Year of the Dunk
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“I could have had more wins”: Bill Bradley lecture, “Values of the Game,” delivered Nov. 29, 2012, at the Etter-Harbin Alumni Center Ballroom, University of Texas.
“Never allow others to interfere”: Timur Tukel, Air Alert: The Complete Vertical Jump Program (Charlotte, NC: TMT Sports, 2005), 4.
CHAPTER 4: TAKING THE MEASURE OF THE MAN
Interviews: Jamal Carter, Luke Anderson, Eric Lougas, Stephen Austin, Sean McKee, Tommy White, James Jackson, Vanessa Streater, Mike Hagen.
Sargent had read Anatomy, Physiology and Hygiene: Dudley Allen Sargent, An Autobiography (Philadelphia: Lea & Febiger, 1927), 53.
“To develop my body became an obsession with me”: Ibid., 54. “The thought that I could grow big and strong under my own tutelage came as a revelation,” Sargent writes on page 49 of the book. “I had always felt the joy of existence and the thrill of life that comes from sound health, but I had never interpreted it and directed it. I became suddenly conscious of the physical potentiality for strength and health.”
He took up dumbbells: Ibid., 54.
a “young Hercules”: Ibid., 61.
“a public prejudice”: Ibid., 62.
Sargent fled to the circus: Ibid., 63.
tiresome senior clown: Ibid., 66.
“the healthy man is the happiest”: Ibid., 90.
boxing matches: Ibid., 93.
“make the weak strong”: Dudley Allen Sargent, “Preparing the Physical Education Teacher,” originally a 1908 paper reprinted in The Making of American Physical Education, ed. Arthur Weston (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1962) 183.
“these letters were polite”: Sargent, An Autobiography, 144.
Eventually, one school called upon him: Ibid., 165.
“to round off the wiry edge”: William James, The Gospel of Relaxation, (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1899) 53.
“overtired and fagged out”: Sargent, An Autobiography, xv.
a mysterious “unknown equation”: Dudley Allen Sargent, “The Physical Test of a Man,” American Physical Education Review, 1921, Vol. 26, Issue 4, 188–94.
a “vitality coefficient”: Dudley Allen Sargent, “Anthropometric Apparatus with Directions for Measuring and Testing the Principal Physical Characteristics of the Human Body,” 1887 (self-published). 61 1,999 kids worked out: Sean McKee interview with the author, Feb. 16, 2013.
CHAPTER 5: A NATURAL HISTORY OF LEAPING
Interviews: Malcolm Burrows, Jeff Moses, Jody Jensen, Charles Austin.
“a novel locking mechanism”: Malcolm Burrows, “Froghopper Insects Leap to New Heights,” Nature 424, No. 509 (July 31, 2003), 509.
she could clear the Gateway Arch: “Move Over Flea, There’s a Higher Insect Jumper in Town,” Associated Press, July 30, 2003.
“postal districts packed like squares of wheat”: Philip Larkin, “The Whitsun Weddings,” The Whitsun Weddings (New York: Random House, 1964), 24.
a very fine human hair: “What Is the Nanoscale?” University of Wisconsin-Madison, MRSEC Education Group, http://education.mrsec.wisc.edu/36.htm, accessed July 24, 2014.
An average human being’s top reaction time: Daisy Yuhas, “Speedy Science: How Fast Can You React?” Scientific American, May 24, 2012.
“jumping is a self-defeating activity”: Arthur Chapman, Biomechanical Analysis of Fundamental Human Movements (Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2008), 146.
“The less ankle flexibility”: Jerome, Staying Supple, 13.
get on your bathroom scale: Chapman, Biomechanical Analysis of Fundamental Human Movements, 135; Jeff Moses author interview, Aug. 9, 2014. When you raise your arms above your head, you’re lifting your center of mass—even if your feet are not leaving the ground. Essentially you’re exerting more force on the ground to lift your center of mass while remaining in contact with the ground—that’s what the scale is picking up as you lift your arms. Our weight—as measured by a scale—is simply an expression of the amount of force we’re exerting on the earth. When you drop your arms, you’re not working as hard against gravity to stay upright—you’re lowering your center of mass. So in that moment in which you drop your arms, the scale lightens.
“Intersegmental dynamics”: Jody L. Jensen, University of Maryland, 1989.
“bodies are different”: Correspondence with James Click of the Tampa Rays organization, Feb. 2013.
“various as our several constitutions”: Thoreau, Walden, 12.
