Jaylen Brown and All Participants Revealed for 2024 NBA Slam Dunk Contest

Mac McClung is back to defend his NBA Slam Dunk Contest crown, but this time he is going to have to defeat an NBA All-Star.

The league revealed the contestants for the 2024 event on Thursday, and McClung will face Jaylen Brown of the Boston Celtics, Jaime Jaquez Jr. of the Miami Heat and Jacob Toppin of the New York Knicks.

The NBA also released the participants for the three-point contest and skills competition at All-Star weekend.

While McClung is a G League player for the Osceola Magic, he became a household name for basketball fans last year when he put on an absolute show during his Slam Dunk Contest win at Vivint Arena, home of the Utah Jazz.

He earned straight 50s from the judges on three of his four dunks and completed all of them on his first attempt. He quickly became a fan favorite in the arena and left little doubt who would win by the middle of the showing.

Yet McClung did not exactly defeat a long list of All-Star players in Kenyon Martin Jr., Jericho Sims and Trey Murphy III.

The Slam Dunk Contest was once quite the star-studded affair with players such as Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Julius Erving, Vince Carter and more taking to the skies as the headliner event of the entire All-Star Weekend.

But it hasn't featured such players of late, as evidenced by the last five winners: Hamidou Diallo, Derrick Jones Jr., Anfernee Simons, Obi Toppin and McClung.

Brown brings some of that missing star power. The Boston Celtics wing is a three-time All-Star and 2022-23 All-NBA Second Team selection. He is a major reason the Celtics are legitimate championship contenders this season and figures to provide quite the challenge to McClung.

Perhaps even more of a challenge than the reigning champion faced last year.

Elsewhere, Jaquez is a rookie and Toppin has appeared in just three career NBA games. His brother, Obi, has won the Dunk Contest in the past, though, so maybe he can bring some fireworks as part of this year's competition.

The contest will be part of the NBA's All-Star Saturday Night on Feb. 17 in Indianapolis' Lucas Oil Stadium. The evening will also feature the Three-Point Contest, Skills Challenge and a special three-point contest between Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry and New York Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu.