Bill Russell Vertical Leap

[nbacardDOTnet]

Great and interesting Thread. I will see later.

BTW, this is Wilt.
(just want to share)

[joyner82]

Did some idiot really just say that LeBron is 6'9? I guess Durant is 7'1 then

[jlauber]

Great and interesting Thread. I will see later.

BTW, this is Wilt.
(just want to share)

Great stuff. One can only wonder how high he could have jumped had he focused on the high jump.

Back in the 70's I caught wind that Bucks Curtis Perry could touch the top of the backboard.
I looked for all possible articles etc ... to no avail.

I finally got a hold of one of his old teammates , and asked him.
He said absolutely 'NO'

** But as an ex NBA player he did tell me that with in the league (we are talking about players) Wilt and Bill were said to have done it.

*That's all I got on this subject.

Thanks for sharing. Another poster claimed that Jon McGlocklin, another Bucks player, sent him a letter (or an email) claiming that it was common knowledge that both Wilt and Russell could touch the top of the backboard.

Sonny Hill is on record as saying that he witnessed Chamberlain touching the backboard (and he asked Kareem, and Kareem told him that he [Kareem] could not.) Incidently, Wilt was outjumping BOTH Kareem and even Gilmore, late in his career.

And in Cherry's book (or Rosen's...I can't remember), there is a story told by someone on the Conquistadors, about Wilt being the only guy that could not a ball down that was stuck up high in a guidewire...and he was dressed in a suit and tie. Not even 6-11 "Jumpin" Caldwell Jones could touch it, ....and Wilt was 37 at the time!

[chazzy]

Not sure if this was posted

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

[whatever666]

@Joyner82

Thats a ridicilously bad camera angle......

Yes, i said Lebron is 6

[joyner82]

Dwight Howard is 6'10
Carmelo Anthony is 6'7

As for LeBron being almost dead even with Prince, get real. This picture was taken in the summer of 2008 when LeBron was 23 years old. The white line is touching the top of Prince's head. LeBron is a full 1-1 1/2 inches below it meaning he's roughly 2~ inches shorter than Prince.

But yes he's clearly 6'9, GTFO. He's barely taller than the 6'7 Anthony and clearly shorter than the 6 8 1/2 Boozer.



Durant on the other hand is a legit 6 10 1/2, combine measurement, and I wouldn't be surprised if he's 6'11 now.

Hell they aranged the players in order based on height...he's somewhere in between 6'7(Anthony) and 6 8 1/2(Boozer).

[PHILA]

I am so sick of your NONSENSE. Wilt had TERRIBLE form...and jumped PART-TIME. And all of that was BEFORE the "Fosbury Flop" era of today.

ONE MORE TIME:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fosbury_Flop


And Russell was right there with him. Abe posted an article in which Russell's wingspan was greater than Kareem's. Given the fact that Russell could easily have outjumped Kareem, what does that tell you?

Chamberlain jumped with appears to be a Straddle technique based on the description.

9 seconds into the vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6k539HSbXM





http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2008/apr/16/quantum_leap/

'Bud Smith developed lots of success jumping this way. He spent one successful year at Northern Illinois in 1955, where he said his accomplishments started becoming publicized nationally. Smith's name reached the desk of KU coach Bill Easton, who invited him to the 1956 Relays with the promise that he'd get a chance to meet Chamberlain.
The 6-foot-3 Smith never felt so small.

"I had never met a man seven feet tall before," Smith said. "I have pretty good-sized hands, and Wilt just wrapped his hands around mine."

Smith never took a picture of him with Chamberlain. He had no camera and really saw Chamberlain as an equal in track and field during those two encounters.

But the video is the next-best thing, if not better. There was Smith, one shoe on, flinging himself over the bar and landing in the sand pit. And there was Chamberlain getting every bit of his long legs wrapped over the bar somehow.

Other high jumpers were filmed, too, and many used different ways to get over the bar. One jumper even tried to flat-out hurdle it.

Now, the Fosbury Flop dominates elite high-jump competitions. Smith will admit that the new approach works, but he doesn't prefer it. Heck, it was impossible to do in the 1950s because high jumpers back then landed in a pit of sand or saw dust. A Fosbury Flopper could get seriously hurt.

"Back in my day, you had a variety of styles and techniques. It was fun to watch," Smith said. "Then you have a Fosbury jumper. If you've seen one, you've seen them all."'

I've always said Russell could jump higher than Wilt

Whether or not this is true, there is no question Russell was a 'quicker' leaper with magnificent 'cat like' reflexes. As noted by undersized top rebounds Barkley & Rodman, how high you jump is not nearly as important as how quickly you get off the ground. It would appear that Chamberlain was putting an enormous amount of stress on his knees over the years as noted by his annual shin splints, eventually leading to his knee injury in '68/'69.

Imagine if he was fortunate enough to play on the luxurious multi-layered padded hardwood courts of today in top notch NBA arenas as opposed to a single layered wooden floor, often with dead spots or nails sticking out of the floor and the outside weather being a factor in these games any time the door opened.