“a grew-too-fast kid”: Richard Hoffer, Something in the Air: American Passion and Defiance in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989), 4.
through with the sport: Hoffer, Something in the Air, 73.
began quietly tinkering: “The Fosbury Flop: Scorned Method Is Taking Sport to New Heights,” Los Angeles Times, Aug. 4, 1989.
“Fosbury flops over bar”: “Amazing Turnabout, Backward Technique, Labeled ‘Insane,’ Took High Jump to New Heights,” Dallas Morning News, June 29, 2003.
lifting his center of mass: “Science of Sport: The High Jump,” Kansas City Star, Aug. 15, 2008.
sometimes for several minutes: “Fearless Fosbury Flops to Glory,” New York Times, Oct. 20, 1968. See also: “Fosbury Flop,” YouTube video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Id4W6VA0uLc, accessed Oct. 20, 2013.
the jumpers land on their feet: Michael Stewart, “Kenyan High School High Jump,” YouTube video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qTAeVGl_e8, accessed Aug. 18, 2014.
“a generation of broken necks”: David E. Martin, Dwight Stones et al., The High Jump Book (Los Altos, CA: Tafnews Press, 1987), 9.
By the Munich Olympics: Dick Fosbury Training Camp, Bowdoin College, “Dick Fosbury Director Bio,” http://www.bowdoin.edu/~pslovens/directorbios.htm, accessed Aug. 14, 2014.
“in a room with a low ceiling”: Chapman, Biomechanical Analysis of Fundamental Human Movements, page 146.
Allex won the state high school high jump: “San Marcos’ Austin Takes High Jump Gold Medal,” Austin American-Statesman, March 31, 2012.
Charles Austin had grown up poor: Charles Austin, Head Games: Life’s Greatest Challenge (Austin: TurnKey Press, 2007), 3.
CHAPTER 6: THE RISE OF THE DUNK
Interviews: Matt Zeysing.
“You just dunked the ball, man!”: Darryl Dawkins and Charley Rosen, Chocolate Thunder: The Uncensored Life and Times of the NBA’s Original Showman (Toronto: Sport Media Publishing, 2003), 24.
“jump that rope to death”: Charles Barkley and Roy S. Johnson, Outrageous! (New York: Avon Books, 1992), 83.
“The old coach looked like I’d just jumped”: Wilt Chamberlain and David Shaw, Wilt: Just Like Any Other 7-Foot Black Millionaire Who Lives Next Door (New York: Macmillan, 1973), 44.
“If I want to see showmanship”: Gena Caponi-Tabery, Jump for Joy: Jazz, Basketball, and Black Culture in 1930s America (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2008), 109. It was also in Jump for Joy that I first saw the Zora Neale Hurston quote that opens this book.
“You’d rather look good and lose”: White Men Can’t Jump, 1992.
After the NBA finally integrated: Big-time college basketball first integrated in the late 1940s; the NBA saw its first black players take the court in the 1950–51 season.
“subversion of the dominant culture”: Gena Dagel Caponi, Signifyin(g), Sanctifyin’, & Slam Dunking (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1999), 6.
“class of incorrigibles”: Interview with Matt Zeysing, June 2012.
“Basketball is for the birds”: Shirley Povich, “Basketball Is for the Birds,” Sports Illustrated, Dec. 8, 1958.
Allen tried to get the rim pulled up to 12 feet: “The Leaping Legends of Basketball,” Los Angeles Times, Feb. 12, 1989.
seize power and express outrage: Caponi-Tabery, Jump for Joy, 106. “The slam dunk returned the locus of power from the owners and coaches to the players,” she writes.
save athletes from injury: “
Chronicle of the Jam,” NCAA News, July 30, 2007.
“if I’d been white”: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Peter Knobler, Giant Steps (New York: Bantam Books, 1983), 160.
“the six-foot-two brothers”: Pete Axthelm, The City Game (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1970), 127.
who called blacks “coons”: “Legacy of Rupp Slow to Recede,” Louisville Courier-Journal, April 2, 1996.
“Rupp was so disgusted”: Caponi-Tabery, Jump for Joy, 108.
take four steps at a time: Vincent M. Mallozzi, Doc: The Rise and Rise of Julius Erving (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, 2010), 2.
“I felt these different things within me”: Ibid., 13.
By the time he was 14: Ibid., 14
“too many nigger boys in it now”: Terry Pluto, Loose Balls: The Short, Wild Life of the American Basketball Association (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990), 241.
“an act of desperation”: Pluto, Loose Balls, 25.
possessed by a “chocolate thunder”: Dawkins and Rosen, Chocolate Thunder, 94.
started a betting pool: Ibid., 94.
