Former Kings coach & commentator Jerry Reynolds tells Bill Russell-Ralph Sampson standing reach story

[SNPA]

Boban reach and wingspan is crazy

Best part…Boban’s eyes. He is looking at AD like a grownup does playing keep away from a kid.

[michaelm]

Replied to wrong post.

[DoItALL9]

Zoom in and cut the photo off at the top of the 13 on Wilt’s jersey.

Then ask yourself, is the guy wearing number 6 blocking that shot?

WTF.

It’s just wild.

Compare the waist lines of their shorts as well

Sent from my SM-A156U using RealGM mobile app

[michaelm]

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

“I guess also if someone has a really tall neck and head that doesn’t help them with standing reach”.


Harrison Barnes.

[FrodoBaggins]

Boban reach and wingspan is crazy

9'0" standing reach vs. 9'7". AD has a surprisingly low measurement. He's got a tall head/longer neck, lower-set shoulders, and more of his wingspan in his shoulder width.

[SNPA]

Boban reach and wingspan is crazy

9'0" standing reach vs. 9'7". AD has a surprisingly low measurement. He's got a tall head/longer neck, lower-set shoulders, and more of his wingspan in his shoulder width.

He is just straight punking him. It’s hilarious.

[Lalouie]

Zoom in and cut the photo off at the top of the 13 on Wilt’s jersey.

Then ask yourself, is the guy wearing number 6 blocking that shot?

WTF.

It’s just wild.

Compare the waist lines of their shorts as well

Sent from my SM-A156U using RealGM mobile app

we don't know where wilt is leaping from. he could be further back and reaching forward. i dont think they're on the same plane

[SNPA]

Zoom in and cut the photo off at the top of the 13 on Wilt’s jersey.

Then ask yourself, is the guy wearing number 6 blocking that shot?

WTF.

It’s just wild.

Compare the waist lines of their shorts as well

Sent from my SM-A156U using RealGM mobile app

we don't know where wilt is leaping from. he could be further back and reaching forward. i dont think they're on the same plane

True. Photos can be very deceptive. They are both outstretched (differently admittedly) but it does look like that ball is several inches above Wilt’s hand…and Russell is blocking it. How many guys in the history of the game even have a chance at going straight up and blocking a Wilt shot like that? It’s insane athletic ability, timing and length. It’s no more than the number of guys you can count on your fingers. The only question is one hand or two.

[Lalouie]

Zoom in and cut the photo off at the top of the 13 on Wilt’s jersey.

Then ask yourself, is the guy wearing number 6 blocking that shot?

WTF.

It’s just wild.

looks like a wilt finger roll. if so, he's not jumping high. he has to control the ball. also bill is jumping straight up to block, wilt's arm is extended forward, so wilt could be further back

we don't know because we don't know where wilt is taking off from

in any case,,,one of the more iconic photos in basketball

[FrodoBaggins]

A Washington Post article from 2022, written by Thomas Boswell, detailed a story about a Russell-Chamberlain photo op that occurred when Wilt came into the NBA.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/05/bill-russell-death-championships/

In a famous anecdote, Russell met his perfect foil — Chamberlain — for a photo op when Wilt entered the NBA. The photographers wanted a side-by-side, the subtext being that the chiseled, 7-1, 275-pound Wilt was Goliath to the lean David of Russell.

Then Russell asked for a shot with both holding their hands as far as they could reach over their heads. With his long arms, Russell had a fingertip advantage. Bill was taller in some basketball sense — and as a champion high jumper in college, Russell probably had a vertical edge.

Anybody who thinks Russell didn’t “play big enough” for this century is probably wrong.

A little on Boswell's credentials:

Tom Boswell was a Washington Post sports columnist from 1984 until retiring in 2021. He started at The Post in 1969 as a copy aide, and he spent 12 years as a general-assignment reporter, covering baseball, golf, college basketball, tennis, boxing and local high school sports.