"It's a run up and down the court and dunk the ball game now. These are speed merchants and jumping fools. That's why their shooting percentages are going way up. I led the league 11 times in field goal percentage and my lifetime average was 54%. There are now five billion guys shooting over 54%. Can you imagine playing when your hands are so cold and the ball is as hard as a brick? I can remember going to Detroit and playing the old Detroit Arena and there's about 3000 people in this big old huge thing. Every time they opened the door, the wind blows through. I can vividly remember Paul Arizin blowing into his hands and the smoke was blowing out of his nose. Guys were shooting 37%, and these were great shooters. People look at that any say, 'Is that a basketball player or was he on a blind team?' They don't know how to put that into perspective."

-1985

[ShaqAttack3234]

He rips Wilt for being a "loser" but won't acknowledge that Kareem was an even greater disappointment until Magic carried those Laker teams to five titles in the 80's.

Not this again.......no wait, I don't have the time to explain everything wrong with this statement for the 400th time.

[jlauber]

Because you CAN'T. Magic was voted ahead of Kareem in the MVP balloting in EIGHT of their TEN seasons together. Kareem played on average Laker teams for FOUR years, and his teams were eliminated in the early rounds every year, including a sweeping loss to a Blazer team with a worse record.

AND, after Kareem retired, the Lakers IMPROVED from a 57-25 record to 63-19. Furthermore, they went to yet another Finals withOUT Kareem a year later.

Then, when Magic retired, the Lakers went back to the average team they were BEFORE Magic. CLEARLY, Magic CARRIED those Laker teams. Hell, they even won their FIRST title with Kareem watching Magic's game six performance from his couch.

[ShaqAttack3234]

Because you CAN'T. Magic was voted ahead of Kareem in the MVP balloting in EIGHT of their TEN seasons together. Kareem played on average Laker teams for FOUR years, and his teams were eliminated in the early rounds every year, including a sweeping loss to a Blazer team with a worse record.

AND, after Kareem retired, the Lakers IMPROVED from a 57-25 record to 63-19. Furthermore, they went to yet another Finals withOUT Kareem a year later.

Then, when Magic retired, the Lakers went back to the average team they were BEFORE Magic. CLEARLY, Magic CARRIED those Laker teams. Hell, they even won their FIRST title with Kareem watching Magic's game six performance from his couch.

Ehhh, congratulations, you baited me into explaining what's wrong with that statement.

Kareem won a finals MVP at 38 fucking years old! Kareem was the best player in the league in 1980 when they won their first title.

Yes, Magic improved the Lakers, but what do you think happens if you take Kareem of those '80-'85 Laker teams, hell, he even had a big impact in '87 at 39/40 years old, though by that point, Magic was clearly the best player on that team.

And Kareem retired at 42 years old........

You can't carry a team when you have a teammate who is the team's best scorer, by far their best halfcourt player, a bigger defensive presence and the go to guy down the stretch.

Magic didn't carry those teams, he had great teammates and he wasn't the best player on a few of those Laker teams. You can carry teams to the playoffs like Kobe in '06 or Wade in '09, but you notice that neither team got out of the first round? That's because you need a good team to win a title.

You don't carry teams to titles, it takes a great team effort to win titles. And don't act like Kareem wasn't close to Magic for that run. He was the CLEAR best player and league MVP in 1980, Magic wasn't the clear best player on a championship team until 1987.

[alexandreben]

KAJ was always the first option before 87', at the mean time, Magic is the brain and soul of the team, no one can deny that either.

[La Frescobaldi]

Thank you, this is much more logical than most of the posts.

Why is it that NONE of the athletes in the NBA in the last 40 years can do it, yet there are claims of 4-5 players from the 60's doing it and people believe it?

The burden of proof is not on us to prove they can't, if you claim you can do something you better have some evidence.

I've seen Dwight touch 12'6", that's still 6 inches short.

*******************************************

Bumping an old thread.
It's interesting to read through this old board - people like kblaze for example, have an open mind, that it was at least possible for Chamberlain & Russell to have got to the top........ while most people flatly say it wasn't possible, or even stupid to say those guys could get anywhere close.

Really, skepticism has pretty much tipped over to cynicism.

But it is a fact that some game footage surfaced recently that shows a glimpse of Chamberlain's vertical:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EpVZS26BUs

Now all the pretty colors that guy painted on that clip is pretty much bullshite. And the angle of the camera is very deceptive.

Don't use the top of the backboard as reference in that Youtube clip - look at where he is in relation to the rim. You can clearly see that not only is Chamberlain's head above the rim, his shoulder is too. Basically his armpit is at rim level.

Given the fact that it would be 35" from the top of Chamberlain's 7'1&1/16" head to the 10' rim, that is at least a 42" vertical, and I suspect it is considerably more than that.

Given the fact that he was timing a blocked shot in a game, taking no step, and using his left or off hand for his reach........ he got mighty mighty close to the top in that old college footage.

I have little doubt that in a serious attempt to do his best vertical, he could have gotten higher than that - since his target here is not his highest leap, but the ball.

[Pushxx]

I repped you, La Frescobaldi. Great link, man.

I'm in Kblaze's camp: it seems feasible, and I'm more inclined to believe it's possible given what other top leapers have accomplished related to the feat.

[arifgokcen]

Lebron highest Jump

Lebron Reach 8'11(draft day measurement 8'10.25 so its safe to assume he grew 0.75 including his arm length).Combined with his 44' vertical leap
8x12+11+44=151
or 12'7.
This is actually higher than MJ or vince this is the highest reach i can remember and validate by watching the video.

[PTB Fan]

Bill Russell had probably about 35 vertical inch. At max, i could i see him having 38-39.