Imagine winning just one slum dunk contest? Before you process, Mac McClung has etched his name into the history books with three straight dunk titles! Mind you, he is yet to cement his place in a league, as he currently has a two-way contract. Just by his brilliance, the 26-year-old reportedly earned more than his career income with his All-Star weekend heroics. And watching him leap over a car to seal the contest was Kevin Garnett, but it seems the former champion has found another dunker to take the world by storm. But who is this young lad who impressed Garnett?

“Find this kid..NOWWW 😳😂👀.” KG shared the post of Jonathan ‘Airtime’ Edwards on his Instagram story. The 23-year-old is a former alum of the County College of Morris. Now he is a professional dunker and video creator with over 43k Instagram followers. And guess what? His posts had more than a dozen montages of his dunks. With such maneuvers, how can Kevin Garnett not be impressed? He added, “This… 🤔😳😤🫡💯.” But why is the Celtics legend helping the 23YO athlete?

It’s because Edwards, in his post, asked for help from his followers and social media. “Please do me a huge favor and tag @nba2k & @ronnie2k 🤲🏽 would love to do some of the animations for the next 2k!” Seeing the quality of the dunks, it’s not just The Big Ticket who was fascinated. “He did like 7 dunks I’ve never seen in life 😮🔥🔥🔥🙌🏿,” a fan quoted, so the feeling across was mutual. Despite being the judge at this year’s All-Star contest, it seems KG sides with that comment.

Apart from Kevin Garnett, Baron Davis Jason Richardson, and Tracy McGrady, were the 4 former players roped in for the judges’ panel. Accompanying them was Jesser, a basketball creator who has become a prominent figure in the online hoops community. The judges marked McClung with perfect scores for all of his 4 dunks. There is a reason why KG is hyping the 23-year-old Edwards, because of his previous comments on current NBA stars.

Whom did Kevin Garnett call out for not taking up challenges?

According to media analyst Ryan Glasspiegel, this year’s All-Star Game averaged just 4.7 million viewers across TNT platforms—a 13 percent drop from last year. And what makes it look worse is the hype and promise to turn around the league with new experiments. All these efforts, only to be the second-least-watched All-Star Game in history. It barely edged out 2023’s dismal 4.6 million viewership. KG was part of this year’s contest as a judge, but he called out two stars for not showing up for the dunk contest.

“I do not understand when I don’t see Zion into the dunk contest or why we never saw LeBron.” On Open Run with Rachel Nichols, Kevin Garnett continued, “Anything when you have to perform is and can be considered, or have a real element of embarrassment to it. I think they’re very conscious about limiting risk and the things they do to lessen that embarrassment.”

LeBron James has never participated in the slam dunk contest in his entire career. The Lakers superstar once stated, “The NBA Dunk Contest was never a goal of mine.” With Zion Williamson nursing injuries, it made sense why he has opted out. So, KG has his eyes set on other players who are willing to take the contest seriously. But will the Slam Dunk Contest even be a thing to stay for long, at a time when the All-Star is itself failing to justify its existence?