Can you dunk?

[wheelerdog]

I could dunk in the layup line in intramurals but never came close to even having a chance in a game.

6 months after starting my first job, I got back on the court and couldn’t get off the ground. Still a depressing thought.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

When I was in elementary school, I was both the youngest and tallest kid in my class. Doctors told me I would be 6'5" to 6'7". Never broke 6 feet.

I feel like every kid came back from their fourth grade physical saying the doc said they’d be 6’8 or something lol.
My story is similar but I have a November birthday and was the oldest. I was average to even a little short until 8th grade. I went from 5’5 to 5’10 in a matter of weeks. That part was cool but I was also the first kid with arm hair and a peach fuzz stache. Less cool. Anyways, I was the same exact height on my first day of HS as my last.

 

[uconnbill]

Of course, I can dunk, but I’m not going to just because you guys want me to.

cookies don't count

 

[Deepster]

Guys,

NYC former hoops freak here - 75 years old now, 6'4" (Was 6'5-1/2" - HA!)

• 1st dunk - 12 y.o - 7th grade - 5'10"
• Last dunk - 54 years old, on a metal knee in a league game
• Played Div. I & Euro pro

I've had both knees & hips replaced, arthritic spine & operations, etc. - all badges of honor for playing 48 years straight. Now, I talk about the Glory Days - HA! Gaining yet more weight sitting around during COVID.

Was one of the lucky white kids w/ hops in the 60's. Used to go into gyms around the city & could hear murmurs of "white boy" in the background. They'd go crazy when I threw down.

First points in high school were typical: At Boys & Girls High School (Brooklyn) They didn't box me out, long missed shot from the corner, two-hand slam "at he top of the square" over the other high-flyers off weak-side rebound.

Because the NCAA thought it would hurt one extraordinary contemporary player named Lewis Alcindor from Power Memorial, dunking was outlawed for ten years after my junior year. We all really missed out for H.S. & college dunks.

I once tip-dunked over Jimmie Walker (Jalen Rose's famous NBA dad) in a summer pro/am tournament at the West 4th Street court near Father Demo Square. And was dunked on incessantly by one Julie Erving, a younger friend from the Island playing 'one-o-cap' many times at Hempstead's Kennedy Park. Sometimes joined by a skinny frequent-flyer from Mineola, a great kid named Bill Corley - ring a bell?

Dunking was once a very special deal when hoops was almost a city cult game for tall kids. Now, everybody can fly, & it's almost a cliche. In Zion's case, it defies physics & gravity.

Father Demo

Boys & Girls was the alma mater of Pearl Washington, one of my favorite all time PGs to watch. Any interaction on or off the court with him?

 

[Griffman]

6’1 and couldn’t palm the ball but had some hops and dunked mostly in layup lines. A couple breakaway’s until blowing out my knee in my mid-20’s. Thirty years later I just brag on message boards to total strangers that I was able to jam.

 

[Demo Square]

Follow my lead and just claim you are a bogey golfer. Nobody is checking.

North Dakota is great. Winter blows, but summer is fabulous. Big Midwest skies, thunder and lightning. My commute is also only 7 minutes and I live right in the middle of the largest city. My advice for all is to get away from the coast. In particular the northeast.

Pizza sucks though.....

Thanks, NDakotahusky!

Bogey Golfer here!

Hey, I have a close friend in Williston who owns a fleet of trucks & a water & oil hauling business out at Bakken. Made a fortune out of nothing with no help. He always challenged me to visit him there, so I did in Early Autumn, 2012.

First, I loved the endless horizon, space & wide-open terrain with the Big Sky back-drop. Second, the people of North Dakota are just so real & down to Earth. Made me feel completely welcome. They are straight-shooters, very hard workers, look you in the eye, deal on a handshake folks - the kind of people who will always be there to help you out in a pinch. And, they look very comfortable in their own skins & place. Really surprised me, so much so, I visited again in 2015.

