Most young dunkers grow up being told to put the ball down and just play the game. Jeremiah Walker got the opposite advice, and it changed his life. On episode 73, my co-host Travis Reynolds and I, Dylan Haugen, sat down with the 20-year-old professional dunker out of London to trace his whole story, from a poorly planned set of school rims to getting flown around the world to jump.
This one hit home for Travis and me for a specific reason. A few episodes back the two of us made the case for why all dunkers should make long-form content, and Jeremiah told us he started posting his own long-form sessions after watching Dunk Talk. Getting him on the show felt like the loop closing in real time.
From a London Soccer Kid to a Dunker
Jeremiah grew up in a soccer family. He played from about five until he was eight, then admitted the truth to himself: he was terrible at it. A friend in primary school told him he was tall and should try basketball, so he did. He fell in love with the game at eight, but looking back he thinks he actually loved dunking more than basketball almost from the start. He just did not know it yet.
A lot of that came down to the rims. His school had a netball goal barely five feet high, so lunchtimes turned into everyone trying behind-the-backs and whatever else they could think of. When he moved up to secondary school, the gym had rims at 9 feet, 9’5”, 9’10”, and 10’, which he calls poorly planned but honestly perfect for a kid who wanted to dunk. He was catching little backscratchers on the 9-footers by 11, and his first real dunk came at 12, a putback on 10 feet over a friend. Then, in a story a lot of us know too well, he did not dunk again for two or three years.
The Coach Who Told Him to Dunk for a Living
For years Jeremiah still wanted to go pro in basketball, even though every team he joined only used him for dunking. The turning point came at 16, when an assistant coach looked him in the face and told him he was not good at basketball and should just dunk professionally. Jeremiah did not even know that was a real job. The coach told him to look up Joel Henry, and once he saw that a person could dunk full time, he told his coach he was done playing games and only wanted to train to dunk.
That stopped Travis and me in our tracks, because it is the exact opposite of what we heard growing up. Our coaches told us dunking was a waste of time and there was nothing there for us. Jeremiah got a coach who saw it early.
How the London Scene Built His Name
Jeremiah says the UK genuinely loves dunking, and London runs on street basketball. One-on-one and three-on-three events dominate, and most of them have a dunk contest attached, which is exactly where he built his name and got noticed for the Dunk Elite and FIBA circuits. His first proper contest was in 2021 at Ball Out, one of the biggest three-on-three events in the country, and he says he did awful. The next year he entered a contest with a clothing brand for a 500-pound prize, breezed through it, cleared three people on a Windmill, and won. The moment he had that 500 in his pocket, he decided he was a professional and would only do paid events from then on.
Jumping Over People Instead of Off Them
I asked Jeremiah about the Dubble Up trend, guys throwing themselves off a person to score, and he was honest about how the scoring rewards it. But he made a choice to jump clean over people instead. He figured actually clearing a person is harder than pushing off one, so it always rates a little better. His record is a clean five, starting from someone around 6’2”. He joked that he wishes he could just do Dubble Ups for the energy savings, but he committed to the harder version and stuck with it.
The Reverse Behind-the-Back and the Rest of the Bag
Right now his favorite dunk is what he calls a 360, though it is really a reverse 180 behind the back, and almost nobody else is hitting it in contests. He first landed it in a session in March, repped it relentlessly to have it ready for the FIBA season, and debuted it in Vienna a couple weeks before we talked. He says he has hit it at every contest since. The rest of the bag is deep: a Cuff 360 Windmill, a fake Eastbay over people, a cartwheel dunk he first pulled at Ghetto Games, and clean Windmills over up to five people that he has never once missed in a contest. He is currently chasing a 360 Underboth and a nasty left-hand Hide and Seek.
His inspiration list reads like a who is who of the last decade of dunking. He credits Isaiah Rivera for teaching him the penultimate through YouTube, and he grew up watching Connor Barth and Jordan Southerland, plus legends like Joel Henry, Guy Dupuy, and DaBoyJustFly.
Getting Flown Around the World to Dunk
The title of the episode comes from how far this has already taken him at 20. His first paid event was in the middle of the desert in Saudi Arabia, in the experimental city of NEOM, which he said was a wild contrast to London. His favorite event, though, is Ghetto Games in Latvia. He pulled up in a Porsche 911 with his flag out the window, jumped in front of a crowd he put in the thousands at an outdoor court, and said the Latvian fans know the culture so well they can tell a Tamale from a Mungu Eastbay. Between contests the organizers took the dunkers go-karting, zip lining, and bungee jumping. The way he put it, you cannot get a better job than flying somewhere, dunking for thirty minutes, and getting to explore.
A Long List of Goals at 20
Jeremiah is only 20, and his goal list is long: a 50-inch vertical, wins at Ball Out Dunk Elite, Kings of Air, and Quai 54, and a FIBA gold medal if that format ever comes back. He also wants to win the DunkMan League, Shaq’s new league, and above all he wants to be remembered as consistent, the guy who showed up and did not miss. Off the court he leans all the way into his personality, joking that if he ever stopped dunking he would be a full-time influencer who loves nature and hiking.
Why He Started Posting Long-Form
The part that meant the most to Travis and me: Jeremiah said he only started posting long-form content on YouTube after watching Dunk Talk. His logic was simple. He watches dunkers on YouTube all day, high level and low, so if he is already filming every session, why not set the tripod to landscape and post the whole thing. He also pointed to Cam Hazzard as proof that the guys who post consistently really are as good in person as they look online. His advice to anyone outside the community looking in is to grab three friends, go to a court, and start posting, because someone will watch, someone will follow, and the dunk world is small and supportive enough that the connections happen fast.
Jeremiah is 20 years old with a full passport and a signature dunk nobody else is hitting. You can read his full guest profile, follow him at @jumplikejay10 on Instagram and YouTube, and watch the whole conversation in the video above.