CAM HAZZARDQuick note before we get going: you might see other posts and coverage about this night around the site and around the internet. This one is different. This is my personal account, every dunk and every emotion, straight from me.
On July 21, I competed in the first dunk contest of my life. It happened to be the premiere night of DUNKMAN, Shaq’s professional dunk league, live on TNT, the biggest dunk contest ever held, with $500,000 on the line for the eventual champion.
I won it.
Highest score of the night. Dunk of the Night. Group A champion. $35,000. And as of right now, a Top 8 seed in the world.
Here’s how it actually went down.
The group nobody wanted
Let me paint the picture of what I walked into. Group A wasn’t just my first contest. It was, in my opinion, the hardest group in the entire league. Joel Henry, the number one dunker in Europe. Dengxing Chen, the number one dunker in Asia. Shelby McEwen, the Olympic silver medalist in the high jump from 2024. Jonathan Edwards, the man behind the NBA 2K dunk animations. And Doug Anderson, NCAA dunk contest champion.
And then me. A 21-year-old college student who had never competed in a single dunk contest in his life, in the first group ever shown on national television. The way I saw it, anything less than first place and my World Championship hopes were done. No warm-up contest, no easing in. Straight into the deep end.
The warm-up told me something
During warm-ups I threw down a few dunks, nothing from my real bag, just dunks that come easy to me, and the crowd went crazy. That was my first time ever experiencing a crowd like that, and it was only the warm-up. Shaq was courtside watching me for just the second time in person, and he was loving every second of it.
That’s the moment I knew: DUNKMAN was going to have a problem on their hands tonight.
Round one: the drop and the climb
I was the fourth seed, so I watched Doug Anderson, Shelby, and Chen all go before me.
Dunk 1: the 360 reverse windmill. I picked this one for a reason. Vince Carter was in the building: the man who originated that dunk, and the man everybody says did it with the best style ever. I agree with them. But I didn’t want it to stay undisputed. So I gave my best shot at recreating his dunk, in front of him, and I crushed it. The announcers were going crazy, the judges scored it well, and I was sitting in second place.
Dunk 2: the miss. I went up for a 360 East Bay and my shoe slipped out from under me on the takeoff. Rhythm gone, dunk missed. My first missed dunk of the night, on national television, in my first contest ever. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t freak out a little inside. Only the top three advance to the finals, and that miss dropped me to fourth. Season over, right there, if I let it be.
I kept my head down and stuck to the plan.
Dunk 3: the 360 inverted East Bay. Crushed it. First attempt. The judges scored it extremely high, high enough that I didn’t just sneak into the top three, I jumped from fourth place all the way to the top seed heading into the finals.
The finals: the dunk I invented
For my first dunk of the finals, I went to my signature: the 360 double-pump back scratcher. I originated that dunk. I still haven’t seen anyone else land it. A few days before the contest, my clip of it had gone viral with around 5 million views, and I’d heard the judges talking about that exact dunk off the floor. It’s the riskiest dunk in my bag. It’s also the best one. I had to pull it out.
I crushed it. Best dunk I’ve ever done in competition, and the judges agreed: 9.55 out of 10, the highest score of the night by far.
And understand what it beat. These guys emptied the tank. Joel and Chen were jumping over actual cars. Chen did an inspec over six people. That’s the level of contest this was, and the 9.55 still came out on top. That should tell you everything about how hard that dunk is.
Since your lowest score gets dropped, by my last dunk of the finals the math was already done. I’d won. So I took a victory lap: a simple two-hander, just to soak in a moment I’ll never get back. Shaq was jumping up and down. I dapped him up while Draymond Green and CashNasty, who were incredible on the call all night, lost their minds on the mics.
What I said when they handed me the mic
Right after the win, I did a live interview on the broadcast with CashNasty, and I said what I truly believe: I’m honored to have come out on top, but the real win isn’t the trophy. The real win is being part of the legacy that turns dunking into a real sport. I could not be more blessed to be in the position I’m in, helping carry it to that next stage.
Then Shaq picked my 360 double-pump back scratcher as the Dunk of the Night (only one dunk per group stage gets that honor), which came with $10,000. Add the $25,000 for winning the group, and I walked out of Overtime Elite Arena with $35,000 and a Top 8 seed in the world.
The court got crashed after that: pictures, autographs, mini interviews everywhere. I also sat down for about an hour-long interview about the win that’ll be rolling out over the next few weeks, so keep an eye out for that.
What’s next
Group A is done, but the job isn’t. The World Championship is August 25 in Atlanta: eight dunkers, one champion, $500,000.
Two years ago nobody knew my name. Today I’m a Top 8 world seed in the first professional dunk league in history. Be so good they can’t ignore you.
See you August 25.