When an average person stands next to a basketball player, they often feel like a dwarf. The average NBA player is six feet, seven inches tall, but when those six-seven guys stand next to these guys on this list, they also feel belittled. Here are the top 10 tallest players in NBA history.
1. Boban Marjanovich
Boban Marjanovich is seven feet four inches. Boban Marjanovich is one of the most popular role players in the NBA today, even though he looks like a bouncer in front of a Russian mob club Boban became a fan favorite because he’s the biggest kid on the court.
You can often see Boban smiling and cracking jokes on the bench or fetching balls when nobody else can do it. Unfortunately, he spends most of his time on the bench. As he’s averaging less than 10 minutes per game in action, and it’s not because Boban can’t play when he was coming to the NBA. He was regarded as one of the best centers in Europe, with multiple regional MVPs and all Euroleague. First, team selection, because of different rules in European basketball Boban, was able to stay parked in the paint and dominate the game from the inside in the NBA’s pace and space era, he’s constantly forced to run after smaller players which don’t play into his strengths.
If he played 20 or 30 years ago, he would probably be one of the best centers in the league today he’s not playing much but other centers can claim that they kicked Keanu Reeves's ass in John wick.
2. Sim Bhullar
Sim Bhullar is 7 feet 5 inches. Sim Bhullar is a Canadian professional basketball player and the first player of Indian descent that played in the NBA, as you might have guessed, Sim Bhullar is tall standing at 7’5”, and with a listed weight of 360 pounds. After two years in Mexico State, he declared for the 2014 NBA Draft where he went undrafted, but because the owner of the Sacramento Kings Vivek Ranadivé, is also Indian, The Kings picked him to play in their summer league team, mostly for marketing reasons. However, Sim eventually made the roster on a 10-day contract. He played in three total NBA games in three total minutes.
3. Pavel Podkolzin
Pavel Podkolzin is 7 feet 5 inches. Similarly, to Sim Bhullar, Pavel Podkolzin was another guy that didn’t play much in the NBA, but because of his short stint with the Mavericks and his height of 7’5” he’s a member of our list Pavel started his career in the Russian second division and also played In Italy, before declaring for the NBA Draft in 2004, he got drafted pretty high, but the 21st pick by the Utah Jazz who traded him to the Mavs on draft night. He ended up playing six games for Dallas for a total of 28 minutes and four points he’s still a professional player and plays in Russia.
4. Chuck Nevitt
Chuck Nevitt, 7 feet 5 inches. Alike his 275 NBA counterparts Chuck Nevitt had a significantly longer NBA career. However, his minutes average looks similar to those of Bhullar and Podkoldzin. Even though Nevitt stayed on the NBA rosters for nine seasons, he played only 155 games with an average time of five minutes on the court.
Despite the lack of playing time, he was a very popular player in his playing days, as many people wanted to stand in his presence and feel small, which is a virtue of all players on this list. Never won the title with the Lakers in 1985, despite not playing a single minute of the postseason, regardless of that he’s the tallest player ever with a championship ring, which is a quiz-worthy fact to remember.
5. Shawn Bradley
Shawn Bradley was 7 feet 6 inches, standing at 7’6” Bradley was the third tallest player to ever run on the NBA hardwood and instantly became a household name, it’s hard, not to notice a 7’6” guy, but Bradley was also a decent player, a premier shot blocker. He once blocked 14 shots in an NCAA game, which is a record that stands to this day. Bradley was also attempting to swat anything near the rim, but unfortunately, for him. This also turned him into a poster boy for being posterized due to his size.
In somewhat nerdy looks he was a target for most athletic wings, who wanted to get a 7-6 guy on a poster. Bradley was drafted in Philadelphia but left the biggest mark in talents or he played for nine seasons. He was averaging 8.1 points, 6.3, rebounds, and 2 and a half blocks for his career and remained a known figure among basketball fans worldwide. You may also remember him from Space Jam where he starred alongside Michael Jordan and was one of the players whose talents were stolen by the Monstars.
6. Yao Ming
Yao Ming is seven feet six inches. Yao is the best player on this list, the biggest Asian basketball star of all time, and one of the biggest ambassadors of the sport, Yao’s parents were one of the tallest people in China, both former basketball players under the socialist regime of Mao Zedong they were almost forced to marry and produce offspring. His mom was 6 feet, 3 inches tall and his father was 7’6”. Yao was a government project in the making, since before he was born and he was expected to be tall. However, nobody thought Yao was going to be seven-six. Young Yao was pushed to play basketball and even though he wasn’t any good at first and didn’t like basketball, countless hours of training and his freakish height enabled him to dominate the Chinese league. He was selected number one overall in the 2002 NBA Draft by the Houston Rockets and instantly became a global phenomenon because of his height and over a billion Chinese fans. Yao was immediately one of the most popular players in the game, but a horde of reporters followed him every giant footstep, but it wasn’t all just height and height, which some people soon realized.
