May 20, 2017 10:02 pm

Brush up on your Slam Dunk Science for the NBA Conference Finals

With the NBA conference championships in full swing, now is the perfect time to catch up with Slam Dunk Science (Part 1) on Playing with Science.

The episode is the first of a two-part “off-season special” show recorded at the SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas with our friends from TuneIn. Outspoken former NBA All-Star Caron Butler and actor Michael Rapaport, the co-host of the Two-Man-Weave podcast on TuneIn, join our hosts, Chuck Nice and Gary O’Reilly, for a discussion based around one of the most dramatic shots in basketball: the slam dunk. Together with guest astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, the guys explore more than just the dunk, as they examine the role gravity, physics and the backboard play in scoring, and the even bigger role experience and “being nasty” play in rebounding.

There’s quite a bit of reflecting on how the game has changed over the years, getting faster and looser and shifting to more perimeter shooting in the league’s quest to give the fans higher scoring games. Caron talks about how hand checking helped keep superstars like Jordan, Kobe and Iverson in line. Now, Caron says, “The game has gone soft…You blow on a guy, you don’t gargle with Listerine, it’s a foul.” You’ll also hear how analytics started replacing old school experience in the NBA around 2010, the same way it did during the “Money Ball” era of baseball.

But there’s more to this episode than science. New Yorkers Michael and Neil reminisce about the glory days of the Knicks, when they won it all in 1973 with Hall of Famers Willis Reed, Walt Frazier, Dave DeBusschere, Bill Bradley, Jerry Lucas and the rest. You’ll hear the surprising story of how Neil ended up wearing Walt Frazier’s used Pumas, while Michael explains to anyone who isn’t familiar with the Big Apple how basketball is “part of the fabric and the architecture of New York City.”

You can listen to this episode right now on TuneIn.

And if you’re enjoying Playing with Science, you can help us get prepared for next season by subscribing to Playing with Science wherever you listen to podcasts. You can listen on TuneIn, of course. But you can also subscribe on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and GooglePlay Music.

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up!
–Jeffrey Simons