People also search for Shaquille O’Neal 2.16 m Sun Mingming 2.36 m Tacko Fall 2.29 m
Contents
- 1 How is the tallest person ever?
- 2 What percent of 7 footers play NBA?
- 3 How rare is tall height?
- 4 Why were humans so tall?
- 5 Did Muggsy Bogues ever dunk?
- 6 Is Muggsy Bogues a Hall of Famer?
Is Yao Ming bigger than Shaq?
Shaq is no match for Yao – 
Shaquille O’Neal was much shorter than Yao (Image via Sportskeeda). Standing at 7-1 and weighing more than 320 pounds, Shaquille O’Neal was one of the most dominant players in the history of the league. However, he had trouble playing against Yao Ming.
Why did Yao Ming retire early?
| Yao Ming | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yao in 2014 | |||||||||||||||||
| 6th President of the Chinese Basketball Association | |||||||||||||||||
| Incumbent | |||||||||||||||||
| Assumed office February 23, 2017 | |||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Yu Zaiqing | ||||||||||||||||
| Member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (12th) | |||||||||||||||||
| In office March 2013 – March 2018 | |||||||||||||||||
| Chairman | Yu Zhengsheng | ||||||||||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||
| Born | September 12, 1980 (age 42) Shanghai, China | ||||||||||||||||
| Spouse | Ye Li ( m.) | ||||||||||||||||
| Children | 1 | ||||||||||||||||
| Occupation | Basketball player / administrator | ||||||||||||||||
| Basketball career | |||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||
| Listed height | 7 ft 6 in (2.29 m) | ||||||||||||||||
| Listed weight | 310 lb (141 kg) | ||||||||||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||||||||||
| NBA draft | 2002 : 1st round, 1st overall pick | ||||||||||||||||
| Selected by the Houston Rockets | |||||||||||||||||
| Playing career | 1997–2011 | ||||||||||||||||
| Position | Center | ||||||||||||||||
| Number | 11 | ||||||||||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||||||||||
| 1997 – 2002 | Shanghai Sharks | ||||||||||||||||
| 2002 – 2011 | Houston Rockets | ||||||||||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||
| Career NBA statistics | |||||||||||||||||
| Points | 9,247 (19.0 ppg) | ||||||||||||||||
| Rebounds | 4,494 (9.2 rpg) | ||||||||||||||||
| Blocks | 920 (1.9 bpg) | ||||||||||||||||
| Stats at NBA.com | |||||||||||||||||
| Stats at Basketball-Reference.com | |||||||||||||||||
| Basketball Hall of Fame as player | |||||||||||||||||
Medals
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| Transcriptions |
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Yao Ming ( Chinese : 姚明 ; born September 12, 1980) is a Chinese basketball executive and former professional player. He played for the Shanghai Sharks of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) and the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
- Yao was selected to start for the Western Conference in the NBA All-Star Game eight times, and was named to the All-NBA Team five times.
- During his final season, he was the tallest active player in the NBA, at 2.29 m (7 ft 6 in).
- Yao, who was born in Shanghai, started playing for the Sharks as a teenager, and played on their senior team for five years in the CBA, winning a championship in his final year.
After negotiating with the CBA and the Sharks to secure his release, Yao was selected by the Rockets as the first overall pick in the 2002 NBA draft, He reached the NBA playoffs four times, and the Rockets won the first-round series in the 2009 postseason, their first playoff series victory since 1997.
In July 2011, Yao announced his retirement from professional basketball because of a series of foot and ankle injuries which forced him to miss 250 games in his last six seasons. In eight seasons with the Rockets, Yao ranks sixth among franchise leaders in total points and total rebounds, and second in total blocks.
Yao is one of China’s best-known athletes, with sponsorships with several major companies. His rookie year in the NBA was the subject of a documentary film, The Year of the Yao, and he co-wrote, along with NBA analyst Ric Bucher, an autobiography titled Yao: A Life in Two Worlds,
Known in China as the “Yao Ming Phenomenon” and in the United States as the “Ming Dynasty”, Yao’s success in the NBA, and his popularity among fans, made him a symbol of a new China that was both more modern and more confident. In April 2016, Yao was elected into the Basketball Hall of Fame, alongside Shaquille O’Neal and Allen Iverson,
In February 2017, Yao was unanimously elected as chairman of the Chinese Basketball Association,
How tall was Yao Ming at 10 years old?
At ten years old, Yao was examined by doctors because of his height: 5 feet 5 inches. The doctors estimated he would grow to be more than 7 feet tall; his adult height is 7 feet 6 inches.
How many 7 foot players are in the NBA?
