Had this discussion on a long run this weekend: “What time in the mile is equivalent to being able to dunk a basketball?” I was sure it would have been discussed here before but searched and couldn’t find anything...
I said around 4:10-4:15. Something basically everyone on a scholarship at a power5 college playing their sport can do.
Other answers ranged from 4:30 (this seems way too easy in my opinion, but I also know way more people who were runners than basketball players) to 4:00 (which is definitely too hard as only a handful of high schoolers have ever gone this fast but I’m guessing many high schoolers a year can dunk).
What say you?
Mile equivalent to dunking a basketball?
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I think 4:30 is about right. I'd guess most high schools have a guy that can dunk, some might not have any, some might have more than one. I'm comfortable guessing the average school has one dunker. I'd guess the same thing about 4:30 milers.
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Don't know, but everyone on my son's high school varsity and JV teams could dunk as could many of the intramural and pickup players.
Pretty much anyone over 6' and athletic can dunk. But like you, my sampling is biased. I've played a lot of pickup basketball over the years and most young guys could dunk even if they didn't get close to making varsity in high school.
My son could dunk at age 13. My wife could dunk a volleyball when she was a college basketball player. I dunked on my 50th birthday.
I'd say like a 5 minute mile. Maybe slower. -
Dr. Dunkenstein wrote:
Don't know, but everyone on my son's high school varsity and JV teams could dunk as could many of the intramural and pickup players.
Pretty much anyone over 6' and athletic can dunk. But like you, my sampling is biased. I've played a lot of pickup basketball over the years and most young guys could dunk even if they didn't get close to making varsity in high school.
My son could dunk at age 13. My wife could dunk a volleyball when she was a college basketball player. I dunked on my 50th birthday.
I'd say like a 5 minute mile. Maybe slower.
btw, I could do amazing dunks in high school but got cut and didn't make the high school team. Including me, we had three guys on our intramural team who dunked during a game. -
Dr. Dunkenstein wrote:
Don't know, but everyone on my son's high school varsity and JV teams could dunk as could many of the intramural and pickup players.
Pretty much anyone over 6' and athletic can dunk. But like you, my sampling is biased. I've played a lot of pickup basketball over the years and most young guys could dunk even if they didn't get close to making varsity in high school.
My son could dunk at age 13. My wife could dunk a volleyball when she was a college basketball player. I dunked on my 50th birthday.
I'd say like a 5 minute mile. Maybe slower.
I don't think anyone in my entire county could dunk. One runner ran a 4:20 mile one year. The next year I think the fastest mile was around 4:30. -
Any school of 1000 kids probably has 15 kids who can dunk and probably has 15 kids who can run 4:50. A small school will have 3 kids who can dunks and 3 who can run 4:50.
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Dr. Dunkenstein wrote:
Don't know, but everyone on my son's high school varsity and JV teams could dunk as could many of the intramural and pickup players.
Pretty much anyone over 6' and athletic can dunk. But like you, my sampling is biased. I've played a lot of pickup basketball over the years and most young guys could dunk even if they didn't get close to making varsity in high school.
My son could dunk at age 13. My wife could dunk a volleyball when she was a college basketball player. I dunked on my 50th birthday.
I'd say like a 5 minute mile. Maybe slower.
How tall are you, your wife and son? At my mostly white HS, the tallest guy on the BB team was 6'4" and I never saw a dunk in a game. -
About 5:20. But it is a bad comparison. Dunking is mostly genetic. If you have a 6’6” athletic kid he can dunk. Most people aren’t running 5:20 without training for it.
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yeah okay wrote:
I don't think anyone in my entire county could dunk. One runner ran a 4:20 mile one year. The next year I think the fastest mile was around 4:30.
Both my son and I had graduating classes of about 800, so there were a lot of guys to choose from and it was hard to make varsity (he did, I didn't). And for whatever reason, his teams didn't have any short guys. The shortest were about 6'1" and they could dunk.
In my thinking, just about any young and athletic guy can dunk, but maybe my sampling is not representative. -
Love the question, I'm in the camp of 4:30. Back in the day I could dunk and run a mile in 4:04, I also used to go to the park and f*!k around and get a triple-double. Those were good days...
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You are way off on this. Dunking a basketball is way easier than running 4:10-4:15. There are many people that can dunk a basketball that have never even played basketball. You don't even have to know how to play basketball to be able to dunk. You only need some combination of height/jumping/gripping to be able to dunk. Many people can dunk a basketball without any training whatsoever. Pretty much no one can run a mile in 4:10-4:15 without training.
Dingler wrote:
Had this discussion on a long run this weekend: “What time in the mile is equivalent to being able to dunk a basketball?” I was sure it would have been discussed here before but searched and couldn’t find anything...
I said around 4:10-4:15. Something basically everyone on a scholarship at a power5 college playing their sport can do.
Other answers ranged from 4:30 (this seems way too easy in my opinion, but I also know way more people who were runners than basketball players) to 4:00 (which is definitely too hard as only a handful of high schoolers have ever gone this fast but I’m guessing many high schoolers a year can dunk).
What say you? -
Dingler wrote:
I said around 4:10-4:15.
You are an idiot. -
SDSU Aztec wrote:
How tall are you, your wife and son? At my mostly white HS, the tallest guy on the BB team was 6'4" and I never saw a dunk in a game.
Me: 6'3", wife: 6'0" (3 inches taller than men who are "six feet"), son: 5'11" and dunking at 13, 6'5" and hitting his head on the rim by college. -
Go to any serious playground game and a lot of the guys there can dunk. I could dunk in HS and I didn't play on our school's team, I'm guessing around 5-10 of the guys on the team could and just as many who didn't play (school was about 1000 people). It's about as impressive as a 5:00 mile, maybe less so though it's more due to genetics than training.
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Dunking ability is very height reliant.
Running a Mike is not.
There is no equivalent. -
There is no "equivalent." Basketball hoops are measured in feet, which is a unit of length. The mile is obviously measured in miles, which is a unit of distance. You cannot convert between the two units.
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Predictor wrote:
Any school of 1000 kids probably has 15 kids who can dunk and probably has 15 kids who can run 4:50. A small school will have 3 kids who can dunks and 3 who can run 4:50.
I'm mlnot sure there was even one kid in my mostly White HS that could dunk and traîned, or not, there was no way there were 15 guys that could run 4:50. -
I went to a smallish high school (800), and we easily had 10 guys on the basketball team that could dunk. There were probably another 15+ that could also do it (including me).
Likewise, our track team had 10 guys under 5:15 or so, and there were probably another 15 or so that could have done it but played other sports.
I’d say over 5:00, for sure. More like 5:10-5:20. -
walter j wrote:
Dingler wrote:
I said around 4:10-4:15.
You are an idiot.
No, like I said I guess I just know a lot of runners and not that many basketball players (or 6’6” people as another poster suggests). -
Dingler wrote:
walter j wrote:
Dingler wrote:
I said around 4:10-4:15.
You are an idiot.
No, like I said I guess I just know a lot of runners and not that many basketball players (or 6’6” people as another poster suggests).
I think the point is that you don’t have to be a basketball player to be able to dunk, but you would have to be a supremely dedicated and talented runner to go 4:10-4:15.
I consider myself a pretty serious runner, but I have only accomplished one of these feats, and it isn’t 4:15.
