Last NBA Player to Not Be Able to Dunk?

[yellowknifer]

Willing to bet every nba player CAN dunk, just some players won’t dunk in a game...

Chuck forgive me, but jj barea? Did he ever dunk in a game?

I highly doubt Fred Vanvleet can dunk. I'm sure there are some others.

[abark]

JJ Barea played nearly 900 games and took 7000 FGA and not a one was a dunk.

Beat me to my question

Watch on YouTube

2:20 moment he does dunk in warmups so he could at one point technically dunk, but I could dunk in non-game settings too, but would never call myself a dunker because I never dunked in a game.

And I'm 6'3" so yeah that tells what an epic athletic specimen I am.

That's not that bad. I'm a just under 6 feet and was a high jumper on my track team. So I def had some vert. I could easily hang on the rim but my dunk attempts were mostly rim grazer fails. I wouldn't have needed much more to be able to dunk consistently. But I've always wondered how much more I would have needed to be an in game dunker.

Prob would have needed to be your height bc there's a big leap from warm up dunking to in game. My roommate in Dental school was a ~6'3 ex-D1 college player. He could dunk pretty easily. But I played a lot of ball w him and never once saw him pull one off in a game.

These NBA players that are dunking in games at 6 feet tall or shorter are just freaks. Absolute freaks.

[Perseus1966]

5,11 former volley ball player with huge vertical ,my biggest problem was i couldn't grab the ball.
With women's ball had no problem

[JoeZeke]

I don't think Greg Grant was able to dunk, he was no taller than 5'6.

[NO-KG-AI]

FVV mention is always a good reminder than you have zero chance against an NBA player.
https://youtu.be/diklDy3-aaM
Three years ago when he barely got playing time he dominated with ease against a overseas journeyman and a 18 year old Jordan Poole. The skill gap is massive.

As for who can’t dunk I think they all can. In game is a different story.

Aside from the fact that they can't guard him at all, it looks like he's going at about 20% effort. Like he's barely even trying, and he's basically shooting his jumpers like a free throw. Insane skill level difference.

[yesh]

I doubt many white PGs could dunk, luke ridnour, luke jackson, mcconell and Nash.

They all could dunk.

Here college Nash casually dunking.

Watch on YouTube

That's a layup.

[70sFan]

I once read Adrian Dantley say he never tried to dunk in a game because he never wanted to go up and have indecision about whether to dunk or not.

[BK_2020]

Carsen Edwards?

[Vladimir777]

I doubt many white PGs could dunk, luke ridnour, luke jackson, mcconell and Nash.

They all could dunk.

Here college Nash casually dunking.

Watch on YouTube

That's a layup.

I would say it's just a very bad/weak dunk. This is the type of stuff my friends and I would debate in high school, haha.

I'm around 6 feet, but could never dunk on ten feet. ****'s hard!

[ellobo]

I once read Adrian Dantley say he never tried to dunk in a game because he never wanted to go up and have indecision about whether to dunk or not.

Good find, but that's what I recall reading. Who are you going to believe? Me or your lying eyes?

Maybe it wasn't a strict policy, if he felt he had a clear path. Or maybe it's something he decided on later in his career. Or maybe the article I read wasn't accurate. Or maybe he's just a liar.

Or maybe I'm not recalling it correctly.

[70sFan]

I once read Adrian Dantley say he never tried to dunk in a game because he never wanted to go up and have indecision about whether to dunk or not.

Good find, but that's what I recall reading. Who are you going to believe? Me or your lying eyes?

Maybe it wasn't a strict policy, if he felt he had a clear path. Or maybe it's something he decided on later in his career. Or maybe the article I read wasn't accurate. Or maybe he's just a liar.

Or maybe I'm not recalling it correctly.

I think you recall it correctly (I've heard that as well), it's just that players testimonies are rarely 100% accurate. I've seen Dantley dunking quite a few times, but only in transition. He didn't care about doing that because he thought it's a waste of energy (I agree with him).

[dhsilv2]

I was trying to think of who the last NBA player who couldn't dunk was. David Stockton? Nope, looked up some videos and he can yam.

So who was it, do we have to go all the way back to Muggsy? Could Muggsy dunk? Is Muggsy the only NBA player in since..the 60's who couldn't dunk? Could everyone dunk in the 60s? Cousy?

And to clarify..I mean never be able to dunk..so temporarily injured, old players don't count.

Muggsy could dunk, not sure about in game.

[The_Hater]

Could Popeyes Jones dunk? I can’t recall seeing patty mills or jj dunk

Popeye Jones? Is that a serious question? The man was at least 6’7”.

All these guys are phenomenal athletes so I highly doubt there had been an NBA player in a very long time who couldn’t dunk. Perhaps back to Mugsy Bogues.

[dhsilv2]

Steve kerr said he could never dunk. There's probably been a few others over the years but not many.