Russell broke into the NBA in 1956, the same year I became a sports-addicted child. The Celtics dominated the NBA’s weekly national telecast, so Washingtonians got to see him often. That he became one of the most prominent athletes to take strong political stands in the 1960s — and through his life — only added to my admiration then and keeps his memory powerfully relevant now.

I didn’t go to college in New England because the Celtics were on TV there. But, considering what I got to see from 1965 to ’69, that might have been a good reason.

It's believable because we have some guys near Bill's proportions who meet or clear Wilt's 9'6" standing reach:

DeAndre Jordan: 6'9.75" w/o shoes, 7'6" wingspan, 9'5.75" standing reach
Roger Zaki: 6'10.25" w/o shoes, 7'5" wingspan, 9'6.5" standing reach
Mark Williams: 7'0" w/o shoes, 7'6" wingspan, 9'9" standing reach
John Riek: 6'10.5" w/o shoes, 7'8.75" wingspan, 9'10" standing reach
Giannis: 6'10.25" to 6'10.5" w/o shoes, 7'3" to 7'4" wingspan, standing reach unknown, but routinely dunks and touches ground on tippy toes hanging off the rim

[Myth]

Reminds me of this: https://youtube.com/shorts/SpPJA59If40?si=gXDmnBIdVS_Wa1Yo

[7seventynine9]

Time Lord and Mo Bamba are incredibly long too.
Williams is 6'8 with a 7'5.5 wingspan and 9'4 standing reach.
Bamba is 7'0 with a 7'10 wingspan and 9'7.5 standing reach.

Tacko Fall's standing reach is 10'2.5 and wingspan is 8'2.5. Those are both good for 2nd all time behind Bo's 10'5 and 8'6.

In 3rd place for wingspan are Wemby and McHale at 8'0. McHale's standing reach is estimated to be around 9'5. Wemby is 9'7. Considering McHale is 6'10... that's insane.

[70sFan]

...

A bit unrelated to the thread, but I know you have researched bigman physical data quite a lot. Could you help me with my project about the best centers peaks? I need data (height without shoes, wingspan, standing reach etc.) for some guys that are not easy to get.

[FrodoBaggins]

...

A bit unrelated to the thread, but I know you have researched bigman physical data quite a lot. Could you help me with my project about the best centers peaks? I need data (height without shoes, wingspan, standing reach etc.) for some guys that are not easy to get.

Sure. To be fair, most of the data that I know of comes from CavsFTW/dantheman9758/Wilt Chamberlain Archive. I believe that he went through about every newspaper archive available. Most of the things I've come across are old anecdotal stories, old unsubstantiated internet posts, and such. Unfortunately, there's a lack of official measurements and even unofficial reports the further you go back. I'm aware of numbers for Wilt, Russell, Shaq, Kareem, etc.

[70sFan]

...

A bit unrelated to the thread, but I know you have researched bigman physical data quite a lot. Could you help me with my project about the best centers peaks? I need data (height without shoes, wingspan, standing reach etc.) for some guys that are not easy to get.

Sure. To be fair, most of the data that I know of comes from CavsFTW/dantheman9758/Wilt Chamberlain Archive. I believe that he went through about every newspaper archive available. Most of the things I've come across are old anecdotal stories, old unsubstantiated internet posts, and such. Unfortunately, there's a lack of official measurements and even unofficial reports the further you go back. I'm aware of numbers for Wilt, Russell, Shaq, Kareem, etc.

I am wondering if you have found any data on Duncan, Walton, Hakeem, Robinson, Moses and Gilmore. Do we have standing reach and wingspan for Jokic?

[Backcountry]

Related anecdote: my daughter was just about 5'9" when we compared vertical reach. I'm just shy of 6'1", and her reach was about an inch higher than mine. She was great at stealing the ball during her high-school basketball days...

[nate33]

Manute basically has his thumb at rim height and his arm isn't even fully vertical.

[FrodoBaggins]

A bit unrelated to the thread, but I know you have researched bigman physical data quite a lot. Could you help me with my project about the best centers peaks? I need data (height without shoes, wingspan, standing reach etc.) for some guys that are not easy to get.

