Year of the Dunk

by Asher Price

  3. Dieting: Eat oatmeal for breakfast. Okay, that’s basically your carbs for the day. Find something you like that’s low-carb and low-fat and happily snack away at it for the day. For me, this was nonfat yogurt. And I chewed gum like a man desperately trying to quit smoking. I also ate lots of fruit and raw vegetables. Sure, fruit has sugars, but we all learned in elementary school that fruit and vegetables are good for you. No alcohol, I’m afraid. No cookies. No dessert—unless it’s fruit. No fruit juices, though. And try to cut down on the dried fruit. Apart from the oatmeal, the yogurt, and the fruit, you ought to stick to protein and vegetables, preferably steamed. Have small helpings of turkey and white-meat chicken; the occasional burger, sans bun; tofu; fish. Try for lean cuts, prepared with little oil. And don’t underestimate the incredible edible egg.

  Appendix B

  The Physics of Spud’s Dunk

  On Spud Webb fan appreciation night in November 1985, the Atlanta Hawks gave away souvenir stickers instead of the usual posters. “Spud’s just too small for a poster,” a team official explained. To get to the bottom of Spud’s heroic hops—to get a sense of how impressive it is that a man too small to warrant his own fan-night poster exerted enough force to dunk—we can look to two famous laws of physics.*1

  The first is Newton’s second law of motion, known commonly as F = ma, and which also can be expressed as F = m* dv/dt, where dv is Spud’s change in velocity during the jump and dt is the time over which the jumping force is exerted, i.e., the amount of time Spud spends pushing off the ground before being completely airborne. F is the sum of forces acting on Spud: the force he exerts against the ground when he pushes off to jump, minus the force of gravity, since gravity is a force pulling him in the opposite direction. If we use Fj and Fg to describe the jumping and gravitational forces, respectively, Newton’s second law of motion can be rewritten as Fj = Fg + m* dv/dt.

  A quick aside: We’re constantly balancing the pull of gravity with a force of our own, whether we’re sitting down, walking about, or lying down. Gravity pulls us downward with a force of 1G—our weight. To stand, we must constantly exert an upward force of 1G to counteract it. The net upward and downward force = 0, and so we stay upright. We can express force as a multiple of the force of gravity, and when we do we call them G-Forces, or Gs. (You might notice when you’re in an elevator that just as it begins its acceleration upward, you feel momentarily heavier. That’s because you’re experiencing a balancing force against that acceleration. That is probably between 1G and 2Gs.)

  The second famous law at play here is the law of conservation of energy, mgh = (½)mv2, which says all of the energy of motion accumulated during the jump will be used to fight gravity and lift Spud to the top of his jump. Spud’s mass, initial airborne velocity, and height gain are m, v, and h, respectively.

  We can fill in numbers for all but one of these variables: g is the acceleration due to gravity, which, you may distantly recollect from high school physics class, is 9.8 meters per second squared; Spud’s mass during his playing days was 60 kg. Spud could jump at least 42 inches, or 1.1 meters.

  Using the law of conservation of energy, we can solve for v, or the velocity Spud needed for a height gain of 42″. v = the square root of (2* 9.8 m/s2 * 1.1 m). That comes out to 4.6 m/s. We can also call 4.6 m/s the change in velocity during the jump, dv, since Spud started with zero upward velocity when he planted his feet.

  Back to the second law of motion: Doing the math, based on what we just worked out, we learn that the force (in excess of the force of gravity) exerted by Spud Webb when he jumps is (276 kg m/s)/dt.*2 To express force as a multiple of the force of gravity, i.e., in Gs, we calculate F/(60 kg* 9.8 m/s2) = F/(588 kg m/s2).*3

  The number of Gs exerted by Spud, then, is actually ~0.5s/dt + 1, or roughly between 3 Gs and 6 Gs, depending on whether that foot-plant lasts a quarter of a second or a tenth of a second. In other words, Webb’s acceleration falls somewhere between a fighter jet lifting off an aircraft carrier and a low-to-the-ground F1 automobile cornering a curve at high speed.

  Special thanks to Jeff Moses, our family physicist, for walking me through all this.

  * * *

  *1 The physics of even seemingly elementary behavior can get very complicated very quickly. This is a boiled-down look at the physics of the dunk, one that steers clear of certain subtleties that require calculus to explain—and calculus is frankly beyond me.

  *2 The 276 figure is 4.6 m/s multiplied by 60 kg.

  *3 The 588 figure is 9.8 m/s multiplied by 60 kg.

