Two years ago I did all my dunking outside. Outdoor rims, whatever the weather in Poland gave me that day, no crowd, no camera except my phone leaning on a bag. I watched FIBA contests online and I thought about being in one someday. This summer I flew to Utah for The Dunk Camp in Utah, and one week after camp I fly to France for a FIBA event. I have already done one of these. I took third in Croatia.
At camp, Joe Kenney sat down with me and asked me about that. Joe is Hoopin Nate’s dad and he has been around this sport long enough to know how rarely the plan and the result line up. He said something on camera that I have thought about every day since.
“People go a lifetime without achieving their dreams… Two years ago, you dreamt of FIBA… You’re living your dream already.”
Joe Kenney
I told him that I am. I do not say it to sound big. I say it because two years is short, and because I know how much of it came from people who opened a door for me. This post is part of my series about who I met at camp. The one before it is what Isaiah Rivera said about me.
What Two Years Changed
The outdoor part is not a story I tell to be dramatic. It is just what training looked like. You go to a public court, you find a rim that is close enough to ten feet, and you jump until your legs are done. Nobody is watching. Nobody is filming. You learn to be your own coach because there is nobody else standing there.
Now I am 18, I compete around Europe, and I earned the Black Band at The Dunk Camp, which is one of only 13 in the world. This was my first time in the United States and my first time at the camp. I wrote about that whole week in my first post about camp, and it still feels strange to type that sentence.
The Croatia result is the one I point to when people ask if it is real yet.
“I already did a FIBA contest in Croatia. I came third, but I’m proud of it.”
Piotr Zawiślak
Third is not first. I know that. But two years ago I was watching that same contest on a screen and thinking maybe one day. France is next, one week after camp. That is the part that still does not feel normal to me.
What I Still Need
Joe asked me how far away I am from being the best dunker in the world, because that is what I told him I want. My answer was the honest one. I am at about 44 or 45 inches on my vertical right now. To do what I want to do, I think I need to get somewhere near 50. That is not a small gap. That is years of work in the weight room and on the track.
The other gap is my bag. I am strong off the dribble. Almost everything in my highlight tape starts with me putting the ball on the floor. I need to add dunks off the lob, and dunks off the backboard, because a contest will eventually put me in a round where dribble dunks are not the answer. A dunker who can only score one way gets figured out.
Naming the weakness out loud on camera was not comfortable. I think it is better than pretending the tape is complete. Anyone who has watched enough of my dunks already knows.
Isaiah Rivera and Lipek
Joe asked who I look up to. The first name is Isaiah Rivera. He jumps off the same approach I do, he is right handed like me, and my dunks are built the same way his are. So when I watch him, I am not watching something I could never copy. I am watching the version of my own style that is further along.
“He’s pushing his limit in the weight room… All of my dunks are really similar to him.”
Piotr Zawiślak
Joe added the part I would not have thought to say myself, that the best thing about Isaiah is how he treats people. He said Isaiah is an educator who is still a student, always checking what he did right and what he did wrong. That is true. I saw it at camp.
The second name is Lipek. He is Polish, like me. I have met him a few times and he is a great person. He is also a doctor now, and that is the part that changed how I think. A dunker from my own country went and finished school and built a life outside the gym, and it did not cost him the sport.
“I’m probably gonna go to college and maybe do PT school.”
Piotr Zawiślak
PT is physical therapy. My knees and my ankles have already taught me more anatomy than any class did, and I would rather understand the body I am asking to jump 50 inches. Lipek made that look possible instead of like giving up.
The 720
Joe asked which dunk still gets away from me. I did not have to think long.
“So 720. Yeah, 100%… because I already did 540 a few times. But I want to do 720 so bad.”
Piotr Zawiślak
I have landed 540 several times, so the spin is not the mystery. The problem is the extra half rotation costs hang time I do not have yet, which puts it back on the vertical number. Everything I want ends up pointing at the same 50 inches.
Monday, and Who Comes Next
Monday at camp was the best session I have had in front of people I respect. I hit almost everything I went up for: 360 Underboth, 540, 360 J reach, 360 behind the back, Eastbay. Doing that in a room full of the dunkers I grew up watching online is something I will keep for a long time.
Joe asked me who takes over when the older generation steps back. I said Dylan Haugen, my friend from America, then me, then Nathaniel “Hoopin Nate” Kenney, who is crazy on low rim and throws Eastbay windmills on ten feet. I added Dillan McCarthy. Joe added the dunker Cam Hazzard, who was not there that night. We both said we hope Isaiah and Jordan Kilganon stay around a while longer, because we still need them.
Next in this series is dunking in front of Dunkademics. Dylan also ran the Dunk Talk version of it, and there is a breakdown of what these two years actually took. The reason all of this is written down at all is the session they taught at camp, and the argument for writing it now instead of later is in documenting the climb while it happens and in living the dream on schedule.
Two years took me from a wet outdoor rim to a FIBA podium and a plane ticket to France. I do not know what the next two look like. I know the vertical needs to move, the lob dunks need to go in the bag, and the 720 is still out there. Thank you for reading, and thank you to Joe for asking better questions than I expected.