This week in Dallas, Dylan Haugen, Dennis Yu, the Texas Flight Crew, and I rented a court for a dunk session before the Align Volleyball Summit. Eight of us got reps in, and after the session Dylan pulled me aside for a mini episode of the Dunk Talk Podcast. The full clip is up at the top of this page. Below is the version from my side of the conversation, with the full quotes from what I told Dylan about the session, my Instagram growth, getting the call from Shaq, and where I think DunkMan is headed this summer. Earlier in the same Dallas trip I also sat down with Dennis for a longer one-on-one about joining the league. The full quotes are in my interview with Dennis Yu.
How the Session Actually Went
Dylan asked me how I felt about the session before we even sat down to record. My answer:
“Honestly I hit some things I wanted to hit. I didn’t hit everything though. I was probably around 85%. I played some basketball yesterday. I was a little bit sore, but not too sore. So I’m happy with the result, but know I could do better.”
I had played pickup basketball the day before, so my legs were heavier than I wanted them to be. I still threw down a 360 under both, a 360 inverter, a 540, and a long list of other dunks on a legit ten-foot rim. Honestly, I had a decent session but didn’t hit all the dunks I wanted to. Being honest about a 15% gap is part of how I train.
How I Got Into Dunking
Dylan asked about my origin story, and the answer is short. I was obsessed with dunking as a kid, tried random tricks for hours, and hit nothing crazy for a long time. Then I landed my first 360 windmill, and from there the obsession turned into a plan. Right after the windmill, I went to Dunk Camp in 2023, where I met Isaiah Rivera, Jordan Kilganon, Jordan Southerland, and Donovan Hawkins for the first time. Donovan is the one who flipped the switch on my content:
“He did an episode on his YouTube channel reacting to my subscribers’ dunks. I sent in some of my stuff, he reached out to me and was like, ‘You have to start an Instagram.’ He was like, ‘You’re jumping too high not to post.’ So he’s the one who got me started, and then from there on I just kept posting, kept getting better.”
Donovan was the first person in the scene to tell me to take this seriously. Once the Instagram was up, the daily reps did the rest.
The Content Shift That Actually Worked
Dylan asked about my Instagram growth from a few thousand followers up to almost twenty thousand. Here is exactly how it happened:
“I had about 2,000, 3,000 followers back in November, and I was just posting my dunk clips with some gym bro music. Just see what the most popular is, put it over it. And then over Christmas break I had nothing to do. I got back from college and I was like, ‘Let’s just see where I could take this.’ So I posted daily, started putting more effort, and by the end I got 10,000 followers.”
The bigger insight is what changed about the kind of content I was posting:
“I found that if I just make more relatable content, less one-off cool trick dunk stuff, make it more relatable, I would get more followers.”
Contextless one-off clips are the easiest thing to scroll past, and they don’t build a connection with the audience. They might pick up views, but they don’t grow a following. I figured that out by posting daily for a few weeks, watching what got saved and shared, and letting the audience tell me which clips actually meant something.
Getting the Call From Shaq, Three Days Post-Op
The timing on the DunkMan call still makes me laugh. I had just broken my hand. The surgery was three days before the call from Chuck:
“I was reached out to. I was, it was random. I just broke my hand. I got surgery literally three days after getting the call from Chuck. So I was just starting off with my injury. Chuck called me, put me in the league, and I’m ready for it.”
I rehabbed the hand through the spring while the announcement rolled out. The window with the cast was actually one of the most useful stretches of training I have had. I could not work on certain dunks, so I went deeper on jump mechanics, film, and recovery. By the time the cast came off, I was sharper than I had been pre-injury.
Top 24 and What Happens When the Money Hits the Floor
Dylan asked what it felt like getting announced as one of the top 24:
“I mean it’s definitely surreal. Getting posted on Shaq’s account is just like, man, just now seeing this. But I’m always like refreshing the page, seeing who’s on DunkMan next ’cause I’m wanting to see some big names out there so I can really show who I am.”
The dunk community has been collaborative as long as I have been around it. Everyone shows up to each other’s sessions and pushes each other higher. I am genuinely curious what the culture looks like when the prize money is real:
“I’m interested to see how this acts when there’s money on the line. See how people are.”
I think the culture holds because everyone in this league actually loves the sport. But $500,000 changes the stakes, and the new DunkMan scoring system is going to reward the dunkers who actually deliver in the moment instead of the loudest crowd reaction. Dylan wrote the host-side breakdown of this episode on Dunk Talk and his personal takeaways from filming the session separately, and Dennis covered the marketing-side breakdown of the same Dallas trip.
What’s Next
This year is DunkMan first. Top five, then push further. After that I am focused on international contests, sponsorships, and growing the brand off the publicity from the league. A longer episode walking through my full story end-to-end is coming. It will cover the 360 under both, the academic side at Abilene Christian University, and the road to TNT. The Connect page has every platform in one place, and YouTube is where the long-form sessions live.