Connor Barth is a professional dunker of more than five years with a 48" vertical, standing an even 6'0" and going up off two feet from a right-left plant. His signature is the reverse windmill, and one of his dunks has been watched somewhere in the region of 80 million times. Alongside competing he works as a coach, helping other athletes get to their own first dunks.
His story took a turn in 2023. That September, shortly after attending The Dunk Camp, he was diagnosed with cancer. He had surgery the same month and began chemotherapy in early 2024, which ran for roughly three and a half months. That spring his medical team told him he was officially cancer-free.
Getting back was its own project. After months away from any training he started with thirty minute walks, then eased back into the gym, and within weeks he was throwing down again. Anyone who has lost that much conditioning knows how far away a dunk feels from that starting point, and he rebuilt it in public rather than quietly.
He has spoken openly about what the experience changed in his coaching. Having been the one on the other side of a comeback, in the same position as many of the athletes he trains, made him more patient and more useful to them. That combination, a polished dunk package and a genuinely hard-won perspective, is what he brings to the athletes he coaches now.