by Asher Price
“circumscribe possibility”: Entine, Taboo, xiii
“strong implications for Jewish comedy genes”: “A Feckless Quest for the Basketball Gene,” New York Times, April 8, 2000.
“That’s a Jewish sport”: “Nobody Does It Better,” New York Times, April 16, 2000.
“blacks have something that gives us an edge”: Entine, Taboo, 80.
shoot out tentacles to catch prey: Vogel, Prime Mover, 72.
weighed only 92 pounds: Michael Bárány and Kate Bárány, “Strife and Hope in the Lives of a Scientific Couple” in Selected Topics in the History of Biochemistry: Personal Recollections, Vol. VI, ed. R. Jaenicke and G. Semenza (Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2000), 95.
well-to-do farmer: Transcript of Michael Bárány interview conducted by Saree Kaminsky for the Shoah Foundation interview on April 11, 1995, http://www.chem.umn.edu/groups/baranygp/michaelbarany/MichaelBáránySr_Shoah_interview_transcript_draft.pdf.
denied admission to university: Bárány and Bárány, “Strife and Hope,” 91.
directed to a train depot: Ibid., 94.
two-day supply of food: Ibid., 94.
“transformed the cattle wagon into hell”: Ibid., 94.
It was Christmas Day: Shoah Foundation interview.
“lost God”: Ibid.
slicing some bread: Bárány and Bárány, “Strife and Hope,” 103.
began to study the lives of muscles: Ibid., 98.
deemed a capitalist: Shoah Foundation interview.
“escape was not absolutely simple”: Ibid.
help them escape: Ted Morgan, “Lord of the Venus Flytrap,” New York Times Magazine, March 31, 1974, 18.
cow had stepped on a land mine: George Barany, “The Spirit of Survival: Life Lessons of Holocaust Survivors,” memorial speech delivered at Mount Zion Temple, St. Paul, Minn., April 20, 2012.
seven months’ pregnant: Shoah Foundation interview.
through ten miles of snow: University of Chicago news release, “Michael Bárány, 1921–2011,” Aug. 2, 2011.
carried two suitcases: “Lord of the Venus Flytrap.”
“That was a nice walk”: “The Spirit of Survival.”
left their house so early: “Strife and Hope,” 119.
17 good reasons to do push-ups: Ibid., 135–36.
“inadvertent comparative biochemists”: Ibid., 122.
cited more than 1,700 times: Michael Bárány, “ATPase Activity of Myosin Correlated with Speed of Muscle Shortening,” Journal of General Physiology (July 1, 1967), 197–218.
“logical and predictable”: “The Spirit of Survival.”
straight to graduate school: “Lord of the Venus Flytrap.”
“professors who held hands”: “Michael Bárány, 1921–2011.”
between two hefty bookcases: Jacob L. Krans, “The Sliding Filament Theory of Muscle Contraction,” Nature Education 3, No. 9 (2010), 66.
muscles that are likely beefsteak-red: Edward Coyle interview with author, Feb. 2014.
paler, whiter set of muscles: Ibid.
certain ratio of fast- and slow-twitch: Robert Dennison correspondence with author, March 2014.
ACTN3 influences the speed: David Epstein, The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance (New York: Current, 2013), 152–57. Also: D. G. MacArthur and K. N. North, “A Gene for Speed? The Evolution and Function of Alpha-Actinin-3.” Bioessays 26, No. 7 (July 2004), 786–95.
ACTN3 gene showed up in the top power-oriented athletes: I. D. Papadimitriou et al., “The ACTN3 Gene in Elite Greek Track and Field Athletes,” International Journal of Sports Medicine 29, No. 4, (April 2008), 352–55.
significantly slower in a 40-meter sprint: C. N. Moran et al., “Association Analysis of the ACTN3 R577X Polymorphism and Complex Quantitative Body Composition and Performance Phenotypes in Adolescent Greeks,” European Journal of Human Genetics 15, No. 1 (Jan. 2007), 88–93.
“misconstrued as rooted in biology”: John Edgar Wideman, “The Architectonics of Fiction,” Callaloo 13, No. 1 (Winter 1990), 43.
Gabor knew the Nazis would arrest him: Price, Objects of Remembrance, 25.
“it was a feat I was never able to match”: Terry Todd, “Philosophical and Practical Considerations for a ‘Strongest Man’ Contest,” in Philosophical Reflections on Physical Strength, eds. Mark A. Holowchak and Tery Todd (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 2010), 49.
Atlas Sports Genetics began selling: “Born to Run? Little Ones Get Test for Sports Gene,” New York Times, Nov. 39, 2008.
failing to prove up its testing: Alberto Gutierrez of the FDA, letter to 23andMe CEO Ann Wojcicki, Nov. 22, 2013. A March 25, 2014, letter from Gutierrez to Wojcicki termed the firm’s “corrective actions” as “adequate.”
18 percent of humans who lack: N. Yang et al., “ACTN3 Genotype Is Associated with Human Elite Athletic Performance.” American Journal of Human Genetics 73, No. 3 (Sept. 2003), 627–31.
I’m better suited: A. K. Niemi and K. Majamaa, “Mitochondrial DNA and ACTN3 Genotypes in Finnish Elite Endurance and Sprint Athletes,” European Journal of Human Genetics 13, No. 8 (Aug. 2005), 965–69.
