DALLAS — Of the five summers that have passed since Mac McClung left Texas Tech to enter the 2021 draft and wasn’t selected, this was the one that tested his faith in his NBA dream the most.
The dynamic 26-year-old combo guard and three-time reigning NBA Slam Dunk Contest champion has done more than enough over four seasons as a professional to assure plenty of opportunities to be paid to play basketball somewhere. However, he had to start asking himself whether it still made long-term sense for him to stay in the G League to be part of NBA organizations rather than looking at something overseas that could be more stable and lucrative.
On Monday, McClung’s faith finally paid off as the injury-ravaged Pacers signed the 6-foot-2, 185-pounder to a multi-year, non-guaranteed standard contract in hopes that he can help stabilize their decimated backcourt. In the last four years, he’s had two-way, 10-day and Exhibit 10 contracts, but this is the first time in his career that he’s on a standard NBA contract.
“I came up short a ton of times in this game,” McClung said Tuesday after his first practice with the Pacers on the road at SMU’s Crum Basketball Center. “Something in my soul, thank God, just put a resilience in me that I believe I’m built for this stage. God gave me an opportunity and hopefully I can make the most of it.”
There isn’t much evidence that McClung has ever failed to make the most of an opportunity. He grew up in the tiny southwest Virginia mountain town of Gate City just north of the Tennessee border, home to just over 2,000 residents. His father Marcus McClung played linebacker at Virginia Tech in the early ’90s and Mac was initially obsessed with football too, but he started playing basketball in seventh grade and became one of the most prolific scorers in Virginia public high school history.
McClung set the Virginia High School League career scoring record with 2,801 points. That record was since broken by Tyler Nickel, now a forward at Vanderbilt, but as a senior he scored 1,153 points — 38.4 per game — to break the single-season record previously held by Allen Iverson and led Gate City to a Class 2 state championship.
McClung played his first two seasons of college basketball at Georgetown before playing his junior season at Texas Tech. He averaged double figures in all three seasons and earned Big East All-Freshman team honors at Georgetown and second-team All-Big 12 honors at Texas Tech. He left for the NBA draft with eligibility left and wasn’t taken, but the Lakers signed him to an undrafted free agent contract and thus began his time on the NBA’s periphery.
The Lakers waived McClung but gave him a G League spot with the South Bay Lakers and he did well enough to catch the eyes of the Bulls to sign him to a pair of 10-day contracts before he eventually went back to South Bay. He averaged 20.9 points per game as a rookie and was named G League Rookie of the Year and the Lakers signed him to a two-way contract at the end of that season. However he played just one game for the Bulls during the two 10-days and one for the Lakers on the two-ways.
The next summer McClung was signed and then waived by the Warriors, then picked up by the 76ers on a two-way contract. He averaged 18.9 points per game for a Delaware Blue Coats team that won the G League title, scored 25 points in two games with the 76ers and won his first Slam Dunk title at that year’s NBA All-Star Weekend. However the next year he couldn’t get anything better than an Exhibit 10 deal and didn’t play in a NBA game. Instead he averaged 25.5 points per game for the Osceola Magic — Orlando’s affiliate — to win G League MVP honors while also claiming a second Slam Dunk title at All-Star weekend in Indianapolis.
That led to a two-way deal in 2024-25 with the Magic, but despite all their injuries he appeared in just two games and played 10 minutes for Orlando while he averaged 23.0 points per game in 44 games at Osceola and won a third dunk contest.
McClung held tight to the idea that if he just hung around the NBA’s minor league long enough he’d catch a break. Family, friends and advisors reached the point this offseason that they weren’t sure it was the wisest move.
“You do have the people around you who are like, ‘Hey man, like how many years are you gonna do this G League thing?'” McClung said. “This year was probably the hardest year emotionally. People that love you are like, ‘Hey man, you need to maybe be more realistic about this situation.’ But I feel like when something is in your soul, you just gotta chase it and trust God.”
McClung said he’s fielded interest from Europe and Australia throughout his career including this summer, and though he made a point to note that there’s nothing wrong with taking that path, he wasn’t ready to take it. He signed an Exhibit 10 contract with the Bulls and was set to start practice with their G League affiliate the Windy City Bulls on Monday.
“If you know me, I’m burning the boats,” McClung said. “I’m just all or nothing, no matter what it takes.”
For him to get the opportunity he has now, it also took misfortune on the part of the Pacers. After losing All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton for all of this season with a right Achilles tendon tear suffered in Game 7 of their NBA Finals loss to the Thunder, they’ve suffered a compounding and brutal stretch of injuries to start the season. They have seven players listed as out and one more as doubtful on the injury report for Wednesday’s road game against the Mavericks. Included among them are five of their eight top scorers from last season — Haliburton, high-scoring wing Bennedict Mathurin, this year’s starting point guard Andrew Nembhard, veteran backup point guard T.J. McConnell and high-flying forward Obi Toppin. Promising young wing Johnny Furphy and rookie guard Kam Jones are also out and rookie guard Taelon Peter is doubtful.
The injuries to Haliburton, Nembhard and McConnell have wiped out the point guard depth that made the Pacers one of the hardest teams to guard in recent seasons. Mathurin, who has been in and out of the starting lineup, was taking advantage of the extra minutes and opportunities available and scored 62 points in the season’s first two games. However, he suffered a right great toe sprain when he tripped on an opponent’s foot trying to drive in Saturday night’s game against the Grizzlies. Sunday morning, McClung got a phone call asking him to meet Pacers staffers in Dallas for a workout.
“They just told me, ‘You’re gonna hop on a flight in a couple hours,'” McClung said, noting that the Bulls were understanding of his need to pursue the opportunity.
McClung can play both point guard and shooting guard which is helpful for the Pacers because they need help at both. If Peter is out, Wednesday, they’ll have just 10 players available — nominally, three centers, three forwards and four guards. The forwards — All-Star Pascal Siakam, Aaron Nesmith and Jarace Walker — all have perimeter skills and can provide some ball-handling, shooting and perimeter defense, but the Pacers’ formula still requires a functional backcourt. Joining McClung at the guard spots are two-way contract players RayJ Dennis and Quenton Jackson and Ben Sheppard, a shooting guard by trade who has had to play point guard for the first time since college.
McClung has played just 76 career minutes in the NBA. If the Pacers don’t get back any of their injured guards immediately he could crack that figure for Indiana within a week.
“He’s an attacker,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “He’s aggressive. He’s healthy, which is important right now. This is an opportunity for both him and us. … Anybody that can be healthy and available and be able to play some minutes is just so important right now. He’ll give us a lift with our depth for sure.”
McClung can’t presume to have a permanent home. He’s on a two-year contract, but nothing in the contract is guaranteed. Nembhard doesn’t appear to be too far away from a return. Mathurin is week-to-week. McConnell seems to be progressing well with a target date of return around Nov. 9. Their roster situation is in major flux and they could easily decide to change direction and waive him to pick up someone else. They already waived two veteran point guards in training camp in Delon Wright and Cameron Payne and backed off of signing Monte Morris due to a calf injury that would have kept him out of training camp.
But for now, McClung’s contributions are desperately needed and he can feel vindicated for staying in the U.S.
Burning the boats worked.
“I’m just very blessed,” McClung said. “Thank God this opportunity worked out.”
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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: ‘Burning the boats’ pays off as Pacers’ Mac McClung gets first NBA standard contract
Reporting by Dustin Dopirak, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
