Ex-NBA'er Brian Scalabrine claims he ran a 4:45 mile as a Soph in College

I beg to differ. I'm pretty sure if trained from birth to run, that 90% of the population would run 4:45. It really is pretty easy to run a 4:45. I've seen all sorts of goofs run 4:45. Tall ones, short ones, fat ones, knock knee'd ones, everything. 4:45's all day. If more of our population was trained to be fit and run from birth then 90% would run 4:45.

it's like the great guitar players everyone knows....they're never sitting there with a guitar.

harry wales wrote:

megahorse wrote:

Thanks for cutting off the first part of my post. Ricardo Ratliffe, 6-8 250, ran 4:56. I watched it. I have no doubts Scalabrine could run 4:45. High school freshmen with strong natural ability run 4:30 or better. A high school freshman with passable athleticism and a lean build runs 4:45. If Scalabrine ran 4 miles a day for, say, 3 months leading up to the time trial, on top of his basketball training, you don't think he would have the aerobic power to run 4:45?

You have to factor in who is timing these fitness miles, and what there motivation is. They are more likely to round down rather than round up.

Remember all those threads about how fast/fit marine recruits are, and how fast they can run their fitness test 2 miles.

I have no reason to lie about Ricardo Ratliffe running 4:56. I watched it, had a watch on it, got the splits (he didn't run even, something like 69-77-80-70). I'm not saying Scalabrine did or didn't run 4:45, I'm just saying it is entirely believable that he did.

the differ guy wrote:

I beg to differ. I'm pretty sure if trained from birth to run, that 90% of the population would run 4:45. It really is pretty easy to run a 4:45. I've seen all sorts of goofs run 4:45. Tall ones, short ones, fat ones, knock knee'd ones, everything. 4:45's all day. If more of our population was trained to be fit and run from birth then 90% would run 4:45.

90% of males don't run that fast even though they are training for it.

On a side note, anybody pronouncing his name properly?

Brian Scalabrine

Pronunciation: skah-lah-BREE-nee

I believe this. In my high school our quarterback/point guard broke his leg. To rehab he decided to run track. He ran a 4:20 mile and a 1:56 800 that season. Some people are just superlative athletes.

megahorse wrote:

Woot wrote:

High school freshmen with strong natural ability run 4:45. There I fixed it for you.

And I think you are confusing shorter NBA players, which need way more athletic ability to excel, with those in the top 0.1% in height and really only need average athletic ability.

Thanks for cutting off the first part of my post. Ricardo Ratliffe, 6-8 250, ran 4:56. I watched it. I have no doubts Scalabrine could run 4:45. High school freshmen with strong natural ability run 4:30 or better. A high school freshman with passable athleticism and a lean build runs 4:45. If Scalabrine ran 4 miles a day for, say, 3 months leading up to the time trial, on top of his basketball training, you don't think he would have the aerobic power to run 4:45?

You have got to be trolling us with your "High School freshman with passable athleticism and a lean build runs 4:45" non-sense. I had pretty strong natural ability myself and only ran 4:55 as a freshman (and I was already full grown height-wise). I also ran at the same school you are referencing with your Ricardo Ratliffe story so I was no slouch.

Mile "time trials" for other sports are notorious for being short. They generally aren't done on tracks, and I've participated in ones that were sometimes only around 1200m. Coaches use them to intimidate players into doing some amount of off season training and rarely, if ever, apply rigorous standards to these tests.

I'd say he was probably in 5:45+ shape.

megahorse wrote:

Woot wrote:

High school freshmen with strong natural ability run 4:45. There I fixed it for you.

And I think you are confusing shorter NBA players, which need way more athletic ability to excel, with those in the top 0.1% in height and really only need average athletic ability.

Thanks for cutting off the first part of my post. Ricardo Ratliffe, 6-8 250, ran 4:56. I watched it. I have no doubts Scalabrine could run 4:45. High school freshmen with strong natural ability run 4:30 or better. A high school freshman with passable athleticism and a lean build runs 4:45. If Scalabrine ran 4 miles a day for, say, 3 months leading up to the time trial, on top of his basketball training, you don't think he would have the aerobic power to run 4:45?

