Bringing In the Heavy Hitters for Part 2
Episode 27 of the Dunk Talk Podcast is the sequel to our earlier conversation about how dunking can grow as a sport. I (Dylan Haugen) brought together one of the most stacked lineups in the show’s history: co-host Hunter Castona, returning guest Donovan Hawkins, Billy Doran the founder of Dunkademics, CJ Champion who is a pro dunker, and Justin Barber from the World Dunk Association. Having five different perspectives from people who have each contributed to the dunking community in very different ways made this one of the most substantive discussions we have ever had on the podcast.
The Olympics Conversation Gets Real
Billy Doran brought up one of the most important points early in the episode. For dunking to even be considered for something like the Olympics, there needs to be a governing body, 75 participating countries, inclusion of women’s competition, established rules, and a committee overseeing everything. As Billy pointed out, finding dunkers in 75 countries is not necessarily hard, but having organized competition infrastructure in all those countries and tracking participants is a massive undertaking. The general consensus was that dunking needs to be picked up by a major sponsor like Red Bull or another brand willing to invest heavily before any of that becomes realistic.
The discussion about dunking’s visibility on social media was interesting because everyone agreed that dunking is already massive online. The content performs well, the community is growing, and there is clearly an audience for it. The disconnect is that being popular on social media does not automatically translate into being practiced widely enough or having the organizational structure needed to be treated as a legitimate sport. That gap between internet popularity and real-world infrastructure is the core problem the dunking community needs to solve.
The World Dunk Association and Organizational Challenges
Justin Barber gave a detailed breakdown of the World Dunk Association’s history and current status. The WDA website was launched in June 2020 during Covid by Damian, Kadu, and one other person. Justin joined around that time and has been involved since, but funding has been a constant challenge. Without financial backing, everything the WDA does is essentially volunteer work in people’s free time. Justin was honest about the fact that the website was still live but that progress had been slow without resources.
This led to a broader conversation about whether the dunking community’s existing influencers and content creators should be using their platforms to build something like the WDA rather than just creating individual content. The idea was that if all the major dunkers and content creators collectively pushed toward a single organizational structure, it could gain enough momentum to attract the kind of corporate sponsorship needed to make real progress. It is a chicken-and-egg problem though, because sponsors want to see an established organization before investing, but the organization needs funding to get established.
The Scoring Problem: Difficulty Versus Height
The scoring discussion in this episode went deeper than Part 1 because we had more diverse perspectives in the room. CJ Champion raised a critical point about difficulty being relative to the dunker. A between-the-legs dunk for someone like Doug Anderson has a completely different difficulty level than the same dunk for T-Dub or any other dunker at a different height and athletic profile. That means you cannot simply assign a fixed difficulty score to each dunk type the way gymnastics does with its elements, because the same move is fundamentally different for different body types.
This led to a concern that if the scoring system leans too heavily on objective difficulty ratings, dunking would essentially become a 6 foot 5 and up sport at the Olympic level because taller dunkers will always be able to execute harder tricks more easily. The counter-argument was that execution scoring could help level the playing field. A shorter dunker doing a clean, powerful windmill might score higher on execution than a taller dunker doing a sloppy version of a harder trick. The balance between difficulty and execution is something that needs to be carefully calibrated, and this episode made it clear that nobody has the perfect answer yet.
Billy Doran’s Unique Perspective
Having Billy Doran on was huge because he has been documenting and promoting dunking longer than almost anyone in the community through Dunkademics. He introduced himself modestly, saying he was not really a dunker anymore, but his influence on the growth of dunking as a culture cannot be overstated. Billy brought a media and production perspective to the conversation that the dunkers themselves might not have considered. He understands what makes dunking content compelling to watch, how to produce events that look professional, and what sponsors and media partners actually want to see before they invest in something.
CJ Champion on Proving It Through Competition
CJ brought energy and competitive fire to the discussion. As a pro dunker who has competed at a high level, he pushed back on some of the more theoretical ideas and grounded the conversation in the reality of what it is like to actually be in a contest. He suggested that one way to test how scoring systems work in practice would be to set up intentional one-on-one online contests between dunkers of very different heights and body types, like pairing himself against someone much taller like Jeffrey Ferman, and seeing how judges would score it under different systems. That kind of real-world testing is exactly what the community needs rather than just debating theory endlessly.
Where Do We Go From Here
The episode ended with a general acknowledgment that the dunking community has all the raw ingredients for growth: incredible athletes, massive social media audiences, a passionate fan base, and people like Justin who have already started building organizational infrastructure. What is missing is the coordination and funding to bring it all together. This two-part series on the podcast was not about having all the answers but about getting the right people in the same room to start having the conversation seriously. If you care about the future of dunking as a competitive sport, both this episode and Part 1 are essential listening. Watch the full discussion above to hear all five perspectives on what needs to happen next.