"World's Longest Basketball Shot" - Real or Fake?

[MattusMaximus]

Hmmm, very interesting video just cropped up on Yahoo Sports...

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/Video-World-s-longest-basketball-shot?urn=nba,191193

So, what do you all think? Real or fake?

[JoeyDonuts]

I don't think it was faked. The reverse angle is pretty convincing, plus it doesn't show any obvious signs of digital compositing. I mean, there's nothing supernatural about it. Nothing in the laws of physics prevents a shot like that from being made.

I would like to know how many attempts it took. I'm guessing A LOT.

[makaya325]

It is not fake. It is a combination of luck, throwing angle, release point, wind speed, etc.

[daenku32]

Ok guys, Take 2,029. Ready?

[lionking]

Ok guys, Take 2,029. Ready?
That was my thought as well.

[Whiplash]

That was my thought as well.

Mine too, but the line the guy says doesn't come off as though he'd said it 2000 times in a row. You know, kind of bored, or listless.. I would think after a while you'd be like "welcome blah blah blah" and just chuck it, because you really don't know that any given time is going to be the one that actually hits. In fact, I think I'd have have the dialog line seperate, and then cut to the successful shot, to avoid having to say it over and over and still try to "keep it fresh" on each take.

But maybe he's just a good performer.

[lionking]

Perhaps, but after umpteen failures, I would expect more than a little excitement when one goes in.

[Whiplash]

I'm referring to his opening line "welcome to aggieland...", not the shot reaction. That all seemed genuine as well.

[Towlie]

It can't be called the "world's longest" anything until they measure it and state how long it actually is.

[Soapy Sam]

Seems to me it's mostly downhill. A true basketball shot would be a parabola that starts uphill. Anyone can drop a brick down a well. He achieves a lot more than that, but is it a "real" basketball shot, even if not faked optically?

Good fun though.

[cisco]

It's cool but being so far above it sort of takes a lot of the wow factor away for me. Maybe if it was also off to the side or even farther away or something. It didn't seem like he even had to throw it very far.

[Beerina]

Ok guys, Take 2,029. Ready?

That was my thought as well.



"Dammit! It bounced off the backboard and didn't swish. Keep trying?"

"Hell, no! Eff it! We're done."

[jhunter1163]

I'd say maybe 80 feet as the crow flies. Plus, it's downhill; he's throwing it that 80 feet without much effort. Maybe a hundred-to-one shot. It could be that they got lucky and he hit it in the first few tries. I know I'd have a hard time maintaining enthusiasm the hundredth time I tried something like that.

[Ixion]

I saw the video and the only thing I wonder about for faking it would be the momentum and kinetic energy imparted from the ball being thrown 80-100 feet. Even from the reverse angle, it seems like the ball doesn't really add much to the net. I know when I attempt and land a shot from half-court, there usually is quite a bit of rattling around for the backboard, but I have yet to land a shot that is "nothing but net". Maybe I just am reading too much into it or the kinetic energy/potential of the ball is low enough that it wouldn't affect the net/backboard as much as I think it might.

[Towlie]

Even if it's real, it doesn't establish any sort of record if the actual distance isn't specified. I once saw a Harlem Globe Trotters exhibition on TV that featured a very long shot from a high vantage point just like that one. Was the shot I saw higher or lower than this one? Who can say? The Globe Trotters didn't claim to be setting a record, and like I said before, you can't make a claim like that if you don't even make a measurement.

[CoolSceptic]

I have no idea whether the basketball example is real or faked, but here is a nice little demo by top b3tan cyriak of one approach to this problem:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbvngiztFVk

Let's see if I can get the youtube embedding right....

UbvngiztFVk

[Vic Vega]

Probably fake.

[Wowbagger]

I'm sure it could be done, in a reasonable number of takes.

Don't forget that the person, and the basket have a lot of flexability on positioning. If he's not hitting the basket, they can move it to the spot where the average number of balls tend to go, to make it that much easier.

But still: I'd like to see him do it again, with more camera angles, and more witnesses. Just to be safe.

[Hokulele]

I saw the video and the only thing I wonder about for faking it would be the momentum and kinetic energy imparted from the ball being thrown 80-100 feet. Even from the reverse angle, it seems like the ball doesn't really add much to the net. I know when I attempt and land a shot from half-court, there usually is quite a bit of rattling around for the backboard, but I have yet to land a shot that is "nothing but net". Maybe I just am reading too much into it or the kinetic energy/potential of the ball is low enough that it wouldn't affect the net/backboard as much as I think it might.


For this kind of trick shot, people generally use a ball that isn't fully inflated. This makes it so it won't bounce of the rim or backboard as much, making it easier to net one.

