McClung for MVP? Viral dunker has been dominant for Windy City

How exactly did basketball's greatest viral sensation end up spending the winter in Hoffman Estates?

The answer isn't complicated. Guard Mac McClung, famous for winning three NBA dunk contests, had spent the past two seasons playing for the G-League's Osceola Magic.

The goal of this game is to find an NBA roster spot, so McClung's camp felt it was time to try something new, with the ever-rebuilding Bulls a promising destination. So a trade was made before the season, McClung spent 11 days with the Indiana Pacers and has been with the Windy City Bulls ever since. He was promoted to a two-way contract with the Bulls on Feb. 5.

“In the G-League it's not like you stay in one place a long time,” McClung said. “You're kind of hunting. If you're in the G-League, you're hunting two-ways or call-ups, and you just try to go to the place you have the best chance to do that.”

McClung has delivered big-time. Heading into Monday's home finale against Oshkosh, he led the G-League in scoring by a wide margin with 28.1 points per game. He set the franchise record by pouring in 54 points on March 10 against College Park.

He has to be on the short list of leading contenders to win G-League MVP, an award he won two years ago with the Magic. Windy City began the day one game out of a playoff spot with six remaining.

The obvious question is what will it take for McClung to earn a full-time roster spot in the NBA? The Bulls will have plenty of openings heading into the summer, so maybe he is in the right place.

The issue could be McClung is viewed as an undersized two guard at 6-foot-2, albeit with world-class hops. He has set a career high with 7.7 assists this season, proving he can be a distributor. He's shot a respectable 37% from 3-point range and is shooting 51% overall.

“It's just finding the right spot,” McClung said. “I'm 27 years old. I know my game, I know how my game compares. I believe in myself a million percent.

“That's the league, man. It's hard to get an opportunity for a lot of people. It's not just me. If I get that, I'll try to make the most of it.”

A legend takes off

The glory days of McClung's career were probably in 2016-18, during his varsity seasons at Gate City High School in Virginia.

The highlights went beyond viral. Clip after clip of an undersized guard pulling off in-game, dunk-contest quality slams, with every seat in the gym filled. This wasn't an And1 Mixtape highlight, it was an actual high school varsity game.

“It was the craziest thing. It was like a movie, man,” McClung recalled. “We'd go to a (road) game, they'd be like, 'Yeah, it's been sold out for four hours and nobody else can get in. We turned down 5,000 people, the gym only holds 2,000. We didn't understand really why all these people became intrigued about us, but we loved it and we embraced it a lot.”

McClung said his three best friends to this day were on the team, so they endured the hype together and kept each other grounded, even while taking calls from random A-list celebrities.

Gate City itself is well off the beaten path, a small town on the western tip of Virginia, a few miles from the Tennessee border. The town sits roughly halfway between Roanoke and Knoxville.

“It's a town of around 1,500 total people,” McClung described. “One stoplight, very Southern, very charming, and also the people, it feels like it's all one big family. We would go to the games and you'd know everybody in the crowd. They'd have my back.”

Of course, most people don't get that far off the ground. What's the secret to McClung's amazing vertical leap?

“I was a late bloomer,” he said. “I was probably still 5-7 as a freshman, but I didn't start playing basketball until my seventh- or eighth-grade year. So I really loved dunking, I loved the cool parts of the game.”

So he became obsessed with dunking and by his sophomore year of high school, had gotten pretty good at it, which only accelerated his passion.

“I really worked hard during eighth and ninth grade, trying to be able to jump,” he said. “It's definitely plyometric (exercises), feet work. And then, I think a little bit was genetics. I try to get my dad some credit. He says he had a lot of bounce. I never saw it personally, but I think it was a little genetics as well.”

Commuter life

When he moved to Chicago, McClung chose an NBA-style life. He's living in the West Loop, giving him easy access to both the Advocate Center and some of the city’s best night life. The commute to Now Arena in Hoffman Estates is mostly during low-traffic hours.

What happens beyond this season is anyone's guess. McClung and two-way teammate Yuri Kawamura as a fast-paced, entertaining set of backup guards might be one path for the Bulls to consider for next season.

“That's my favorite guy to play with,” McClung said of Kawamura. “He makes the game so easy, he's such a good person, so fun to play with.

“It's been a really great group of guys. Obviously, we've been fighting for our life to get in the playoffs, so that's been a main focus. As far as people go, man, it's really been an incredible year.”