Lying about heights; was it worth it?

[SinceGatlingWasARookie]

Alternatively, Pau Gasol was listed at 7'1" (2.15 m) in Barcelona, but 7'0" in the NBA.

His noticeably smaller brother being listed at 7'1" was all the funnier.

was he? I remember him as being listed at 2.12m

You could inflate the feet and inches and use real measurements for the meters and centimeters. The American fans probably would not catch on.

[Owly]

It makes guys feel better when they are hyping their favorite player. You give your guy the 2.5 inch boost that the NBA goes by, and whoever you are talking down about, you list their actual height to undersell them. It's actually the opposite for small guys. They like to remind you they are actually even smaller to make it more incredible.

Also, every hyped prospects immediately grows 2 inches when they are drafted for hype reasons. This is even more prevalent if the guy declined getting officially measured, because then no one can actually prove you wrong. because you know, a player that sprouted 2-3 inches, wouldn't want teams to know about it, so they'd rather not get measured.

Also, saying a guy is 6'9.5 or 6'10 with guard skills just doesn't sound like a mythical creature like calling a guy a 7' guard.

Don’t the colleges inflate heights as much as the NBA does?

. . . and AAU ball and high school. My last year connected with my old school we had 3 players listed at 6'11. One went on to Texas A&M where he was listed 6'9 and 6'8 at NBA draft express. It makes you a more attractive prospect. Even if the extra height is debunked, people still retain that initial impression. (great discussion of how this works on the brain in Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman)

Suspect this is the key. It's player/agent driven, it's done before the pros. It's better to get, stay in the conversation with an inflated height and then take the hit if you have to (best players don't have to show up at combine and then does the team want to make a thing of downgrading you) than risk falling out of the picture. There's stories of NBA "exposing" inflated heights. Some tournament/league for marginal prospects got it out that Derek Strong was "inflated" (looked it up, touted at 6'10 but Portsmouth exposed him as 6t 7 1/2in.

I'd like a legit, consistent (don't care that much about shoes ... they'll be different but if it's what you play in it doesn't seem like a big deal ... so long as it's all the same) height, weight (check each year, ideally) and that's what's listed, easily found but it's not it's not a big deal and that might be why such (official) numbers are so fuzzy.

[Jaivl]

Pau was always listed at 2.12 in Eurocups and Olympics, I remember that.

False. Always has been 2.15 (or 2.14 or 2.16).

https://www.fiba.basketball/es/olympics/2016/player/Pau-Gasol

https://archive.fiba.com/pages/eng/fa/player/p/pid/28569/pid2//sid/3507/tid/362/tid2//_/2006_FIBA_World_Championship/index.html

[Braggins]

I see Domantas Sabonis is listed at 7'1''. That's way off. He is not that tall even in shoes.

Thats crazy. According to nbadraft.net he measured 6'10" in shoes in 2015 when he was 19. I thought I remembered seeing that he was 6'9" barefoot. Does anyone remember what he was listed at the one year that they made people actually measure in training camp?

[Medbrat]

Pau was always listed at 2.12 in Eurocups and Olympics, I remember that.

False. Always has been 2.15 (or 2.14 or 2.16).

https://www.fiba.basketball/es/olympics/2016/player/Pau-Gasol

https://archive.fiba.com/pages/eng/fa/player/p/pid/28569/pid2//sid/3507/tid/362/tid2//_/2006_FIBA_World_Championship/index.html

You gotta watch the numbers on the screen when they present teams, not the fiba pages where they copy info from NBA com for NBA players

[Jaivl]

Pau was always listed at 2.12 in Eurocups and Olympics, I remember that.

False. Always has been 2.15 (or 2.14 or 2.16).

https://www.fiba.basketball/es/olympics/2016/player/Pau-Gasol

https://archive.fiba.com/pages/eng/fa/player/p/pid/28569/pid2//sid/3507/tid/362/tid2//_/2006_FIBA_World_Championship/index.html

You gotta watch the numbers on the screen when they present teams, not the fiba pages where they copy info from NBA com for NBA players

Dude, I've watched nearly every spanish basketball game since the mid 00s. Not only they don't list heights in many of them, but you're just wrong.

Watch on YouTube

7:23

Watch on YouTube

0:30

etc

[henshao]

Was it worth it? Of course it was.

Why wouldn't you bill these guys to be larger than life? This is the entertainment industry. These athletes are on the biggest TV networks and drawing live gates, filling stadiums with thousands of people. The bigger they are, the more otherworldly they are, and thus are bigger attractions.

Honestly, if they aren't already, they should only hire short interviewers to do post-game interviews to make the players look even more imposing. Or have them only do interviews backstage where they can stand on a platform that raises them up 3-4 inches without anybody seeing.

might be onto something more than you think



you can take as much as seven inches off the heights of some of these fellas



Wilt is taller than "7'4" Andre IMO