Heading into the NBA’s 75th anniversary year – the 2021-22 season – there are 23 players listed at 7-feet or taller with seven standing at least 7-foot-1. Six of the seven players are international and three of the top six are on the same team — the Dallas Mavericks.
| Player | Height | Team | Nationality | Age |
| Tacko Fall | 7-6 | Cavaliers | Senegal | 25 |
| Boban Marjanovic | 7-3 | Mavericks | Serbia | 33 |
| Kristaps Porzingis | 7-3 | Mavericks | Latvia | 26 |
| Bol Bol | 7-2 | Nuggets | Sudan | 21 |
| Moses Brown | 7-2 | Mavericks | USA | 21 |
| Jakob Poeltl | 7-1 | Spurs | Austria | 25 |
| Rudy Gobert | 7-1 | Jazz | France | 29 |
| Alexsej Pokusevski | 7-0 | Thunder | Serbia | 19 |
| Alex Len | 7-0 | Kings | Ukraine | 28 |
| Brook Lopez | 7-0 | Bucks | USA | 33 |
| Dewayne Dedmon | 7-0 | Heat | USA | 32 |
| Frank Kaminsky | 7-0 | Suns | USA | 28 |
| Goga Bitadze | 7-0 | Pacers | Georgia | 22 |
| Hassan Whiteside | 7-0 | Jazz | USA | 32 |
| Isaiah Hartenstein | 7-0 | Clippers | Germany | 23 |
| Ivica Zubac | 7-0 | Clippers | Croatia | 24 |
| JaVale McGee | 7-0 | Suns | USA | 33 |
| Joel Embiid | 7-0 | 76ers | Cameroon | 27 |
| Mitchell Robinson | 7-0 | Knicks | USA | 23 |
| Mo Bamba | 7-0 | Magic | USA | 23 |
| Nick Richards | 7-0 | Hornets | Jamaica | 23 |
| Robin Lopez | 7-0 | Magic | USA | 33 |
| Willie Cauley-Stein | 7-0 | Mavericks | USA | 28 |
Denver Nuggets center Bol Bol, who is tied for the fourth-tallest player entering the 2021-22 season, is the son of retired NBA player Manute Bol. Manute, who played 10 seasons in the NBA, is tied with Gheorghe Muresan for being the tallest player in NBA history, standing at 7-foot-7.
- MORE: Oldest teams in the 2021-22 NBA season | Oldest players in the 2021-22 NBA season The other player to stand tall at 7-foot-2 is Mavericks young center Moses Brown, who is the only USA national in the list of centers above 7-feet.
- He joins Fall and Marjanovic in the list of centers on the tallest players to have gone undrafted as he wasn’t picked in 2019.
Among the four players that were picked in the NBA Draft, Kristaps Porzingis is the highest selection. The Latvian center was selected fourth overall in the 2015 Draft by the New York Knicks. Last but not least is Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert, who stands at 7-foot-1 and is the most accomplished big man on the tallest players list.
How is the tallest person ever?
List of tallest people Tallest people This article is about the tallest verified individuals. For the tallest nationalities, see, “Tall men” redirects here. For other uses, see, This article contains that may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by with,
| This article contains that may be poorly defined, or, Please help to to meet Wikipedia’s quality standards. Where appropriate, incorporate items into the main body of the article. ( June 2015 ) |
the tallest verified human, with his average-size father This is a list of the tallest people, verified by or other reliable sources. According to the Guinness World Records, the tallest human in was of the United States (1918–1940), who was 272 cm (8 ft 11 in).
He received media attention in 1939 when he was measured to be the tallest man in the world, beating ‘s record, after reaching a height of 267 cm (8 ft 9 in). There are reports about even taller people but most of such claims are unverified or erroneous. Since, it has been reported about the finds of gigantic human skeletons.
Originally thought to belong to mythical giants, these bones were later identified as the exaggerated remains of prehistoric animals, usually whales or elephants. Regular reports in American newspapers in the 18th and 19th century of giant human skeletons may have inspired the case of the “petrified”, a famous archaeological hoax.
How rich is Yao Ming?
Yao Ming Net worth 2023
| Net Worth: | $180 Million |
|---|---|
| Height: | 2.29m. (7′ 6′) |
| Weight: | 141 Kg (310 lbs) |
| Profession: | Chinese basketball player |
| Nationality: | Chinese |
Has Yao Ming made a 3?
Yao Ming hit 2 three-pointers in his career.
Did Yao Ming ever win NBA?
Yao Ming didn’t win any championships in his career.
How did Yao Ming get so rich?
What is Yao Ming’s Net Worth in 2023? – As of 2023, the net worth of Yao Ming is estimated to be USD 180 million. He is one of the star and highest-paid NBA players who came from China. Yao Ming had a very successful basketball career in the National Basketball Association.
