He has no hops and/or really small hands and/or never played hoops. It's not that easy buy at 6'5 I'd expect him to be able to.

You need to palm a basketball while jumping for him 18 inches or so.

I've never dunked a full size men's basketball. I had no hops

I could dunk when I was in HS and college. I’m only 6’ tall but had a hell of a vertical and big hands.

Now I probably couldn’t even touch the net. 😁

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Significantly harder to dunk confidently in a game rather than in practice, palming a ball and running up to the hoop, presumably traveling.
Also depends if you are a 1 foot or 2 foot jumper. Just shy of 6' here and have dunked off 1 foot and 2 feet multiple times, but not in a game, so it doesn't count.

You can show your husband this video.

I am 6 feet even. Flatfooted I can reach 8 feet. When I was younger I could jump up and get my fingers over the rim. I could dunk a tennis ball but couldn't control a volleyball or basketball. That means I had a modest 26-28 inch vertical jump. Mostly a slow twitch distance guy.
Now at 70 something. I have about a 4-5 inch vertical. So I can barely hit the net on a good day. When I was young grad student we used to do measurements on PE kids. Not many but I did see a couple guys with 40 plus inch verticals. Those guys jumped like kangaroos. Average vertical jump among just folks is prolly 18-24 inches. As you age the number goes way down.
If your husband is under 30 he doesn't have a real good vertical, but if he worked at it I bet he could dunk. If he is an old fut, maybe not.
One of the best quotes I ever heard was someone asked Charles Barkley if he could still dunk. He answered " Hell no and Michael Jordan can't either". Don't know if it is all true but that is what Charles answered.

Though misery (trying to stay athletic in an aging body) loves company, the thought that Jordan can’t dunk anymore is a bit saddening.

I managed to dunk a softball.. didn't have the hops for a basketball, but then I'm only 5'8".

Get me on a lowered court (9ft or lower) and I was MJ baby... I'd dunk in traffic .. whatever. I knew ppl 6'5' and above that could dunk, but not in traffic or anyone around them.

I'm 6' and in high school I had a 33" vertical and was was able to dunk tennis balls and softballs and could grab the rim with both hands but never a basketball. Whether it be hand size or strength I couldn't palm one. If you can't do that it does make it more difficult since you've got to be able to get a few inches higher

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Matt

He did say he could dunk a volleyball but not a basketball.

when you are 19 or 20 and 6 feet 4 with a 6 feet 6 or 7 wingspan easy. In game it can be hard, but got to work out opportunities and techniques ie in crowded lane, moving bidy side on pippen, MJ one hander ie gt between them.

Pull it back one hander means you can use your off hand to clear all those bodies and arms fouling you. two hander in traffic is hard.

Double clutch reverse, 360, all doable. Things off catch and toss its timing as are alley oops.

In games you just have to say I'm dunking when I run the lanes on the fast break and accept you have to miss a few.

Up the stack Windmill needs timing but can be done.

Back to the question, its easy, when you are 20, once injuries and ageing kick in hard, at 40 I struggled to do a basic one hander, and now at 50 can barely leave the ground, but I can shoot threes better

I’m 6’2 and could two hand dunk a basketball in warmup at age 20. I could dunk a volleyball one handed in high school but never really worked on my hops until university.
I can still touch the rim and could probably still dunk a tennis ball with some preparation. I’m always surprised how some people can jump higher off two feet than one. I find that there are one foot jumpers and two foot jumpers. Probably some can do both well or suck at both, but it’s just interesting. Anyway, I’m a one foot jumper so I have to take a run at it before I jump. You actually don’t need to be able to palm the ball to dunk (especially if you are dunking two handed). You just need to have enough control of the ball on your way up. I know guys that can lob the ball to themselves off a bounce and dunk it without palming it.
Anyways, dunking isn’t always easy for tall people that’s for sure unless they are born with decent hops and some coordination.

this, I got told by a pro who was coaching us, dunk a golf ball then a tennis ball, soccer then a basketball.

At six four my standin reach about 8 feet 7. The rim is only ten foot, so one foot 5 needed of leap to get to the rim.

17 inch vertical, so a few more to get over the rim. average vertical for men is 16 to 20, so yes to the OP your 6 5 husband should be throwing them down unless he is older or one of those center type builds who can barely coordinate themselves

I'm 6'4" and in high school I could two-handed dunk a basketball after starting with a tennis ball at a teacher's suggestion. It's was close enough though that I would mess it up about 1/4 of the time, which made Jordan's accomplishments at the time that much more amazing to me.

To compensate I played outdoors in schoolyards with non-regulation rims where I could consistently dunk since they were maybe 4" shorter.

Unless I’m 7’, you would have trouble getting a credit card under my vertical. Growing up in Southern Indiana, I knew a lot of guys around 6’5” who couldn’t dunk. Only knew a few under 6’2” who could.

Being around high school basketball, you’d be surprised at how many taller kids can’t dunk.

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on the other end of the spectrum...my hero spud webb

'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1YRJvFvlgg'

I'm 6 1 I could do a tennis ball but never a basketball or volleyball either. I think I would need an extra 6 inches to do that. I have relatively small hands too.

I'd say it is pretty hard to dunk if you are less than six and a half feet.

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Overall, very, very hard. For a 6'5" middle aged guy, pretty hard. For a 6'5" young guy, hard.

I'm 6'3" and in my younger years I had a vert of ~33" and could never dunk a basketball.

