Stephon Castle finishes runner-up in NBA Dunk Contest

Castle gets second place as Mac McClung three-peats in perfect night.

On the 25th anniversary of Vince Carter’s iconic 2000 NBA Dunk Contest, San Antonio Spurs rookie Stephon Castle looked to create his legacy as one of the game’s great dunkers. Unfortunately for him, he ran into perhaps the event’s greatest dunker, Mac McClung.

Castle was impressive in his first-ever Dunk Contest, but McClung was perfect, beating Castle in the final round with four perfect scoring dunks on the way to his third-straight dunk title. Castle was two judges away from a perfect final round that would have forced overtime against the stellar McClung.

Castle kicked off the contest with a powerful 360 windmill dunk. This dunk was the closest to his in-game dunking style. He finished with the power and verticality that Spurs fans have gotten used to seeing all year long. This earned him the second-highest score of the first round.

Castle’s second dunk was an off the back board, 180 behind the back slam with authority. The rookie just needed a safe dunk at this point. Matas Buzelis and Andre Jackson Jr. struggled to get their dunks to go down and their scores suffered for it. Meanwhile, McClung was dunking over cars and spinning hover boarders for perfect scores in what felt like an inevitable performance.

Castle’s final two dunks were impressive. He struggled to get his third slam to go down, but finally nailed a between the legs dunk off a made basket. If it weren’t for a few misses to start, Castle might have earned a perfect score to give him a shot at beating McClung.

His final dunk included a 360, a behind the back switching of the hands and then a cupped dunk with his left. In any other contest, this would have been the dunk that crowned a champion. Instead, McClung leapt over Evan Mobley standing on a platform, tapped the rim, and then threw it down. He earned a 50 and just narrowly beat Castle.

The juxtaposition of Castle and McClung made this a more interesting competition than years past. Castle showed off athleticism and power, while McClung dunked with flair and theatrics. The latter won the day, but Castle still put on an impressive show. It may not be next year, but a rematch between these two dunkers would be fun to watch.

Castle’s work isn’t finished. He has a chance to build on an already impressive All-Star weekend by leading his group of Rising Stars to a win over the likes of LeBron James and Stephen Curry in the All-Star Tournament on Sunday night.