If an object falls at the same rate it rises, how can basketball players hang in the air? In fact, it is an illusion. Gravity is always pulling a body towards the earth, but gravity works in an "up-down" (Y) direction. When a basketball player jumps towards the basket, he is moving in both the Y plane, and the forward-backward (X) plane. While gravity is pulling him down in the Y plane, it is not affecting his motion in the X plane - allowing for the illusion of the player hanging in the air. If you watch a dunk in slow motion, you will notice that the player is actually falling when he dunks the ball.
The trick to hangtime, then, is to maximize both X and Y vectors - by jumping off the tip of your toe at a 45° angle.
Watch Clyde Drexler's unbelievable hangtime.
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