How to Watch Basketball Like a Genius: What Game Designers, Economists, Ballet Choreographers, and Theoretical Astrophysicists Reveal About the Greatest Game on Earth by Nick Greene

Author:Nick Greene [Greene, Nick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sports & Recreation, Basketball, reference
ISBN: 9781419744808
Google: Mz67zQEACAAJ
Publisher: Abrams
Published: 2021-03-02T23:58:04.428263+00:00

DAWN OF FLIGHT

Dreaming about dunking

Writing a book is a rather self-involved endeavor. There’s a reason authors expect our names to be printed on the front cover, down the spine, across the title page, and anywhere else the publisher can cram it. We even include a little picture of ourselves inside the jacket cover because we assume you want to know what we look like. (No need to check and risk losing your page: I’m squinty and somewhat pallid.) It’s a whole production that screams, Look at me! I did this! While I’m tempted to compare it to a slam dunk in this regard, I must concede that publishing a book is nowhere near as cool as dunking. It’s not even close. Nothing is more exciting than throwing down a monster jam on a regulation-size rim, even if the feeling wears off shortly after I wake up.

I started having the dreams as a teenager. I’m in my school’s gym when somebody tosses me a ball, and with little hesitation, I spring upward, past the limits of my waking life’s vertical leap, and soar above the rim. There is plenty of time to savor the view (the braided nylon net looks especially beautiful at eye-level) before I confidently slam the ball home with aplomb. The trip back down to earth is surprisingly easy on my knees, though I guess I am cushioned by a cloud of pure, ebullient joy. A group of impressed onlookers asks me to do it again. Who am I to deny them the pleasure? The only thing that can stop me is my alarm clock.

The feeling is not merely one of flight—it’s flight with purpose and style. Sure, there’s the unavoidable pangs of sorrow when I wake up and realize I cannot actually do this wonderful thing in real life, but I still have the ability to watch others dunk. That is a pretty nice consolation prize.

Dunks are audacious feats of grace and athleticism, but the first dunk in history was just plain audacious. Recall that, for a period in the early twentieth century, there were no out of bounds markings. Courts were instead enclosed inside cages, and it was this feature that allowed New York baller Jack Inglis to soar during a game in the 1910s. According to author Bill Gutman, Inglis “jumped up alongside the basket, grabbed the cage, and pulled himself up alongside the basket. While the defenders looked up at him helplessly, a teammate passed him the ball. Inglis caught it while hanging on to the cage with one hand and dropped it through the basket.” According to Gutman’s book, “It was a perfectly legal play, because no one had ever seen it done before.”

Legal or not, that shouldn’t count as the first dunk. Much like finding the identity of the jump shot’s inventor, the provenance of the slam dunk is murky. Anyone with the ability to rise above the hoop should have been able to do it, but reports are surprisingly rare. “We

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