Jericho Sims an impressive dunker, but Mac McClung wins contest

Jericho Sims knew Mac McClung from their days playing college ball in the Big 12 Conference. So even if the fans at Vivant Arena were not sure what to expect from McClung, just called up from the G League and signed by the 76ers, Sims knew.

“It’s pretty wild,” Sims said before the Slam Dunk competition on Saturday night. “He never shied away from the spotlight. Going up against him in the Big 12, I’m excited as well.”

But Sims, the Knicks’ second-year center, and the other competitors could not rise to a level near McClung.

McClung got a perfect 50 on his first dunk, then recorded another perfect score with his first dunk of the finals and repeated it with a 540-degree spinning dunk, beating Trey Murphy III to capture the title.

With his first attempt, Sims threw the ball off the backboard and caught it, and as he slammed it through, he had both of his arms up to the elbow in the rim. He scored a 47.6, with former Jazz great Karl Malone providing the lowest score of 44.

Sims had the top score through the first three dunkers, but when McClung set up his first dunk, those all seemed like an afterthought. McClung — listed generously at 6-1 — had one person on another’s shoulders, and he jumped over them, grabbed the ball, tapped it on the backboard and threw it down backwards over his shoulder for a perfect score.

Sims went deeper into the rim on his second dunk. He went all the way to his armpit and hung on while he grabbed an envelope pinned to the net and brought it down, opening it to reveal a “50.” But the judges didn’t agree — particularly Malone, who was not impressed by this piece of mail and for the second straight dunk gave Sims his lowest score. Sims was edged out by Murphy, who moved on to the finals against McClung.

Did Sims think he did enough to advance? “Yeah, I definitely did,” he said. “I thought they should have been higher. But Murphy had a high score on his second dunk so I had to change it up a little bit.”

Was it what he expected, being part of this? “For sure,” he said. “Everybody watching from the sidelines, seeing the reactions to my dunks. It was great.”

The showcase provided Sims an opportunity to move into the spotlight,  a place in which he has rarely seemed comfortable. The quietest of the Knicks, he rarely says more than a few words in the locker room and even fewer on the court. That went against the advice  Obi Toppin gave him — to work the room at Vivant Arena and get the crowd behind him.

He had other obstacles to overcome — one very visible one. Sims is 6-10, and crowds (and judges) often fall in line to root for the underdog, the smaller player soaring to lofty heights. But Sims hoped to counter that with his unusual leaping ability — a 44.5-inch vertical jump, as measured at the NBA Draft Combine, and claims of nearly 50 inches since then.

“I think for some people it looks cooler with shorter guys dunking,” Sims said. “But I think I can do some of the same things.”

Randle for three?

Randle already was a participant in Sunday’s All-Star Game when he got the invite as a replacement for the three-point competition. While his percentage has improved from last season, he entered the competition  with the lowest percentage (33.8%) of any of the eight players in the contest. But he was happy to join in.

“They asked me,” he said. “I didn't find out until after the Atlanta game. They asked me. I said why not? Have fun with it. I practiced once. I practiced yesterday one time, and we'll see how it goes.”

It went about the way you’d expect for a last-minute addition. Randle struggled to 13 points and was eliminated in the first round with the second-lowest score.

Letter of the law

There has been controversy over the use of facial recognition technology at Madison Square Garden, with Garden chairman James Dolan taking to a media tour earlier this month to defend the practice of using it to keep out fans who are employed by law firms in litigation against the Garden or the Knicks. There also are stories of fans being banned for criticizing Dolan on social media years ago.

“I have never heard that Madison Square Garden is using facial recognition technology to target members of the media,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said. “I would say in terms of their use of it currently directed at those who are litigating against them, as I’ve said previously, our only rules are that they comply with local law. From everything we understand right now, Madison Square Garden is complying with local law. At least so far, we have not deemed it appropriate that we should be stepping into those situations.”

Load management

Silver addressed the problem that the league is facing with fans paying for expensive tickets and finding all too often that teams are sitting out players for load management. He did not have a solution.

“It is an ongoing conversation with the Players Association,” Silver said. “This isn’t a new issue. There’s nothing particularly happening this season that we haven’t seen happening over the last several seasons. I understand it from a fan standpoint that if you are particularly buying tickets to a particular game and that player isn’t playing. I don’t have a good answer for that other than this is a deep league with incredible competition.

“But the mindset of our teams and players these days, as your question suggests, it’s not just a player issue, is that they should be optimizing performance for the playoffs. The difficulty is fans of that team, of those teams, want them to do that as well.”