The Mystery of Jerry West's Gorilla Wingspan

[QUOTE=La Frescobaldi]****************
edit: forgot.... other thing about that quick shot? Jerry had a really unique trick, which as far as I know, he invented this.... he would dribble around the perimeter, like anybody (although amazingly fast) but at some point on the arc, known only to himself, he had a single hard dribble.

I mean he would slam that ball down [B]hard[/B]... and he would go into his jumpshot [I]without the ball[/I]. To the defender, it was another dribble...... but for Jerry, that hard bounce would fling the ball up to about his shoulder height... into his hands as they floated up..... and with those long arms he had a high release combined with the fact he was already IN THE AIR, WITH THE BALL... before the defender could react.
Result: another uncontested shot for the Logo

Kobe Bryant, [I]Master of All That Has Come Before[/I] has copied that move to an exact perfection that has given him a lot of buckets... over the years as his athleticism has declined he has honed his skills to a very fine sharpness indeed[/QUOTE]
They do teach you that in camp (at least in the 80's). Magic would hard dribble to get leverage on a quick pass. Sometimes you will see Durant do it on the shot. Kobe does a lot of things textbook in style - D Rose too. Kobe and Magic used to always hard dribble. In their later years, not all the time. Kobe hard dribbles sometimes now to confuse the defender.

Wall has a pretty freakish wingspan as well, something in the 6'10 range if I remember correctly. He's going to be a scary defensive player once his effort becomes more consistent on that end.

[QUOTE=KenneBell]Nah, his wingspan I believe is something like 6'11".

No definite numbers though.[/QUOTE]

Kobe's wingspan is 6-10.

[QUOTE=La Frescobaldi]Yeah. I get a lot of grief from ISH people about it but I got Logo as the starting PG on my All-Time Starting 5

The only argument I can find for his spot is Magic which to me is true horns of the dilemma........ happily I find I can solve the conundrum perfectly by the fact, Magic is my 6th Man........ thus he plays the same minutes as everybody else, by floating for MJ, Logo, Larry Legend, and Kareem.

My center famously never came out of a game in 1962......... 48.5mpg for the season.
****************
edit: forgot.... other thing about that quick shot? Jerry had a really unique trick, which as far as I know, he invented this.... he would dribble around the perimeter, like anybody (although amazingly fast) but at some point on the arc, known only to himself, he had a single hard dribble.

I mean he would slam that ball down [B]hard[/B]... and he would go into his jumpshot [I]without the ball[/I]. To the defender, it was another dribble...... but for Jerry, that hard bounce would fling the ball up to about his shoulder height... into his hands as they floated up..... and with those long arms he had a high release combined with the fact he was already IN THE AIR, WITH THE BALL... before the defender could react.
Result: another uncontested shot for the Logo

Kobe Bryant, [I]Master of All That Has Come Before[/I] has copied that move to an exact perfection that has given him a lot of buckets... over the years as his athleticism has declined he has honed his skills to a very fine sharpness indeed[/QUOTE]

lol Don't worry Magic, you can be 6th man for my all-time starting 5.

-Smak

[QUOTE=Brunch@Five]John Ecker, who played with Kareem at UCLA and was my high school coach, told me that Kareem was able to grab money off the top of the backboard too.[/QUOTE]

Maybe you can find his quote in print, or an interview on YouTube then?

[QUOTE=jlauber]Maybe you can find his quote in print, or an interview on YouTube then?[/QUOTE]

he told me in person, so there isn't a quote anywhere on the internet, I'm sorry.

Wingspan always allowed guys not real real athletic to make great defensive plays.

I think the reason Pierce is a great defender at times is because his IQ and his wingspan... I think i remember in 97-98 they said he has like a 7'1 wingspan at 6'6 1/2 or something.

PP barely jumps on a lot of blocks he gets on players.

Anyone know KGs...

Paul Pierce is a legit 6'6" with a 7'1" wingspan. The NBA started to lists him at 6'7" after the Celtics acquired Allen and KG.

its crazy seeing jerry west videos... skinny and short shorts with massive biceps and arm length for his size... He was a freak of a nature especially being Caucasion with that wingspan.

[QUOTE=CavaliersFTW][QUOTE=ThaRegul8r][QUOTE=CavaliersFTW]I've seen all that too, I have the article about Russell and Swede - but 7'4 just seems to be something speculated in the past decade that spread by word of mouth and became fact by virtue of "common knowledge" - just like how daddy long legs are the most poisonous spiders in the world despite not being spiders and despite not having potent venom at all... If something is repeated enough times people just assume it to be true. I could be wrong but so far the 7'4 claim boiled down to zero citations from anyone. I actually found a source from 1961 - from his active playing years. It differs from 7'4 but I'm thinking it's likelier to be a real measurement.[/QUOTE]

False. I've read with my own eyes at least two occasions in print in the paper Russell's wingspan listed as 7-4, once prior to his NBA career, and again during it. At least one of them

[QUOTE=Euroleague]Kobe's wingspan is 6-10.[/QUOTE]

Cool, according to an article a few years ago he's quoted saying his wife measured him one day out of curiosity and he is supposedly about 6'4 and 3/4 (virtually identical to MJ) - do you have a source for the 6-10# by chance?