  Acknowledgments

  This book began as a fantasy and grew, in ways I still find hard to fathom, into something remarkably real. Among this project’s pleasures, for someone who makes his home in the Texas hinterlands, was catching a peek into that faraway literary world of New York City; I can report that immensely talented and kind people are at work there.

  I’m very lucky to have David Halpern as my agent. He showed shrewdness in the early, critical shaping of this book and was a patient, smart advocate as it matured. Thanks, too, to Kathy Robbins, David’s partner in crime, and the rest of the Robbins Office for their support.

  The irrepressible Vanessa Mobley, bubbly with ideas, felt like a wise sister as much as a sharp editor, setting me straight, in the funniest ways, about not only writing but also the ways of the world. One of her corrective notes: “My friend—no oil on earth is nonfat.” Thanks to Claire Potter, who diligently pulled together this book’s odds and ends, to Kevin Doughten for his home-stretch work, and to the entire team at Crown—including the art department and Rodrigo Corral for the vivid cover.

  It felt like the more I talked about this project, the more real it would be—so thanks to my friends for their indulgence. For their enthusiasms and suggestions, I’m grateful to Nathaniel Mendelsohn, Sebastian Solomon, Marc Bush, Phil Bezanson, Alex Chung, and Julia Markovits; Bob Gee and Carolyn Kimball; and Bill Bishop and Julie Ardery. Gabe and Josh Price and Daniel and Ben Markovits each lent his own brand of valuable brotherly advice.

  In important ways, certain people took my idea seriously—arguably more seriously than it deserved!—as it teetered between fantasy and reality. Jeff Moses warmed wholeheartedly to the question of the physics of Spud Webb’s dunks. Tom Hooven picked out, in his typically incisive way, medical specialists for me to approach—without his help, this project might not have gotten off the ground. Along those lines, I’m especially grateful to Steve Doty and Polly de Mille at HSS for their willingness to work with a random dude from Texas who wanted to know how to dunk. Thanks, more broadly, to all the people who cooperated in the reporting involved with the book, in particular Charles Austin, Tyler Drake, Malcolm Burrows, Chris Corbett, Kim Geary, Jamie Osmak, Ed Coyle, Jon Salton, Laquan Williams, Josh Scoggins, Mark Goldston, and Todd Wright—and to George Barany, who shared with me the loving family archive dedicated to his parents.

  Back in Austin, Debbie Hiott, John Bridges, and Andy Alford at the American-Statesman generously granted me the leave necessary to complete this project. Thanks to them and the rest of my colleagues for making the Statesman not only a superb newspaper but also such a wonderful place to work—one I have the good fortune to call home.

  This book crystallized during my time as a Knight-Bagehot Fellow at Columbia University. The fellowship led me to Jonathan Weiner’s illuminating science journalism class; Jonathan taught us, poetically, to write about scientific research as quanta, or packets of light, a lesson that made a big impression on me. My deep appreciation to the staff of the University of Texas’s Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports, particularly to the avuncular Terry Todd for his help and storytelling on the subject of strength. For their fact-checking help, I’m indebted to Robert Dennison and Holly Duncan.

  The much-beloved Jim Phillips served as a crucial reader and confidant. One of my joys was meeting Jim at out-of-the-way Austin strip malls for Vietnamese lunch while he held forth on the pleasures of Haskell Wexler or Archer
as we went over his squiggles and scrawls. Jim was my first editor at the Statesman and remains a mentor, one for whom my fondness is undiluted by the fact that he’s a caring ear for so many others. He’s that kind of guy.

  To my parents, Aimée Brown Price and Monroe Price: It’s hard to give thanks for specific things because the truest thing to say would be thank you for absolutely everything.

  Finally, my deepest gratitude to Rebecca Markovits. Her influence is on every page of this book. She and I have put together a great life in Austin—a pretty old house with a crazy-faced dog, easygoing friends, dear family nearby. But what’s nicest for me is seeing so much of her. She is a partner in the work I do and the life I lead, and, invaluably, she has enough confidence in my abilities to nudge me, in the most thoughtful ways, to do better. This book is dedicated to her. If she were in a dunk contest and I were a judge, I’d tape a crude “1” over the zero and give her an 11. She’s that awesome.

  Notes

  These notes are meant to clarify sourcing when it may not be apparent in the text. I also include links to YouTube videos and some elaboration on points made in the main text.

  INTRODUCTION

  sellout crowd: “Spud Webb Wowed Reunion Crowd in ’86 Dunk Contest,” Dallas Morning News, Feb. 11, 2010.

  unusually large head: “Game Changes, but Appeal Remains the Same,” New York Times, Nov. 20, 1983.

  his parents own: “Spud Webb Wowed Reunion Crowd in ’86 Dunk Contest.”

  three sisters: “Spud Webb Wowed Reunion Crowd in ’86 Dunk Contest.”

  parking meter: “Untangling the Webb Mystery,” Chicago Tribune, Feb. 8, 1986.

  can’t even palm: “Spud Webb Wowed Reunion Crowd in ’86 Dunk Contest.”

