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However, there are certain physical skills that you really cannot get better at through hard work. I could work at increasing my jumping ability 16 hours a day for 10 years, and I doubt I could even touch the rim. These natural atheltic skills are basically something you are born with. I seriously doubt Vince Carter and LeBron James were able to hit their head on the rim through hard work. They were born with that skill. When it comes to shooting, dribbling, passing etc...that is acquired through practice and hard work.

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Vince Carter and Lebron James are 6'6 and 6'8, respectively. I assume most people that tall could eventually train themselves into being able to dunk a basketball. One reason why you or I (I'm 6'0 feet tall) couldn't train for 10 years and dunk a basketball is because we're signifcantly shorter than the athletes you've mentioned -- although I don't doubt that after serious training, most people couldn't drastically improve their vertical leap.

In other words, I don't think Vince and LeBron were born with that skill -- I think it is a product of hard work, exercise, training, practice, etc.

I generally assume there's an equal distribution of 6'8 males who can dunk a basketball among races (although I have no proof) -- if I'm wrong, and there is some statistically significant difference, I'm sure we can come up with some non-genetic reasons as to why.

If the claim is that African Americans are generally taller than white people, I think Grey does a pretty good job explaining why that is.