So, did you run 4:30 as a freshman and could do 4:45 pretty easily and therefore everyone else is the same? Not sure if you are trolling or completely removed from reality. 4:30 would score points in many smaller states' championship meet. Using athletic.net as a reference, about 75 freshman ran 4:30 and roughly 800 4:45 or better. So"passable athleticism and a lean build" seems pretty disconnected from the top 800 freshmen in the entire country.

different perspective wrote:

megahorse wrote:

Thanks for cutting off the first part of my post. Ricardo Ratliffe, 6-8 250, ran 4:56. I watched it. I have no doubts Scalabrine could run 4:45. High school freshmen with strong natural ability run 4:30 or better. A high school freshman with passable athleticism and a lean build runs 4:45. If Scalabrine ran 4 miles a day for, say, 3 months leading up to the time trial, on top of his basketball training, you don't think he would have the aerobic power to run 4:45?

You have got to be trolling us with your "High School freshman with passable athleticism and a lean build runs 4:45" non-sense. I had pretty strong natural ability myself and only ran 4:55 as a freshman (and I was already full grown height-wise). I also ran at the same school you are referencing with your Ricardo Ratliffe story so I was no slouch.

4:55 as a freshman isn't terrible, but I don't think it's anything to write home about. You obviously improved, and the point of distance running (and really any endeavor) is to find out where you end up, not where you start. I ran 4:57 as a freshman, it was cool to break 5:00, but I didn't think it was anything special as there were tons of kids from my area who ran 4:45 (and much, much faster) as freshmen--there were junior high kids running close to those times. It's just not very fast. The point is that I have no problem believing Scalabrine ran 4:45 as a 20-year old. He's an elite athlete who probably put some form of work into it. It's not like he is saying he ran 4:14.

I also ran at Mizzou, my handle probably gives that away if we ran there at the same time.

800 seems like a lot of kids. That's 16 kids per state. That doesn't include kids who didn't have times posted on athletic.net. And how many kids who ran 4:47 did so without training (as Scalabrine claims to have done)? There are a lot of variables. All I'm saying is that, in terms of absolute performance, it just isn't that fast, and a 20-year old with the athletic ability of Brian Scalabrine can probably run 4:45 given he's done some aerobic training.

I've been out of school for awhile now so I'm sure I'm much older. I ran hs in the mid-90's so that was the glory days of slow times. So maybe my 4:55 freshman time would be the equivalent of 4:45 in the modern, post Alan Webb era.

Back to the main topic, I don't believe for a second that Brian Scalabrine could run a legitimate 4:45 mile. Other NBA players could have for sure, but no way he's one of them.

Only on the semi-braindead forums of LR will you find an idiot -- I mean a truly moronic clown -- who somehow thinks 90% of the population can be trained to run a 4:45 mile.

You really can't make this stuff up. We are no doubt getting dumber as a society.

Look at this clown's line of "logic". Really. I want to laugh, but it's Friday and I realize this guy might be procreating or voting or driving.

harry wales wrote:

megahorse wrote:

Thanks for cutting off the first part of my post. Ricardo Ratliffe, 6-8 250, ran 4:56. I watched it. I have no doubts Scalabrine could run 4:45. High school freshmen with strong natural ability run 4:30 or better. A high school freshman with passable athleticism and a lean build runs 4:45. If Scalabrine ran 4 miles a day for, say, 3 months leading up to the time trial, on top of his basketball training, you don't think he would have the aerobic power to run 4:45?

You have to factor in who is timing these fitness miles, and what there motivation is. They are more likely to round down rather than round up.

Remember all those threads about how fast/fit marine recruits are, and how fast they can run their fitness test 2 miles.

The stories from the military are absolutely hilarious. My cousin told me a guy he knew from the army ran his 2 mile fitness test in 7 minutes. 7 fvcking minutes! Why this young recruit of Nigerian descent is the greatest distance runner of all time and he's wasting away as a grunt. Not only that but the army is wasting their time on comparative bums like Chelimo and Kipchirchir. It's a joke. Unless filmed on a measured track I won't believe such claims and without any elaboration I won't buy Scal here either. In this day and age some of these "fitness tests" must be getting filmed. Someone find it.

I doubt it.

Scal says lots and lots of things...many of them very questionable

Matt Bonner maybe. Bill Walton definitely. Brian Scalabrine gtfo.

that cannot be true. Baseball players are notoriously unfit and the game doesn't demand a lot of cardiovascular fitness.

What people don't understand is that a "mile" is not the same distance for everyone.

For professional athletes the distance of "the mile" is negotiated by the agent at the same time as salary negotiations:

1) For professional basketball players - the mile is usually between 2.25 and 2.75 times around the track.

2) If you are a professional football or baseball player - it is usually between 1 and 2 times

For NCAA men the

3) Basketball- 3 times around the track.

4) Soccer - 3.25 times around the track.

5) Distance track - 4 times

He's also not an idiot. I will give him benefit of the doubt. He did not claim to do a 4:45 _later_ i.e upper classman or in the nba.