A stadium janitor in Detroit: Ibid., 94.
“no matter how nice and polite”: Ibid., 96.
white referees called fouls at a greater rate: Joseph Price and Justin Wolfers, “Discrimination Among NBA Referees,” Quarterly Journal of Economics 125 (Nov. 2010), 1859–87. Similarly, Northwestern University researchers reported that, in the 2010 NFL season, 65 percent of the players were black but they were flagged for 92 percent of the unsportsmanlike conduct penalties for excessive touchdown celebrations: Erika V. Hall and Robert W. Livingston, “The Hubris Penalty: Biased Responses to ‘Celebration’ Displays of Black Football Players,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 48 (Feb. 2012), 899–904.
a column called “The Dunkateer”: Dawkins and Rosen, Chocolate Thunder, 114.
“not a traditional source of pleasure”: Philip Roth, American Pastoral (New York: Vintage, 1997), 3.
“one of the last Jewish infants”: Monroe E. Price, Objects of Remembrance: A Memoir of American Opportunities and Viennese Dreams (Budapest: Central European University Press, 2009), 1.
“Dunking is a power game”: Mallozzi, Doc, 12.
“A dunk is just two points”: Ibid., 208.
CHAPTER 8: A DUNK CONTEST
Interviews: Julius Erving, Darryl Dawkins, Tony Mitchell.
“an infinite number of dunk shots”: Mallozzi, Doc, 109.
“that made her ass pop”: Dawkins and Rosen, Chocolate Thunder, 59.
“relinquishing doubt and ambiguity and self-inquiry”: Richard Ford, The Sportswriter (New York: Vintage, 1995), 60.
dunk off his left foot “in his mind”: “Source: Derrick Rose Cleared to Play,” ESPNchicago.com, March 9, 2013.
“I can’t dunk”: “Nets’ Williams Acknowledges His Limits but Plans to Play,” New York Times, Feb. 19, 2013.
“My legs feel good”: “Williams Is Soaring Again,” New York Times, April 22, 2013.
CHAPTER 9: GIRL ON FIRE
“misuses of God’s gifts”: Baylor University, “Sexual Misconduct Policy,” adopted Jan. 15 2007, http://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php?id=39247, accessed Nov. 11, 2013.
her hands are nine inches long: “Brittney Griner: By the Numbers,” PhoenixMercury.com, April 15, 2013, http://www.wnba.com/mercury/news/griner_numbers_130415.html, accessed June 27, 2013.
breaking the girl’s nose: “Baylor’s Griner Suspended 2 Games for Punch,” Associated Press, March 5, 2010.
Female college basketball players have an average vertical leap: Jay Hoffman, Norms for Fitness, Performance and Health (Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2006), 61.
outjumped 95 percent of the women: Brian Palmer, “Below the Rim: Why Are There So Few Dunks in Women’s Basketball?” Slate, March 23, 2012.
takeoff force actually decreases: T. E. Hewett et al., “Decrease in Neuromuscular Control About the Knee with Maturation in Female Athletes,” Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Vol. 86, No. 8 (Aug. 2004), 1601–8.
triceps contractions in cats: E. Henneman et al., “Properties of Motor Units in a Homogeneous Red Muscle (Soleus) of the Cat,” Journal of Neurophysiology 28 (1965), 71–85.
female muscle tissue: Suzanne Meth, “Gender Differences in Muscle Morphology,” in Women’s Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation, (Gaithersburg, MD: Aspen Publishers, 2001), ed. Nadya Swedan, 3–4. Also: K. J. Cureton et al., “Muscle Hypertrophy in Men and Women,” Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 20 (1988), 338–44.
dunked 52 times in 32 games: “Baylor’s Griner Becomes 7th Woman to Dunk,” Associated Press, Nov. 25, 2009.
“Brittney does what Brittney does”: Imani Stafford at press conference, Feb. 23, 2013.
“soft, mild, pitiful”: Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part III, Act I, Scene 4, 140–41.
“someone’s child”: “Mulkey Bothered by Social Media Taunts of Griner,” Associated Press, April 2, 2012.
an “erotic dimension”: David J. Leonard, “Not Entertained? Brittney Griner Continues to Challenge Expectations,” Slam Online, March 1, 2012.
“search my name on Twitter”: “Mulkey Bothered by Social Media Taunts of Griner.”
“an unwritten law”: “Griner: No Talking Sexuality at Baylor,” ESPN.com, May 27, 2013.
