Three-time slam dunk champion Mac McClung will not participate in the 2026 competition.
Mac McClung, the reigning NBA Slam Dunk Contest champion for three consecutive years, will not take part in the event next month, as confirmed by his father, Marcus McClung, to ESPN on Monday.
“Not going to be 4 in a row,” Marcus McClung stated in a text message. “There isn’t one specific reason I could point to as the main factor. In my view, it’s more a combination of reasons that led to his decision not to participate.”
Mac McClung mentioned to a commercial-products interviewer over the weekend that he would not be competing this year and added in a post on X that he plans to share “the dunks we developed after the contest.”
Just last month, Mac McClung — the only player to win the event three times consecutively — expressed to ESPN that he was “not sure” about competing in the 2026 contest. In that interview and others with ESPN, he raised concerns about whether he had enough new moves to excel in the contest and acknowledged that his identity as a dunker, rather than a well-rounded basketball player, had troubled him previously.
Earlier this season, McClung spent a week with the Indiana Pacers after securing his first standard NBA contract on Oct. 28. He participated in three games, averaging 6.3 points, including a performance of 12 points in 19 minutes during the Pacers’ loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Oct. 31. He was waived on Nov. 6.
McClung has played in nine career NBA games across five teams.
Having gone undrafted in 2021, McClung is currently with the Windy City Bulls, the G-League affiliate of the Chicago Bulls. He is averaging 23.5 points in 11 games during the G-League regular season. McClung has won a G-League championship with the Delaware Blue Coats, the affiliate of the Philadelphia 76ers, and has also earned G-League MVP honors with the Osceola Magic.
In his dunk contests, he triumphed over the New Orleans Pelicans’ Trey Murphy III in the 2023 final, the Boston Celtics’ Jaylen Brown in 2024, and the San Antonio Spurs’ Stephon Castle in 2025, famously jumping over a Kia on his way to victory.
