This episode has been a long time coming. I (Dylan Haugen) sat down with Travis Reynolds — a 23-year-old professional dunker out of North Carolina — to go dunk-by-dunk through the entire 2026 NBA Dunk Contest. Last year I did this same breakdown with Donovan Hawkins and Hunter Castona, but this time Travis brought a different energy. He has been competing professionally for years, and his eye for judging and execution is as sharp as it gets.
Carter Bryant’s Opening 360
The contest kicked off with Carter Bryant, and honestly, I had Carter winning the whole thing going in. I had seen him do his opening dunk — a reverse 360 windmill — in warm-ups or somewhere prior, and he jumps insanely high. The dunk itself was really aesthetic, but he got hung on the rim a little bit on the finish. Travis and I agreed it was still a strong opener, but that slight hitch cost him in terms of overall presentation.
We went back and forth on how to score one-foot versus two-foot dunks, and that became a theme throughout our entire discussion. The scoring in dunk contests is genuinely one of the hardest things to get right, and the 2026 contest made that painfully clear.
Keshad’s Mailman Dunk and Scoring Controversy
One of the dunks that got us really fired up was from Keshad Johnson. He threw down a reverse between-the-legs off the self-toss, a really cool dunk, and the execution was essentially perfect. But then when Carter Bryant came out and hit what was basically a standard Eastbay, the judges gave Carter higher scores. Travis and I were genuinely confused by that. In what world is a basic Eastbay more impressive than what Keshad did? That scoring inconsistency was one of the biggest issues we had with the entire contest.
Travis made a great point about this — when you look at it objectively, Keshad’s dunk was the best individual dunk of the entire contest. We both agreed on that. But the scores did not reflect it.
The 360 Off the Backboard and Contest Strategy
There was a 360 off a side-of-the-backboard pass that was one of the most difficult contest dunks attempted all night. Side passes off the backboard are already one of the hardest types of passes to execute, and adding a 360 on top of that makes it borderline impossible to pull off consistently. There was a fall on one of the attempts, which is just the nature of attempting something that difficult in a high-pressure setting.
This led into a conversation Travis and I had about contest strategy, and I shared a tip I have picked up from competing in smaller dunk contests myself. In smaller events, you can actually control the pace — if you throw a bad lob, you can call it a practice and get another shot. In the NBA setting, everything is regimented with shot clocks and attempt limits, so there is way less room for error. That pressure changes the strategic calculus for which dunks you attempt.
Between-the-Legs Off the Backboard Into a Reverse Windmill
One of the most ambitious attempts of the night was a between-the-legs toss off the backboard into a reverse windmill. It looked absolutely crazy on the attempts that got close, but ultimately it was just too many variables stacked on top of each other. Travis and I agreed that a cleaner version, just an alley-oop reverse windmill without the extra complexity, would have actually looked just as good and scored higher. Sometimes with dunk contests, less is more. The degree of difficulty was up there, but if you cannot land it clean, the difficulty becomes irrelevant.
Mac McClung’s Four Unreleased Contest Dunks
This was the part of the episode that really blew up. After the main contest breakdown, Travis and I reacted to four unreleased Mac McClung contest dunks, dunks he had been working on that never made it to the NBA stage. Three of the four were dunks I had never seen him do before, and they were absolutely insane.
One of the dunks that stood out to both of us was an inverted scorpion over a person. And here is the wild part, Mac has actually said that he got that dunk from me. That is not something I ever expected to hear, but it speaks to how connected the professional dunking world has become. Pro dunkers and NBA dunkers are watching each other’s content, pulling inspiration, and pushing each other forward. The fact that a dunk I have been working on found its way into Mac McClung’s arsenal is surreal.
Travis and I also broke down an Eastbay to reverse that Mac had in the vault, still an insane dunk even though we had seen him do it before. But the other unreleased ones genuinely surprised us.
What the NBA Dunk Contest Gets Right — and What Needs to Change
Throughout the episode, a few themes kept coming up. The NBA Dunk Contest has an unmatched platform. No professional dunk event comes close in terms of audience size and mainstream visibility. But the judging inconsistency is a real issue. Travis and I both believe the NBA needs professional dunkers or former contest participants on the judging panel, people who actually understand the difficulty scale.
Bridging the Gap Between NBA and Pro Dunking
The bigger picture from this episode is that the NBA Dunk Contest and the professional dunking community are more connected than ever. Mac McClung pulling a dunk from my repertoire, NBA athletes watching what guys like myself and Jordan Kilganon are doing in pro events, the cross-pollination is real and it is making both worlds better.
What was your biggest takeaway from the 2026 NBA Dunk Contest? Did the judges get it right? Drop your thoughts in the comments — Travis and I want to hear your scoring takes.