 3rd straight dunk contest
Mac McClung forged his own personal dynasty during NBA All-Star Weekend. The guard, who has only played in one game for the Orlando Magic during the regular season, took San Francisco by storm on Saturday and won his third consecutive NBA Slam Dunk Contest. It's the first time any NBA player has won the event three times in a row. The G League star had four perfect dunks, each scoring a 50. McClung dunked over a car and over 6-foot-11 Cleveland Cavaliers All-Star Evan Mobley. He defeated San Antonio Spurs guard Stephon Castle to maintain his championship. "It kind of feels like a blur," he said. "It's something I love doing. That's where my creativity comes from. I genuinely love this contest and I love to dunk." McClung, who plays for the Osceola Magic in the G League, is the second dunker to win the contest three times. Nate Robinson won in 2006 and then again in 2009 and 2010. "I think the contest is a beautiful thing," McClung said. "I know people probably want bigger stars in it and I would love to see that. I think it's important for the people in it to want to do it.... This contest is a special thing. We all love it." McClung's performance sparked reactions from Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant and Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo. "mac might make me decide to dunk," Morant wrote on X. "If you do it. I'll do it with you," Antetokounmpo added. McClung only has five NBA games under his belt. He's played for the Philadelphia 76ers, Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers in addition to the Magic. He said he prepared for the contest for nearly nine months and isn't sure if he'll go for a fourth title. Matas Buzelis, of the Bulls, and Andre Jackson, of the Bucks, were eliminated in the first round. Follow Fox News Digital's sports coverage on X and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
