Touching the top of the backboard is not a myth.

[tgan3]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXY9_2yb6GA

This guy is 6'8.

Anyway tdub (easily a world class jumper) at 5'9 can already reach 12'6. Going by proportions, he would be able to touch 13 feet at 6'3.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2-SWEkN63A

Also, we have the famous footage of James White attempting to get 13 feet and getting quite close.

I think we often think that touching the backboard is impossible because we always believe the "holy grail" of vertical jump is 44 inches. Which is true in the sense that if you have a true 44 inch vert, you could consider yourself a world class jumper. The equivalent of a 44 inch vert on track would be running a sub 10 seconds 100 metres. But then you have the anomaly of Usain Bolt running 9.58 seconds. Likewise for vert, we have people reaching 50+ inches, there are probably very few people in the world who can do that.

[DuMa]

I am thinkin Javale McGee can do it.

[monkeypox]

Not doubting a guy can do it, but you can't just extrapolate a shorter guys maximum jump height if he were taller. As he get's taller his mass will likely increase dramatically while his leg strength would only increase moderately.

[ikoiko]

with all the video flying around the webs these days, if someone could do it we would have seen someone do it by now

[Rake2204]

An honest and interesting article on touching the top of the backboard, regarding guys like LeBron, Dwight, and Flight.

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/pos...a-jumping-myth

[Tide]

You probably won't buy it but I saw Drew Gooden do it in warm-ups 5 years ago.

[Beebo]

Those high jumpers in the olympics can definitely touch the top of the backboard

[JtotheIzzo]

no one in that video came anywhere near the backboard, let alone the top of it.

[Swaggin916]

I am thinkin Javale McGee can do it.

He'd still need a 42 inch vert... which he doesn't have. his head would have to be 6 inches over the rim considering his reach is 30 inches taller than his height.

the fact that Tdub can touch 12'6 (which I kind of doubt) tells me he has freakish reach for his height. I am 5'10 and I would need a 59" vert to get that high (my reach is 7'7 and I'm 5'11 w/o shoes). I doubt he has a 59" vert. 50 inch vert? Sure... but not 59.

[MasterDurant24]

David Thompson, Clyde Drexler, and I'm betting the Air Up There(best dunker I've ever seen) can touch the top as well.

[OhNoTimNoSho]

There were stories that Earl "the goat" manigault could take a quarter off the top and replace it with 2 nickles and a welfare check for 15cents in one jump.

[Rake2204]

There were stories that Earl "the goat" manigault could take a quarter off the top and replace it with 2 nickles and a welfare check for 15cents in one jump.

That's the most frequent story heard. Some background:

"Manigault was, depending on who you talk to, somewhere between 5-11 and 6-1. Considering that the top of the backboard is at thirteen feet and the average six-foot-tall man can only touch about eight feet high standing flat-footed, Manigault would have had to jump at least sixty inches to even come close. That would mean the Goat's "making change" was a feat on par with Michael Jordan's game-winning dunk from half court in the film Space Jam. In other words, pure fiction."

Have you ever seen anyone do it?

Chris Paul: "Uh uh."

So that's total crap when people say Earl Manigault could do it, since he was like 6 feet tall?

CP3: "I believe it, though. You ain't never seen the movie Rebound?"

You mean the one with Don Cheadle?

CP3: "Yeah."

You know that's not a documentary, right?

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/pos...a-jumping-myth

[HylianNightmare]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfLJ87ys7m4


it can be done

[Pha Q]

This is the CLOSEST GUY TO GET TO TOP OF BACKBOARD:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nh6Dho5J0_I