CHAPTER 10: “DAYENU”
Interviews: Polly de Mille, Jamie Osmak, Alice Price.
“I brag for humanity”: Thoreau, Walden, 38.
a Saudi elite soccer player: Hoffman, Norms for Fitness, Performance and Health, 55.
“conspiring against her lone efforts”: Monroe E. Price, Objects of Remembrance, 53.
CHAPTER 11: PSYCHING MYSELF UP
Interviews: Charles Austin, Willy Lenzner, Kim Geary, Josh Price, Nathaniel Mendelsohn, Todd Wright.
very tall Jesus: Leif Bugge, “1996 Atlanta Olympics, Men, High Jump,” YouTube video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-5lBjj-aS4, accessed April 16, 2013.
“like you fall into step”: Benjamin Markovits, Leagues Away: A First-hand Account of Playing Professional Basketball Overseas (unpublished manuscript), 47.
“ghost images”: John Jerome, Sweet Spot in Time (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1980), 39.
“did not have a brain”: German Berrios and Rogelio Luque, “Cotard’s ‘On Hypochondriacal Delusions in a Severe Form of Anxious Melancholia,’ ” History of Psychiatry, Vol. 10, No. 38 (June 1999), 269–78.
“I’m a dead plant”: A. Vaxevanis and A. Vidalis, “Cotard’s Syndrome, a Three-Case Report,” Hippokratia, Vol. 9, No. 1 (2005), 41–44.
CHAPTER 12: AIMING TOO HIGH
Interviews: Edward Coyle, Terrell Mercer.
“See those little white marks?”: Edward Coyle interview, Sept. 2013.
the first time a course in teaching physical education: Weston, The Making of American Physical Education, 55.
“one long orgy of tabulation”: Harold Rugg, That Men May Understand: An American in the Long Armistice (New York: Doubleday, Doran and Company, 1941), 182.
“a modern-day Socrates”: Steven Horvath and Elizabeth Horvath, The Harvard Fatigue Laboratory: Its History and Contributions (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1973), 15.
a “scientist’s scientist”: Ibid., 31.
became the first member: Ibid., 26.
a dog treadmill: Ibid., 25.
Harvard football players: Horvath and Horvath, The Harvard Fatigue Laboratory, 62–72.
“the Hobbling Effect”: G. Edgar Folk, “The Harvard Fatigue Laboratory: Contributions to World War II,” Advances in Physiological Education 34 (Sept. 2010), 119–27.
“founding father of ergonomics”: Horvath and Horvath, The Harvard Fatigue Laboratory, 73–83. The researchers mentioned here are G. Edgar Folk, Ashton Graybiel, C. Frank Consolazio, and Ross McFarland.
dramatically increased his power output: Edward F. Coyle, “Improved Muscular Efficien
cy Displayed as Tour de France Champion Matures,” Journal of Applied Physiology, Vol. 98 (June 2005), 2191–96. The article’s acknowledgments include this now poignant note: “The author very much appreciates the respectful cooperation and positive attitude of Lance Armstrong over the years and through it all.”
“hang tough and keep livin’ strong”: Lance Armstrong email to author, Jan. 17, 2006.
“No worries at all”: Lance Armstrong email to author, Jan. 20, 2006.
I wrote a personal essay: I’m referring here to Asher Price, “Me and Lance Armstrong: A Caring Touch in an Hour of Need,” Aug. 25, 2012. Portions of that short essay reappear here and there in this chapter.
“I would never beat my wife”: “Allegations Trail Armstrong into Another Stage,” Los Angeles Times, July 9, 2006.
an error in his calculations: “Scientific Error Reignites Debate About Armstrong’s Past,” New York Times, Sept. 10, 2008.
CHAPTER 13: SO, CAN WHITE MEN JUMP?
Interviews: Benjamin Markovkits, Daniel Lieberman, Edward Coyle, Robert Dennison, Terry Todd, Vishy Iyer.
form of expression that embodies: Caponi-Tabery, Jump for Joy, 109.
“you can listen to Jimi”: White Men Can’t Jump, 1992.
Blacks had a “natural advantage”: “Black Runners ‘At an Advantage,’ ” Guardian, Sept. 14, 1995.
“breed his big black”: “Racial Remarks Cause Furor,” New York Times, Jan. 16, 1988.
“They have different muscles”: “Not-So-Golden Bear; Nicklaus Records His Worst Bogey of All,” Boston Herald, July 31, 1994.
“biological factors specific to populations”: Jon Entine, Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports and Why We’re Afraid to Talk About It (New York: PublicAffairs, 2000), xi.