Nathaniel Kenney, better known as Hoopin Nate, is a dunker and content creator from Omaha, Nebraska whose dunking has been watched more than a billion times across all platforms. He built that audience on mini hoops, a niche he became closely identified with, and has spent the last few years applying the same tricks to a regulation rim.
He stands 5'9" with a 7'6.5" standing reach and a 42.5" vertical, going up off two feet from a left-right plant. His signature is the Eastbay. In 2025 he won the low rim dunk title at The Dunk Camp in Salt Lake City, which is a very different test from filming in a controlled space and the clearest evidence yet that the skill translates.
The origin story is genuinely a Nerf hoop hung over a kitchen cabinet door in Omaha. He got obsessive about what was possible in that tiny space, the clips went viral, and the progression ran from mini hoop to low rim to full ten foot rims. He committed hard enough that he skipped his senior year of high school basketball to chase dunking full time, which is not a decision many people that age make.
The results have taken him well outside the dunk world. He has appeared on Jimmy Kimmel, TNT, ESPN and Fox Sports, and has worked with Gatorade, Google, Gymshark and Way of Wade. In 2025 he trained in Florida with Isaiah Rivera and came away with six new trick dunks on a ten foot rim, with Rivera going on record that he expects Kenney to clear a 50 inch vertical.