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Sorry, but every time I'm hearing numbers like 61 inches, the only thing I think of is the technique box jumping. I've heard 56 about Kadour Ziani, and this would mean that his head should be 6 inches above the rim, which I've never seen him doing.
The highest I've seen anyone jump is Michael Wilson in his 12-foot dunk. AFAIR, his whole palm was above the 12-foot rim, which may mean that he had jumped about 50-52 inches. Too bad there are not many good films of him.
[QUOTE=Psileas]Sorry, but every time I'm hearing numbers like 61 inches, the only thing I think of is the technique box jumping. I've heard 56 about Kadour Ziani, and this would mean that his head should be 6 inches above the rim, which I've never seen him doing.
The highest I've seen anyone jump is Michael Wilson in his 12-foot dunk. AFAIR, his whole palm was above the 12-foot rim, which may mean that he had jumped about 50-52 inches. Too bad there are not many good films of him.[/QUOTE]
Obviously we don't KNOW what Chamberlain was actually capable of. And for those that point out that they have never seen footage of a spectacular dunk or block by Wilt, which would demonstrate a 42"+ leap...of course, we have only seen a relatively small sample of what he accomplished.
Still, aside from the ridiculous OP, in which was inaccurate to begin with, we have several, if not many, accounts of amazing leaps by Wilt. Sonny Hill, who is truly a very respected sports figure, stated that he witnessed Chamberlain touching the top of the backboard. Well, that is KNOWN to be 13 ft. George Kisida, a well-known sports writer who covered Wilt, stated that he measured a leap in a hospital that he measured at at least 42". There have been accounts of Wilt dunking on a 12 ft. rim that mysteriously arose DURING Chamberlain's stay at Kansas.
I have read several books on, or by, Wilt, and in virtually all of them, there are usually several stories of an amazing leap. In one of them, in the early 60's, he made a block that the official called goal-tending. When Wilt's coach protested, the official told him, "what we both just witnessed was physically impossible." Another took place after he retired, and was coaching San Diego. During a practice, the ball got stuck high up in a guide-wire. One-by-one, the players attempted to knock the ball out, but none of them, including 6-11 "jumpin" Caldwell Jones, could reach it. Wilt showed up late, wearling a suit-and-tie, and asked them what was going on. When the players explained what was going on, Wilt took off his dress shoes, and easily tapped the ball down.
There is also a photo in Wilt's first book, which shows him playing volleyball, and in his 30's, and his waist is above the top of the net. I believe in Charley Rosen's book on the '72 Lakers (of which I either listened to, or watched EVERY game that season), he mentions Chick Hearn making the comment that he estimated that LA won over 80% of the center jumps that season (that was in the era when they jumped at the beginning of every quarter.)
There have been posted photos of Kareem and Gilmore, in their college careers, with their heads near rim level...and yet there is footage of Wilt outjumping both of them. Bill Russel hadworld-class high jumping ability, but he seldom outjumped Chamberlain. And speaking of high-jumping, Wilt won a conference title...however, with all of his track events and basketball practice, he could only devote a small portion of his time to that event. His technique was poor, and even his track coach believed that he was capable of close to seven-feet with proper training.
The bottom line, though, was that Wilt was the greatest rebounder, and shot-blocker that the NBA has ever seen. Clearly, his athletic ability was the major factor. He won ELEVEN NBA rebound titles, which is EIGHT more than all of the other 7-0+ players in NBA history...COMBINED (Kareem with ONE, and Motumbo with TWO.) Gilmore won three in the ABA, but even his numbers would not have won in the NBA during those years. And of course, Olajuwon was nowhere near 7-0. In any case, Chamberlain was an amazing seven-footer with incredible athletic ability. Whether his vertical was 48", as he has claimed, or closer to the more realistic 42"...he was certainly jumping much higher than 24". AND, as I have long maintained...no other NBA player has ever reached the apex that Wilt did in his career.
[QUOTE=jlauber]And no way anyone can have a vertical of over 50" either, right? And, obviously, 60" would be a physical impossibility.[/QUOTE]
Anyone? How about Kadour Ziani..60 inch vertical
[QUOTE=no pun intended]Anyone? How about Kadour Ziani..60 inch vertical[/QUOTE]
I did mention that the record was 61" earlier.
As far as Wilt goes, my best guess, and at his peak...somewhere around 42".
Wilt's standing reach with TWO hands is 114", it means he can reach higher with ONE hand, to touch the top of the backboard which's 13ft=156" with BOTH hands, he needs 42" vertical, if he did it with ONE hand, he needs less than 42" vert, with help of running, much less... say around 35" vertical or less.
