Group D of the $500,000 DunkMan League wrapped up on August 11 at Overtime Elite Arena, the last group stage before the World Championship. Mac McClung squared off against Jordan Southerland, Dylan Haugen, Marlow Gilmore, Will Bunton, and Brandon Ruffin, and by the end of the night Mac was the last man standing. I broke it all down on TikTok, here’s the full recap.
Mac McClung Ends It With a 720
Mac came in as the headliner of the group, a 3x NBA Dunk Contest Champion who sat out the 2026 NBA contest to bring that same level to DunkMan instead. He needed all of it, because the final round turned into a back-and-forth that produced three of the best dunks of the season. Mac opened his night with the Tetris, a reverse over two people stacked one on top of the other on a car.
In the final it was Dylan Haugen who started it, going inverted scorpion over a person for a 9.28. Mac answered with a 540 windmill that did not quite catch him. Jordan Southerland went next with a 180 reverse inverter, scored 9.39, and took the lead.
Then Mac ended it. He brought a guy out on a ladder to hold the ball up by the rim, jumped, spun a full 720 and tapped it in on the way through. The judges came back in the high 9.6s, the highest score anyone has posted in any group stage this season. Southerland had one swing left and went for a J-Rich behind-the-back off one foot to take it back, but could not land it. Southerland pushed him the whole way through, and even Dylan Haugen, who took 3rd place, couldn’t stay out of the comments afterward: “Legendary night!! Everyone went off!”
The Payout
Winning Group D put $25,000 in Mac’s pocket, and the judges tacked on another $10,000 for Best Dunk of the Night, the same 720 that won him the group. That’s $35,000 for one night’s work, the richest single-night payday of the DunkMan League season so far. He is not keeping it either. In his post-event interview Mac said the full $35,000 is going to his friends Dan and Nate, who helped him with some of his dunks that night. You can see his full breakdown on his Dunkademics profile.
Three Tickets to the Aug. 25 Championship
Group D was the last of the four group stages, and it did something the first three didn’t, it sent three dunkers to the World Championship instead of one. Mac McClung is in as the Group D winner, and Jordan Southerland and Dylan Haugen are joining him as Wildcards, the first Wildcard picks of the season. Southerland’s 9.39 and Haugen’s 9.28 were the two highest non-winning scores of the entire season, which sends them into the Championship at seeds five and six. All three will be at Overtime Elite Arena on August 25 for the $500,000 DunkMan League Championship, going up against the winners and wildcards from Groups A, B, and C.
Fans Are All In
The reaction under the video says it all. “idk how to pick a favorite I love all of these guys” is basically the theme of the comments, and more than one person said flat out this was better than the NBA’s own dunk contest. That’s the same energy we saw after Group A, and it’s exactly the kind of attention professional dunking needs to keep growing as a real sport.
What’s Next
The World Championship is August 25 at Overtime Elite Arena, eight dunkers, one night, $500,000 on the line. I’ll be breaking that one down too. Catch the full Group D battle on TikTok, and see every DunkMan League athlete’s profile on our DunkMan League Hub.