Spoiler 38''Kobe, Harden 39.5'' Dwight 40''+ LBJ 42'' Tmac, Dominique 43'' Vince 43'' Clyde 43.5'' Nate Shannon Brown Zion Spud Webb Derrick Jones Lavine James Flight White J-Rich 3.Dennis Smith jr. 2. Darrell Griffith 1. You know who Average NBA guy 20+''
There's absolutely no way Gerald Green isn't on that list. I've seen multiple dunks where his eyes were at or slightly above the rim, which is at least a 46 inch vertical for a man 6'6.
Jordan also blessed with a hand size of someone who should be 7'9". 12% more of someone his height. Very physically gifted for this game.
According to the movie about octopus aliens, time and distance are circular, making the guy who jumps backwards the record holder.
Based on the NBA pre-draft measurements, the high flying Green gets up at 39 inches. That must have been an off day for him, because (like you) my eyes see more
Hand size is underappreciated. Also hand control and power. Hakeem and Bird had great hands. McGrady did and today Jokic and Kawhi do. Coincidentally, those guys also had or have great footwork as well.
David Thompson should have been on there he was the originator of the alley oop and played small forward most of his career at 6'4
A lot of them aren't NBA official. MJ was measured at 45.5" on a running jump, and 42" from a sargent jump at UNC, including running a 4.36 40 yd, all which was overseen by Dean Smith and Roy Williams so I believe them. MJ did add explosive muscle from UNC days to early to mid NBA days even if he didn't truly add muscle til around '90, so possibly pushed those numbers slightly on good days in his Slam Dunk contest days. I could see going from 45.5 to a high 46 on his best days, but 48 is likely a slight exaggeration.
There are a lot of “forgotten” guys with higher verticals than these guys. Diallo for example had a 45 inch vertical and Pat Connaughton had a 44 inch vertical. There have been lots of others... Desmond Mason and even Ralph Sampson could really get up. The oddest one I heard about is someone that is probably one of the 3-5 best athletes I have ever seen regardless of sport... Randy Moss had a 51” vertical... yes it is legit.
I'm gonna go ahead and assume the vert of the man who dunked over a 7fter in-game is not just 5 inches higher then Hardens. These measurements are of one jump on one day before they were even in the league. I think the eye test is a good indicator of who has hops.
As usual, Wilt overlooked https://olympic.ca/2017/09/06/getting-vertical-the-highest-jumps-in-sport/ Think about that, and you begin to understand his greatness. Highest vertical and over 7' tall. Also faster and stronger then pretty much anybody else. Shaq may have been a decent match in strength, but no where close in leaping ability. Wilt was pretty much the NBA's version of Secretariat.