Sure. To be fair, most of the data that I know of comes from CavsFTW/dantheman9758/Wilt Chamberlain Archive. I believe that he went through about every newspaper archive available. Most of the things I've come across are old anecdotal stories, old unsubstantiated internet posts, and such. Unfortunately, there's a lack of official measurements and even unofficial reports the further you go back. I'm aware of numbers for Wilt, Russell, Shaq, Kareem, etc.

I am wondering if you have found any data on Duncan, Walton, Hakeem, Robinson, Moses and Gilmore. Do we have standing reach and wingspan for Jokic?

We do for Jokic; he was measured at the 2014 Nike Hoop Summit:

(height w/o shoes, height with shoes, weight, wingspan, standing reach)


There was talk of him having grown taller since then. This Nuggets interactive display has his height in shoes and wingspan at 7'0" and 7'3.5". They round to the nearest quarter inch, so it's plausible he might have grown 0.75".



Artis has a 9'7" standing reach per this 1972 Topps Chewing Gum basketball card:



And he looks a legitimate 7'2" barefoot next to Kareem and Ralph. He was referred to as 7-foot-1 as a Junior by his high school coach in a January 1966 article for Miami News:

“He’s a basketball player,” Barnes says. “And he’s improving all the time. He’s young, still growing. He’s a legitimate 7-foot-1. Our junior varsity coach put the tape to him in front of people.”

And 7-foot-2, 235 pounds as a college senior per this 17 Feb 1971 Star-News article.

I think the 7'2" height is barefoot and accurate. I don't think the height-in-shoes inflation occurred until later in the '70s/early '80s.

Nothing for his wingspan, but he looks longer than Kareem (7'5" wingspan). Boban measured 7'2.25" w/o shoes, 9'7" standing reach, 7'8" wingspan. Artis is probably somewhere in that 7'6" to 7'9" range.

[70sFan]

Sure. To be fair, most of the data that I know of comes from CavsFTW/dantheman9758/Wilt Chamberlain Archive. I believe that he went through about every newspaper archive available. Most of the things I've come across are old anecdotal stories, old unsubstantiated internet posts, and such. Unfortunately, there's a lack of official measurements and even unofficial reports the further you go back. I'm aware of numbers for Wilt, Russell, Shaq, Kareem, etc.

I am wondering if you have found any data on Duncan, Walton, Hakeem, Robinson, Moses and Gilmore. Do we have standing reach and wingspan for Jokic?

We do for Jokic; he was measured at the 2014 Nike Hoop Summit:

(height w/o shoes, height with shoes, weight, wingspan, standing reach)


There was talk of him having grown taller since then. This Nuggets interactive display has his height in shoes and wingspan at 7'0" and 7'3.5". They round to the nearest quarter inch, so it's plausible he might have grown 0.75".



Artis has a 9'7" standing reach per this 1972 Topps Chewing Gum basketball card:



And he looks a legitimate 7'2" barefoot next to Kareem and Ralph. He was referred to as 7-foot-1 as a Junior by his high school coach in a January 1966 article for Miami News:

“He’s a basketball player,” Barnes says. “And he’s improving all the time. He’s young, still growing. He’s a legitimate 7-foot-1. Our junior varsity coach put the tape to him in front of people.”

And 7-foot-2, 235 pounds as a college senior per this 17 Feb 1971 Star-News article.

I think the 7'2" height is barefoot and accurate. I don't think the height-in-shoes inflation occurred until later in the '70s/early '80s.

Nothing for his wingspan, but he looks longer than Kareem (7'5" wingspan). Boban measured 7'2.25" w/o shoes, 9'7" standing reach, 7'8" wingspan. Artis is probably somewhere in that 7'6" to 7'9" range.

Thank you!

I always felt that Artis was a bit shorter than Kareem, but maybe that's just illusion.

[Daddy 801]

Love learning new tidbits of history of the NBA. So thanks to all of you who have posted info, pics, stories. Cool stuff.