There's no way to know. Probably not, as most people can't. But just because he was big doesn't mean he couldn't if he had lost some weight.
There's no way to know. Probably not, as most people can't. But just because he was big doesn't mean he couldn't if he had lost some weight.
he also power lifted starting a year or two after entering the league so he was naturally leaner than he appeared
in terms of dunking on people, not clicking of 70ish sec laps on the track. those two things are worlds apart.
Goldman wrote:
The man was undoubtedly an amazingly gifted athlete.
Jordan weighed about 190 when he entered the league
He was about 200 for most of his NBA career with the bulls
When he was in his mid-twenties he probably could have run mid 16s
It's not hard to imagine him being able to sustain a 5:30 mile
Surprised he didn't break 5 minutes for the mile at Carolina.
People are saying recently that LeBron James is in 420 miles shape. I think people have a tendency to underestimate how fast and how fit guys in the NBA r. Give these guys a couple of weeks training I'm pretty sure they could pull some pretty fast Mile and 5K times
Could he have run sub-4:30?
Goldman wrote:
Could Jordan in his prime run sub 15? No. If you pulled Jordan from 1993 or so and had him run a 5k I would expect around 17:00.
He was 6'6", 215 or so in his prime. A 5k obviously would not suit his body. A good 2, 4 or 600 though? I could see that pretty easily.
HAD HE TRAINED to be a 5k/mid-d runner since high school, I am confident he could have run sub 15. The man was undoubtedly an amazingly gifted athlete and had a competitive drive that exceeds any other athlete I have seen.
I've often read that he has such a competitive drive that it overcame any physical limitations he might have had. However, his jumping ability, body control and long arms were a big part of his success.
If he had had my body, he would have been the first guy cut from the freshmen basketball team and then would have become a 9:30 2-miler.
As someone already wrote somewhere, decathletes are probably a decent comparison to top basketball player on fast positions (i.e. not huge slow centers) who are very good at sprinting and jumping.
Now, decathletes to some extent do train for the 1500m, but probably not so much. And they are far from fresh. Still, while some decathletes would probably run barely sub 4 1500 (ca. 4:20 mile) without 9 other disciplines before, I think that many would not, rather 4:20 instead of 4:40 1500m. I would expect a somewhat similar distribution with top NBA players, some might run around sub 4:30 mile, but far more around 5 min.
What I forgot, I think times of NBA guys would drop quickly from somewhat impressive 400m times to the mile and to considerably less impressive 5k or longer.
Real answer is no. He had no reason to run that far. He had nothing to prove
and no one would care.
Nah, I doubt even Allen Iverson could, and he was faster, lighter, and more nimble than Jordan. In one of his biographies he said he ran a 4:30 or so mile in high school, but I doubt he could have gone sub 15, unless properly trained... and even then...