He started his journey as a teenager by joining Shanghai Sharks and representing its senior team in the CBA for five years. Then he moved to join the NBA in 2002. The Houston Rockets picked him up as the first overall pick in the 2002 NBA draft. Earlier, the deputy general manager of Shanghai Sharks Li Yaomin pressured him to enter the 1999 NBA draft.
He has earned a massive fortune in his professional basketball career in the NBA. Additionally, Yao also earned money under his endorsement contracts with various brands.
Where does Yao Ming rank all time?
Top 50: Yao Ming, no.38
| SLAMonline TOP 50 PLAYERS | ||
|---|---|---|
| Player | Team | Position |
| Monta Ellis | Warriors | SG |
| Andrew Bogut | Bucks | C |
| Yao Ming | Rockets | C |
How many times was Yao Ming injured?
Former Houston Rockets star Yao Ming was just inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, but according to a new interview, his basketball career has left other marks on him as well. Throughout the course of his prematurely-ended career (he retired at 30), Yao suffered many a foot injury ; his problems were often blamed on his towering 7″6 frame.
- In his 486 NBA games, the star managed to hurt his toe and his fifth metatarsal bone; fracture his left ankle twice; and undergo foot surgery,
- Despite having retired 6 years ago, foot pain is still a constant for Yao.
- I can tell you my foot never came back to before after my surgery in 2008.
- Today, I feel this foot is almost completely numb on top of my foot.
The surgery damaged my nerves. I feel less down there,” the star shared with Graham Bensinger during an interview in Houston. Yao’s story is, unfortunately, not uncommon. Repeated sports injuries and foot surgeries can cause lasting damage to a player’s body—that’s why it’s crucial to carefully select your foot surgeon and follow all doctor’s orders regarding your rehab period.
Did Yao Ming win MVP?
The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame :: Yao Ming He was larger than life, and on opposite sides of the world, the man who stretched seven-and-a-half feet into space changed the face of basketball forever. Yao Ming joined the Houston Rockets in the summer of 2002, just a few months removed from having led his Shanghai Sharks to the Chinese Basketball Association championship.
- Already a legend in his native China, the big center was poised to test his mettle against the best basketball players in the world.
- In eight NBA seasons, Yao made eight All-Star rosters, averaged 19 points and 9 rebounds, and was named to the All-NBA team five times.
- He was also a three-time gold medalist and three-time MVP at the FIBA Asia Championships.
Yao was a cultural and physical phenomenon with the personality to balance the demands of playing in a foreign land on the biggest stage while bridging the social, economic, and political landscapes of two very different worlds. : The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame :: Yao Ming
Does Yao Ming speak English?
While living in Houston, Yao Ming learned to speak English and got immersed in American culture.
Who is bigger than Shaq?
Sixteen-year old Elhadji Tacko Fall, also known as ‘Taco,’ stands 7’5′ tall, 4 inches taller than Shaquille O’Neal. Elhadji Fall, or ‘Taco’ as he’s known to his friends, makes dunking look easy.
What percentage of the world is 7 feet tall?
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 2800 people in the world are 7 feet tall or taller. Considering that the world population is approximately 7.4 billion people, this means that the percentage of 7 footers is 0.000038%.
How many 5 9 NBA players are there?
Table –
| ^ | Active NBA player | ||||
| * | Inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame | ||||
| GP | Games played | Pts | Points | PPG | Points per game |
| FG% | Field goal percentage | FT% | Free throw percentage | Ast | Assists |
| APG | Assists per game | Stl | Steals | SPG | Steals per game |
table>
In the fall of 2017, before beginning the ninth grade, Travon Pearson went to see his pediatrician. The appointment was, for the most part, routine. The doctor strapped a band to his forearm to test his blood pressure and pulse and put a stethoscope to his chest and back to listen to his breath.
- But when it came time to measure Pearson’s height, the doctor’s tools fell well short.
- Eventually, he decided to back Pearson against a wall, climb on a chair and use a pencil to mark the top of his head.
- Then he got down, put a tape measure on the floor, climbed back up and pulled the line tight.
- He read the result aloud.
Pearson was 7 feet and 2 inches tall. As a boy growing up in South Carolina, he’d wanted to play wide receiver. But if you can look down on adults’ bald spots before you can grow a mustache, basketball almost inevitably becomes part of your life. Pearson has been told he could eventually grow to 7’5″, but he could reach the NBA without having sprouted a centimeter more and still be the third-tallest player in the league.
- The question is, what will the league look like for 7-footers by the time he’s ready to go pro? A couple of decades ago, the NBA’s demand for back-to-the-basket 7-footers seemed like it could only be met by an assembly line.
- Now their path to pro basketball success looks more like a limbo line.
- The game has changed,” one longtime NBA scout says.
“It used to be that if you had three centers on your roster, you wanted two of them to be big bruisers because you needed to go up against guys like, Now you really only need one. So where there were 40 jobs, now there are only 20.” In the pace-and-space era, centers are asked to do far more than tether themselves to the rim for rebounds and layups.
