Year of the Dunk (25 page)
Authors: Asher Price
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.
7â²2â³ 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), 287â94.
instances of cosmetic leg lengthening:
“New York Man âGrows' 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 Higher,”
ESPNchicago.âcom
, Oct. 20, 2013.
“Everyone screamed”:
Josh Scoggins correspondence with author, Sept. 2013.
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 6â²3â³ receiver:
“Former 49ers Star R. C.
Owens, Known for âAlley Oop' Catches,' Dies at 78,”
San Jose Mercury News
, June 18, 2012.
term took hold in the NBA:
“Chick Hearn: 1916â2002; 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.
“ââI can make a robot do that'â”:
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.
“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.
“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.
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.