Had another great time! But got to go onto Lakota-Sioux Reservation lands as a guest with my friend, plus the Badlands & Red River Valley in the east. Some great experiences that broadened my ND perspective.

So I'm with ya on the Roughrider State, ndakotahusky! I never dunked in North Dakota. But I definteily could live there, Ha!

Father Demo!

BTW - I left the northeast decades ago!

 

[UCTitleTown]

It's so depressing. When I was young, I could dunk a mini basketball on a regulation hoop. Now I can barely touch the net. Getting old sucks. I need to call Frank Thomas to get some Nugent. "She'll like it too."

 

[MexicoHusky]

Thanks, NDakotahusky!

Bogey Golfer here!

Hey, I have a close friend in Williston who owns a fleet of trucks & a water & oil hauling business out at Bakken. Made a fortune out of nothing with no help. He always challenged me to visit him there, so I did in Early Autumn, 2012.

First, I loved the endless horizon, space & wide-open terrain with the Big Sky back-drop. Second, the people of North Dakota are just so real & down to Earth. Made me feel completely welcome. They are straight-shooters, very hard workers, look you in the eye, deal on a handshake folks - the kind of people who will always be there to help you out in a pinch. And, they look very comfortable in their own skins & place. Really surprised me, so much so, I visited again in 2015.

Had another great time! But got to go onto Sioux Reservation lands as a guest with my friend, plus the Badlands & Red River Valley. Some great experiences that broadened my ND perspective.

So I'm with ya on the Roughrider State, ndakotahusky! I never dunked in North Dakota. But I definteily could live there, Ha!

Father Demo!

BTW - I left the northeast decades ago!

Williston is proper North Dakota. Only a few hours west are the Rockies and great skiing. The drive is cool. Watching the continent turn from plains, to badlands to mountains. The reservations are interesting. High poverty. Some of the reservation high schools can ball a bit. Its all small school stuff, but still cool. Edit: pretty sure the infamous David Wingett is native. Not sure what tribe. But definitely one of plains Indian Tribes. From a reservation community in Nebraska.

 

[alphasigko]

Back when I was 5'-10" I was happy to get up enough to touch the rim....

 

[storrsroars]

Once, and once only, if one generously calls it a dunk. At 6'2", on a good day I could get about half my palm over the rim and could just barely palm the ball. This was a better than good day. Running start. Got high enough to clear the near side rim, hit the opposite side and have it rattle around before dropping.

 

[WhereistheDove?]

I was respectful, but not fearful to go into that area of Bed-Stuy to watch or play pickup games.

Today, I would be an easy target there.

I think you might be surprised at the kind of folks you can find walking around most parts of Bed-Stuy these days...

 

[husky8273]

I think you might be surprised at the kind of folks you can find walking around most parts of Bed-Stuy these days...

the gentrification is captured here, Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn - Wikipedia.

hard to imagine back in the day..

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Judging by my experiences playing pickup in high school/college/after, I feel like a decent chunk of the 27% of people saying they could dunk at one point may be getting a bit loose with the definition of "dunk".

Exactly.

I am calling bullscalito on everyone who claims they were 6' or under and dunked. Being 5'10" and dunking would probably put someone in the Top 0.01% of athletes in the country. Something tells me that the Boneyard doesn't have 5 people like that posting here. Here is some perspective on jumping.

Average Vertical Jump: By Age, Sport, NBA and NFL (homeexerciseequipmenthq.com)

I am 6'3, and had a 25-26 inch standing vertical in college, which is pretty good for someone that was not a D1 athlete. I could only dunk a women's basketball.

Dunking is as much a math problem as an athletic one, and like being intimate with a woman, every extra inch matters, A LOT. I am halfway to my second knuckle over an 8 foot rim when I am standing flat footed. So, to get up to a 10 foot rim, plus be enough over the rim to get a men's basketball over and through the rim, I needed to get about 30-31" off the ground with a running start and have perfect extension when I did it. Websites will tell you that you need 4 extra inches over the 10' to dunk a basketball, but for mortals, the number is probably more like 6-7 inches because the vast majority of us are not coordinated enough to time the dunk perfectly. We need a cushion.

