Mile equivalent to dunking a basketball?

Dingler wrote:

walter j wrote:

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).

It doesn't matter who you know - it is common sense.

Sally Vixxxxxxxens wrote:

Dr. Dunkenstein wrote:

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.

I have a tough time believing that your wife was able to dunk a volleyball and you were able to dunk at the age of 50. My high school team was ranked as high as second in the state of Texas and everyone could dunk with relative ease. But by the time I was 50 there was no way I could have dunked. I am 6' tall. I went from doing some really good dunks at 18 to hardly being able to tough the rim at 40. You lose so much spring by that age. And at 50? NO way and no way on your wife.

Personally I have a tougher time believing this dude visiting letsrun has a son who can jump higher than Zion could when he was healthy. An athletic woman touching a volleyball lobbed to her and calling it a dunk is one thing, but hitting your head on the rim is a whole different class of impressive.

Don't forget that the same guy could do crazy dunks in high school and he was a D1 HJ conference champ. All of this in the same household.

Being able to get your hand over the basketball rim may not be that hard for a decent athlete of 5-10 or taller, but a lot of people like that (ie, me) don't have the hand size to grip or palm a basketball so we'd actually have to dunk with two hands ... which requires a lot more jumping ability. I could pretty easier dunk smaller things, up to and including a volleyball, but not a basketball.

This thread is pretty funny. The number of people who can actually dunk is being waaaaay overstated. Ignoring those over 6’5 because essentially they can just stand there and dunk without even really jumping, the number of athletes that can dunk is actually pretty low. Coaching varsity basketball in Houston for over a decade I can honestly say that I haven’t see very many kids less than 6’5 dunk, even in warmups where they have a free run at the basket and will show off if they can. On average I’d say most schools had 1-2 dunkers so thats 1-2 out of 15 players. Similarly, schools without strong running programs rarely have sub 5 minute milers, maybe 1 each. I would think dunking = 5:15-5:30.

More more more wrote:

Don't forget that the same guy could do crazy dunks in high school and he was a D1 HJ conference champ. All of this in the same household.

Ya, what are the odds of two tall parents with great jumping ability having a tall child with great jumping ability?

reeeeeeeeallly wrote:

Personally I have a tougher time believing this dude visiting letsrun has a son who can jump higher than Zion could when he was healthy.

Zion can get his head above the rim.

reeeeeeeeallly wrote:

hitting your head on the rim is a whole different class of impressive.

Probably an exaggeration. I've heard fans say this about players and they just mean that they jump really high and have their head up there near the rim.

Hourunner wrote:

This thread is pretty funny. The number of people who can actually dunk is being waaaaay overstated. Ignoring those over 6’5 because essentially they can just stand there and dunk without even really jumping, the number of athletes that can dunk is actually pretty low. Coaching varsity basketball in Houston for over a decade I can honestly say that I haven’t see very many kids less than 6’5 dunk, even in warmups where they have a free run at the basket and will show off if they can. On average I’d say most schools had 1-2 dunkers so thats 1-2 out of 15 players. Similarly, schools without strong running programs rarely have sub 5 minute milers, maybe 1 each. I would think dunking = 5:15-5:30.

Yes. Way overstating the dunk ability of most people. I cant think of the last guy at my school that dunked in a game. A few kids could do it un guarded and we've had a few kids athletic enough to do it that didn't play on the basketball team

This year, our tallest guy is 6’5 and he can dunk sometimes in a non game, warmup type situation.

Before opening this thread, my thought was 4:30, and im sticking with it.

The guy who said you have to be able to palm a basketball to dunk is correct. That probably eliminates 90 percent of the people on here before we even get to jumping.

I dunked and ran a sub 4 in the same year.

Not many can say that.

But to answer the question. 4:20 is my guess

It's really hard to compare the two. There were only a handful of kids in my highschool that could dunk out of 700 or so, and only 2-3 that were 6' or shorter. I remember watching our state champion 6' 100m sprinter (I think he ran 10.7 or so) struggle to dunk while messing around in the gym before track practice (we would meet in the gym instead of outside before practice on cold days). I was on the distance squad, but I got pretty dang close to dunking a basketball in highschool ( I could occasionally dunk a volleyball). Dunked a few times in an open gym freshman year of college, but never in a game, when I played pickup ball regularly. Just last week at age 25 I dunked a women's ball on 9'10" at the NBA experience in Disney Springs even though I have just been running without playing any basketball in the last 2 years.

Of my closest 5 friends, I have the most jumping ability, even though I'm maybe only the 3rd best sprinter. One of my friends is 5'10" with a sub 50 400m pr and was a college pole vaulter. He could grab the rim, but not get close to dunking. My other friend ran a 5:02 mile in highschool, but probably only has a 15 inch vert.

At other times, you'll find people that don't look athletic or explosive with really good hops. It's a weird thing. For reference I ran a 4:28 1600m in H.S. I would put the equivalent at around a 4:55 mile for a male 6' tall. add 15 seconds per mile for every inch of height added. subtract 10 seconds per mile for every inch of height subtracted.

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?

4:10 - 4:15 is ridiculous. My senior year of high school there were maybe 3 guys in the entire state of Tennessee who could run sub 4:15. There had to be at least 1000 that could dunk.

I would say somewhere in the 5:10-5:20 zone.

Nobody can dunk a mile

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?

Star wrote:

Dunking ability is very height reliant.

Running a Mike is not.

There is no equivalent.

Exactly. The two cannot really be compared at all. I met a 16 year old kid a couple of years ago that could not dunk despite being 6'11". I know because I was looking up to him. I don't look up to many people. Generally anyone over 6'5" should be able to dunk with a little bit of athletic ability. The bigger question is can you dunk in a game. Not pick up basketball, a real game with ref's and all. It's a lot different and a lot harder.

I think 4:30 give or take

I went to a mid-larger school (1200 students) in a mid-sized state and the basketball team was very competitive, 90% wins in 4 years, undefeated and ranked #1 all year one year (but got knocked out in the rounds), and won state another year with just one or two losses. No more than about five of the basketball players could dunk any given year and don't think any other athletes/non athletes could without at least some additional training for part of the year. Running wasn't big, but about only one kid a year could run under 4:30, maybe three at 4:30 to 4:40. With a bigger/better distance program maybe up to five or six could have done it.

Later on, coached XC and track at a school of about the same size/but smaller state population-wise. They fielded very competitive teams, won some state titles, and placed high at large multi-state XC invites (e.g., 5th or 6th at the regional level among highly competitive teams in a four state regional meet). They'd about get three under 4:30 (16:00 5K XC ) a year. Maybe 10-12 under 5:00, and the best year they had 8 under 17 minutes for 5K XC.

Sub 5:00. Sticking with it. Dunking is not as common as this thread makes it out to be, and neither is a sub-5 mile when looking at the larger population. I think people watch basketball highlight videos on MaxPreps of players dunking and think it applies to the larger boys basketball population, when in reality, those are the best 100 players in the nation and are extreme outliers. Very few high school players can overpower defenders and dunk while being guarded in a game.