This is episode 17 of the Dunk Talk Podcast. I’m Dylan Haugen, joined by my co-host Hunter Castona, and the guest is Finn Addy, a 6’1” 21-year-old one-foot jumper from Ontario, Canada. Finn just won the 10’ contest at Dunk Camp 2024 and went straight from that contest to FIBA 3×3 in Edmonton, where he competed against Donovan Hawkins and Brandon Ruffin in front of an actual crowd. He’s also driving to Sudbury this Sunday to dunk at Jordan Kilganon’s house. The 12-month arc from “attended his first Dunk Camp as a fan” to “FIBA contest against Donovan Hawkins” is the cleanest case study of Dunk Camp being a real launching pad I’ve had on the show.
How Finn got into dunking
Finn started low-rim dunking around 12 or 13 the way most of us did, pretending to be Derrick Rose and LeBron James on a lowered hoop. He played soccer and hockey first, then switched to basketball in seventh grade. His first dunk landed at 16, around 5’10” and 120 pounds, on a 9’10” rim in his high school gym. The moment that pulled him into pro dunking specifically was finding Steven Selby on YouTube. Watching Selby’s arc from “normal 5’10” guy” to Eastbays motivated Finn to chase his own first dunk.
His high school dunk progression was slow and consistent: first dunk end of 10th grade, consistent basic dunks by 11th, no real growth in 12th. He played one year of college basketball (his “grade 13” year) and could win a 9’ contest by that point, but he wasn’t Eastbaying yet. College basketball season actually wrecked his vertical. By the end of the year he had “turned into a marathoner.” He couldn’t Eastbay anymore. He could barely Windmill.
A 39-inch vertical at Dunk Camp 2022 with zero training
Finn’s first Dunk Camp was 2022. He went as a fan because he didn’t know what to expect and was still playing basketball. He didn’t have an Instagram yet, didn’t know most of the dunk community, and just wanted to see the pros dunk in person. Then adrenaline did its thing and he landed his first Eastbay at camp. He tested 39 inches vertical the same week. He had done zero leg lifting in his life up to that point. The vertical was all from jumping, plus high-school basketball volume.
That number stayed roughly constant through his college basketball year (it went down during the season, then came back up after he quit). When he started leg lifting consistently five months before Dunk Camp 2024 (his first real strength block ever) the vertical climbed from a low-40 estimate to around 43. Three inches in five months on a complete training-noob with one-foot specialization. That’s the kind of beginner-gain curve that’s impossible if you started lifting at 12.
Finn’s one-foot specialization and influences
Finn is the closest thing on this podcast to a pure off-one dunker. He spent years where he could barely off-two grazes on a great day. He just hit his first off-two Eastbay this year. The one-foot influences he names in order: Steven Selby (got him into the sport), Jordan Southerland as the GOAT (“expanded the one-foot bag like crazy”), Ghee, Worm, Smooth. Hunter and I both deferred to Finn on the one-foot conversation because neither of us has Finn’s reps. He’s the one to ask if you want a one-foot dunker’s reading list.
His take on Southerland is the same one I keep coming back to: Southerland can do every dunk that left-two-feet do but off one. The high-jump dunk Southerland hit at the Thursday show with no warmup, in Easy Sliders, on like five minutes of standing around, is the kind of thing Finn has watched on tape over and over to figure out how Southerland makes it possible.
A hamstring strain four days before camp
Finn made it to Dunk Camp 2024 with a hamstring strain he gave himself wrestling his brother three or four days before flying. His brother had been drinking and challenged him to a wrestling match. Finn won, twice, and woke up the next morning with a tight hamstring. He spent the next few days icing and trying to recover.
In hindsight he says the timing might have been a blessing. He barely jumped Monday at camp because of the hamstring. He didn’t jump Tuesday or Wednesday because he wanted to be fresh for the Thursday 10’ contest. The forced rest meant he showed up to the contest as fresh as anyone in the field, hamstring and all.
Winning the 10’ contest
The contest day routine was about as simple as it gets. Finn got to the gym, put on his headphones, listened to “Untouchable” by NBA YoungBoy on repeat for three to four hours straight, and locked in. He didn’t come in with a written-down plan beforehand. The plan formed in the headphones.
His three round-one dunks (he hit all three first attempt):
- Dunk 1: 360 Windmill.
- Dunk 2: Elbow.
- Dunk 3: Reverse Psychology (the cradle / scoop hybrid most dunkers in the field hadn’t seen yet).