So if someone is 5'10, and their finger tip when flat footed is probably 7'5" or something like that, they need to be jumping OVER THREE FEET UP to dunk. Does everyone realize how ridiculous that is?

Many parks, especially back in the day, had non-regulation rims, and so some of you may have thrown down on a rim that was between 9' and 10' off the ground. That is a LOT easier than dunking on a 10' rim. Back in the 90's, the courts at Alumni dorms on campus were 9'6", and a lot of us were Michael Jordan on those. I could reverse dunk off an alley-oop and would play games there where I would only dunk, because why not? That is a lot easier than dunking on a 10' rim.

 

[August_West]

I think you might be surprised at the kind of folks you can find walking around most parts of Bed-Stuy these days...

Yup. My best Friend and his family live in Bed-Stuy now. Have for a couple years. The 11 year old allowed to walk to school alone now, and supervise the 7 year old on the streets at times. Totally different area now.

 

[Get a Job]

Exactly.

I am calling bullscalito on everyone who claims they were 6' or under and dunked. Being 5'10" and dunking would probably put someone in the Top 0.01% of athletes in the country. Something tells me that the Boneyard doesn't have 5 people like that posting here. Here is some perspective on jumping.

Average Vertical Jump: By Age, Sport, NBA and NFL (homeexerciseequipmenthq.com)

I am 6'3, and had a 25-26 inch standing vertical in college, which is pretty good for someone that was not a D1 athlete. I could only dunk a women's basketball.

Dunking is as much a math problem as an athletic one, and like being intimate with a woman, every extra inch matters, A LOT. I am halfway to my second knuckle over an 8 foot rim when I am standing flat footed. So, to get up to a 10 foot rim, plus be enough over the rim to get a men's basketball over and through the rim, I needed to get about 30-31" off the ground with a running start and have perfect extension when I did it. Websites will tell you that you need 4 extra inches over the 10' to dunk a basketball, but for mortals, the number is probably more like 6-7 inches because the vast majority of us are not coordinated enough to time the dunk perfectly. We need a cushion.

So if someone is 5'10, and their finger tip when flat footed is probably 7'5" or something like that, they need to be jumping OVER THREE FEET UP to dunk. Does everyone realize how ridiculous that is?

Many parks, especially back in the day, had non-regulation rims, and so some of you may have thrown down on a rim that was between 9' and 10' off the ground. That is a LOT easier than dunking on a 10' rim. Back in the 90's, the courts at Alumni dorms on campus were 9'6", and a lot of us were Michael Jordan on those. I could reverse dunk off an alley-oop and would play games there where I would only dunk, because why not? That is a lot easier than dunking on a 10' rim.

I dunno. Your analysis looks convincing. All I know is that I am a god awful athlete and 5'9", and I could get a couple knuckles over the rim. Doesn't seem like a stretch to think that a good (like top 20%) athlete could get up the extra 6 inches or so needed to do the deed.

 

[Deepster]

180 votes in and less than 5% (4.4%) of the Yard can dunk.

Once again, the Deepster is spot on with his analysis.

 

[WhereistheDove?]

Yup. My best Friend and his family live in Bed-Stuy now. Have for a couple years. The 11 year old allowed to walk to school alone now, and supervise the 7 year old on the streets at times. Totally different area now

When a place serving this is a couple of blocks from Boys and Girls on Malcolm X Blvd, you can kind of get the picture.

 

[Kolumbo]

I could only get within a few inches of the rim and I couldn't palm the ball, but I'm taller than all of these guys.

 

[Greathusky]

Give a donut and a cup of coffee.

I will show you a dunk that will make your head spin.

 

[Ant3411]

Exactly.

I am calling bullscalito on everyone who claims they were 6' or under and dunked. Being 5'10" and dunking would probably put someone in the Top 0.01% of athletes in the country. Something tells me that the Boneyard doesn't have 5 people like that posting here. Here is some perspective on jumping.