There4, Wilt only needs around 35" vert to touch the top of the backboard, think about a younger and vertical peak Wilt with only 250lbs, sounds logical to me.
[QUOTE=no pun intended]Anyone? How about Kadour Ziani..60 inch vertical[/QUOTE]
That would mean that his whole head should be above the rim. I haven't ever seen any film of him doing so. Actually, I can only remember 1 play when his head seems to go above rim, and even this instant was following a two-hand dunk and was taken by a camera placed at a position notoriously bad at showing correct elevation.
[QUOTE] Wilt's standing reach with TWO hands is 114", it means he can reach higher with ONE hand, to touch the top of the backboard which's 13ft=156" with BOTH hands, he needs 42" vertical, if he did it with ONE hand, he needs less than 42" vert, with help of running, much less... say around 35" vertical or less.
There4, Wilt only needs around 35" vert to touch the top of the backboard, think about a younger and vertical peak Wilt with only 250lbs, sounds logical to me.[/QUOTE]
Sorry, this would mean that Wilt could touch the rim without jumping and the only way he would be able to do it would be to stand on his tiptoes. This means that he'd need to jump 35 inches above his extended tiptoes, which I don't buy. It's no different than a 42-inch true vertical leap.
Thanks for clearing that up
[QUOTE=no pun intended]Anyone? How about Kadour Ziani..60 inch vertical[/QUOTE]
People this is not a stand still vertical......a vertical leap is what they do in the combine.
[URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMY295ezIH0"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMY295ezIH0[/URL]
NBA does one standing vertical leap, then a maximum vertical leap(with a run-up)...no way is Kadour standing still and getting up 60 inches, basically when he ran and jumped his ass would be up by the rim, because he would be getting off the ground anywhere from 6-10 inches more
[URL="http://www.nbadraft.net/node/6301"]http://www.nbadraft.net/node/6301[/URL]
[quote]24 inches is quite likely for his [B]standing[/B] vertical, but if we include running I'd estimate about 29-32 inches, which is still excellent for a man his height.[/quote]
In other words, Chamberlain had an inferior standing vertical [B]AND[/B] maximum vertical to the likes of Andrew Bogut (27.5 standing/33.5 max) as well as Yi Jianlian (33 standing/38 max).
An inferior standing vertical to Yao Ming (26 standing).
And of course his vertical was nearly 10 inches (or even more) inferior to Andrew Bynum's (33 standing/37 1-step/Max???). It turns out that Chamberlain did not differ much from Shawn Bradley as a leaper (22 standing/27 max). :facepalm
On the rise or descent?
[IMG]http://i26.tinypic.com/vecfaq.jpg[/IMG]
[QUOTE=PHILA]In other words, Chamberlain had an inferior standing vertical [B]AND[/B] maximum vertical to the likes of Andrew Bogut (27.5 standing/33.5 max) as well as Yi Jianlian (33 standing/38 max).
An inferior standing vertical to Yao Ming (26 standing).
And of course his vertical was nearly 10 inches (or even more) inferior to Andrew Bynum's (33 standing/37 1-step/Max???). [B]It turns out that Chamberlain did not differ much from Shawn Bradley as a leaper (22 standing/27 max)[/B]. :facepalm[/QUOTE]
:facepalm :facepalm
:cheers: :cheers:
[QUOTE=Psileas]
Sorry, this would mean that Wilt could touch the rim without jumping and the only way he would be able to do it would be to stand on his tiptoes. This means that he'd need to jump 35 inches above his extended tiptoes, which I don't buy. It's no different than a 42-inch true vertical leap.[/QUOTE]
[IMG]http://i28.tinypic.com/2dbs4yu.jpg[/IMG]
is this photo fake? or just in an angle favors Wilt's reaching length.. he almost can reach the ring
^^ His standing reach was 9'7.
Even as a 6'11 schoolboy he was not far off.
[IMG]http://i26.tinypic.com/1564gfq.jpg[/IMG]
Abe,
Since we don't have VIDEO footage of almost everything Wilt accomplished, it was all a big lie perpetrated by the many friends that Wilt had. He was actually on about 6-5, 175 lbs, and he had a 24" vertical...and in fact, he could not dunk...not even on an 8 ft rim. His high scoring game was actually 10 points, but the scorekeeper accidently had another zero at the end of it. The rest was history.
[QUOTE=PHILA]^^ His standing reach was 9'7.
Even as a 6'11 schoolboy he was not far off.
[IMG]http://i26.tinypic.com/1564gfq.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE]
Damn, his arms are almost as long as my ****.