This is not an April Fool’s Day prank. Jacob Tucker just finished playing his last game at Division III Illinois College over a month ago, but the senior put together a YouTube video featuring his 50-inch vertical and some sick dunks in hopes of being voted into the college slam dunk contest. It worked.
“It’s unbelievable, just because a lot of these other guys here are D-I players,” Tucker said after the contest. “They’re used to being on the national stage, and this dunk contest, to their schools, didn’t necessarily mean as much. To be able to represent my school on a national stage is a real honor.”
There’s not much hope for a Division III athlete to ply his trade after college, but Tucker found a way. See Tuck’s campaign video and his competition dunks after the jump. Hooray white people!
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While I don’t dispute the buy might have a 50″ vertical, none of the dunks on either clip came even close to 50″ I’m 6’1″ and before knee & ankle surgeries I had a 38″ vertical. I could stand under the hoop and dunk (reached about 11’3″ in standing vertical test), with a couple inches to spare. Given that this guy is 2″ shorter than me, that would mean from standing, he’d have to jump about 38″, maybe 39″ to dunk.
Another way of looking at it: I have a 34″ inseam, and long legs for my frame. A guy 2″ shorter than me has a 32″ or 33″ inseam. Baggy b-ball shorts put his crotch at maybe 30″. He does a running leap to dunk over a 6′ guy, that means his crotch has to clear 72″–or 32″ of leaping. Give it another 6″ for extra-baggy shorts and/or extra sack-clearance, and he’s doing a 38″ running leap.
So yeah, he can jump–and better than I can now, definitely–but again, he’s not showing evidence of a 50″ vertical. Not even close. Jordan had a 48″ vertical, and I recall dunks of his where his chin was above the rim. Given that he’s 6’6″ and the rim is at 10′, he was leaping 4 1/2 feet on those dunks–which was about right, given his standing vertical.
Long story short: Lothar has a chip on his shoulder when it comes to white guys with big hops. Lothar played volleyball in college and even on a few stops on the beach pro tour, and has an inferiority complex from being told he was too short to play outside hitter–unless he could get his vertical over 40″.
Plus, once you get old and lose your ability to dunk, you get bitter.
Put this kid in the Hall of Fame of Sports Oddities with the black Winter Olympian and the Dominican shortstop who could take a walk.
Lothar, you are looking at the math wrong. Testing a vertical leap means you jump straight up – all the energy of the jump expended vertically. In jumping over a dude, a lot of his jumping energy is expended on that horizontal plane. So that fact that on these dunks his crotch isn’t 50″ inches higher that it is when he stands up is irrelevant.
If he’s 5’10 or 5’11″, the rim is 49 or 50 inches above his head when he’s standing still. With a ball and with the forward momentum and with the spins and tricks in the air, he is getting to within 3-4 inches of the rim on almost every dunk in that highlight tape.
Take away the ball, the 360′s, and the horizontal movement and you don’t think he could gain 3-4 inches of vertical?
Lothar – I’m not judging you, but when you talk about another man’s crotch, it comes off kind of gay.
Actually, yes, I am judging you. That was a very homosexual post on your part.
this little white fella makes Sydney Deane look like Billy Hoyle.
Also worth mentioning: thanks to infographics and shit during the 2000 Dunk Contest, I remember Vince Carter’s elbow dunk requiring 37″ of vertical, and that was his top of the head at the rim. Taking into account the fact that VC is 7 inches taller than this guy and the guy was eye level with the rim on that first pump-to-between-the-legs jam (that would be roughly 45″ of vertical, assuming their eyes are about at the same distance from the tops of their skulls) and it’s not inconceivable that this guy has a maximum vertical of around 50″.
MJ had crazy hops, but he’s one of the few to harness it into productivity on the basketball court. There are plenty of people who can get higher than four feet in the air, and they are all freakish, but they exist.
I guess the judges didn’t get the memo that they have to let the black folk win in order to make them feel good about themselves, and not rob people
It’s amazing when a white man accomplishes better results than a black man they get all bent out of shape.White man finally steppin up and realizing we can do just as good or better.We definitely hold the records for brute strength and also some long jumps.We have some guys in the NFL posting 4.2,4.3 40 yarders..thats top notch times.haters go home.