By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Mac McClung once again stole the show on Saturday night of the All-Star Game becoming the first player to win three consecutive slam dunk contest titles.
McClung opened the competition by jumping over a car, like Blake Griffin did in 2011, and set the tone early.
However, it has to be noted that in the final, San Antonio rookie guard Stephon Castle had a score of 99.6 in the last round and narrowly finished second, having complaints about the judges’ panel.
“I felt like my third dunk should have been a 50,” Castle said. “We could have a dunk-off. I don’t know if that’s what the crowd would’ve wanted. But overall, I was happy with it.”
MAC MCCLUNG DOES IT AGAIN OVER A CAR #AllStarWeekendpic.twitter.com/WfuLpdZBbC
— Eurohoops (@Eurohoopsnet) February 16, 2025
Herro winning and Wemby “cheating”
Damian Lillard had also the chance to make a historic three-peat by winning for the third straight time the three-point contest, but couldn’t make it past the opening round, scoring 16 points.
On the contrary, Tyler Herro defeated Buddy Hield, edging him 24-23. Hield in theory had the advantage by competing in his home arena, but started slowly in the final round and paid for it.
The skills challenge competition ended up having a minor controversy.
Team Cavs, consisting of Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley won the prize, but Team Spurs of Chris Paul and Victor Wembanyama stole the show, ultimately getting disqualified because they didn’t make an effort to make their shots, thinking they had found a loophole in the rules.
“We tried something that we thought could win to see if we had the best time,” said Paul, who pleaded Team Spurs‘ case to officials in the aftermath of the disqualification.
Wemby and CP3 tried to cheat the Skills Challenge and got disqualified! pic.twitter.com/XlnFjlpkxX
— Eurohoops (@Eurohoopsnet) February 16, 2025
According to skills challenge rules, players need to take a maximum of three valid attempts and move on after a make or three missed attempts.
“I mean, if the challenge lets us do that, there’s a loophole,” said Wembanyama, who said it was his idea to utilize Team Spurs’ non-shooting tactic. Team Rooks of the French duo Zaccharie Risacher and Alex Sarr couldn’t make it to the final.