Shaquille O’Neal, TNT Sports announce ‘Dunkman’ premiere date

In April, Shaquille O’Neal and TNT Sports announced that they’re launching “Dunkman,” a professional dunking league. And on Thursday night, TNT Sports revealed the premiere date and additional details about Dunkman.

Dunkman will premiere on Tuesday, July 21, at 8 p.m. ET. There will be four hour-long league events on Tuesdays this summer before the Dunkman world championships air on Tuesday, Aug. 25, at 8 p.m. All events will air on TNT Sports and HBO Max, with additional content available on Bleacher Report, House of Highlights, and YouTube.

Adam Lefkoe will host the coverage, and he’ll be joined on the commentary by Draymond Green, Vince Carter, and CashNasty.

24 dunkers will compete to be the Dunkman world champion, with a grand prize of $500,000.

“I’d like to thank my partners,” O’Neal, the league’s founder and commissioner, said in April. “We did a show about eight years ago that got over 200 million hits, so then, I took that show over and called it the ‘Dunkman’ show. Then I said, ‘You know what? We need a Dunkman League.’ Since the NBA guys don’t have enough pride to give us, the fans, what we want in the dunk contest, all of these professional dunkers have been created.”

Shaquille O’Neal appears on the TNT Sports national championship pregame show to announce the Dunkman League coming to TNT Sports.

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— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing.bsky.social) April 6, 2026 at 4:35 PM

Shaquille O’Neal and TNT Sports are launching the “Dunkman” League this summer. 🏀📺🔨pic.twitter.com/DKt91Kupqp

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 6, 2026

“I’ve signed up 24 players, I’m giving them five hundred thousand cash prize,” O’Neal added. “It will be an elaborate scoring system. So, I want to see who the best dunker in the world (is)… Back when we played, the best dunker was usually the best player in the game. Now, guys that are dunking are not really good enough to play in the NBA, but they’re great dunkers.”

The dunk contestants will include three-time NBA Slam Dunk Contest champion Mac McClung, Dengxing Chen, Tyler Currie, and Isaiah Rivera.