How big does your hand have to be to pick up a basketball with one hand?

Datsmeharse

Answering the question literally, anyone with normal coordination with any size hand could pick up a basketball with one hand, provided they scoop it up with the palm up. To palm a basketball (palm-down) is a variable not so much on the size of the entire hand but more of the width between the thumb and middle finger, and the general strength of the person's fingers, and of course the size of the basketball, as there are several sizes depending on the league. For instance in US colleges the ball is between 28.5 and 29 inches circumference, but in the NBA it is 29.5 inches circumference. Also the width of the seams is sometimes a variable, and most especially the 'slickness' of the ball varies. In order to palm the ball typically, you'd have to be able to put your thumb on one seam and your middle finger on another stetched out; in a US College ball, that means only 3 5/8 inches, but of course it depends on the strength of the fingers from there. Or as one smart-aleck says in the link below, simply let the air out of the ball and anyone can palm it. :-) http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061217171506AARO7D3 Basketball sizes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basketball_(ball) 3 5/8 inches between seams derived by taking 28.5 inch circumference and dividing by the normal 8-seam ball. Jun 03 09, 9:16 PM