lw32

It's been noted by NBA.com, USA Today and eye-witnesses that Wilt had been measured with a vertical of 48-50 inches. Now I'm not going to say I straight out believe that. But I seriously doubt that his vertical, before surgery, was a whole 13-15 inches less than claimed. That's a huge difference.

You do realize that there is a big difference between the vertical jump test and an in-game dunk, right? If you're judging your estimation off of pictures, it holds no credit. Firstly, dunking the basketball in a game is not about how high you jump. Wilt didn't need too get his head over the rim and dunk it with his forehead, believe it or not. You can't gather a players vertical jump off of dunks in a game. Especially back in the day when you get a nudge, then a few arms dangling on your shoulders, and then dunked it if possible while off balance.

I've never heard anyone from back in the day claim that Wilt's vertical was anything less than 38"+. Unless you can refute this and find one source from the 60s that can refute the hundreds that claim it was in the 40"s I'll stick to my story. None of the commentators, journalists, teammates, opponents, scouts or coaches. To me, that's enough evidence that it was legitimately that high. Not to mention his outrageous athleticism all around in endurance, strength and quickness. It doesn't make me skeptical at all, not when I hear of his other records.

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Charles Barkley: "I think it would have been an insult if they put Bird on me. He was the worst defensive player ever."

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lw32

Wilt was dunking on 12' baskets during his days with the Kansas freshman team. How do I know this? Phog Allen, the Kansas coach, was a bigtime advocate of the 12 foot basket. He had them at Kansas at the time, when they were debating whether to go with 10' or 12'. Wilt was dunking on the 12 footers then.

__________________
Charles Barkley: "I think it would have been an insult if they put Bird on me. He was the worst defensive player ever."

"Stanley's idea of a balanced meal is a Big Mac in each hand" -- then Orlando Magic GM Pat Williams on overweight Magic first round draft choice Stanley Roberts

kflo

kusports.com link

kflo

point being, there's alot of different versions of much of what wilt did / didn't do. and it all gets repeated back and forth. and wilt's insecurity was such that he fueled every exaggeration.

and claims of a 48-50 inch vertical are ridiculous. you draw nothing from ridiculous claims. you dismiss them. 48-50 would place him possibly as the greatest leaper in nba history, at any height.

lw32

You're right kflo, Wilt's the king of exaggeration. I don't believe he had a 48" vertical, although he's not the only one to state it. It sounds more like his 1.2 women per day numbers. I do believe it was around the 40" mark though. I don't see how that's so insane. Dwight Howard's vertical as it stands now is somewhere around 38". Not impossible by far.

About the 12' baskets, from the very site that you got your information: "To make a point, Phog Allen once set up 12-foot goals in old Robinson Gym, where KU practiced, but they were never used in Hoch Auditorium where this game is being played." I find it hard to believe that, seeing as they were set up, Wilt wasn't dunking on them. Do you seriously believe that these baskets were set up, but nobody was ever playing around on them?

His arms are freakishly long in the pictures from that site. They're also seriously skinny.

__________________
Charles Barkley: "I think it would have been an insult if they put Bird on me. He was the worst defensive player ever."

"Stanley's idea of a balanced meal is a Big Mac in each hand" -- then Orlando Magic GM Pat Williams on overweight Magic first round draft choice Stanley Roberts

kflo

yes, his arms are skinny - yet we have reports of wilt benching 500 lbs while at kansas.

and it says the 12 foot rims were ONCE set up. and wilt would only dunk on them if he could, and he tried. it's possible it's neither. and it's possible he saw no reason to practice on it.

kflo

yes, his arms are skinny - yet we have reports of wilt benching 500 lbs while at kansas.

and it says the 12 foot rims were ONCE set up. and wilt would only dunk on them if he could, and he tried. it's possible it's neither. and it's possible he saw no reason to practice on it.

PauloCatarino

Hater!

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mysterio

When did the obsession with measuring vertical leap begin? It wasn't until the 90s when all this talk about vertical leap started. Although we do know he cleared a personal best of 6'6" in the high jump (the world record being 8 feet by a guy more than half a foot shorter), do you really think a guy with Wilt's pride would actually submit himself to one of those vertal leap measuring tests if they even did them back then. Hell no, he'd say it's kids stuff, and push you to the side. Back in the day, the regular way to measure vertical was just visual. Wilt was so tall and when he'd jump, his head would be so high, that people would be bound to mistakenly guess he had a vertical in the 40 inch range. So no, I don't trust the 1960s commentators, journalists, teammates, scouts, and coaches. I trust accurate measurements and photographic proof. You don't always jump with the ball, you also have pictures and video of him jumping his hardest to block shots. Again, from what I have seen, I think his running vertical was about 34-36 inches (so his standing vert would probably be as low as 30-32).

BTW, Dwight Howard has 35 inch standing vertical and a 38 inch running vertical as he can he his head about an inch over the rim without the ball.

kflo

i remember hearing about verticals back in the days of david thompson and darrell griffith - 2 guys reported to be in the 48 inch range. don't know how the measurements would have been conducted back then. i do know that a good friend of mine claimed to have seen thompson do the famous quarter off the top of the backboard trick at a basketball camp. could just be a wilt-like urban legend though. there are claims of the same from the shorter earl the goat, and the 6'4 helicopter (bernard king swears).

BadBaronRudigor