Sports illustrated (old article): should there be a height limit in basketball?

falcolombardi · Post #1 » by **falcolombardi** » Mon Jan 31, 2022 5:11 am

https://vault.si.com/.amp/vault/1957/01/14/the-question-should-there-be-a-height-limit-on-basketball-players

A collection of interviews from the nba oldest era where coaches are asked their opinions about banning taller players from basketball

the whole thingh is worth a read

NED IRISH
Executive vice-president, Madison Square Garden Corp.

No. Basketball is the only sport where these very tall players can compete freely with players less than 6 feet 5 inches. Smaller men are not really discriminated against because they can compete in sports that are not suitable for these basketball giants. No limit should be set.

payton2kemp · Post #2 » by **payton2kemp** » Mon Jan 31, 2022 5:13 am

Sounds like a guise to keep black players out in the 50s...

I beg to differ · Post #3 » by **I beg to differ** » Mon Jan 31, 2022 5:16 am

falcolombardi wrote:https://vault.si.com/.amp/vault/1957/01/14/the-question-should-there-be-a-height-limit-on-basketball-players

A collection of interviews from the nba oldest era where coaches are asked their opinions about banning taller players from basketball

the whole thingh is worth a read, specially my favorite rebuttal

NED IRISH
Executive vice-president, Madison Square Garden Corp.

No. Basketball is the only sport where these very tall players can compete freely with players less than 6 feet 5 inches. Smaller men are not really discriminated against because they can compete in sports that are not suitable for these basketball giants. No limit should be set.

Oh wow, thanks for being against discrimination, 1957.

wojoaderge · Post #4 » by **wojoaderge** » Mon Jan 31, 2022 5:25 am

therealozzykhan wrote:Sounds like a guise to keep black players out in the 50s...

How so?

ropjhk · Post #5 » by **ropjhk** » Mon Jan 31, 2022 6:23 am

In the end it was the 3 point line that did the most to ensure that basketball wasn't just dominated by big men only.

CIN-C-STAR · Post #6 » by **CIN-C-STAR** » Mon Jan 31, 2022 6:41 am

therealozzykhan wrote:Sounds like a guise to keep black players out in the 50s...

That would be a very poor way of going about keeping black people out though :noway:

Rastas · Post #7 » by **Rastas** » Mon Jan 31, 2022 8:58 am

Damn, if only they had done that.
Wilt wouldn't have all the records.
And Russell hogging all the rings.
NBA would of been as great as say the Philippines league with their height restrictions.
Damn if only.

Sent from my V1986A using RealGM mobile app

Statlanta · Post #8 » by **Statlanta** » Mon Jan 31, 2022 9:17 am

I mean back in the day with a shorter paint and no 3pt line it probably was a cheat code to have the tallest guy. Most of the all-time greats pre 1980s were big men.

Now with the 3pt line you need mobility in addition to height.

70sFan · Post #9 » by **70sFan** » Mon Jan 31, 2022 9:29 am

Statlanta wrote:I mean back in the day with a shorter paint and no 3pt line it probably was a cheat code to have the tallest guy. Most of the all-time greats pre 1980s were big men.

Most of the all-time greats post 1980s were bigs as well though.

70sFan · Post #10 » by **70sFan** » Mon Jan 31, 2022 9:32 am

It doesn't make any sense, tall people are already at massive disadvantage in other sports.

antonac · Post #11 » by **antonac** » Mon Jan 31, 2022 10:02 am

70sFan wrote:It doesn't make any sense, tall people are already at massive disadvantage in other sports.

that's probably a lot to do with it.

people asking themselves why these useless lugs in every other sport are at a big advantage in basketball.

dhsilv2 · Post #12 » by **dhsilv2** » Mon Jan 31, 2022 10:16 am

70sFan wrote:
Statlanta wrote:I mean back in the day with a shorter paint and no 3pt line it probably was a cheat code to have the tallest guy. Most of the all-time greats pre 1980s were big men.

Most of the all-time greats post 1980s were bigs as well though.

Define most?

If we drop anyone pre bird and magic and look at MVP share (just a quick and easy metric, and everyone with at least 1).

