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You Tube Gold: David Thompson’s Vertical

They didn’t call him Skywalker for nothing

By JD King
New York Nets v Denver Nuggets
 DENVER, CO - 1976: David Thompson #33 of the Denver Nuggets goes to the basket against the New York Nets circa 1976 at McNichols Sports Arena in Denver, Colorado. 
Photo by Dick Raphael/NBAE via Getty Images

Normally we do one video per day for our Tube Gold but today we’re doing David Thompson and discussing his vertical.

The legend about Thompson was that he could take a dollar off the top of the backboard and leave change.

That was myth of course but when you watch this video, his hand is pretty close to the top of the backboard more than once.

You get another idea from this block of Bill Walton in 1974.

And finally, here’s the play from 1974 where Thompson tried to jump over Pitt’s Billy Knight to block a shot.

Knight was 6-7 and Thompson almost cleared him. A lot of people thought he had died on the court.

As we’ve said about Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain, Thompson did not benefit from the revolutions in equipment, training and nutrition. There has to be a limit on how high someone can jump

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