  Webb makes the league minimum: “Little Spud Is Big Stuff,” Los Angeles Times, Feb. 9, 1986.

  The winner gets: “A Speedy Seedling Among the NBA’s Tallest Trees,” People, March 10, 1986.

  The judging panel: “Little Spud Is Big Stuff.”

  as far back as high school: “Spud Webb Wowed Reunion Crowd in ’86 Dunk Contest.”

  about the same acceleration as a fighter jet: A fighter jet accelerates at about 33 meters per second squared, leaving the pilot feeling pushed back in her seat by a force slightly greater than 3 Gs, or three times the force of gravity; put another way, the force exerted on the pilot is about three times the force you’d feel if you jumped off a cliff. For more discussion about the fighter-jet example, see the presentation “Acceleration of Aircraft Carrier Takeoff” at the website of the Khan Academy: https://www.​khanacademy.​org/​science/​physics/​one-​dimensional-​motion/​kinematic_​formulas/​v/​acceleration-​of-​aircraft-​carrier-​takeoff, accessed Aug. 21, 2014.

  An avalanche of dunks: To see these for yourself, check out “1986 Slam Dunk Contest,” https://www.​youtube.​com/​watch?​v=DnNEe8N1cxs, accessed Aug. 12, 2014.

  “In my next life”: Martina Navratilova interview with John Andraisese, Feb. 8, 1986, “1986 NBA Slam Dunk Contest Part ⅔,” https://www.​youtube.​com/​watch?​v=​jKxwCCSFKPg, 1:30 mark, accessed Aug. 10, 2014.

  “God-given talent”: “Quotes of the Week,” Associated Press, Feb. 15, 1986.

  The Onion: “97-Year-Old Dies Unaware of Being Violin Prodigy,” The Onion, Oct. 4, 2010.

  “the clock will read 0.00”: Chuck Klosterman, “Is the Fastest Human Ever Already Alive?” Grantland, July 16, 2011.

  “White men can’t jump.”: White Men Can’t Jump, directed by Ron Shelton, Los Angeles, Calif., Twentieth Century-Fox, 1992.

  “I should not talk so much about myself”: Henry David Thoreau, Walden, or Life in the Woods (New York: Signet, 1960), 7.

  In 2008, candidate Barack Obama: PierceMedia—610 AM Philadelphia, “Barack Obama on Sports Talk Radio, April 2, 2008,” YouTube video, 3:30 mark, https://www.​youtube.​com/​watch?​v=​M6DT866VXvA.

  Obama first dunked: S. L. Price, “One-on-One with Obama,” si.​com, Dec. 24, 2007.

  The tallest was Danny Rosen: Danny Rosen is a pseudonym, the only one in this entire book.

  “He always kept his poise”: Robert Frost, “Birches,” The Poetry of Robert Frost, ed. Edward Connery Lathem (New York: Henry Holt, 1979), 121–22.

  CHAPTER 1: ASSEMBLING THE GURUS

  Interviews: Tyler Drake, Daniel Markovits, Polly de Mille, Jamie Osmak, Steve Doty.

  did the team snap the streak: “What’s Next Is on Minds at Caltech,” Los Angeles Times, Jan. 8, 2007.

  “I, too, only reached the rim”: Stephen Doty email to author, April 5, 2012.

  doctors turned long ago to cadavers: In the 1980s, a group of researchers conducted the Brussels cadaver analysis. J. P. Clarys et al., “Cadaver Studies and Their Impact on the Understanding of Human Adiposity,” Ergonomics, Vol. 48, No. 11 (Sept. 2005), 1445–61. Also, Clarys et al., “Human Body Composition: A Review of Adult Dissection Data,” American Journal of Human Biology, Vol. 11, No. 2 (1999), 167–74.

  Her findings: Polly de Mille, “Asher Price Assessment,” Sports Performance and Rehabilitation Department, Hospital for Special Surgery, May 8, 2012.

  Michael Jordan’s vertical: http://www.​hoopsvibe.​com/​features/​285345-​top-​10-​vertical-​jumpers-​in-​nba-​history, accessed Sept. 3, 2014.

  “had no use for girls”: John Bierman and Colin Smith, Fire in the Night: Wingate of Burman, Ethiopia, and Zion (New York: Random House, 1999), 23.

