Being tall has often been associated with basketball, and with the sport being defined by size, the NBA has featured some of the tallest athletes on the planet.
While height alone is not a guarantee of success, as we have seen some of the most physically dominant players fail to make an impact in the league, it offers a solid foundation and extra edge, and can be a formidable asset to any team.
The NBA features some of the world's biggest men, but there remain a few who stand out amongst the rest, and here Sports Mole takes a look at the tallest players in the league.
WHO IS THE TALLEST NBA PLAYER?
The San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama will enter the 2024-25 NBA regular season as the tallest player in the league, a title now shared with top draft prospect Zach Edey.
For his towering frame, Wembanyama has shown remarkable dribbling and shooting, distinguishing himself from the typical big men who often struggle to keep up with the intensity and pace of games and are known majorly for their dominance at the backcourt.
Coming off the back of leading the Purdue Boilermakers to the NCAA Division I men's basketball championship game, rookie Edey can now make his mark in the NBA after being drafted as the ninth overall pick by the Memphis Grizzlies in the 2024 draft.
The 22-year-old left the Boilermakers as their record career points holder (2,516) and record career rebounds holder (1,321), and was named the 2024 Naismith College Player of the Year, becoming the first to win the award in successive years since Ralph Sampson in 1982 and 1983.
VICTOR WEMBANYAMA HEIGHT
© Imago
Standing at 7-foot-4, Victor Wembanyama is tied with Memphis rookie Zach Edey as the tallest player in the NBA, but while the San Antonio center has a remarkable 8ft wingspan, Edey measures slightly below at 7-foot-10.
Following an outstanding 2022-23 campaign in the LNB Pro A French League, where he swept the MVP, Best Young Player and Defensive Player of the Year awards with the Metropolitans 92, Wembanyama went into the 2023 NBA draft as the hottest prospect since LeBron James in 2003.
The French center was unsurprisingly snapped up as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 draft by the Spurs, and despite the quick transition from the French league to playing against the finest players in arguably the best division in the world, he wasted no time in establishing himself as a generational superstar.
In his 71 games for San Antonio, the 20-year-old averaged 21.4 points and 3.9 assists with a 46.5 FG% while also asserting his dominance at the backcourt with 10.6 rebounds and a league-leading 3.6 blocks per game.
In doing so 'Wemby', as he is popularly called, became just the 10th player in NBA history to average 20 points, 10 rebounds and 3 blocks, joining an exclusive list comprising the likes of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Hakeem Olajuwon and Shaquille O'Neal.
WHO IS THE TALLEST NBA PLAYER EVER?
© Imago
Romanian big man Gheorghe Muresan remains the tallest basketballer to grace the NBA, playing for the Washington Nets (now Washington Wizards) and New Jersey Nets (now Brooklyn Nets) between 1993 and 2001.
Alongside Muresan, the NBA has housed some of the tallest athletes in the world, including 7-foot-6 Chinese center Yao Ming, Shawn Bradley who also stood at a staggering 7-foot-6, and 7-foot-5 Chuck Nevitt.
During his nine-year career in the league, Nevitt featured for five different teams, including Houston Rockets and Chicago Bulls, and was on the Los Angeles Lakers' roster that won the 1985 NBA Championship.
In the 1981 NBA draft, 7-foot-8 giant Yasutaka Okayama was picked by the Golden State Warriors, becoming the tallest player ever drafted, but failed to feature in the league after opting to stay in his home nation Japan.
YAO MING HEIGHT
© Imago
Yao Ming is arguably the best and most well known of the NBA's tallest-ever players, but at 7'6" he is 'only' joint-second in the all-time list of the competition's biggest men.
In a league renowned for its towering big men, it is Muresan who distinguishes himself as the tallest player ever to feature in the NBA, standing at a staggering height of 7-foot-7 with a 7-foot-11 wingspan,
Drafted by the Washington Bullets in 1993, the Romanian giant initially struggled to adapt to the NBA, but despite constant battles with injuries and fitness issues, he spent seven seasons in the league before signing for French franchise Elan Bearnais Pau-Lacq-Orthez.
Muresan finished with the best field-goal percentage in the 1995–96 season where he shot 58.4% en route to picking up the NBA's Most Improved Player award and also led the league in shooting percentage for the second consecutive year in the 1996-97 campaign (60.4%).
Ten tallest players in NBA history
1. Gheorghe Muresan — 7'7"
2. Manute Bol — 7'6"
= Tacko Fall — 7'6"
= Shawn Bradley — 7'6"
= Yao Ming — 7'6"
6. Sim Bhullar — 7'5"
= Slavko Vranes — 7'5"
= Pavel Podkolzin — 7'5"
= Chuck Nevitt — 7'5"
10. Priest Lauderdale — 7'4"
= Mark Eaton — 7'4"
= Rik Smits — 7'4"
= Ralph Sampson — 7'4"
= Boban Marjanovic — 7'4"
= Victor Wembanyama — 7'4"
= Zach Edey — 7'4"
With the 2024-25 NBA season set to get underway on October 22, 2024, check out how to watch every game this season as well as the fixtures for the campaign, including pre-season schedule, standout matches, key dates, festive fixtures and notable duels.
