Though more than six feet tall and mesmerized by the dunk since childhood, Asher Price never really pushed himself to try it. He faced some challenges; as he puts it, he’s of Austro-Hungarian stock — more closely associated with making good pastries than with jumping ability. But at 34 he decided to embark on a quest to investigate the untapped hidden talent he still possessed. August to August, he committed to one year of tireless training to dunk — and exhaustive research into the impressive physics and biology that go into the feat — to determine whether, embedded in his bones, muscles, and DNA, some grand as-yet-unrealized jumping potential lay dormant. Throughout, Asher recalls an earlier test of his physical limits. Drawing on his experience of being diagnosed with cancer as a young man, he explores just how much control we can have over our biology.
Year of the Dunk is Asher’s journey, at once a poignant, witty memoir and a fascinating work of science journalism. Transporting readers from Asher’s training sessions with an Olympic gold-medal high jumper to a lab in Cambridge, England focused on the study of leaping insects, the book recounts his interviews with athletes, scientists, and physiotherapists alike. Taking the distinctly American sport for muse, Asher’s absorbing exploration of basketball becomes as much an inquiry into the limits of human potential as it is a striking exploration of race, gender, and upward mobility in America.