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-----------------------------Baron Von Speedypants
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Very few people can dunk a basketball. I played a lot of basketball in college, and I rarely saw anyone dunk, in a game or in warmups. I'm 6'3" and had a well above average jumping ability. I could dunk a volleyball, but not a basketball. My brother is 6'5" and could palm a basketball. Again, with well above average jumping ability. He couldn't dunk, either. My dad could barely dunk, same height as me, but he had big hands and was the star sprinter of his school.

This link shows a chart on jumping abilities:

https://www.topendsports.com/...ms/vertical-jump.htm

16-20 inches is average, 28 inches is considered excellent. Add a run up and you might get 32-34 inches. That was about my jumping ability, and I couldn't dunk at 6'3".

Anyone that could dunk who is shorter than that has better than "excellent" jumping ability.

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5'11" here, back in the day I could dunk a volleyball but never could quite dunk with a basketball. The last time I tried really jumping to try(key word is try) to touch the rim was 20+ years ago and it felt like I had crushed some cartilage in my knee. Haven't dared to try again.

Also 5-11 and was D1 volleyball player. My hands were just not big enough to dunk a basketball or get a good approach with ball in them. A volleyball was pretty easy.

At 6'4" if he was athletic when he was younger not that hard.
If he was not athletic, pretty dang hard.

My N1 baseline. I was an All Pac10 Football player who did not play on the High School Basketball team. I am 6'4", and had a pretty average verticle jump of ~28 to 30 inches. However, after a day of pickup games in the gym I figured out how to dunk a basketball. Not Michael Jordan, but completing the task. I could do this until probably my early 20's when I stopped playing any kind of pickup basketball. Basketball was simply a workout to help with Football or hang out with friends. Most of the guys on my college football team over 6'2ish, and under 230lbs probably could dunk whether they played Team Basketball or not in High School. But again D1 Football players, so very good athletes.

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Could he dunk back in the day? If he was marginally athletic he prob could, especially if he has normal length arms. There is a 1.3ish correlation between height/standing reach. So that would put his standing reach at about 100 inches (hoop is 120 inches).

An avg standing vertical leap for a guy is probably between 16-20. So with a running start he might have been able to if he could palm a ball.

So if everything is avg. he probably could, if he was heavier it would have been harder.

The amount of lying going on in this thread is amusing. I’d venture that most of the people quoting a vertical leap have never even tested it!

Let me add a tale. 5’81/2”. Could dunk ( volleyball) because i grew up during integration in South, and well, it just about mandatory to get on the court. We ran stadiums with leg weights and it paid off for one of my former teammates https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herb_White. Wilt Chamberlain praised his dunking abilities back in the day. Herb was 6’2” and had nickname of “elevator”.

"The Older we get, The Better we were" ;>)
Fortunately - My Dunking Skills are not on You Tube.

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Well, you already married him, and it’s been 20 years so you’re just gonna have to deal with it. I’m sorry.

Mine was tested. 34" from standing.

It's now probably 3.4". :-)

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It's harder than it looks. At 6'5" you've got to have a 25" vertical to roll one over the rim in a layup line. With that jump you're not dunking in a game unless it's wide open.

You'd have to be closer to 30" to do anything that would get anyone's attention.

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Significantly undertrained since 1999

I could very much be wrong about mine as I've never had it tested.

My standing reach is 8 feet. In my 20s I could hit the rim about 2" below my wrist. So that's 24" to the rim, plus another 10" = 34"

I wrote that accurately in my 2nd post. My first one I claimed a "vert of 33 inches," which would be wrong because a vert is not supposed to incorporate a running start.

No idea how much of a difference that would make. I'm guessing my true vert at the time was more like 25-26"


My point still stands, though. Very few people at the courts could dunk.

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Even 6'9" pro 'ballers struggle to dunk

6 3 plus 33 inches

Should get your head at about 9 feet. What is going on with your arms to nor be dunking?

The average nba player is 28 inches and they are on average 6 feet 7.

Your vertical should be getting you there

Same here, 5'6", had a lot of vertical when young, could get my fingers over the rim. I always wished that I was 6" taller just so that I could dunk. Can barely touch the net now.

Just under 9 feet.

A basketball is 9.5" inches in diameter. So while I got my hand to 10'10", I couldn't get enough of it over the bal to stuff it. I was literally probably within an inch of being able to dunk. I could easily dunk a volleyball, which was an inch in diameter smaller.

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Again, people don't realize how high you need to get to dunk. Based on my experience, you need to get at least 11" over the rim. Was another 6" in height going to get you that 11"?

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Probably, I was 3-4" over the rim. In that parallel universe, my arms would also be longer, so I would probably have had ~9" of extra reach. Sadly, I will never know....

No matter how embarrassed you were when your husband could not dunk at the party, you should not let this affect your relationship, especially after twenty years of marriage.

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I struggled to dunk from 16 to 18 as I was trying to dunk it like MJ or Dominique. Then we had a training session with one of the top local woman players.

After watching us try to dunk, she said you can dunk, its not a lack of hops Gave us tennis balls, then soccer balls and hey presto we worked out that if you can do a finger touch over the top of the rim you can dunk.

Did the same with two hands, rather then Darly Dawkins it, just in motion ran, held it out in front an placed it into the hoop.

Argh, the ole' "You're tall; so, dunking is easy" sentiment. I'm 6'6", when I was in college I could dunk any way you asked, from both two feet and one. Now that I'm much older, when I look up at the rim, I think to myself, "That is so very high. How could anyone dunk?"

Personally, losing the ability to dunk was what drove me from basketball to triathlon. Dunking is amazingly enjoyable, and--for me--basketball was no longer the same enjoyable sport. Part of that was getting older and part was going to law school, which was the same season as basketball; whereas triathlon was a summer sport.

Thanks for the stroll down "glory days" lane.