- They also must be able to sink shots from the perimeter and to keep up with guards on defensive switches.
- By some measures, they’re more effective than ever.
- But they now function more as a kind of changeup to the dominant fastball that is small ball.
- It used to be that if you were 7 feet tall and alive, you’d get a look,” one NBA front-office executive says.
“Now mere respiration isn’t enough. You have to be able to show a whole lot of skills.” To get a better sense of the view from 7 feet, I spoke with three of the tallest players at three levels of basketball—Pearson, 7’6″ UCF Knights center Tacko Fall and 7’3″ Philadelphia 76ers center Boban Marjanovic,
- For them, adapting to a changing NBA is but the latest battle in a lifelong war of trying to fit in while standing out.
- How many of the 7.5 billion people on the planet are 7-footers? It’s a question often posed but rarely answered responsibly.
- There is no reliable international database for height.
- After all, our fascination with that mythical 84-inch threshold is arbitrary.
So how many 7-footers are in the United States? This question, too, poses problems. The Centers for Disease Control does collect height data, and we can say reliably that if you’re 6’3″ or over, you’re among the tallest 5 percent of people in the country.
- And if you assume that height distribution follows a standard bell curve, that would mean there are fewer than 100 7-footers between the ages of 20 and 40 in the U.S.
- Right now.
- Using this data in 2011, Sports Illustrated circulated a statistic that an American male 7-footer in that age range has a 17 percent chance of playing in the NBA.
The contrast to the corresponding statistic for those between 6’6″ and 6’8″—0.07 percent—was stark. But it is also probably not true. In Basketball Reference’s database, only 73 players listed at 7 feet or taller have debuted in the NBA since 2008-09.
- But those heights are, for the most part, measured with players’ shoes on.
- If you conservatively account for that as an extra inch and narrow the results to those listed at 7’1″ and taller, only 25 make the cut.
- Of that group, only four—Luke Kornet, Meyers Leonard, Mitchell Robinson and Roy Hibbert —are Americans.
During that same time frame, according to the database compiled by ESPN NBA draft guru Jonathan Givony, 51 Americans listed at 7’1″ or taller played in Division I basketball and exhausted or opted out of their eligibility. So even if you’re an American 7-footer already playing high-major college basketball, your chances of playing an NBA minute are closer to 8 percent. The Trail Blazers’ Meyers Leonard is one of only four Americans 7’1″ or taller to play in the NBA over the last decade. Brandon Dill/Associated Press In short, it takes more than height to reach the NBA. And many of the perils on the path to pro basketball success have nothing to do with the sport itself.
- The world ends at about 6’5″,” says Robert Bray, a Los Angeles-based spinal surgeon and former team consultant for the Clippers,
- You can’t fit in a plane seat.
- You can’t drive certain types of cars.
- You can’t buy clothes except for at big-and-tall stores.
- Standard office desks and chairs are of no use to you.
Your accessibility across the board is limited.” Compounding the problem is that this kind of extreme height often comes as a surprise. Pearson’s father is 6’10”, but Fall’s mother and father are 5’8″ and 6’0″, respectively. And Marjanovic’s parents? Asked about them during the first few minutes of his interview with B/R, he said he didn’t know.
So he called his mom, and after a few minutes of conversation and conversion, it was determined that she and his father are 5’6″ and 5’9″, respectively. “Basically, I come from other planet,” Marjanovic says. “Like Superman, from Krypton. I don’t show my power because I want to play basketball. I will”—and here he makes a whistling flying noise—”fly off when I retire.” For Pearson, growing up in America has meant better access to basic necessities.
He can find pants that fit—with a very tight belt—from JCPenney, and he can find shoes of any size online. But for Marjanovic, who was raised in a 3,000-person Serbian farm town, and for Fall, who is from Senegal, the sartorial search was more of a struggle.
- As a middle schooler, Tacko bought a sewing kit and taught himself to repair the rips and holes in the one pair of jeans that fit him properly.
- He also learned how to make sandals out of animal skins to accommodate his size-22 feet.
- Traveling is trouble, too.
- When he was playing professionally in Europe, Boban had a strategy for switching to an exit-row seat if the team didn’t secure one for him.
He’d walk to the exit row and stand as contortedly as he could. Then he’d ask, starting with the passenger in the window seat on one side and moving from person to person across the aisle until someone was sympathetic enough to swap seats. “They would give me like 80 percent of the time,” he says.
Tacko won’t even try to sit in a standard economy seat—”it literally is not possible,” he says—and he is also the only person on the Knights who prefers when the team does not charter, because exit-row seats in commercial are the most comfortable for him. But the biggest battle isn’t material. It’s emotional.
