The Dunk Camp 2025 Contest Win

Hey everyone! This blog is going to break down my victory at the Dunk Camp 2025 10’ Dunk Contest, discussing my preparation, decisions, and what’s next. Hope y'all enjoy!

The Setback Before Camp

Going into Dunk Camp, I was rehabbing some bad patellar tendonopathy pain. I had switched up my training cycle about a month before camp, and I’m fairly certain that’s what caused it. I had to revert to my original plan, which involved a lot of off-vert jumps, dunk sessions with no running approaches, and numerous leg extension ISOs and wall sits. I was focused on not doing too much. In hindsight, I was probably doing too little and being too safe, but it was my first time dealing with this injury, so it’s only natural I made some mistakes. 

In my last jump session before camp, I was able to jump off one foot again at about 60% effort, and it felt really good, so I cut the session early. I thought I had done everything right. But the next day, my knee was hurting a bunch. I was incredibly shocked and discouraged, and I went into camp not sure what was going to happen.

Day 1: The Best and Worst Session

For those of you who aren’t familiar with The Dunk Camp, it is a four-day-long event, and the contest is always on the last day. This means that most athletes have two main dunk sessions, one on the first day and one on the last. Which is what I did myself.

Day one went very well for me. It was probably my best jumping day ever. I was looking into the hoop for the first time on a height check, and my knee felt good, so I was just kind of going with the flow. The most pain I felt during the entire session was a 3/10, which isn't that much, but I was forgetting something in the moment. Adrenaline. My knee was probably much worse than just a 3/10 in pain, because adrenaline will reduce the amount of pain you feel. So in the following days, the pain would be really bad, and it was painfully obvious that I had overdone it.

Days 2 & 3: Recovery Mode

For the next two days, I was pretty much just chilling and spectating. I had to play it safe. I was really sad I missed the three-on-two, two-on-one drills; that looked like a lot of fun. I was just sitting with my foot propped up, watching everyone else. But it was still a ton of fun though, I just got to socialize with people I never get to see in person even more lol. My main focus was recovery. I did maybe one or two sets of ISOs a day, or just whatever feels good. The most important thing for me was reducing compressive load on my patella. I noticed before camp that if I was sitting at my desk for too long, my knee would hurt badly when I stood up. So during those rest days, I made sure to keep my leg as straight as possible. Even now as I’m writing this, my leg is completely straight under the desk. As long as it's not bending too much and stretching that tendon, I think it's fine.

Day 4: The Contest

Going into the contest, there was a lot of pressure. The winner got a guaranteed spot in the FIBA 3x3 Dunk contest in Edmonton. Mentally, I was probably less prepared than I was physically. A lot of people were saying I was the favorite to win, and if you know me, you’d know that I do NOT like expectations. I felt a lot of pressure from myself and from others. It got to the point where on the day of the contest, I had to walk outside and call my mom just to talk to someone who isn't a dunker lmao. I was tired of talking about my game plan and how I was feeling about the contest. I just needed a second to calm down.

Physically, my knee felt good to walk on, but I knew it wasn't perfect. I told myself if the pain got above an eight out of ten, I would stop.

Dunk 1

My plan for any contest is to observe the competition. I have a preset list of dunks, and I'll do a harder one if people are making their dunks, or an easier one if they're missing. I went third, so I didn't have much data to go off of. I just did the highest windmill I could. I punched the crap out of it first try, and the pain was maybe a three or four, similar to warm-ups. The dunk had me feeling more optimistic about my knee health.

Dunk 2

People were making stuff, so I decided to play it safe and do a JRich Eastbay. The first attempt I missed because the pain was a lot more than I thought it would be, maybe a five or six, and it threw me off. I went back, did a quick ISO that didn't really help, and just had to go again. This time I was more mentally prepared for the pain, did the dunk on my second try, and that was more than enough to get me to the finals. After that, I just went and lay on the ground to get my leg as healed as possible.

The Finals

There is a short break between the first round and the finals (just to count the scores), and that break felt like 30 seconds to me. I was on the ground, hyper-focused on my leg. At this point, I knew my big dunk for the finals, the Tamalah, was cooked. There was no chance I could hit it. Jordan Kilganon, my coach, was talking me through a game plan, but we were interrupted because it was time to go. I was really upset I had to go second in the finals. I was praying to go last, just so I could get a little more time to compose myself.

Finals Dunk 1

I didn't want to repeat dunks, but I knew I could first-try the JRich Eastbay, and it was the best dunk I could make for sure, so I decided to do another one.

Attempt 1: It did not happen first try. They called my name while I was still on the ground, so I rushed into it and did a half-ass jump. I front-rimmed it.

Attempt 2: I went again and jumped way higher, but that's when the pain really hit. My first eight out of ten. I felt like I was so high over the hoop, but the ball rattled in and out. If I didn’t back rim that dunk, it probably would’ve been one of my best jriches ever lol

Attempt 3: I walked back, Jordan Southerland told me to keep my head up, and I just took as much time as I could. I knew this next jump was going to hurt really bad. I put the same amount of effort in before and went for it. The jump was terrifying. Because the FIBA ball we were using is smaller, I felt it slip on the transfer mid-air. That dunk felt like it took 10 minutes. I had to consciously scoop the ball to get my fingers back under it before finishing the dunk. It was the weirdest feeling thing ever: something I have never felt before. But I ended up clutching it out and punching it.

Second Finals Dunk:

I still had another dunk to do. One-foot jumps were done. Two-foot jumps, no chance. I had to do an off-vert jump. I decided on a 180 windmill off-vert because it was the best dunk I've done off-vert before. And at this point, I hadn't watched an ounce of the competition; I was completely zoned out, focusing on my own body and what I COULD do.

While I was talking to Jordan Kilganon, they announced I had 50 seconds to decide if I was going to jump. We didn't even hear it. Someone yelled, "Yo Ben, you have 50 seconds!" and I was like, "Wait, it's my turn??" I had come this far; I knew I was going to jump.

I gave Jordan a thumbs up, stood in the middle of the court, and realized I didn't even have a ball. Paco threw me his special Hong Kong FIBA ball from the crowd, I stood under the rim and just remembered the feeling of doing the dunk before.

The jump hurt just as badly as the last JRich I did. But the second I turned to look at the rim, I knew I was going to make it. I knew that I had seen that view before. I punched it, first try. I was so relieved. You can see me try to run because I was so excited, but I just ended up hobbling. It was a crazy feeling.

What's Next

I'm pretty optimistic about recovery. Jordan was telling me that knee blow-ups like that tend to heal pretty quickly as long as you don't get tears, and I for sure did not tear anything. I'm walking pain-free, and I'm back to doing my ISOs. The walk through the airport with a 60-pound bag was horrible, but I'm feeling good now. I’m going to take a step back, keep doing isos and slowly reintroduce jumping, and get as ready as I can for FIBA!