If the WNBA lowered the rim, how many players could dunk?

Rim height is a switch, not a dial

The interesting result is not any single count — it is how fast the count moves. WNBA heights are packed tightly: 73 of the 205 listed players are under six feet, and the median is 6'1". Because so many players sit within a few inches of one another, the dunk threshold sweeps through a large share of the league for a small change in rim height.

Between 9'6" and 9'4" — two inches — the count roughly quadruples. That is the practical case for and against the proposal in one line: a small change would not nudge the number of dunks, it would transform it. Whether that is desirable is a question about the sport, not about arithmetic, and this page does not answer it.

Does the model survive contact with reality?

A model that says dozens of current players can dunk on a regulation rim would be wrong no matter how tidy its arithmetic, because we know what actually happens in games. Exactly 9 players have recorded a dunk in a WNBA game, and Brittney Griner holds 27 of the roughly 39 dunks in league history.

Run at a 19-inch vertical on the regulation rim, this model puts 2 players above the dunk target: Han Xu (6'11") and Brittney Griner (6'9"). Griner is the league's only prolific dunker, and the model found her from height data alone. That is the check worth trusting — not the tidiness of the formula.

Three further coincidences suggest the transcription is sound: computed from these 205 rows, the mean height comes to 6'0.8" and the median to exactly 6'1" — both matching independently published figures for the 2026 league — while the tallest and shortest players fall out as Han Xu at 6'11" and Mai Yamamoto at 5'5".

Method, and where it is weakest

A player dunks when her standing reach plus her vertical jump clears the rim by enough to get her hand over it. We use the same 6-inch one-hand clearance as the main calculator, so the target on a 10-foot rim is 126 inches.

Heights are real. All 205 come from published rosters, snapshot 2026-08-05. Suspended players, unsigned draft picks and one player with no listed height are excluded. This is the full listed roster rather than a 12-per-team active list, which is why the sample is larger than an active-roster count.

Standing reach is estimated, and this is the weak link. The WNBA publishes no reach measurements. Our calculator estimates reach as height × 1.33, but that figure is male-derived — the NBA Combine median sits near 1.335. Published anthropometry has men's arm span slightly longer than their height and women's slightly shorter, so feeding each through our own wingspan refinement gives 1.333 for men — which lands on the combine median, and is the reason to trust the derivation — and 1.323 for women. Using the unadjusted 1.33 would credit every player with reach she does not have.

Vertical jump is an assumption, not a measurement. There is no per-player vertical data, so the model applies one figure to everybody, which no real roster obeys. The 19-inch default is the most-cited benchmark for female college players; the slider exists so you can disagree with it and watch the answer move.

The regulation-rim answer is robust — it stays in single figures across the whole band. The lowered-rim answer is not: it swings by tens of players, because that is exactly where the height distribution is densest. Any count on this page should be read with a few players of slack either way.

The nine who have done it

1. 1Lisa Leslie
2. 2Michelle Snow
3. 3Candace Parker
4. 4Sylvia Fowles
5. 5Brittney Griner
6. 6Jonquel Jones
7. 7Liz Cambage
8. 8Awak Kuier
9. 9Dominique Malonga

In order of first in-game dunk, from Lisa Leslie in July 2002 to Dominique Malonga at the 2026 All-Star Game.

Work out your own number

The arithmetic here is the same arithmetic for anybody. Put your height, standing reach and rim height into the dunk calculator to see what you need on a 10-foot rim, or on a lowered one — or use the standing reach calculator first if you have never measured the number this all turns on.

Questions

How many WNBA players can dunk?

On a regulation 10-foot rim, very few. Nine players have recorded a dunk in a WNBA game in the league's history, and Brittney Griner accounts for 27 of the roughly 39 dunks ever scored. Our model, run across all 205 listed roster players at a 19-inch vertical, puts 2 of them above the one-hand dunk target — which matches how rare in-game dunks actually are.

What rim height would let WNBA players dunk?

At a 19-inch vertical, half the league clears a one-hand dunk once the rim drops to about 9'1". At 9'2" — a 10-inch drop — 90 of 205 players clear it, roughly 44% of the roster sample.

Why is dunking so rare in the WNBA?

It is reach, not effort. The average listed WNBA player is 6'1", which gives an estimated standing reach near 8'1". To dunk one-handed on a 10-foot rim she has to get her hand to 126 inches, so she needs close to 29 inches of vertical. Elite female players commonly test around 19 inches. The gap, not the willingness, is what keeps dunks rare.

Is lowering the WNBA rim actually being considered?

It is being discussed, not proposed by the league. Shaquille O'Neal argued in August 2026 that a slightly lower rim would add dunks and excitement, and the idea circulated widely. The WNBA plays on the same 10-foot rim as the NBA and has not announced any plan to change it. This page is an arithmetic answer to the hypothetical, not a report of a rule change.

How accurate are these numbers?

The heights are real, taken from published rosters. The standing reaches are estimated, because the WNBA does not publish reach measurements — and that estimate is the study's weakest link. We use a reach of height x 1.323, derived from our calculator's formula and published arm-span data for women rather than the male 1.33 figure. Across a conservative-to-generous band the regulation-rim count moves from 1 to 2, so treat every count as an estimate with a few players of slack either way.