The vast majority of basketball fans must have never heard of Mac McClung before last week’s NBA All-Star weekend. It’s no surprise, as the 24-year-old point guard has played in just two NBA games in his entire career and didn’t even have a team or contract in the league until about a week ago. Then, in a few days, the world turned upside down with him, and now, without exaggeration, everyone is talking about him within the ranks of the sport.
Crazy sacks, acrobatic moves and a huge show. These words can be used to briefly describe Mac McClung’s performance on Saturday, when he surprisingly won the All-Star weekend sack contest as an almost unknown player. However, McClung’s start in the sack competition was previously a joke among the fans. In the competition that saw better times in the past – when even the league’s biggest stars started the sacking contest – nowadays, the league can only field second-rate stars, even with goodwill.
This year was no different, the biggest name is the triple king of the New Orleans Pelicans, Trey Murphy III. while Kenyon Martin Jr. (Houston Rockets), Jericho Sims (New York Knicks) and Mac McClung (Philadelphia 76ers) fought.
It is interesting that McClung, the eventual winner, received a contract from the Philadelphia 76ers just last week, and a few days later, he followed in the footsteps of legends such as Kobe Bryant, Vince Carter and Michael Jordan. Those who laughed at McClung’s start in the sack contest and thought the basketball player was too frivolous to compete in such a caliber are certainly not laughing now. Because the 24-year-old player pulled out a performance that no one expected.
Four sack attempts. Four successful sacks. Three perfect stunts with maximum points. And a championship. McClung burst out of nowhere and made the audience of the gala held in Salt Lake City jump to their feet, spicing up his production with sacks the likes of which we haven’t seen in sack competitions for years. In the finals, he defeated Trey Murphy, who was considered the final contender,
with a last fill before he turned 540 degrees in the air!
What can we say, a remarkable performance from a 188 cm director. Let the sacks do the talking instead of words, here are McClung’s most spectacular moves from the weekend.
But how does an unknown player make it to the All Star Gala?
The young man, blessed with amazing springs, is no stranger to the art of bagging, he has already drawn attention to himself with his crazy stunts. He started his career at Gate City High School in Virginia, where he was immediately remembered by the fans for his sacks. Moreover, his stunts spread on the Internet, so he gained a lot of popularity in his young years. As a result, despite the fact that he put almost nothing on the table in the NBA, he came to the gala with 821 thousand Instagram followers, which alone is twice the number of followers of the other players of the sack competition combined.
McClung, who is particularly popular on the Internet, has not been invited to a bagging competition for the first time in his career. Even in 2018, he took part in the competition named “Ball is Life All-American” and, lo and behold, he finished first there as well. Among others, he dismissed the current NBA player Kevin Porter Jr. behind him.
Don’t get me wrong, McClung has always been more than a sack champion. In his senior year, for example, he dropped 47 points in the finals of the Virginia state championship, then decided to start his college years at Georgetown. In Újoncévé, he averaged 13 points per game, adding two rebounds and two assists. In fact, in December 2018, he scored 38 points in a win over Georgetown, the most points in a single game this season by any freshman. Thanks to his performance, he was immediately selected for the first-year national team, but the continuation was quite uneventful. One of the main reasons for this was his injuries. Three years ago, he suffered a serious leg injury that limited him to just 21 games this season, though when he did, he averaged a paltry 16 points.
After the season, he decided to apply for the NBA’s player exchange, however, approaching the draft night, he withdrew and instead decided to stay at the college level for the time being. It is important to emphasize that
each player can enter the NBA draft once, and if he is not selected by any team, he cannot enter the following year.
McClung ended up staying at the college level, but switched clubs and transferred to Texas Tech University in hopes that his game would better fit the team’s style and that he could use his more traditional skills as a quarterback. However, his expectations did not come true, his assists average dropped, so he decided to try the NBA after all.
But no one needed it there
It was not so surprising, but in the 2021 NBA player exchange, none of the teams called the point guard off the list, so McClung remained undrafted. In such cases, the players can still hope that some team will invite them for a trial game during the summer league and during the preparation, and in the end they will just manage to grab him among the best. This was also the case with our hero. After the unsuccessful draft, the Los Angeles Lakers signed a contract with him for the summer league, and then he made a good impression on the leaders of the franchise at the tournament held in Las Vegas. Thanks to this, he received a so-called two-way contract, with which he can play basketball in both the NBA and the G-League.
However, he was not allowed to perform at the highest level in the California team, and they even gave him up after a while. He bounced around for a while in South Bay, the Lakers’ branch team, where he didn’t play badly anyway. Later, the Chicago Bulls offered him a ten-day contract, and the premiere finally happened there: he was allowed to play in the NBA, albeit for a single game!
The continuation was similar for him, he was mostly expected to play in the second line everywhere. In the preseason, he played for the Golden State Warriors for a short time, but did not receive a contract there either. Finally, he ended up with the Philadelphia 76ers, or more precisely, with the franchise’s branch team, the Delaware Blue Coats. His scoring average dropped, but he was able to develop his management skills much better, so his average per game was already close to six assists.
His rebounding has also developed rapidly, with which he made a good impression on the 76ers management. On February 14, he received a two-way contract, with which he can now officially play in the NBA. He was not able to present himself in Philadelphia yet, but he was invited to the sack competition. And as they say, the rest is history.
In a twist of fate, McClung didn’t even play for the 76ers, but on paper he became the first sack champion in franchise history. Currently, the next step for him is to fight for a chance to play in the strongest league in the world. He’ll likely spend the next two months bouncing between Delaware and the 76ers, depending on whether the NBA club wants him to play.
If anyone is afraid that McClung’s appearance was a one-time miracle and that he will disappear as quickly as he burst into the public consciousness, we can reassure him, the 24-year-old basketball player guaranteed that if he is invited to the sack competition again, he will gladly accept the invitation. In fact, he has also stated that he is ready to take on anyone and beat them in a sack fight.
In the future, he will probably have more competition, as according to the news, one of the league’s biggest stars, Zion Williamson, would also like to fight for the trophy, after he missed the gala due to an injury this year. One thing is certain, on Saturday a new star – even a champion – was born, who can easily claim the title of bagging king for many years to come.
(Cover image: Getty Images)