Average Vertical Jump: By Age, Sport, NBA and NFL (homeexerciseequipmenthq.com)

I am 6'3, and had a 25-26 inch standing vertical in college, which is pretty good for someone that was not a D1 athlete. I could only dunk a women's basketball.

Dunking is as much a math problem as an athletic one, and like being intimate with a woman, every extra inch matters, A LOT. I am halfway to my second knuckle over an 8 foot rim when I am standing flat footed. So, to get up to a 10 foot rim, plus be enough over the rim to get a men's basketball over and through the rim, I needed to get about 30-31" off the ground with a running start and have perfect extension when I did it. Websites will tell you that you need 4 extra inches over the 10' to dunk a basketball, but for mortals, the number is probably more like 6-7 inches because the vast majority of us are not coordinated enough to time the dunk perfectly. We need a cushion.

So if someone is 5'10, and their finger tip when flat footed is probably 7'5" or something like that, they need to be jumping OVER THREE FEET UP to dunk. Does everyone realize how ridiculous that is?

Many parks, especially back in the day, had non-regulation rims, and so some of you may have thrown down on a rim that was between 9' and 10' off the ground. That is a LOT easier than dunking on a 10' rim. Back in the 90's, the courts at Alumni dorms on campus were 9'6", and a lot of us were Michael Jordan on those. I could reverse dunk off an alley-oop and would play games there where I would only dunk, because why not? That is a lot easier than dunking on a 10' rim.

If you've ever played competitive basketball and been around real athletes, there are plenty of 5'10" guys playing college hoops (and even high school) that can dunk, maybe not in the game but it's not unfathomable. Yes you are correct, that timing and coordination need to be on point, but lots of kids can figure that out when all they do is hoop.

My high school team had 3 guys 5'10" and under that could dunk (one even in the game) and my D3 college team had the same. My 5'9" college roommate could dribble up to the hoop and 2 hand reverse dunk off two feet.

All I'm saying is there are athletes out there - it's just a matter if you've been exposed to them.

 

[Deepster]

If you've ever played competitive basketball and been around real athletes, there are plenty of 5'10" guys playing college hoops (and even high school) that can dunk, maybe not in the game but it's not unfathomable. Yes you are correct, that timing and coordination need to be on point, but lots of kids can figure that out when all they do is hoop.

My high school team had 3 guys 5'10" and under that could dunk (one even in the game) and my D3 college team had the same. My 5'9" college roommate could dribble up to the hoop and 2 hand reverse dunk off two feet.

All I'm saying is there are athletes out there - it's just a matter if you've been exposed to them.

All I'm saying is there are athletes out there....just not on this thread.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

Exactly.

I am calling bullscalito on everyone who claims they were 6' or under and dunked. Being 5'10" and dunking would probably put someone in the Top 0.01% of athletes in the country. Something tells me that the Boneyard doesn't have 5 people like that posting here. Here is some perspective on jumping.

Average Vertical Jump: By Age, Sport, NBA and NFL (homeexerciseequipmenthq.com)

I am 6'3, and had a 25-26 inch standing vertical in college, which is pretty good for someone that was not a D1 athlete. I could only dunk a women's basketball.

Dunking is as much a math problem as an athletic one, and like being intimate with a woman, every extra inch matters, A LOT. I am halfway to my second knuckle over an 8 foot rim when I am standing flat footed. So, to get up to a 10 foot rim, plus be enough over the rim to get a men's basketball over and through the rim, I needed to get about 30-31" off the ground with a running start and have perfect extension when I did it. Websites will tell you that you need 4 extra inches over the 10' to dunk a basketball, but for mortals, the number is probably more like 6-7 inches because the vast majority of us are not coordinated enough to time the dunk perfectly. We need a cushion.