You can’t go to the grocery store without being gawked at. You can’t go to the mall without being asked incessantly if you play basketball. You can’t go in public, period, without having your photo taken by strangers without your permission. “I definitely don’t just want to be seen as an attraction,” Fall says.
“I’m a man of faith. I’m a pretty smart guy. There’s more to me than just my height. I’m a human being just like you.” A couple of months after Marjanovic made his NBA debut in San Antonio, Spurs fans chanted “M-V-P” as he shot free throws toward the end of a blowout win against the Suns, After the game, coach Gregg Popovich admonished them not to treat him like ” some sort of odd thing,” But Boban has learned that the best way to deal with the attention is to embrace it.
He doesn’t like when people insist on taking pictures of or touching his hands—despite the fact that there is a subreddit devoted to that exact thing—but he enjoys when people stop him for photographs. And he chooses to take the MVP chants as endearment, not harassment. While it’s unclear if the attention the 7’3″ Boban Marjanovic receives is in appreciation for his basketball skills, he has come to embrace the fans who cheer his very existence. Michael Dwyer/Associated Press Pearson, too, likes the attention, but mostly because it has just begun.
When Pearson goes to a fast food restaurant near his home, the cashier takes one look at him and, before asking for his order, asks where he can watch him play basketball. In less than 30 minutes, three different people try to take pictures of him. “It feels like I’m kind of famous at a young age,” he says.
“I think it’s helping me prepare for when I am really famous—for when I make it to the NBA.” When he first began playing basketball, Marjanovic modeled his game after legendary big men Arvydas Sabonis and Hakeem Olajuwon. In San Antonio, he studied under Tim Duncan.
- From them he took not only technique, but also an understanding that he can change the flow of the game.
- You say basketball has really changed,” he says, “but it hasn’t changed in one way: You have to put ball in net.
- And that will never change.
- You just do it in different ways.
- For me the easy way, because I’m tall, is layup.
You can still miss some three-point shots. But layups? Maybe only one out of 100. That’s why big guys exist. It’s our job to protect the paint. It’s our job to rebound. And it’s our job to get the easy points.” Among those who have logged at least 1,000 minutes in the NBA, Marjanovic is the fourth-most efficient player in history,
- Last season, he was second in the league in points per touch, and this season, his win shares per 48 minutes is 13th in the league.
- Centers comprise most of the 12 players ahead of him.) Research from ESPN.com’s Kevin Pelton showed that, in the 2017-18 season, centers had the highest player winning percentage (.560) of any position.
The next closest was power forwards at,498. But part of the reason for the rising productivity of centers—pick-and-roll spacing—is also part of the reason they have seen their roles reduced. “There is probably a heyday in the league where Boban is a no-brainer starter,” the front office executive says.
Even now he is absolutely a major-impact guy in the minutes that he plays, but the problem is he only plays a handful of minutes. He’s more of an extreme specialist than a star. In the modern era, is that where giants get slotted in?” Indeed, according to Pelton, in the past three postseasons, 7-foot centers saw a substantially lower share of minutes than they did during the regular season.
In the 1990s and 2000s, the opposite trend was true. “I call it the Steph effect,” one NBA scout says. “We are really seeing the death of old-school bigs because of small ball. It’s not enough to be big. You have to be able to move. You have to be able to run. Despite averaging more than two blocks per game and shooting better than 75 percent from the field, Central Florida’s 7’6” Tacko Fall is not expected to be drafted this summer. Alex Menendez/Getty Images The trend isn’t lost on NBA hopefuls like Fall.
- When he first came to the United States, Fall built his game around the types of players Marjanovic had: Olajuwon, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Dwight Howard,
- But two years ago, when he entered the NBA draft, the feedback he heard from scouts caused him to rethink his style.
- They were telling me that the pace of the game has changed,” he says, “and they wondered if I could keep up with it.” He withdrew from the draft and returned to UCF to finish his degree and prove his place in the NBA.
But scouts have remained skeptical. “Would a guy like Tacko Fall, like, two decades ago be a first-round pick?” the front-office executive asks. “Probably. Is he gonna get drafted at all? Probably not. We’re in an era where being big isn’t by itself enough.” Now Tacko spends more time studying the so-called unicorns—7-footers who can do some combination of defensive shifting, ball-handling or three-point shooting.
- For defensive tips, he watches Rudy Gobert, one of the NBA’s premier rim protectors.
- And for offense, he watches a lot of Joel Embiid, a big man who prefers to patrol the paint but has become a reliable three-point shooter because he understands its importance to his team’s spacing.
- In fact, Fall watches the 76ers more than just about any other team, which is why he was so thrilled when Boban was traded to them in February.