  “Today I shall be like a god”: Ibid., 22.

  “the extra hardships that Wingate had devised”: Ibid., 43.

  “The inexperienced soldier”: Ibid., 244.

  eulogized him as a “fire-eater”: Ibid., 379.

  “all other men seemed uninteresting”: Ibid., 389.

  the country’s newly minted sport and athletics center: See the Wingate Institute website, http://www.​jewishsports.​net/​wingate_​institute.​htm, accessed Nov. 30, 2013.

  CHAPTER 2: EVOLUTION AND THE DUNK

  Interviews: Daniel Lieberman, Susan Brooks, Todd Wright, Chris Corbett, Josh Scoggins, Laquan Williams, Demetria Wiley.

  During his senior year: “One Giant Leap,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 18, 2011.

  video of himself dunking: Jacob Tucker, “Jacob Tucker 2011 Dunk Video,” YouTube video, https://www.​youtube.​com/​watch?​v=​jEgcml1Wx1w, accessed April 16, 2013.

  After throwing out: Ibid.

  Under the name “Hops”: “Globetrotter Has a Lot of Hops,” Regina Leader-Post, April 17, 2012.

  the optical device on hand: “The Longest Jump,” Boston Globe, Aug. 13, 1991.

  “Humans are mediocre runners”: Dennis M. Bramble and Daniel E. Lieberman, “Endurance Running and the Evolution of Homo,” Nature 432 (Nov. 18, 2004), 345–52.

  endurance running: Ibid.

  outrun horses over long distances: Lieberman and Bramble, “The Evolution of Marathon Running Capabilities in Humans,” Sports Medicine, Vol. 37, No. 4 (2007), 288–90. “In short, for marathon-length distances, humans can outrun almost all other mammals and can sometimes outrun even horses, especially when it is hot.”

  bonobos have verticals: M. N. Scholz et al., “Vertical Jumping Performance of Bonobo (Pan paniscus) Suggests Superior Muscle Properties,” Proceedings of the Royal Society 273 (Sept. 7, 2006), 2177–84.

  sophisticated projectile technology: James E. McClellan III and Harold Dorn, Science and Technology in World History: An Introduction (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006), 11.

  we could chase our prey to exhaustion: Scott Carrier, Running After Antelope (Washington: Counterpoint, 2001).

  “a masochistic lot”: Steven Vogel, Prime Mover: A Natural History of Muscle (New York: Norton, 2001), 157.

  “a tendency to be barrel shaped”: George Orwell, Coming Up for Air, (Harcourt: New York, 1950), 4.

  a set number of muscle fibers: Susan Brooks interview with author, June 4, 2012.

  average age of NBA players: Mike Pesca,
“Openly Gay NBA Center ‘Happy to Start the Conversation,’ ” National Public Radio, April 29, 2013.

  The clamping closed: Steve Austad interview with author, May 29, 2012.

  Tendon elasticity…also narrows with age: John Jerome, Staying Supple (New York: Breakway Books, 1987), 71.

  my nerves will fire 5 percent: Bill McKibben, Long Distance: A Year of Living Strenuously (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2000), 43.

  “He had a plan”: “The Wright Stuff,” Austin American-Statesman, March 18, 2009.

  “He’s part of my family”: Ibid.

  he will take home $235,000: Texas Tribune salary database: http://www.​texastribune.​org/​library/​data/​government-​employee-​salaries/, accessed July 10, 2013.

  “America is the country of young men”: Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Old Age,” Atlantic, Jan. 1862.

  He wore a Daffy Duck tie: I first made this observation, and a few others that appear in this section, in a personal essay: “Cancer at 26? My Brush with Mortality,” Austin American-Statesman, Dec. 10, 2006.

  The story goes that a biophysicist: Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies (New York: Scribner, 2010), 206. Mukherjee reports, on page 205, that cisplatin “provoked an unremitting nausea, a queasiness of such penetrating force and quality that had rarely been encountered in the history of medicine.” Before the advent of anti-nausea drugs, patients in the 1970s treated with the drug vomited, on average, 12 times a day.

  CHAPTER 3: THE DUNKING YEAR BEGINS

  Interviews: Steve Austad, Phil Bezanson, Terry Todd, Ben Pollack, Josh Price.

  “let us a hear a whistle”: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance and Other Essays (Mineola, NY: Dover, 1993), 26.

  “the new Professor Dumbbell”: Roberta J. Park, “Healthy, Moral, and Strong: Educational Views of Exercise and Athletics in Nineteenth-Century America,” in Fitness in American Culture: Images of Health, Sport, and the Body, 1830–1940, ed. Kathryn Grover (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1990), 131.