I remember sitting in my parent’s basement in 2011 when Blake Griffin watched a Kia roll onto the hardwood in Los Angeles. The suspense was perfectly built to both his and the broadcast’s credit. Ominous music blared through Staples Center speakers as Griffin watched the car move into position with a motivated stare.
Baron Davis popped his head out of the sunroof to let us know we were moments away. The kid in me who made the dunk contest priority viewing was ready to jump out of his seat.
My butt stayed planted.
The theatrics were great. The payoff? Not so much. Griffin jumped over the hood of the car – aka the lowest part of the car – and finished strong with two hands. Don’t get me wrong, I would have clipped my foot on the side, faceplanted on the dashboard, and had the basketball drop on my nether regions. But we had seen Griffin have multiple in-game dunks that were 10x more impressive than that.
Jump ahead 14 years, and the payoff finally arrived. While I was fully prepared to be underwhelmed when Mac McClung motioned for the Kia, he pulled off a jam that the NBA will rightfully feature on Dunk Contest highlight reels for years to come. McClung leaped straight over the top of the vehicle AND a person standing out of the sunroof to finish an emphatic reverse slam.
To be honest, it may not have been his best dunk of the night. Shoutout to Mac for bringing the dunk contest back!
Mac McClung Jumps Over a Car for Insane First Jam at NBA Dunk Contest (UPDATE: THREE PEAT!) By the way, remember that McClung is as much a Chicago Legend as he is an Orlando Legend. Despite his three dunk contest trophies, McClung has only played a total of five NBA games. One of those came with Chicago in 2021-22 during his brief stint with the franchise on a 10-day contract. Since then, he has suited up for the Lakers (1), 76ers (2), and Magic (1). His current deal with Orlando is a two-way contract, but he has spent the majority of his time in the G League. With that said, he does continue to find plenty of success at that level, averaging 21.1 points, 5.4 assists, and 4.0 rebounds per game.MAC MCCLUNG BULLS LEGEND NEVER FORGET pic.twitter.com/bQaqBcN1XJ
— Bleacher Nation Bulls (@BN_Bulls) February 16, 2025 Matas Buzelis’ night didn’t go as expected. Despite entering as the favorite to upset McClung, the rookie failed to make it out of the first round. He came out firing with a complicated off-the-bounce, between-the-legs, one-handed jam attempt and failed to complete it during the allotted time. Buzelis could have – and probably should have – had a backup dunk to turn to in the final seconds to get SOMETHING on the board, but I guess he was prepared to live or die by that dunk. You have to respect it. The most frustrating thing is that I genuinely think Buzelis would have advanced to the Finals had he pulled it off. While Stephon Castle had a pair of nice moves, neither he nor Andre Jackson Jr. offered up anything as creative or complicated in the first round. Likewise, Buzelis’ second and final dunk was pretty darn good! Nonetheless, I have a feeling this will not be the last time we see Buzelis at All-Star Weekend. Whether it be dunk contest redemption, a sophomore appearance in the Rising Stars Game, or an invitation to the main event, Buzelis’ untapped potential bodes well for another busy mid-season break down the road. Also, there is no question that A LOT more NBA fans know his name today than did on Thursday night. The Bulls have desperately needed a marketable young face in recent years, and Buzelis showed over the last couple of days that he could become that face. Pulling up in the Mike Wazowski and James P. Sullivan kicks is DIFFERENT.All-Star Saturday Night up next! #NBAAllStar | @BuzelisMatas pic.twitter.com/R6eMtYt1QH
— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) February 16, 2025 Stacey King let his frustration out on the latest episode of the Gimme the Hot Sauce Podcast. Discussing the organization’s underwhelming trade returns, the Chicago Bulls color announcer said he thinks rival teams are on the same page about how to work with this franchise:“There is some kind of collusion going on outside with people who don’t want to deal with the Bulls for whatever reason. I don’t know this for sure, but I feel like they just know the Bulls are desperate to move certain players,” King said. “I think a lot of teams saw their hand and said ‘ok, let’s just offer them nothing.’”
I don’t believe “collusion” is the right word here, but I think King is basically right. Many teams likely are on the same page about how to negotiate with Arturas Karnisovas, as they know this organization has been running in place for years. Still, the Bulls only have themselves to blame for that. They repeatedly made the mistake of waiting too long to move on from their pieces. Not only has this brought down the trade value of those players, but it’s also presumably frustrated a lot of rival front offices around the league. This poor rapport with opposing teams isn’t going to lead to any favors once it’s time to finally pull the trigger on something. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images) More specifically, King spoke about the lack of draft capital the Bulls brought back in trade for three of their biggest names …“If DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine, and Caruso were on different teams, I believe they would have garnered first-round picks. I just think teams don’t want to deal with the Bulls. They don’t want to work with the Bulls for whatever reason,” King said.
We agree again, Stacey! Opposing teams would have received more for these players largely because they would have handled their markets completely differently. An argument can be made that 29 other front offices would have pressed the reset button well before the Bulls did. With that said, even if different leaders were in this same position with each of these players, I think an argument can be made that STILL would have gotten more draft capital in return. Karnisovas simply doesn’t seem to value draft picks as much as he should … and that’s proving to be a major problem. Be sure to listen to King’s full thoughts on the Bulls’ front office here. The calling out of the Bulls’ front office continued on Bill Simmons’ most recent podcast episode. The long-time personality expressed plenty of confusion regarding the organization’s recent decision-making, going as far as to say that every other team in the East has a brighter future than Chicago. I hate it here!“They got nothing from LaVine. They have no extra first-round capital except this weird protected first-round from Portland that they’ll probably never get. They have an absentee landlord as an owner. I think I would pick every single team’s future in the East over there’s,”Simmons told The Ringer’s Rob Mahoney.
Lonzo Ball made his own short appearance on Saturday Night at the Chase Center! The Bulls recently extended point guard introduced his younger brother, Gelo, for a live performance of “Tweaker.”GELO BALL PUTS ON A SHOW IN THE BAY! ? pic.twitter.com/iDMH873OF7
— NBA (@NBA) February 16, 2025 HAPPY BIRTHDAY, COBY!Join us in wishing Coby White of the @ChicagoBulls a HAPPY 25th BIRTHDAY! #NBABDAY pic.twitter.com/LCAf1FWfsy
— NBA (@NBA) February 16, 2025 The 4 Nations competition is turning out to be everything hockey wanted and more. Tab has some thoughts here. Are the Chicago Bears about to finally lose Ryan Poles’ second-hand man? If so, does that change anything for the franchise?ELSEWHERE AT BN: Check Out BN Fantasy | Subscribe to The BN Newsletter
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