Why Don't American Coaches Teach About How Damaging Dunking Can Be For Players?

[Mr. Jabbar]

its a good thing op was descriptive in his title cause theres no way im reading through that mess

[Y2Gezee]

I agree with this. This is generally why players learn to rely more on skill as they get even into their prime years. And players that don't adjust well in terms of being able to play a different way usually fall hard. Just like a guy like Larry Bird who always hit the deck hard, had a shortened career.

[deja vu]

Westbrook is healthy now but he will have problems with his knees when he's 40 or 50 .

How do you know? MJ was dunking like crazy during his younger and prime years, and still schooling young 'uns in his 40s and 50s.

[Salty]

LOL this is ridiculous. I assume what your european pseudoscientists deduced is that the impact of landing after jumping for a dunk is potentially harmful to the cartilage and tendons of the knees, so why only dunking? You eurofags should stop jumping for layups, stop jumping for blocks, for jump shots, for anything.

All jump balls will just be players standing on their tippy toes waving their hands in the air.

In fact, running is pretty bad for your legs, too. Why don't american coaches teach about how damaging running can be for players? It's what makes european basketball so effing great.

[Mr. Jabbar]

LOL this is ridiculous. I assume what your european pseudoscientists deduced is that the impact of landing after jumping for a dunk is potentially harmful to the cartilage and tendons of the knees, so why only dunking? You eurofags should stop jumping for layups, stop jumping for blocks, for jump shots, for anything.

All jump balls will just be players standing on their tippy toes waving their hands in the air.

In fact, running is pretty bad for your legs, too. Why don't american coaches teach about how damaging running can be for players? It's what makes european basketball so effing great.

it just hit me, metta is preserving his health, he'll be playing till 75

[esiotrot]

it just hit me, metta is preserving his health, he'll be playing till 75

So is Steve Nash

[Fiba basketball]

How do you know? MJ was dunking like crazy during his younger and prime years, and still schooling young 'uns in his 40s and 50s.

Every player that jumps a lot will have problems with their knees .

[bd#1pguard]

Yeah, but dunking and overexerting themselves can gradually lead to or encourage in injury-plagued players such as Rose, so you would think that not dunking except in necessary situations would be advantageous (ie in transition you can just lay it in).

great point, and in a couple espn articles it shows thats exactly what rose is going to do. return to the dunking, he even said he wont come back until he can dunk whilst jumping of his left leg.

maybe this is why lebron wont go into the dunk contest, because he has seen how many dunk attempts happen in it.

[tgan3]

This is complete bu11crap. There are so many explosive athletes under 6'4 that never had any major injury before and there are guys who have never dunk but had acl tear etc.

Yes leg injuries are very common in basketball, but it is unrelated to whether you can dunk anot although playing a game like Iverson or Westbrook increases the odds of injury.

[Rake2204]

I do not believe dunking is typically any more damaging to the knees than shot blocking, rebounding, shooting, elevating through the lane for a layup, or performing a jump ball tip. There's something to be said about wear and tear, but I do not find many reasons to single out dunking when referencing the damage it could have on one's knees.

In order for me to dunk, I have to exert my energy. I am most certainly not a guy who can throw down with 12% effort. I have to spring to make it happen. However, my dunk opportunities sprout up just a few times per game, if that. Of my in-game jumps, dunk jumps account for about 1%. My other jumps involve me performing the actions mentioned in the first paragraph - powering up for a rebound; chasing down, planting, and max jumping in an attempt to complete a blocked shot; attacking the hole with a defender in front where I know I won't be able to dunk, but must go hard regardless, resulting in a max jump that turns into a layup attempt, etc.

I've never found dunking to be more dangerous for my knees than most of the other actions I perform on the basketball court (also including grounded activities such as sprinting, stopping on a dime, and cutting at a moment's notice). In fact, between a dunk and layup, I find layups to often be more dangerous in my experience. I say this because for me, I need a relatively stable launch and pathway in order to dunk. That means I plant cleanly, take off cleanly, and often have a mostly clear path to the basket. Conversely, I take off on layups from all sorts of weird angles, often without my body weight completely centered, with an uncertain landing pad sometimes waiting for me on the other side. And even on layups, I'm still usually attempting to spring as strongly as possible. Ankle sprains and knee twists have been much more prevalent in the latter scenario.

In truth, this may sound funny, but the biggest injury risk dunking has ever posed to me (short term or long term) has been on my back and elbow. Elevating at a high speed then meeting (and often hanging) on an object - thus significantly altering your inertia - can lead to some unnatural jarring and twists. 99 times out of 100 it's not a problem, but every now and again I'll wake up and realize I probably shouldn't have hung like I did.

[Nero Tulip]

Well at least it's an original idea. It's a complete load of crap that doesn't pass the smell test but at least it's original

[The Iron Fist]

He couldn't.

And I mean that completely literally.

While he was at UCLA, dunking was banned, which led to the development of the skyhook.

And thus the irony of the fact that it was the institution of rules designed to reduce his dominance which was directly responsible for the most unstoppable shot in the history of the game.

The Skyhook had been in development since Kareem was a kid.

[CavaliersFTW]