[ben m]

Actually, I'm curious: on their Web page, the guy says he's an ex-football player.

I've always been amazed by the fact that pro baseball pitchers can reliably throw a ball into any preferred corner of a 17-inch-wide strike zone; they must have something like 6-inch precision on a 60-foot throw. That's about thirty arcminutes in angular terms.

This video shows a guy throwing---what, 150 feet? With baseball-like half-degree accuracy, he'd be able to reliably spot the ball into an 18 inch circle. A basketball shot at that angle must have something like an 8 inch margin of error. Since 8x8/(18x18) =~ 0.2, if those numbers are right you should be able to sink the ball one time out of five!

Obviously those numbers can't be right, so I'm curious where they go wrong. Obviously Mariano Rivera has more practice with the extremely specific set of motions and angles that let him hit that inside corner. And the shot shown in the video was obviously at least five degrees "too far left" and curved (or was blown) back which must add huge uncertainty.

I'm curious---does anyone know what the target-throwing accuracy of a quarterback (American football) could be? I know the highlight reels make it *look* like it's a matter of inches, but in part that's because the receivers can move to compensate. Anyone know what it is for throwing at a fixed target? A degree? Two degrees?

[JJM 777]

I wonder how many balls they had, and how they hauled all of them upstairs for the next attempt.

This kind of a downhill throw requires just some luck and nothing else, I can do that if you pay me to try a few thousand times.

A more sensible record would be, hmmm... longest streak of successful shots thrown from inside the 3 sec area of the opposite end of a basketball court.

[EHocking]

Anecdote alert!
I'm no basketballer, never was, but in High school I holed a truly flukey shot, running away from the basket, 1/2 way into the opposite half of the court - over my shoulder, without looking. Basically I was merely returning the ball to the players.

That's a 60ft+ swish shot, without looking at the basket before hand.

It WAS a complete fluke shot though.

These guys on the other hand had 50+ attempts at this one, and it's not as though they haven't had some practice at before - see the Ranch Edition at their website Dude Perfect (http://www.dudeperfect.com/) (suggest you turn down your speakers).

[jhunter1163]

I once made about a 70-foot shot playing basketball on my friends' driveway. I was actually trying to pass it to one of my teammates I saw open under the basket, but I threw it a little high and instead banked it in.

[Almo]

I don't see any signs of fakery. But I'm not an expert.

[jhunter1163]

I've always been amazed by the fact that pro baseball pitchers can reliably throw a ball into any preferred corner of a 17-inch-wide strike zone; they must have something like 6-inch precision on a 60-foot throw. That's about thirty arcminutes in angular terms.

In "Ball Four", Jim Bouton (a former pitcher for the Yankees) said that he could reliably hit an area about a foot square. That was what was defined as "pinpoint control". From 60 feet 6 inches, that's pretty damn accurate by any measure.

I think that some of the really great control pitchers, like Greg Maddux, probably could do better than Bouton. Not sure about six inches though.

[Skeptic Guy]

It can't be called the "world's longest" anything until they measure it and state how long it actually is.

That's what my wife keeps telling me, too.

I don't see why this couldn't be real. As Hok says, you would deflate the ball some and shoot a lot of takes.

[Derwoods]

maybe it is just optics but it sure seems to curve back to the left on its way down. Once the camera is more or less in the final position you can see the ball is to the right of the 50 yard line.


edit: by final position I mean left to right

[Jungle Jim]

For this kind of trick shot, people generally use a ball that isn't fully inflated. This makes it so it won't bounce of the rim or backboard as much, making it easier to net one.

Agreed. Clearly the basketball is not regulation in size (the fellow throwing has no problem palming the ball). It may be a women's basketball which is smaller in diameter and probably deflated some.

[BillC]

What prevents the shot being faked?

[Derwoods]

download and frame by frame it.. I suppose a wind could have caused the strange sudden change of direction but it is far from convincing when you step through it

[UnrepentantSinner]

It can't be called the "world's longest" anything until they measure it and state how long it actually is.

There's enough data in the video to forensically determine how long the shot was.

I'm referring to his opening line "welcome to aggieland...", not the shot reaction. That all seemed genuine as well.

Have you ever been to A&M or met any Aggies? ;)

I'd say maybe 80 feet as the crow flies. Plus, it's downhill; he's throwing it that 80 feet without much effort. Maybe a hundred-to-one shot. It could be that they got lucky and he hit it in the first few tries. I know I'd have a hard time maintaining enthusiasm the hundredth time I tried something like that.

Way more than 80 feet as the crow flies. It's been 20 years since I've been to Kyle Field, but it's probably 80 feet from the 2nd deck to the running track and he threw it from the 3rd.