It’s too soon to draw broad conclusions about Marjanovic in Philadelphia, but the early results are promising. He has averaged career highs in minutes, points and field-goal percentage in seven appearances so far. “Maybe another time would have been better for me to play,” Boban says.
- Only I don’t live in that time.
- I live now.
- Other guys make big decisions, but when I step on the court, I think it is my time.
- I make every time my time.” If, a few years from now, Pearson’s time comes, it won’t be because he studied the greats of generations ago like Boban and Tacko did.
- In fact, Pearson’s favorite players aren’t big men at all.
“I like guards more than big men, to be honest,” he says. “I want to play like James Harden or Kyrie Irving.” With just over a minute remaining in a game against the Pelicans on Feb.25, Marjanovic suffered what at first appeared to be a career-altering injury.
- In a tangle while trying to collect a deflected pass, New Orleans center Cheick Diallo crashed into Marjanovic’s right knee, sending the big man tumbling to the floor.
- He needed to be carried off the court.
- Remarkably, Boban limped away with only a mild knee sprain and a bone bruise.
- The injury was a reminder of the health perils for the NBA’s giants.
In 2015, FiveThirtyEight broke down the average NBA minutes played by height and found a huge lack of players listed at 7’1″ or taller compared to what you’d expect in a normal distribution. “When you’re 7 feet and taller,” says Bray, the surgeon, “you can only take so many poundings. South Carolina ninth-grader Travon Pearson stands 7’2” tall in his family’s kitchen. David Gardner Fall missed half of last season as he recovered from a torn labrum. He blamed the injury in part on the repeated hits to the shoulder and elbow he sustains from smaller defenders.
“I get hacked all the time,” Fall says. “Sometimes I even hear an opponent or a coach say something like, ‘Go after his knees.’ That’s the only thing that ever really gets under my skin.” The list of 7-footers who have had their careers curtailed by injuries is long. But what happens to them after basketball? Larry Bird once said that he expects to die young because of his size.
And aging can be brutal for bigs. “Being tall is not alone a problem,” Bray says. “But being tall and big is. The wear and tear they take on during their careers can lead to immobility in retirement. When you can’t move very well but you’re used to eating like you did when you played, you get bigger.
- Everything circles together.
- Just like when they’re playing, big men fall faster and hit harder.” There have been no systematic studies of 7-footers, but for men overall, the average height decreases steadily after age 30.
- Linking height to overall mortality, though, is problematic because it’s so hard to control for the compounding variables.
Studies have generally shown an increased risk of cancer as you get taller, but a decreased risk of coronary heart disease, “At the end of the day, being tall is not a death sentence,” says Dr. Travis Maak, an orthopedic surgeon and team physician for the Utah Jazz,
I’m 6’4″, and in a biased fashion, I look at being tall as a huge benefit. Other than hitting your head or not being able to fit under the showerhead, I think you can live a pretty normal life.” To Pearson, a normal life is unappealing. He just started playing basketball a couple of years ago, and the end of that journey—much less the end of his life—is almost unimaginable.
But the potential health perils he faces have already touched his life. Two days after Marjanovic’s injury against the Pelicans, Pearson underwent a scheduled surgery to open a valve in his heart, which is enlarged. When he first heard the diagnosis, he was afraid he would die.
- But then he did a Google search on his phone and discovered how common a condition it is for athletes and how it wouldn’t prevent him from continuing to pursue a professional basketball career.
- In fact, in a way, it made him feel like he had more in common with his NBA idols than his high school friends.
The procedure went as planned, and Pearson was home the next day. Before the sun went down, he took his next steps on the path to a professional career for which he feels destined. He grabbed a basketball, walked the half-mile to the court closest to his house and spent an hour shooting three-pointers.
How rare is tall height?
Introduction – Tall stature is usually defined as height above + 2 SDS or height > 2 SDS above the target height SDS. It is important to use reference data appropriate for the ethnic background of the individual. Different formulas are available to calculate target height ( van Dommelen et al., 2012 ); ideally height of both parents should be measured. Sudden growth acceleration may also warrant evaluation even if height is still <+2 SDS and within the target height range. To be able to identify growth acceleration it is important to collect growth data, ideally from birth onwards, and plot these in a growth chart to assess the growth pattern. Defining tall stature as height >+2 SDS means that 2.5% of the population has tall stature. Interestingly, short stature is a much more common reason for medical consultation than tall stature. This is probably due to greater social acceptance of tall stature. However, some may worry about excessive height and request counseling on predicted adult height and possibilities to reduce growth. Some may also worry about an underlying disorder. Most individuals do not have an underlying pathological cause of their tall stature but it is important to identify those that do, as some of these conditions are associated with significant morbidity for which regular screening is advised, such as cardiovascular pathology in Marfan syndrome and increased tumor risk in Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome (BWS) and PTEN hamartoma tumor syndrome (PHTS). Tall stature can be the result of a number of different conditions. A thorough medical history, a detailed physical examination and careful evaluation of the growth chart may lead to the conclusion that there is a benign cause such as familial tall stature, and should otherwise narrow the differential diagnosis and give direction to further investigations. Read full chapter URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128012383653370
Why were humans so tall?