Round-one trifecta got him to the finals. He missed his last dunk of the finals but other competitors missed too, and the points stacked enough for him to win it. His finals dunks were a two-handed Reverse Windmill and a Lob Windmill, both first try. He genuinely wasn’t sure he should have won the contest based on the scoring, but the result stood and he advanced. (The 10’ contest winner gets the FIBA 3×3 Edmonton invite. That’s the next section.)
FIBA 3×3 Edmonton vs. Donovan Hawkins and Brandon Ruffin
Finn flew from Ontario to Edmonton (a four-hour flight, since Canada is a big country with a small population, and the distances between cities don’t reflect well on a map). FIBA covered his flight, hotel, and food. He had all day Friday to acclimate, the contest Saturday afternoon, and most of Sunday to hang out with the other competitors before flying home.
The other two competitors were Donovan Hawkins and Brandon Ruffin. He’d met Donovan briefly at Dunk Camp but didn’t really know either of them before the trip. By the end of Sunday they were close friends. He says it was the best weekend of his life by a wide margin.
The contest itself happened at halftime of an FIBA 3×3 game. Finn got 20–25 minutes of structured warmup time on the in-arena rim, plus a low rim to warm up on first. He says the warmup dunks felt like he was flying. (Unfortunately the broadcast didn’t use the warmup angle that captured them.) His three contest dunks went well on the first two but the third missed. He was honest about it: against Donovan, the only way he was winning was if Donovan missed. Donovan didn’t miss. The outcome was set.
Donovan, the impossible matchup
Hunter and I went back and forth with Finn on Donovan as a contest opponent. The consensus: Donovan might be the single hardest matchup in the world right now if the judging is straight. He has roughly five or six dunks he hits with five inches of space, on demand, every session. He hit the Gauntlet 20 minutes after a friend handed him the list. He’s done it casually enough that you can tell he could do it every single session if he felt like it.
The thing that makes him scarier: he never played organized basketball. He came up through hockey. He developed his entire dunking bag inside about three years from his first dunk at 15. Eastbay at 16. Underboth at 17. The full episode with Donovan covers the arc. Finn got to see it up close for a weekend in Edmonton. The takeaway he came home with is that Donovan’s ceiling is significantly above where any of us thought it was.
Going to Kilganon’s house
The other thing Finn took from Dunk Camp was a Sunday plan with Jordan Kilganon. After winning the 10’ contest at camp, Finn walked up to Kilganon and told him he’d make the drive to Sudbury if Kilganon wanted to dunk sometime. Kilganon DM’d him that night. They’ve been setting it up since.
The drive from where Finn is in Ontario to Sudbury is about five and a half to six hours. (He’ll be at Kilganon’s house this Sunday. He’s going to film as much of it as he can.)
This is the part of Finn’s story that I think most younger dunkers should pay attention to. Two years ago he showed up to Dunk Camp as a fan with no Instagram. This summer he’s competing at FIBA 3×3 against Donovan and dunking at Kilganon’s house. The whole arc came from showing up to camp, being friendly with the people in front of him, and saying yes to opportunities when they appeared. It really is that simple.
What’s next: THP, lifting, and dunks he can’t stop thinking about
Finn just joined THP two weeks before the recording. His self-taught lifting block (one day a week, mostly heavy quarter squats and some power work) got him 3 inches of vertical in five months. THP is going to be his first structured program. Initial numbers: 240 squat estimate (he hasn’t maxed full depth), 330 deadlift, 155 power clean. His pre-camp work was 405 quarter squats for sets of 6 explosive, which is enormous for a one-foot jumper of his weight (162 pounds).
The dunks he can’t stop thinking about heading into next year:
- 360 Inverter off lob, left-right. He’s closer than he expected to be.
- Underboth. His max touch is 11’4”, which makes an off-one Underboth almost stupid in context, but he’s the rare dunker with the hand speed to compensate.
- Off-two work overall. He’s building the bag from zero on two-foot and is making fast progress now that lifting has unlocked the vertical for it.
Where to find Finn
Finn posts under his own name on Instagram and is starting to put more content out as the FIBA-and-Kilganon arc unfolds. Hunter and I both pitched him on long-form YouTube content (using Minnesota Dunk Squad as the inspiration). His Kilganon house trip is going to be the right episode to start a YouTube channel with if he wants to.
Next episode is the live dunker Q&A I did with Hunter, open-ended questions from listeners, a lot of dunk-community insider stuff. After that the Dom Gonzales interview on becoming a pro at 5’8”. DunkMan League starts this summer. Comment with any dunker you want me and Hunter to interview next.