Larger Than Real Life

[Chris_]

Larger Than Real Life

Fact: An actual accounting of 7-footers, domestic or global, does not exist in any reliable form. National surveys by the Center for Disease Control list no head count or percentile at that height. (Only 5% of adult American males are 6'3" or taller.) "In terms of the growth spectrum, 7 feet is simply extreme," explains endocrinologist Shlomo Melmed, dean of the medical faculty at L.A.'s Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. The term 7-footer is itself a kind of outer limit, a far-off threshold beyond which precise measurement seems superfluous. A 6'4" guard isn't a 6-footer, after all. The curve shaped by the CDC's available statistics, however, does allow one to estimate the number of American men between the ages of 20 and 40 who are 7 feet or taller: fewer than 70 in all. Which indicates, by further extrapolation, that while the probability of, say, an American between 6'6" and 6'8" being an NBA player today stands at a mere 0.07%, it's a staggering 17% for someone 7 feet or taller.

In this century, for the tallest among us, hoops is not just a reasonable hobby but a de facto life imperative. "I'll check up on anyone over 7 feet that's breathing," says Ryan Blake, the NBA's assistant director of scouting. It shouldn't be surprising that the tallest living American-born man, 7'8" George Bell, played college ball (at Biola University in California), made camp with the Clippers in 1988 and suited up for the Globetrotters before taking on his present job as a sheriff's deputy in Norfolk. Or that 7'8" Paul Sturgess, who can clutch a rim without jumping, emigrated from Loughborough, England, explicitly to play basketball and finished his collegiate career at Mountain State University in West Virginia this past season. Or that LSU coaches encouraged 7'2" Andrew Del Piero, once a tuba player with the Tigers' band, to drop his instrument last year and walk onto the varsity basketball team. The rising junior has yet to enter a game, but there he is.

Sport Illustrated

I don't care for basketball, but this is an interesting story.

[JohnnyReb]

Can't wait to tell a smartass DUmmie, "Well, I'm in the top 5%."....and I won't try to explain what or which 5%.

[Texacon]

I used to know a guy who was 7' 1".  I'm 6' 1" and I felt like a midget standing next to him.  After talking to him a bit about it I realized just how tough life is for someone that tall.  He had to duck to go through any standard sized door, his bed was too short for him and finding one long enough was really tough.  One of the times I saw him most excited was the day he had a handicap toilet put into his home.  He was absolutely giddy about not having his knees up by his ears in the bathroom.

KC

[USA4ME]

I used to know a guy who was 7' 1".  I'm 6' 1" and I felt like a midget standing next to him.  After talking to him a bit about it I realized just how tough life is for someone that tall.  He had to duck to go through any standard sized door, his bed was too short for him and finding one long enough was really tough.  One of the times I saw him most excited was the day he had a handicap toilet put into his home.  He was absolutely giddy about not having his knees up by his ears in the bathroom.

KC

Same deal here.  I have a friend who's 6'10" and for a wedding present his in-laws purchased a bed that was slighly over 7' long for them.  Had to get special made sheets and everything for it.  He said it was the first time since he was 11 or 12 yrs old that he had been able to sleep fully stretched out.

There's a lot of things like that.  Being rich and famous sounds great, but when you see all the stuff they can't do just because it would attract a mob, I'd just as soon be Joe Average.

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