Category: Biology Published: August 19, 2015 Although an individual’s genetic code does significantly influence his adult height, a few hundred years is not long enough for overall genetic evolution to take place. Public Domain Image, source: NASA. Humans have not evolved to be taller in the last three hundred years.
While the average adult height has indeed increased in many countries over the last few hundred years, this increase was not caused by evolution. Additionally, the average height gain over the last few hundred years has not been very large. If you have ever taken a tour of a commoner’s house that has been preserved in its original state since the 1700’s or 1800’s, you may have been struck by the uncomfortably low ceilings.
You may have concluded, or have been told by a tour guide, that people were generally much shorter hundreds of years ago and didn’t need high ceilings. However, this conclusion is misleading. Let’s look at this subject more closely. First of all, evolution is not the cause of the overall gain in height seen in many countries over the last few hundred years.
Biological evolution takes many generations to occur. Humans have a life span of about a century, meaning that human evolution requires thousands to millions of years. A few hundred years is simply not enough time for significant evolutionary changes to come about. Therefore, the small gain in average human height experienced in many countries over the last few hundred years was not caused evolution.
The most likely cause is improved nutrition and health. While this subject of study is too complex for scientists to currently draw definite conclusions, the most reasonable explanation is that the overall increase in average height is a reflection of the overall improvement in health.
As western civilizations entered the modern age, improved technology made it possible for more and more people to have consistent access to a nutritious diet and a healthy environment. While a person’s genetic code may specify the potential height that he can reach once mature, he will fall short of that height if his body does not have adequate health and nutrition.
The textbook Height, Health, and History by Roderick Floud, Annabel Gregory, and Kenneth Wachter states, “it seems safe to say only that the upward trend in European heights reflects the economic development of European nations and the increasing living standards of their populations.” Now let’s look at some numbers.
- As reported in the book Height, Health, and History, the change in average adult male height in the United States over the last three hundred years did not follow a simple trend.
- From around 1710 to 1830, the average height of adult American men remained effectively at around 173 cm.
- Over the next sixty years (1830 to 1890), the average height actually dropped from 173 cm down to 169 cm.
Then over the next forty years (1890 to 1930), the average height climbed back up, reaching the value of 176 cm. The average height of adult American men today is still 176 cm. We can take a few things away from these numbers. First, there has not been a smooth trend in average height change over the last 300 years in the United States.
- For most of this period, the average height has either stagnated or dropped.
- Only during the brief forty years leading up to the Great Depression did the average height see rapid increase.
- Therefore, in the United States, an increase in average height is neither steady nor inevitable.
- Secondly, Americans today are not really that much taller than Americans during the 1700’s.
Three centimeters is less than the diameter of a golf ball. Therefore, a house from the 1700’s that has its ceiling three feet too low according to today’s standards is not that way because people were three feet shorter back then. Such a house must have been built that way for another reason (perhaps the inhabitants were too poor to afford the extra material for high ceilings).
The last point we can draw from the U.S. height data is that the variation in height among a population at any point in time is much greater than the variation of the average height itself over time. Gather a group of adult males and line them up by height. You will find a variation in height between the shortest one and the tallest of about 20 or 30 cm (if your group is a reasonable statistical sample).
Compare this to the 3 cm that Americans have on average gained over the last three hundred years. Simply put, the difference in height between you and your neighbor will likely be several times greater than the difference in height between the average of your neighborhood now and that of your neighborhood three hundred years ago (assuming, for the sake of the argument, that you are all adult American males).
In other words, the variation in height from family to family right now is far larger than the variation in average height from century to century. If you time-traveled to the 1700’s, you would not notice that the people are shorter on average. Now, let’s look at Europe. Unlike in the United States, the numbers reported in the book Height, Health, and History indicate that in European nations, the average male height has been changing more steadily.
In the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, the average male height upon conscription has steadily increased from about 167 cm in 1870 to about 181 cm today. Similarly, in Italy and France, the average male height upon conscription has steadily increased from about 164 cm in 1870 to about 176 cm today.
- Thus, these European nations have gained about 13 cm in average height over the last 150 years.
- To give you an idea of what this means, 13 cm is about the width of two tennis balls.
- As we can see, these European nations did indeed see a more significant gain in height over the last 150 years—much larger than that seen in the U.S.—but it is still no where near the three foot height gain that some people may have in mind.
