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I've told this story before, but I still think it's one of the most unique stories about Russell that struck me, always has, is, he was the General Manager at the time, and I was his coach, and he had traded for Ralph Sampson. Traded Jim Petersen for Ralph Sampson.

...

We were up in the office ... Bill said, "Now, Ralph, how tall are you actually?" He said, "Well, I'm, coach Russell, I'm seven-foot-two." Bill said, "Well, I'm just a little bit short of six-foot-ten."

...

Bill said, "Ralph, I want you to get here in the office and I want you to reach as high as you can reach." And so Ralph stood up, you know, and reached his length as high as he could, and Bill stood next to him and reached right over the top of him. He put most of his hand right above Ralph's.

...

That was, talk about an eye-opener. It's like, now I get it. Now I get it. You know? You weren't just a great athlete, but you weren't really just 6'10".

FrodoBaggins wrote:Here are all the 7'1.5" to 7'2.5" barefoot guys in the old DraftExpress database. First column is height without shoes, second is with shoes; fourth and fifth are wingspan & standing reach. Between the eight measurements, the standing reach average comes out to 113.025 inches - a 9'5" standing reach. 87.42875 inches for the wingspan - 7'3.4".



Reports have Bill with a greater standing reach than 7'2" Kareem, 7'2" Sampson, 7'3" Swede Halbrook, and even 7'1" Wilt, who had a 9'6" standing reach.

FrodoBaggins wrote:The time stamp is 59:16 from this 2021 podcast. Credit to SNPA for recounting this story.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/training-camp-preview-and-30-questions-with-jerry-reynolds/id661990239?i=1000536212833

https://open.spotify.com/episode/7tWVOVrCFV2pWV1sGPuFeK

I've told this story before, but I still think it's one of the most unique stories about Russell that struck me, always has, is, he was the General Manager at the time, and I was his coach, and he had traded for Ralph Sampson. Traded Jim Petersen for Ralph Sampson.

...

We were up in the office ... Bill said, "Now, Ralph, how tall are you actually?" He said, "Well, I'm, coach Russell, I'm seven-foot-two." Bill said, "Well, I'm just a little bit short of six-foot-ten."

...

Bill said, "Ralph, I want you to get here in the office and I want you to reach as high as you can reach." And so Ralph stood up, you know, and reached his length as high as he could, and Bill stood next to him and reached right over the top of him. He put most of his hand right above Ralph's.

...

That was, talk about an eye-opener. It's like, now I get it. Now I get it. You know? You weren't just a great athlete, but you weren't really just 6'10".

Doctor MJ wrote:Though, shout out to Manute Bol for still being the longest player in history by some margin over Wemby or anyone else.


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eminence wrote:

Doctor MJ wrote:Though, shout out to Manute Bol for still being the longest player in history by some margin over Wemby or anyone else.


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What did Manute's standing reach measure out to? Photos of him touching rim don't make it seem likely it was meaningfully higher than Fall's 10'2.5. Higher than anybody else I've heard of though (among serious basketball prospects).

Gobert measured 9'9 during his second season and I believe is 2nd to Fall among semi official measurements we have.

AleksandarN wrote:Boban reach and wingspan is crazy

mastermixer wrote:Yeah a lot of people look for wing-span or reach instead of height.

Dwight Howard was similar to Bill Russell. Just going off memory he was someting like 6’10” with a 7’4” wing span or something like that

Lalouie wrote:

mastermixer wrote:Yeah a lot of people look for wing-span or reach instead of height.

Dwight Howard was similar to Bill Russell. Just going off memory he was someting like 6’10” with a 7’4” wing span or something like that

yup standing reach takes into account shoulder height

NZB2323 wrote: