og15 wrote:TheSheriff wrote:baldur wrote:Nba is like online dating. Everybody adds 1 or 2 inches to their actual height. SMH.
Not KG. He wanted to be short so coaches wouldn’t make him player center.
I always found this so funny, like he couldn't ask not to play C, and the coach can't see him next to another tall guy and be like hmmm....so I'm not sure why it makes a difference.
When he was growing up there were expectations of skills attached to a 7 footer to be a traditional Center and for mass and how effective they are doing power moves. He feared as the first high school prospect since the 70s he'd be the round peg forced into the square hole with his height listed above 7.
You also have to remember KG was the one that shattered the highschool to pro's concept of many, which the main thought was any highschooler would grow physically and in maturity. So he wanted to stem off them saying you're 7 feet bulk up because he knew that would ruin his game.
Wouldn't be the first time a big with exceptional shooting skill but a thin frame like KG's career gets ruined by being in the wrong era for him.
Thanks to KG getting lucky by being drafted by the Timberwolves who didn't try to force him to be a Center (they agreed with his vision of himself as a player so much they even played him at SF early in his career so quite the opposite) he became a big part of the reason high school to the pros worked giving solid returns as a top 5 pick which gave teams confidence to draft people like Kobe the following year as a mid round first without worry of it being a long term investment.
But who knows if KG was listed properly at 7'1" and teams drafted him thinking they could mold him into the next David Robinson and he was forced to bang down low giving up 80 pounds he could have been benched for like 3 years and called a bust and people might consider high school without college tape too risky of an investment and want them all to go to college first.