Have you ever wondered how high an NBA player can reach? To find out you have to enter the world of the Draft Combine, where the league measures the explosiveness of its young talents with scientific precision. Starting from an average of around 75 centimeters in the American League, the vertical jump record is 122 centimeters, set by Keon Johnson. The history of jumps on the parquet passes from the legendary Spud Webb, the shortest (1.68 m) winner of the dunk contest, to Victor Wembanyama (2.24 m), who almost seems to have no need to jump.
How the Draft Combine measures vertical jump
In the NBA there is a fixed event every year: the Draft Combine, a series of athletic tests to which young talents are subjected before being chosen by the franchises. Among the most awaited tests is the measurement of the vertical jump, carried out in two variants: the standing jump (standing vertical) and the running jump (max vertical). In both cases, the athlete jumps trying to touch the highest possible point on a special measuring structure.
Until 2023, the so-called Vertec was used, a mechanical tool with rotating blades that the athlete hits at the maximum height of his body. Since 2024, the NBA Combine has adopted the more precise and reproducible Top Hopper system, which provides digital measurements and can be combined with force platforms to analyze the entire dynamics of the jump.
The difference between the two types of jump is not trivial: the max vertical is on average about ten centimeters higher than the one when standing still, because the run-up allows part of the horizontal speed to be transformed into elevation. The vertical jump depends on several factors, including explosive leg strength, tendon elasticity, neuromuscular coordination and the ratio of body weight to muscle mass. The best NBA jumpers are not necessarily the strongest in the gym, but those capable of developing maximum power in the shortest time possible.
The deadlift record of 122 centimetres
The average vertical jump in the NBA is around 75 centimetres, but it is by looking at the extreme cases that one realizes the extraordinary athleticism of certain players.
The official record at the Draft Combine is held by Keon Johnson, guard from the University of Tennessee, who jumped 122 centimeters in 2021, breaking a record that had stood for twenty years. The NBA itself certified it as the greatest vertical jump ever recorded at the Combine. Translated into visual terms: with that jump, Johnson would have had his head well beyond the rim of the basket, which is 305 centimeters from the ground.
Before him, the record was held by Kenny Gregory in 2001 with 116 cm, which remained unbeaten for two decades. In more recent history of the Combine, other notable names include Pat Connaughton (112cm in 2015) and Jericho Sims (113cm in 2021), the latter a seven-foot center, making the performance even more impressive.
The story of Spud Webb: the shortest to win the NBA Dunk Contest
Few players have wowed NBA audiences like Anthony “Spud” Webb. A guard for the Atlanta Hawks who is just 1.68 meters tall – one of the shortest players in NBA history – he won the Slam Dunk Contest in 1986, beating his teammate Dominique Wilkins, the reigning champion and considered one of the best athletes of the time.
Webb had a vertical leap estimated at 117 centimetres, an extraordinary value for his height. In the final, which YouTube ESPN shows again in a video, he obtained two perfect scores of 50, surprising fans, the press and even Wilkins, who declared he had never seen him dunk before that evening. Webb remains to this day the shortest player to win the dunk contest in the NBA.
Wembanyama: when jumping becomes almost useless
There is a case in recent NBA history where the vertical jump almost takes a backseat, not because it doesn’t count, but because the player’s other measurements are off the charts. Victor Wembanyama, first overall pick of the San Antonio Spurs in the 2023 Draft, is six feet tall and has a wingspan of approximately 244 centimeters, one of the largest ever recorded in the league.
His standing reach — the height reached with the arm raised from a standstill — is almost three metres. This means that even with a vertical leap of around 81 centimetres, lower than the best Combine specialists, he still manages to reach exceptional heights. As you can see in the video below, to compete for a rebound or stop a shot he often just needs to stretch out, while his opponents literally have to fly. Only a few days ago, in the playoffs against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Wembanyama took this physical superiority to an almost unreal level: in Game 1 of the Conference semifinals he recorded 12 blocks, helping to establish the new record for average blocks per game in the playoffs.