Lebron
Jordan
Bird
Magic
Malone
Duncan
Kobe
Harden
KD
Robinson
KG
Curry
Hakeem
Chuck
Nash
Giannis
Dirk
Westbrook
CP3
AI
Ewing
Howard
Jokic
Leonard

Not sure how you define a big man as guys like Bird, magic, Lebron are pretty tall. But even if we go 6'6 or less. That's 9 of the 24 with Leonard I believe being listed at 6'7

HeartBreakKid · Post #13 » by **HeartBreakKid** » Mon Jan 31, 2022 10:17 am

I dont know about BANNING. Why? I hear people say basketball is a dumb sport because you have to be tall to be great at it, but like 70sfan said, there are plenty of sports where being tall is a disadvantage. I don't see the problem.

Now, if maybe they made a height class - the same way combat sports have weight classes, it could be entertaining to see the meta of that evolve. But I think "open height" is the way to go.

dhsilv2 · Post #14 » by **dhsilv2** » Mon Jan 31, 2022 10:20 am

70sFan wrote:It doesn't make any sense, tall people are already at massive disadvantage in other sports.

I guess 7'0 guys might be, but most sports are heavily skewed to at least top 10% males in terms of height with a pretty big bias for guys more like top 3%.

70sFan · Post #15 » by **70sFan** » Mon Jan 31, 2022 10:23 am

dhsilv2 wrote:
70sFan wrote:
Statlanta wrote:I mean back in the day with a shorter paint and no 3pt line it probably was a cheat code to have the tallest guy. Most of the all-time greats pre 1980s were big men.

Most of the all-time greats post 1980s were bigs as well though.

Define most?

If we drop anyone pre bird and magic and look at MVP share (just a quick and easy metric, and everyone with at least 1).

Lebron
Jordan
Bird
Magic
Malone
Duncan
Kobe
Harden
KD
Robinson
KG
Curry
Hakeem
Chuck
Nash
Giannis
Dirk
Westbrook
CP3
AI
Ewing
Howard
Jokic
Leonard

Not sure how you define a big man as guys like Bird, magic, Lebron are pretty tall. But even if we go 6'6 or less. That's 9 of the 24 with Leonard I believe being listed at 6'7

So 62.5% of your list is above 6'6, I guess that's "most".

70sFan · Post #16 » by **70sFan** » Mon Jan 31, 2022 10:30 am

dhsilv2 wrote:
70sFan wrote:It doesn't make any sense, tall people are already at massive disadvantage in other sports.

I guess 7'0 guys might be, but most sports are heavily skewed to at least top 10% males in terms of height with a pretty big bias for guys more like top 3%.

Top 10% of males are not even close to basketball giants. You don't have 7 footers in different sports because they are at massive disadvantage. Of course I don't mean that about people around 190 cm...

J_T · Post #17 » by **J_T** » Mon Jan 31, 2022 10:38 am

Hitler wanted to ban all players taller than 6-3 to play in Berlin 1936 Olympics, but failed.

BrianFitz · Post #18 » by **BrianFitz** » Mon Jan 31, 2022 10:57 am

therealozzykhan wrote:Sounds like a guise to keep black players out in the 50s...

What ae you talking about? Do you have any reasoning for your thought process? Or did you just wanna throw the race card out?

Lalouie · Post #19 » by **Lalouie** » Mon Jan 31, 2022 10:58 am

yes

about 5'11

dhsilv2 · Post #20 » by **dhsilv2** » Mon Jan 31, 2022 11:02 am

70sFan wrote:
dhsilv2 wrote:
70sFan wrote:It doesn't make any sense, tall people are already at massive disadvantage in other sports.

I guess 7'0 guys might be, but most sports are heavily skewed to at least top 10% males in terms of height with a pretty big bias for guys more like top 3%.

Top 10% of males are not even close to basketball giants. You don't have 7 footers in different sports because they are at massive disadvantage. Of course I don't mean that about people around 190 cm...

The point is sports almost all, I guess soccer maybe doesn't care as much, reward height. There are just so so so few people over 6'8 on the planet, if the height isn't a huge advantage, you'd not expect them to be highly represented.