The Long and Short of It (Part I)

The Tallest Basketball Players of All-Time
Who is the tallest basketball player ever? If your answer to this question is Houston’s Chinese import by the name of Yao Ming and all of 7 feet and 5 inches of him, you’re dead wrong. Ex-Washington Bullet and Golden State Warrior Manute Bol is also not the answer. The 7 feet and 7 inch human beanpole from Sudan is one of the tallest to ever to play the game but not the tallest basketball player of all time. It’s not even close. Ex-Philadelphia 76er and Dallas Maverick Shawn Bradley looks really tall but would you believe he is ONLY 7 feet and 6 inches! Bradley spent 12 seasons in the NBA and lays claim as one of the tallest laughing stocks in the history of the league. Bradley was drafted second overall by the Philadelphia 76ers in the 1993 NBA Draft just behind number one pick Chris Webber and above stars such as Penny Hardaway, Jamal Mashburn, Allan Houston, and Nick Van Exel.

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The tallest basketball player on record is Libya’s 8'0½" (245 cm) Suleiman Ali Nashnush. Yes, he is that tall. In 1960, he successfully underwent a surgery to correct his abnormal growth. He is not only considered the world's tallest athlete but also the world's tallest actor. He had a small role in Federico Fellini's movie Satyricon where he played the role of Tryphaena's attendant. He passed away in 1991.

The second tallest player to ever play on all four corners of the basketball court is Kosen Sultan from Turkey. He stands an astounding 7'11.5" or 242 cms. This behemoth plays for the Turkish Basketball Club, Galatasaray from Istanbul. According to a French article, he is from a small village in the border of Turkey and Iraq, and can dunk without jumping. No one in his family is more than about 6 feet tall. He has received surgeries that will allow him to play basketball and move more freely, but never for more than 15 minutes a game. It will be interesting to see if he can do anything on the court other than look ridiculous for those 15 minutes.

Japan’s Yasutaka Okayama, who was drafted by the Golden State Warriors in the eighth round of the 1981 NBA Draft, is the tallest player to be drafted by an NBA team. He is 7' 8 1/2".

Korea’s 7-9 Ri Myong Hun aka Michael Ri was an NBA prospect with a myriad of skills never seen for a big man in the pre-Yao Ming era. More than a dozen NBA teams expressed interest in signing the North Korean giant when he tried to enter the NBA in 1997 as a free agent. However, unfavorable diplomatic relations between North Korea and the United States prevented Ri from entering the US and joining the NBA.

Iran giant Jaber Rouzbahani, a 7-5 260-lb mastodon, can grab the rim flat footed and dunk on his tippy-toes! He has been playing basketball for less than six years. Jaber played Yao Ming in an Asian Tournament three years ago and held him to a measly 15 points. Jaber was born with the same pituitary gland disorder as former Dallas Maverick Pavel Podkolzine. Unlike Podkolzine however, Rouzbahani had his pituitary gland removed 4 years ago. He applied for the 2004 NBA draft but withdrew his application.

The tallest player in the NBA right now is undoubtedly the 7-5 Yao Ming, especially after the retirement of Shawn Bradley last season. Before them, there were several dinosaurs who roamed the earth and played basketball: Utah Jazz’s 7-4 Mark Eaton, Indiana Pacers’ 7-4 Rik Smits, Washington Bullets’ 7-7 Gheorge Muresan, 7-7 Manute Bol, Houston’s 7-4 Ralph Sampson and 7-5 Chuck Nevitt. Of course how could you forget ex-LA Clipper center, a 7-3 stringbean by the name of Keith Closs who figured in a brawl outside a club on La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles, California that was caught on tape (believe me, you don't want to see a clip of a 7-3 guy getting pummeled).

A Chinese prospect who is touted as the next Yao Ming (are you kidding me, this guy can't jump, can't run and can't score the way Yao can) is a 7-8 teenager by the name of Sun Ming Ming (nope they’re not related). If Sun Ming Ming makes it to the big league, he will unseat Yao Ming as the tallest player in the NBA.

Among those who stand at least 7'2" that are currently on the NBA roster aside from Yao are Milwaukee's 7-3 Ha Seung-Jin, Cleveland's 7-3 Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Houston's 7-2 Dikember Mutombo, and Memphis' 7-2 Jake Tsakalidis.

Two giants were unable to get roster spots this season and took their luck elsewhere: Dallas Mavericks 7-5 300-lb Pavel Podkolzine and Washington Wizards’ 7-3 Peter John Ramos. Among those who didn’t last long enough were New York’s 7-5 Slavko Vranes, and Atlanta Hawks' 7-3 Priest Lauderdale who incidentally was an import prospect by Purefoods Chunkee Giants a couple of years ago when import height restriction was scrapped (it's now back to the 6-6 height limit). Twins Michael and James Lanier are in the record books as world’s tallest living twins at 7-6.