"Basketball" Height versus real height

[NewJeffCT]

Back in the early to mid/late 1990s, I did some part time work covering sports for some local publications in Connecticut. I even got picked up in a few national publications dedicated to college basketball. I also got to meet a lot of future NBA players (Lamar Odom, Kevin Garnett, and many others to drop some names)

Sometimes, I would bring a friend of mine along and we'd talk basketball and shit on the sometimes long drives - my friend was a legitimate 6'3 1/2" and I soon noticed that he seemed to be taller than a lot of guys listed in the various publications at a height of 6'3", 6'4" and even 6'5" (being the anal type, I did make sure to actually measure my friend's height to ensure that he hadn't undergone a sudden growth spurt to 6'6" or something)

I think Charles Barkley has confessed to being somewhere in the 6'3" or 6'4" range after he retied as well, but was listed at 6'6" by the NBA. Wilt Chamberlain was listed as 7'1" by the NBA back when it was the "real" height of the player and he was taller than more recent NBA stars that were listed at 7'0" or taller when shown in pictures next to those guys in the 1990s)

So, the two of us coined the term "basketball" height for these guys - which was anywhere from 1" to 4" inches taller than the player's real height, depending on the player and whoever is promoting him. I was asked about the term by a few local reporters who did it full time and explained it to them, and it eventually got around to where a reporter asked then UConn coach Jim Calhoun about why a certain player was listed at 6'6" or 6'7", but didn't seem that tall in person, and his response was, "They play the game in their sneakers, so we measure them in their sneakers." (or something to that effect)

What this long story is saying - Trump at 6'3" is giving us his "basketball" height and not his real height measured in bare feet, which could be anywhere from 5'11" to 6'2"

[Stallion]

1. Yeah Heights and Weights Used to Be Universally Inflated

but now kids go though so many recruiting/skills camps, combines and recruiting processes that the heights and weights are far more accurate today. But you still wonder was it 6-4 with or w/o shoes and were they standing on their tippy-toes. Today recruits are tested and measured multiple times a year just like the NFL Draft--including wing span, arm length, standing high jump, 40 yard sprint, shuttle, bench press, power-throw etc etc.

[haele]

2. He's probably around 6 ft. or 6'1".

Looking at a photograph of him standing next to President Obama (listed as 6'1" ), Drumpf was around the same height (maybe a quarter inch or so shorter). Slouching typically only drops your height about an inch, and if your spine has been compressed or you've developed some form of scoliosis due to weight or sitting, you've effectively shrunk in height.

I've got slight curvature of the spine (and always has); my doctor doesn't figuratively "stretch my spine out" to figure out a true height an inch or two taller; that would change the actual status of too many other physical situations about me she's checking out.

If when I stand up straight and the top of my head will just miss brushing a beam that is 5'6" above the floor, it won't matter how much taller I would be if my curved spine could somehow magically straighten out. I still don't need to crouch or slouch to pass under that beam when I'm walking normally under it barefoot.

Haele

[applegrove]

4. People shrink when they get older. I've lost 3/4 of an inch and I am 52

and obese.

[haele]

5. My doctor says that obesity reduces your height by an inch every ten years you're obese.

I tend to believe her - I was 5'6" when I was 25; now at almost 59 and around 75 lbs. heavier, I'm 5'4.5" to almost 5'5" on a good day.

I've always been "plump" - outright fat by the time I was 35 and obese since I was seriously injured at work when I was 52 and spent 6 months flat on my back. Never could lose the weight.

Haele

[applegrove]

7. Well that explains it. I have been obese for more than a decade.

[underpants]

3. Jayson Williams "I'm 6'8" but when I signed my contract I was 6'11""

This is the Jayson Williams who saw everything fall apart due to alcohol.

Still it's a funny and telling quote.

[NewJeffCT]

6. good quote

I think the taller height also helps in promotion - you can more easily sell a 7 foot tall center than a 6'9" or 6'10" one.

That said, wouldn't have been more impressive that Charles Barkley did so well for a guy that's 6'3" or 6'4" versus doing the same at 6'6" ?

[underpants]

10. 7'ers get drafted

Regardless of talent.

You can't teach height.

[unc70]

8. Dating Height is also inflated

OKcupid did some research on their dating site. Men and women routinely add an average of nearly two inches to their height. Men of 5’10” will often become the 6’0”. Above 6 feet, the height for men is fairly reliable (non basketball players). Women above 5’10” are likely to under report their heights to avoid being over 6 feet.

BTW I think Trump claimed to be taller just to avoid the BMI obesity stigma.

[L. Coyote]

9. Colin Kaepernick is 6'4 230

Link to tweet

[hunter]

11. My grandpa suffered the height vanity.

The way he told it he was never less than six feet tall, even into his nineties. Truthfully, in the prime of his youth, he maxed out at 5'11. His true age was also a mystery. The age on his California Driver's Licence, his Social Security, and his military records did not match up, leaving a bit of a mess when he passed. He served honorably as an Army Air officer in World War II, and was later an engineer for the Apollo project, but his history before that was more than a little sketchy. At some point I think he was the baby faced guy smuggling booze across the Mexican and Canadian borders. His parents couldn't handle him as a teenager so they'd sent him off to live with a weird uncle in the Big City of Cheyenne Wyoming.

My grandpa once asked me to claim I was his son when I met one of his girlfriends, after my grandma had passed. Okay, um, sure, dad.

My lean mean grandma, the woman he married, was a taller woman, close to as tall as he was, so me, my dad, and my siblings are all taller people, mostly her genes, not his.

I see the same vanities in Trump, but Trump is no rocket scientist.

[SoCalDem]

12. I once made my son taller in a ladies' bathroom at Magic Mountain

He was not up to snuff at the "you must be this tall to ride" signs...so we wadded up paper towels and stuck them in his shoes before we got to the head of the line ..