Yao could ball and be extremely skillful for a player of his dimensions. With an array of post moves and a silky smooth jump shot, he became one of the best centers in the league, if not the best when he was healthy. Unfortunately, he was rarely healthy and his feet and knees couldn’t support his large frame at the brutal NBA pace which forced him to retire at the age of 30. He averaged 19 points, nine rebounds, and 2 blocks per game and was inducted into the Hall of Fame. In 2016 he will be remembered as the biggest and the greatest Asian player of all time, and the only guy who makes Shaq look small.
7. Slavko Vranes
Slavko Vranes is 7 feet six inches. Slavko Vranes is a mountain Agron basketball player who had a long, lasting basketball career that stretched over 20 years, with his height of 7-6, it’s easy to conclude why he started a professional career at the age of 17 when he signed for Turkish FS Pilsen with the emergence of Yao Ming, who got drafted the year before the next rolled, the dice on it And drafted him with the 39th overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft. They soon realized he’s not Yao and Vranes didn’t end up playing a single minute for the Knickerbockers, as they waved him at the middle of the season.
After he cleared waivers, the Trail Blazers had signed him to a 10-day deal. He got the opportunity to play in one game for them for a total of three whole minutes. In case you were wondering didn’t score, but due to his height, he scored a place on our list.
8. Tacko Fall
Tacko Fall is seven feet six inches. Another member of the 76 Club joined the NBA this year. Of course, we’re talking about Tacko Fall who plays for the Boston Celtics Taco was born in Dakar, Senegal in 1995, and moved to the USA at the age of 16. It was at a time when social media was booming. So if you’re a hoops fan, the chances are that you heard about Tacko’s some seven to eight years ago, when he was a high school junior grabbing.
The rim, with his feet, planted firmly on the ground, even though many Scouts doubted that he would ever become an NBA player. Tacko drew extreme interest from colleges and ended up at the University of Central Florida where he stayed for a full four years: Tacko’s pretty raw basketball skills improved over time and became one of the best defensive players in college basketball. The one AAC Defensive Player of the Year in 2017 and helped his school win the first game ever in the March Madness tournament fall declared for the 2019 Draft, where he set up records for height’s wingspan and standing reach at the Draft Combine.
However, he didn’t get picked in the draft. Instead, the Boston Celtics signed him to a 10-day contract which enabled him to play summer league for them where he did well enough to make the roster for the season on a two-way contract. Paul made his debut for the Celtics on October 26, during a game against the New York Knicks, and became a fan favorite in Boston who often chant his name to get him some playing time.
9. Manute Bol
Manute Bol, seven feet, seven inches “every time, I’m in a jam. I always find a loophole I got a crime record longer than men, useful rapped,” big L in his hit record MVP. While my new bull wasn’t an N VP on the floor. He was often mentioned in rap lyrics and start on the front covers of magazines. What he lacked in quality, a nude had in quantity standing at 7-7. He was the tallest player ever at the time he got to the lead and that’s what propelled his status in pop culture born in South Sudan, which is on average, the tallest country in the world, but the average height is over six feet. I knew was the tallest of the tall and it wasn’t just the Manute who was tall.
It was the way he was built as well. That visually prolonged has already extremely long limbs and it weighed only 220 pounds which made him stand out even more and also diminished. His impact on the core – it was often bullied by physically stronger opponents than most centers in power forwards, weight from 240 pounds upwards, but it wasn’t exactly very skilled either and he averaged a mere 2.6 points for his career. However, despite a lack of production on offense, bol was one of the best shot blockers the league has ever seen and that’s why he was able to stay in the NBA for 10 years, but 624 games play the average of three points. Three blocks per game, which is the second-highest block average ever, and is the only player who has more blocked shots than points in his career, a great humanitarian off the court. He will always be remembered by NBA fans, as the jolly big giant and a metaphor for an extremely long Fangs.
10. George Muresan
George Muresan seven feet: seven inches, when you’re tall enough to peek over bathroom stalls, the chances are that you’ll become either an NBA player or make people uncomfortable from time to time. George Muresan did both Chris Webber told this bathroom prank story when he was a mere Asante made in Washington and described George as one of his funniest teammates. A Romanian Center born in Transylvania didn’t project to be tall as his mother was five seven and his father was just five nine about because of a condition with his pituitary gland.
Young George kept on growing until finally got to 7-7, which made him the tallest NBA player ever along with Manute Bol, who was even his teammate for a short stint, pretty Rahn awkward when he first came to the league at the age of 22. Uris on didn’t get much playing time in the first two seasons. However, when he became a permanent starter in his third year, George turned into a solid contributor averaging 14.5 points, 9.6 rebounds, and 2.3 blocks, while leading the league in field goal percentage.
This earned him the award for the most improved player in 1996. He led the league in field goal percentage the following year until a back injury, sidelined him for the whole 97-98 season and all but one minute of the next one after his recovery and acting debut. Alongside Billy Crystal and my giant, the nearest Sun finally came back in the 1999-2000 season, but he was only able to play 30 games for the Nets before calling it quits because of the foot knee, and back issues which are common for basketball players of that stature.
He remained a fan favorite in Washington, where he still lives today with his family.