Michael Jordan’s outstretched hand: Insidehoops.com, “Database of Rare and Interesting NBA Player Measurements.”
CHAPTER 14: IT’S GOTTA BE THE SHOES
Interviews: Mark Goldston, Tim Frank, John Porcari, Cedric X. Bryant, Jesus Moreno.
pitched antiperspirants and hairspray: “L.A. Gear Names New President, Chief Operating Officer,” Business Wire, Sept. 26, 1991.
its first drop in earnings: “Reebok’s New Models, Fully Loaded,” New York Times, Feb. 14, 1989.
shoe you’d wash your car in: Mark Goldston interview with author, July 2013. (As with much of the material in this chapter.)
brash overachiever: Ibid.
“They watch you do it”: John Edgar Wideman, “Michael Jordan Leaps the Great Divide,” Esquire 114 (Nov. 1990), 138–216.
sunny, unseasonably warm February day: I called the National Weather Service in Atlanta to look up the weather on Feb. 13, 1989, for me. It was sunny and temperatures were above average.
bounded onto a stage: “Reebok’s New Models, Fully Loaded.” “We want to make shoes that look great and perform well,” Mark Goldston said that day in Atlanta. ‘ “We call it performance-panache.”
High Priest of High Tech: Goldston interview with author.
housed, like an Oreo cookie: Ibid.
“players may not wear any shoe”: “Basketball Shoe Sales Skyrocket After Ban,” Los Angeles Times, Oct. 29, 2010.
“It’s the ultimate validation”: “NBA Bans Sneakers Made by L.A. Based Company,” KTLA News, Oct. 20, 2010.
“jumped higher instantly”: “Science of Jumpology,” http://www.athleticpropulsionlabs.com/technology/technologybasketball/science-of-jumpology.html, accessed Aug. 1, 2013.
“narcissistic” urge to look good: “Marketing Pro Leaves Reebok in the Dust,” USA Today, Aug. 21, 1989.
CHAPTER 16: CARRYING CAPACITY
Interviews: Polly de Mille, Jamie Osmak, Glenn Fleisig, Steve Doty, Benjamin Domb.
1999 Israeli national basketball team: Hoffman, Norms for Fitness, Performance and Health, 55.
one-third of starting pitchers: “Teams Thrown for a Loop by Pitching Injuries,” Boston Globe, March 23, 2014.
7′2″ superathlete with freakishly long arms: John Brenkus, Perfection Point (New York: HarperCollins, 2010), 143.
calculated with 90-percent certainty: Reza Noubary, “What Is the Speed Limit for Men’s 100 Meter Dash?” in Mathematics and Sports, ed. Joseph A. Gallian (Washington, D.C.: Mathematical Association of America, 2010), 287–94.
instances of cosmetic leg lengthening: “New York Man ‘Grows’ Six Inches Through Surgery,” 20/20, ABC News, Feb. 24, 2012. Steve Doty interview with author, Aug. 2013.
“I’m probably at, like, a forty-two”: “Rose: Vertical Leap 5 Inches Hi
gher,” ESPNchicago.com, Oct. 20, 2013.
“Everyone screamed”: Josh Scoggins correspondence with author, Sept. 2013.
CHAPTER 17: ALLEZ HOP!
Interviews: Charles Austin, Jon Salton, Stephanie Hobby, Philip Heermann.
cry of French acrobats: “Miami Heat’s LeBron James, Dwayne Wade Revive Art of the Alley-Oop,” Miami Herald, Feb. 8, 2012.
lob play to their springy 6′3″ receiver: “Former 49ers Star R. C. Owens, Known for ‘Alley Oop’ Catches,’ Dies at 78,” San Jose Mercury News, June 18, 2012.
term took hold in the NBA: “Chick Hearn: 1916–2002; Lakers Lose Their Voice,” Los Angeles Times, Aug. 6, 2002.
algae-based fighter-jet fuel: “UT Bottling Up Potential Fuel Source: Algae,” Austin American-Statesman, Oct. 25, 2008.
“ ‘I can make a robot do that’ ”: Sandia National Laboratories news release, “Sandia Hoppers Leapfrog Conventional Wisdom About Robot Mobility,” Oct. 17, 2000.
interplanetary exploration: Ibid.
eight years, a dozen people: Jon Salton interview with author, Sept. 2013.
POSTSCRIPT
“elevate his life”: Thoreau, Walden, 65.
“the game you won at”: Benjamin Markovits, Playing Days (London: Faber and Faber, 2010), 233.
“my other life”: Zadie Smith, “Some Notes on Attunement,” New Yorker, Dec. 17, 2012, 33.
APPENDIX B: THE PHYSICS OF SPUD’S DUNK
“Spud’s just too small for a poster”: “A Speedy Seedling Among the NBA’s Tallest Trees,” People, March 10, 1986.
two famous laws of physics: This passage relies on conversations and email exchanges with Jeff Moses, a research scientist in applied physics at MIT and then a professor of applied and engineering physics at Cornell (and also my brother-in-law), from October 2012 through August 2014.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ASHER PRICE grew up in New York City and now lives in Austin with his wife and their dog. He writes about energy and the environment for the Austin American-Statesman and plays pickup basketball on his neighborhood court every Sunday morning.