Watch on YouTube

Terrible video, but that’s Kerr. He’s even old. All NBA players can dunk, sans the insurance salesmen that Wilt and Russell played against.

That's funny, assuming that's a legit rim,I guess he was joking when he said this multiple times over the years:

Read on Twitter

Kerr always downplays his nba game, he just isn't that kinda guy to brag on himself and he knows nobody would want to really hear it from a rotation guy like him.

[Parataxis]

Has to be muggsy the most underrated player in history, positive defender at 5'3

Pretty sure Bogues could dunk.

Watch on YouTube

[dhsilv2]

Yea, at 6'2, 6'3 you don't need to be some high flyer to dunk. If your standing reach is around 8 feet, you're 24 inches away from the rim, to dunk, you'll need a couple inches above your standing reach, so like 28 inch vertical will be good enough to dunk for a guy with an 8 foot standing reach. 8 feet is not a high standing reach, and a 28 inch vertical is not even particularly good for for the average athletic person you can find on the street.

There is a website that calculates how high you have to jump to dunk. https://www.thehoopsgeek.com/dunk-calculator/

According to the calculator, you need 6 inches above the rim is to dunk the ball. So 10'6.
Someone who is 6'3 would likely reach 8'4. Meaning at minimum at 26 inch vertical, which you are right, is not incredible, but still pretty good. Most people who are 6'3 can't dunk, but your good athlete bball players will, and certainly NBA players.

That dunk calculator is kind of funny because it adds "vertical needed to do a 360 windmill like Vince Carter", lol.

While I didn't practice the dunk, I had a vertical that fluctuated between 37-40 when I was younger and I definitely could NOT do a 360 windmill like Vince Carter or like anyone. Now if we split it into 360 AND windmill, sure, but together? I don't know about that. Maybe I should have practiced more dunking and less basketball if it was supposed to be something I should have been capable of.

hand size is going to be a factor. Some guys can't palm a ball, some guys can, and some guys are MJ who could have the ball punched by Tyson and not lose it.

[DoctorX]

Has to be muggsy the most underrated player in history, positive defender at 5'3

Pretty sure Bogues could dunk.

Watch on YouTube

The clip you posted is a video game image of Bogues dunking. It's not real.

[lambchop]

Carsen Edwards?

Watch on YouTube

Every NBA player can dunk dude.

[og15]

There is a website that calculates how high you have to jump to dunk. https://www.thehoopsgeek.com/dunk-calculator/

According to the calculator, you need 6 inches above the rim is to dunk the ball. So 10'6.
Someone who is 6'3 would likely reach 8'4. Meaning at minimum at 26 inch vertical, which you are right, is not incredible, but still pretty good. Most people who are 6'3 can't dunk, but your good athlete bball players will, and certainly NBA players.

That dunk calculator is kind of funny because it adds "vertical needed to do a 360 windmill like Vince Carter", lol.

While I didn't practice the dunk, I had a vertical that fluctuated between 37-40 when I was younger and I definitely could NOT do a 360 windmill like Vince Carter or like anyone. Now if we split it into 360 AND windmill, sure, but together? I don't know about that. Maybe I should have practiced more dunking and less basketball if it was supposed to be something I should have been capable of.

hand size is going to be a factor. Some guys can't palm a ball, some guys can, and some guys are MJ who could have the ball punched by Tyson and not lose it.

You're definitely very right, I can palm the ball, but not that Kawhi, VC, MJ type palming, nowhere close to that.

Still seems pretty tough, maybe I wouldn't say that if I had giant hands. I'm too "old" now to go and practice dunks, it's not fun anymore, just painful, so no thanks, and even then my vertical is currently down to like 31 inches after all this covid inactivity soo...

[og15]

Watch on YouTube

Terrible video, but that’s Kerr. He’s even old. All NBA players can dunk, sans the insurance salesmen that Wilt and Russell played against.

That's funny, assuming that's a legit rim,I guess he was joking when he said this multiple times over the years:

Read on Twitter

Kerr always downplays his nba game, he just isn't that kinda guy to brag on himself and he knows nobody would want to really hear it from a rotation guy like him.

It's possible he might mean a game like dunk. Rim grazer dunk with someone giving you a soft lob in front of the rim technically doesn't count as being able to dunk to me, because that's not going to happen in a game.

At the minimum you have to be able to dribble up and dunk yourself unless I'm not sure how you are going to dunk in game.

Kerr wasn't in the NBA for dunking or any high flying antics, and obviously we can find millions of amateur athletes that can dunk better than Kerr and can't touch him in basketball ability. So I guess it depends on if we're asking whether Kerr is capable of dunking in a game if he actually tried or if he could just complete a dunk in general. If the former, then if that rim grazer with a soft lob was the extent of dunking he was capable of, then no.