We could continue on and look at other countries, but I think we have looked at enough data now to allow us to summarize the main points:
Height changes over the last few hundred years are not caused by evolution. The changes in average height over the last few hundred years are different from one nation to the next. In general, humans have indeed been getting taller on average in the U.S. and in many European nations over the last few hundred years, but the overall amount of change has been fairly small (from a few centimeters to a dozen or so centimeters). The variation in height from one individual to the next is much larger than the change in average height over the last few hundred years.
Topics: evolution, height, taller
Which country has the tallest people?
The Netherlands – Dutch people are the tallest people in the world. They have an average height of 175.62 cm (5 feet 7.96 inches). The Netherlands’ King Willem-Alexander is 183 cm tall and Queen Maxim is 178 cm tall.
Did Muggsy Bogues ever dunk?
So, the answer is clear: Muggsy Bogues never dunked in an NBA game. But one thing that is very clear is this. Muggsy Bogues made basketball players look foolish throughout high school and college career. That alone trumps getting teased about his height by even the greatest basketball player ever (Michael Jordan).
How Many People are 7-Foot Tall? About 5 years ago we interviewed a guy for a position with our firm who was 7’2″ tall (yes, he played college basketball). I had never stood next to someone that tall – it was really shocking. If you know someone really tall, like 6’8″ (about 1 in 8,000 males), now imagine someone six inches taller than that! Crazy.
- According to the Centers of Disease Control, the median height for American men is 69.2 inches (5’9.2’\”) and women is 63.7 inches (5’3.7″),
- This means that half of the adult males in the U.S.
- Are taller than 5’9″ and half are shorter.
- The standard deviation for height is 2.9 inches for males and 2.7 inches for females.
This means 68% of U.S. males are between 6’2.1″ and 5’6.3″ and 68% of females are within 5’6.4″ and 5’1″. Further, 95% of males are between 6’3″ and 5’3.4″ and 95% of females are between 5’9.1″ and 4’10.3″. Only about 1% of U.S. women are 6 feet tall or more and about 1% of U.S. 
So, how many 7 foot tall people are there? It’s hard to gauge as being 7 foot tall is a 5 standard deviation event and billions of people live in poverty (which affects height) and throws off the statistics. In researching this topic the most common estimate is that there are about 2,000 – 3,000 7 foot tall (or taller) people in the world.
That is one in about 2-4 million people meaning, statistically, that only about 85 – 150 people in the U.S. are 7 foot tall or taller. In 2011 Paul Torre of Sports Illustrated estimated that only about 70 American men between the ages of 20-40 are 7 foot tall or taller. So, being 7 foot tall is very rare.
: How Many People are 7-Foot Tall?
Is Muggsy Bogues a Hall of Famer?
College – Bogues making a layup for the Wake Forest Demon Deacons Bogues attended Wake Forest University and played college basketball for the Wake Forest Demon Deacons for four years. He averaged 11.3 points, 8.4 assists and 3.1 steals per game in his junior year.
He followed with a senior campaign in which he averaged 14.8 points, 9.5 assists, 3.8 rebounds and 2.4 steals per game. In 1986–87, he led the Atlantic Coast Conference in steals and assists and received the Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award, As a senior, he received the Arnold Palmer Award as Wake Forest ‘s most valuable athlete.
When his collegiate career ended, he was the ACC career leader in steals and assists. Wake Forest retired his number within a few years of his leaving the program. In 2001, he was inducted into the Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame. As of 2021, he remains Wake Forest’s all-time leader in both steals and assists.
What happened to Yao Ming?
BEIJING (AP) — Former Houston Rockets star Yao Ming has stepped down as head of China’s struggling national basketball league. An eight-time NBA All-Star, Yao had been leading efforts to commercialize the top-tier 20-team Chinese Basketball Association Management Company since his appointment in 2017.
A notice on the CBA’s website thanked Yao for his service. It gave no indication of the reason behind Yao’s departure other than that the board of directors had determined it was time for new leadership. Yao was one of the first Chinese athletes to become an international household name when the Houston Rockets drafted him with the first pick in 2002.
The 7-foot-6 center played for eight seasons in the NBA before retiring in 2011, citing chronic injuries. Allegations of corruption have dogged the league in recent years. Two teams, the Jiangsu Dragons and Shanghai Sharks, were ejected from the league finals last month after being found to have engaged in unsporting conduct over a series of turnovers that resulted in a come-from-behind win by the Sharks.
The outcome was judged as suspicious and resulted in a swift investigation and punishments for both teams. Managers and coaching staff from each team have been barred from the league for up to five years. China’s basketball and football leagues have drawn foreign talent and commercial endorsements, but are weighted down by uncertain ownership lineups and the influence of government.
Some officials have been placed under investigation for bribe taking and other forms of corruption. Yao’s replacement is veteran sports journalist Xu Jicheng, who served on committees bidding for and overseeing management of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and last year’s Winter Games.