‘I’m Feeling Like the Hulk’: Hawks John Collins On the Feeling Behind His Monster Dunks

Hawks forward John Collins has built up a highlight reel full of monster dunks, and his performance last night in the 122-104 win against the Detroit Pistons was no exception.

In the fourth quarter, Collins caught an alley-oop from teammate Kevin Huerter and dunked right over Pistons’ Kelly Olynyk.

“I don’t even see the (defender) if I was to be genuinely honest with you,” Collins told The Athletic. “I don’t see most anybody because I’m so focused on the rim. My eyes are locked in on the rim. I’m more feel than see.”

When asked about how he manages to make these nasty dunks look easy, his answer was pretty simple:

“Dunking on folks, I’ve been doing this my whole life,” Collins told The Athletic. “It’s almost like a normality for me.”

Collins, who closed the night with 22 points, seven boards, and two assists, revealed that a key part to his dunking mayhem includes working on his hands in the weight room. And, after delivering a monster dunk like he did against Detroit, or the one he did three weeks ago against the Cavaliers, Collins says he feeds off of the energy:

“I’m feeling like the Hulk,” Collins said. “I hear the crowd. I see my teammates jumping up and giving me the strong man (look). I’m just energized because I know I just turned the building on. I turned the energy on. That gives everybody energy, including myself. I just try to feed off of that.”