Michael Wilson is a former player of the

Harlem Globetrotters The Harlem Globetrotters is an American Exhibition game, exhibition basketball team. They combine athleticism, theater, entertainment, and comedy in their style of play. Over the years, they have played more than 26,000 exhibition games in 124 ...

and the

University of Memphis The University of Memphis (Memphis) is a public university, public research university in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1912, the university has an enrollment of more than 20,000 students. The university maintains the Herff Col ...

, also known as 'Wild Thing'. Wilson, 6'5, holds the record for the highest dunk. On April 1, 2000, Wilson dunked a basketball on a goal set at 3.65m (12 feet) from the floor; the feat placed him in the

Guinness Book Of World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, listi ...

, and broke a previous record held by former

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public university, public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is o ...

basketball star Joey Johnson, the younger brother of former NBA great Dennis Johnson. However,

Wilt Chamberlain Wilton Norman Chamberlain ( ; August21, 1936 – October12, 1999) was an American professional basketball player. Standing tall, he played Center (basketball), center in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for 14 seasons. He was enshrin ...

was also known to have performed the feat on an experimental basket set up by Phog Allen at the University of Kansas in the 1950s. Chamberlain, unlike Wilson, did not have the advantage of being given an alley-oop. In 2001 the record (3.65m) was repeated by Robertas Javtokas from

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

during a local All Stars day. Michael Wilson played high school basketball at Melrose High School in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Situated along the Mississippi River, it had a population of 633,104 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tenne ...

. The Texarkana Gazette reported that he had a 52-inch vertical leap. In 1995, he was a starter on the University of Memphis Tiger basketball team that went to the Sweet 16 under coach Larry Finch. Wilson is the former Director of Headfirst Basketball. He is now founder and CEO of World Record Basketball.World Record Basketball

References

Harlem Globetrotters players Memphis Tigers men's basketball players Living people Year of birth missing (living people) {{US-basketball-bio-stub