Three-time NBA slam dunk contest champion Mac McClung has signed with a Spanish team owned by three-time NBA All-Star Marc Gasol, McClung's mother confirmed to ESPN on Thursday.
McClung, 27, inked a deal with Basquet Girona of Liga ACB, Spain's top professional league. He previously told ESPN that he had turned down multiple lucrative offers to play overseas in the past, maintaining his quest for the full-time NBA job that has eluded him.
Lenoir McClung told ESPN that her son is no longer eligible for the two-way contracts that allowed him to shuttle between the NBA and the G League. She said that McClung and his agent talked to NBA teams about the coming season but that teams weren't ready to commit yet.
"It's just the right timing," Lenoir McClung said. "[Basquet Girona] wants [Mac] to be their franchise player. It means a lot. ... He really is looking forward to doing this. ... He feels at peace. And he feels like he's ready for a new chapter."
McClung's mother said that Gasol, the 2013 NBA Defensive Player of the Year, had "a huge impact" on her son's decision to sign with the club, which is located about an hour outside Barcelona. Gasol, who grew up in the Barcelona suburbs, is helping McClung choose a place to live.
McClung played 17 career NBA games for five teams, averaging 5.9 points, but he earned his fame as the first G League player to participate in the dunk contest. He then became the first player to win it three straight times.
After years hopping between the NBA and the G League, McClung earned his first standard NBA contract in October 2025, signing with the Indiana Pacers. They waived him a week later. He signed another two-way contract with the Chicago Bulls in February, the same month he passed on attempting to become the dunk contest's first four-time winner.
He remains one of the best players in the history of the G League and is the league's leading career scorer and a two-time MVP. Lenoir McClung said that her son loved playing in the NBA's minor league circuit but that she believes his time there ran its course.
"It didn't really make a lot of sense coming back to the G League right now," Lenoir McClung said. "Were you going to try to break your own record again? Try to get a three-time MVP?"