To date, the largest player in NBA history has been Romanian Gheorghe Mureşan. His height is 2.31 meters and his weight when he was fit was 143 kilos. Mureşan, who owes his size to a disorder of the pituitary gland , was in the best league in the world between 1993 and 2000; He played for the Washington Bullets and New Jersey Nets, and left worthy records and some notable performances to remember.
In his first years in the NBA, he coincided in the competition with the Sudanese Manute Bol , just a few millimeters shorter. Bol, who died in 2010, was very slim for his height (92 kilos). He went through several NBA teams between 1985 and 1995 and stood out as a closer. Muresan and Bol are followed in the ranking by German-American Shawn Bradley (2.29 m, 125 kilos), who played in Phildelphia, New Jersey and Dallas between 1993 and 2005; and the Chinese Yao Ming (2.29 m, 141 kilos), who played for the Houston Rockets from 2002 to 2011. In total, there have been 26 players over 2.20 m in height, among which we must highlight Lithuanian giant Arvydas Sabonis (2.20 m), who was a Real Madrid player before making the leap to the United States to play for the Portland Trail Blazers from 1995 to 2003.
Interestingly, in 1985, the Sudanese Manute Bol, with his 2.31 in tow, shared a team (Washington Bullets) with the shortest player in NBA history, Tyrone Bogues, who with his 1.60 meters he challenged for fourteen seasons to the giants of basketball. Bogues was in four franchises, although his best time was lived in the Charlotte Hornets (1988-1997). He wasn’t a great scorer, but he was quick to drive and popular for his spectacular assists.
A curiosity: in 1993 he was able to block a pitch from the legendary center Pat Ewing, who measures 2.13 meters. Bogues coincided in time with another illustrious NBA short: Spud Webb, 1.68 m . Webb played for the Atlanta Hawks for most of his career and has the honor of having been not only the shortest participant in the history of the NBA dunk contest, but was able to win the 1986 edition. In the final he defeated no less than defending champion and favorite, his Hawks teammate Dominique Wilkins, 2.03m. During the contest, Webb did, among other stunts, a one-handed dunk after passing the ball hitting the board, another one-handed dunk with a 360º turn in the air or a two-handed dunk with a 180º turn in the air, collecting the ball in full jump after making him bounce on the ground.
