NBA Slam Dunk Contest history was made Saturday night in San Francisco. Mac McClung, who had four perfect 50s on four attempts, won the Dunk Contest for the third consecutive year, becoming the first player in history to pull off a three-peat in the event. McClung took down Spurs rookie Stephon Castle in the finals.
2025 NBA All-Star Saturday Night results
- Dunk Contest winner: Mac McClung, Magic (G League)
- 3-point Shootout winner: Tyler Herro, Heat
- Skills Challenge winner: Team Cavs (Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley)
McClung, currently of the G League's Osceola Magic, started off the night by dunking over a car.
He followed it up with three more 50s, including dunking two balls on his third attempt:
And tapping the rim after jumping over Cavs All-Star Evan Mobley on his final attempt:
Castle had the other perfect score on the night, and he kept the pressure on McClung in the final round. Bulls rookie Matas Buzelis and Bulls guard Andre Jackson Jr. were eliminated after the first round of the Dunk Contest.
While McClung pulled off his three-peat, Damian Lillard came up short. Lillard, going for his third straight 3-point Shootout victory, was ousted in the first round. Heat All-Star Tyler Herro edged Warriors' Buddy Hield in the finals to win the 2025 3-point contest.
Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley (aka Team Cavs) won the Skills Challenge, which kicked off the night with some unexpected controversy. Chris Paul and Victor Wembanyama (aka Team Spurs) were disqualified from the competition for not taking "valid" shot attempts.
Below is the biggest takeaway from all three events on Saturday.
Is Mac McClung is the new Dunk Contest GOAT?
Only two players have ever won three dunk contests: McClung and Nate Robinson. McClung is the first back-to-back winner since Zach LaVine, except he's won it three times in a row, which Robinson had not done. Of his 12 total dunk contest attempts, eight were scored as 50s, including all four on Saturday. The last player to score 50s in on his first four dunk attempts was Aaron Gordon in 2020, who ultimately lost on a tiebreaker to Derrick Jones Jr.
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By nearly any measure, McClung is the most accomplished, single candidate for the title of "Dunk Contest GOAT." The real question, now, is who joins him on Mt. Rushmore? Personally, I'd submit the following three names. Vince Carter, with probably the single most iconic individual contest in 2000, is an obvious pick. Robinson, as the only other three-time winner, make it as well. Finally, it's a GOAT conversation, so two-time winner Michael Jordan needs to be included. We apologize to Dominique Wilkins, Aaron Gordon, Zach LaVine, Jason Richardson and Dwight Howard, but the competition here is steep.
Where was Stephen Curry during the 3-Point Contest?
The Dunk Contest saved what was otherwise a relatively dull night. The 3-Point Contest in particular saw some of the worst shooting in the contest's history. Tyler Herro won the final round with a score of 24 out of 40, the lowest final-round score since the scoring allowed for 40 points in 2020. In percentage terms, Herro won scoring 60% of the possible available points in the final round. That's the lowest mark since Kevin Love in 2012. In the first round, only two of the eight shooters even got to 20.
This begs the question: where was the greatest shooter of all time? Stephen Curry is an All-Star. He will play tomorrow. The game will be played in his home arena. Yet not only did Curry sit out the 3-Point Contest itself, he sat out of Saturday altogether. Last season, he competed with Sabrina Ionescu in a shootout that proved to be Saturday's highlight. There was no rematch with Ionescu this year, nor did Caitlin Clark elect to participate in any way. That, obviously, was out of the NBA's hands.
But the league couldn't have found some way to include not only its greatest shooter, but the hometown icon? Holding a 3-Point Contest in San Francisco without Curry's inclusion just seems wrong. Maybe he could have faced off with Herro one-on-one for the trophy after the eight initial contestants competed. Maybe he and Klay Thompson could have held a separate, Splash Brothers shootout. Something. There is no official role for an All-Star host, but generally speaking, when it makes sense for a hometown player to be included in Saturday's festivities, they do so, as Draymond Green did. That Curry did not participate in some way was a major disappointment.
Spurs scandal was best thing that ever happened to Skills Challenge
Be honest: what is your favorite Skills Challenge memory? You don't have one, do you? I write about basketball for a living, and I don't. It's the most forgettable of the All-Star Saturday events, a way to warm up the building a bit before the notable events actually start. That's what made what happened on Saturday so compelling.
Victor Wembanyama and Chris Paul represented the Spurs in the Skills Challenge, but were disqualified for flinging balls wildly toward the basket rather than actually shooting them. The strategy, concocted by Wembanyama, was meant to strategically save time. According to Draymond Green, Wembanyama cleared the idea with league officials beforehand. Paul, seemingly upset over the disqualification, did not speak to reporters afterward.
On the surface, this might seem a bit embarrassing for the NBA. I would argue, however, it's an enormous positive. Put aside the fact that we finally have a memorable Skills Challenge memory for a moment. The entire narrative surrounding All-Star Weekend is how little the players care about it nowadays. Well, Wembanyama is going to be the face of the league soon. He cared enough about the least important event of the Weekend to come up with an unorthodox strategy to try to win it. Isn't that exactly the sort of person the NBA should want headlining All-Star Weekend moving forward? If this is how far Wembanyama is willing to go for the Skills Challenge, then it seems as though the All-Star Game itself might be salvageable thanks to his competitiveness.
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