In contrast, my brother was at Duke in the 80s. He was jogging at the track and witnessed Johnny Dawkins running a 4:14 mile for Coach K. ! I guess Duke had a better Interval pre-season program back then.
This settles a lot of the debates on just how fast high level athletes (who aren't distance runners) actually are.
These guys are very good basketball players...but they could not beat a decent middle school boys XC team in a race.
These are muscular men. The 5'10" equivalent of these player is 170 to 190 lbs. Terrible weight for distance. If they cut down to "ideal" distance weight and spent a year training specifically for distance they'd make a very good high school varsity squad.
But obviously their elite talent is explosiveness and speed. They'd never be elite distance runners.
Trying to lose that much muscle is likely to have negative health consequences. Genetics determine sports skills and different training doesn’t change that. If a 5’10 distance runner pumps weights and puts on 30 lbs, do you believe he’ll become a dunking fool on the basketball court?
I am going to go ahead and say these times aren't legit. Those guys, at the their size, aren't all running that fast. The slowest going 5:45? Naw, I'd have to see uncut footage of them running to believe that.
In the 60s there was an olympic wrestling team that did a Cooper test and even the slowest runner, 320 lbs, was able to cover 2 miles in 12 minutes. It's not that unbelievable.
In contrast, my brother was at Duke in the 80s. He was jogging at the track and witnessed Johnny Dawkins running a 4:14 mile for Coach K. ! I guess Duke had a better Interval pre-season program back then.
These guys are probably the most aerobically fit they will ever be in their lives. I ran a 5 minute mile flat when I was sick and injured during gym class, as a 14 year old, I could barely walk at the time. I wasn’t even a miler at the time. Nor competitive at the state level at the time. These are soon to be d1 champs in a sport that inarguably pretty aerobic. this is no surprise to me. And a 260 6’9 guy running 5:45 is exactly what I’d expect from someone who is a freak athlete set potentially to make millions off their athletic abilities.
I have no idea why there are folks who are doubtful in this thread.
4:45 - 5:20 in a 1500m for a bunch of excellent athletes (albeit with the entirely wrong body type) seems pretty reasonable.
Those guys definitely aren't running at 7:30 pace in that video. While running a 5 minute mile feels fast, it looks pretty slow when you are watching it.
~5:20 average for elite/sub-elite athletes in a primarily explosive sport that does require some endurance sounds about right, shouldn't really be a surprise in either direction. While some aerobic capacity is necessary to play high-level basketball, it isn't really a determining factor beyond the baseline threshold, so I would expect NBA players to run very similar times on average. I'd guess there are maybe a dozen or so pros who could break five in this setup, obviously many more could do this if they trained specifically.
I remember some NBA guy claimed he ran a sub 60 400m in a workout and people here lost their minds.
In high school, every year a few guys would come to track from football and run a sub 50 400m after like 2 weeks of training. These were buff guys who almost never ran more than 50yd at a time.
I'd bet a few NBA players could do 49 in an open 400m, tomorrow, off of no specific training. I'd bet a few NBA players might even dip under 4:50 in a mile, given good pacing and an honest effort.
I can understand the mile being harder for their phenotype, but the 400?
I got into track off of basketball training. 54s at 14. Granted I was thin, but while there are plenty of svelte 400m runners there are a bunch with higher bmi (LaShawn Merritt, Michael Johnson, Fred Kerley). We had a local sprinter (Bryan Barnett) go 10.x, 20.x, and 46.x coming out of high school and he was higher bmi
These are absolutely elite athletes. With that being said, I would be surprised on a track that the overall average of their team is sub 6:00. Half their roster is going to be forwards and centers, and there are going to be some guys running 6:40-7:00
I saw some video of Duke running a track 1600 (or 1609?) TT in pre-season, you could hear some 1200 splits, it looked 100% legit, a bunch of guys under 5:30 IIRC. I think Mason Gillis was 1st. So I believe the Houston claims.
This settles a lot of the debates on just how fast high level athletes (who aren't distance runners) actually are.
These guys are very good basketball players...but they could not beat a decent middle school boys XC team in a race.
These are muscular men. The 5'10" equivalent of these player is 170 to 190 lbs. Terrible weight for distance. If they cut down to "ideal" distance weight and spent a year training specifically for distance they'd make a very good high school varsity squad.
But obviously their elite talent is explosiveness and speed. They'd never be elite distance runners.
1 mile isn’t really that long a distance for bulk to have a huge difference
In contrast, my brother was at Duke in the 80s. He was jogging at the track and witnessed Johnny Dawkins running a 4:14 mile for Coach K. ! I guess Duke had a better Interval pre-season program back then.
I believe that some smaller point guards are capable of this in theory. Maybe even faster. But never from basketball fitness.
No not 4:14! Dawkins and Kerry Kettles ran in the 4:30s and both ran track in HS Also. I think Wilt Chamberlain ran in the 4:30s but he also ran track in HS
Not only are they faster than the average LRC-er in the mile but they are also big and strong enough to take your girlfriends and have greater future earning potential.
