The 2026 NBA Slam Dunk Contest came and went on Saturday, with Miami Heat forward Keshad Johnson — who is averaging 7.6 minutes per game this season — winning the event with four dunks ranging from acceptable dunk to good dunk.
Like in many years previous, the dunk contest field was an array of relatively anonymous players: Johnson, San Antonio Spurs forward Cater Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers center Jaxson Hayes and Orlando Magic rookie Jase Richardson.
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A notable absence from the field (in addition to every All-Star of the past five years) was Mac McClung, the G League veteran who has won the last three contests and could have made history with an unprecedented fourth. He announced last month he was sitting this one out for “a bunch of reasons.”
However, McClung did decide to show off the four dunks he would have brought to the contest had he participated. Here they are:
By comparison, here are all the dunks Johnson landed in the actual competition.
At the risk of stating the obvious, the McClung dunks are both more interesting and more impressive, though we should also note we are only watching the video McClung’s camp decided to record. Half the difficulty of the dunk contest is being able to pull off acrobatic moves on command, with a panel of NBA veterans to somberly shake their heads at you if you fail.
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That said, McClung certainly has the benefit of the doubt given that he has landed 12 such dunks in the actual competition.
What does this all mean for the dunk contest? It’s certainly not the best look that its three-time champion responded to the actual competition with a superior group of dunks, but it’s hardly the contest’s biggest problem.
The contest has alternated from dying to watchable for the last decade and a half or so. When there’s a McClung, an Aaron Gordon or Zach LaVine, the audience has something to grab onto. When there isn’t, you certainly start to wonder why all this pageantry is put into what is essentially four lesser-known players trying to cosplay as stars. It’s been a long time since LaVine and Gordon faced off in 2016, and even longer since Dwight Howard, Vince Carter, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan and Dominique Wilkins were doing it.
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Maybe that’s harsh, but we saw how full that arena was on Saturday.