[QUOTE=ThaRegul8r]False. It irks me when people put words in my mouth, so let's start again.

You made the statement that Russell's wingspan being 7'4" "just seems to be something speculated in the past decade that spread by word of mouth and became fact by virtue of 'common knowledge.'"

I said that [b]that[/b] statement is false because I read in print in the newspaper (didn't say I Googled it on Google archive) on at least two occasions that Russell's wingspan was 7-4. I know nothing about your source, and didn't comment on it. I'm saying your assertion that the 7-4 number is some "urban legend" is false. Again, I reiterate, just because you aren't aware of something doesn't mean it isn't true. This is nothing personal against you, but I correct inaccurate statements whenever I happen to come across them, regardless of who makes them, and have been doing so long before encountering you, so this has nothing to do with you personally. I'm just correcting a statement that I know to be false.[/QUOTE]

I'm not taking offense to corrections I encourage them, I am a stickler for accurate information. So I appreciate the clarification. I was actually going to start a thread with Russell/Kareem/Wilt measurements for comparison to modern drafted centers but in light of what you said I'll look more into Russel's.

Not every article I come across is solid, In one article I have, they were directly comparing the up and coming "Lew Alcindor" to Wilt using very specific measurements and their wingspan info they gave on Wilt was within an inch of the one captured on film in the Ali vs Wilt footage on youtube so it seems the publishers of that article weren't just pulling numbers out of a hat for the sake of a good story. The Russell article I have on the other hand, is one I'll take with a grain of Salt - It's published in a story that's supposed to be about a game it's not a player comparison. They mention his wing span only as a passing detail like this: "Sporting an eighty-five inch wingspan and a Vandyke on his chin, :blah ...." they go on to describe how Bill Russell dominated the NY Knicks. It could simply be a lazy journalist's misinformation - there's lots of misinformation from that time. Wilt's wingspan from that era -according to the lazier journalists- is as low as 7-2 and as high as 101 inches.

For Bill Russell, I'm personally more inclined to believe 7-4 since it isn't just a modern spin. 7'2 arms would be a notable handicap against Wilt and it just doesn't add up to his descriptions of being extraordinarily long - nor does it serve to justify his adept ability to block every shot in the building. I'll pursue more archive info hopefully I'll find something better - something in the ~7-4 ballpark.

Great thread.

West's long arms was his greatest physical gift, and a big reason why he was so successful defensively. This allowed him to get ton of steals, blocks and bother his man on D.

He's got a solid case for the honor of top defensive guard. I'd say, he's one of the best off-ball stoppers of all time.

What's West vertical leap?

[QUOTE=Lebron23]What's West vertical leap?[/QUOTE]

Likely it was never measured, vertical leap back then wasn't a thing people used as standard measurement to gauge players. Heck, even finding armspans is rare from that long ago.

In a few interviews and documentaries about Jerry West both Jerry, and the people who played with Jerry are consistently going out of their way to mention that he could [I]really[/I] jump when he was younger. A team mate said "he'd always be up way over the rim"

Now, I have no idea how true this is but NBA.com's bio of Jerry West says as a rookie, that his teammates were impressed to see that he could touch 16" above the rim. I don't know how they'd know it's precisely 16" or what teammates they were but lets just pretend it's true for a second. That would be an 11'6" max reach and that is really up there. At the same same time the # itself could be exaggeration or erroneous educated guess so lets take it with a grain of salt. Still, the implication is consistent and clear, West used to have a pretty stand-out vertical - at least in his younger years. West said he was ahead of his time athletically, he used to run in the Mountains of WV to keep his legs strong and to keep himself in peak physical conditioning.

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2VZqY8YWHg[/url]

West steals and does an effortless looking dunk at WVU in that clip, and he took off just outside of that foul circle in the key - not bad for a guy who is only about 6'2.5-6'2.75" in his bare feet.


Also in one of the testimonials of West and his teammates (either college or HS, can't remember which) West asked if he could tip-off against a center during a big game for a play where he told his teammates just to be ready to catch it. The center was a 6'8 or 6'9 guy and West put the tap right in the hands of his teammate.

[IMG]https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-eFaMex5pMnQ/T1RBR90NyCI/AAAAAAAADLw/3bcdtwy1n8U/s400/Jerry_West%2520soar5s.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-XO-p6HR1Uns/T1QMv2LwlUI/AAAAAAAADLA/IIxKwTKagcA/s400/19571220WestVirginia2.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-yDuWLOTlJdc/T1QMv7RUPcI/AAAAAAAADLM/BYy-5c5I-Fg/s400/West%2520bloc2ks.jpg[/IMG]