So if someone is 5'10, and their finger tip when flat footed is probably 7'5" or something like that, they need to be jumping OVER THREE FEET UP to dunk. Does everyone realize how ridiculous that is?

Many parks, especially back in the day, had non-regulation rims, and so some of you may have thrown down on a rim that was between 9' and 10' off the ground. That is a LOT easier than dunking on a 10' rim. Back in the 90's, the courts at Alumni dorms on campus were 9'6", and a lot of us were Michael Jordan on those. I could reverse dunk off an alley-oop and would play games there where I would only dunk, because why not? That is a lot easier than dunking on a 10' rim

I am one of those world class 5’10” athletes. I was a ~decent~ HS cross country runner and pitcher. The only machine I used in the weight room was the leg press (where I would do the max 400 lbs as many times I wanted). I had very strong very thick legs. Now I have very thick legs. For me to dunk the volleyball I would run the length of the baseline and sneak it over the back corner of the rim (where it attached to the backboard) for some reason the rim “seemed” shorter there. This was in the Rockville High varsity gym. Never measured it with one of those things but through some unscientific means I measured myself with a 34” vert at peak. I actually feel like adding a couple inches to your leaping ability with a targeted routine and practice isn’t that tough.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

If you've ever played competitive basketball and been around real athletes, there are plenty of 5'10" guys playing college hoops (and even high school) that can dunk, maybe not in the game but it's not unfathomable. Yes you are correct, that timing and coordination need to be on point, but lots of kids can figure that out when all they do is hoop.

My high school team had 3 guys 5'10" and under that could dunk (one even in the game) and my D3 college team had the same. My 5'9" college roommate could dribble up to the hoop and 2 hand reverse dunk off two feet.

All I'm saying is there are athletes out there - it's just a matter if you've been exposed to them.

I spent a lot of Saturdays playing pickup in the Field House, and there were some really good players in that gym, including several dunkers. Those guys were really freaking good and usually really freaking tall, not some 5'10" hack who played every now and then and then claims "but I could dunk back in the day".

My math above is a little off because I forgot that smaller guys generally have shorter arms. A 5'9 guy needs to jump about 38-39 inches to dunk. That is high D1 level athleticism. A 6'4 guy needs to jump about 28-29 inches. That is decent but not spectacular athleticism that you might find in a Saturday afternoon pickup game at the Field House in 1992.

Maybe one of the Boneyard posters was really that athletic. Possible. It is impossible that two were. It is a ridiculous lie that 3 or more were.

I don't know what to make of your story that 3 guys under 5'10 on one high school team could dunk. That seems really unlikely. How many times did you see Kevin Ollie dunk in a game? He was 6'1, and went on to an NBA career, and he did not have enough confidence in his dunking to do it in a game.

 

[Kolumbo]

I spent a lot of Saturdays playing pickup in the Field House, and there were some really good players in that gym, including several dunkers. Those guys were really freaking good and usually really freaking tall, not some 5'10" hack who played every now and then and then claims "but I could dunk back in the day".

My math above is a little off because I forgot that smaller guys generally have shorter arms. A 5'9 guy needs to jump about 38-39 inches to dunk. That is high D1 level athleticism. A 6'4 guy needs to jump about 28-29 inches. That is decent but not spectacular athleticism that you might find in a Saturday afternoon pickup game at the Field House in 1992.

Maybe one of the Boneyard posters was really that athletic. Possible. It is impossible that two were. It is a ridiculous lie that 3 or more were.

I don't know what to make of your story that 3 guys under 5'10 on one high school team could dunk. That seems really unlikely. How many times did you see Kevin Ollie dunk in a game? He was 6'1, and went on to an NBA career, and he did not have enough confidence in his dunking to do it in a game.

I think your math is off. Someone who is 5'10" and has average to long arm length can easily reach well over 7'6", maybe closer to 7'8". Plus the 4" over the rim makes sense because although you need a cushion, if you try enough times, you will eventually time it well enough to dunk. So you would need to leap about 28" to have a chance which is tough to do but possible.