During his playing days, the 7‘6 Yao Ming amazed fans across the globe by being arguably the most skilled larger than life player in the history of the game.
While players like the 7‘7 Manute Bol and Gheorghe Muresan, along with the 7‘6 Shawn Bradley found their niche among the tallest players in NBA history, Yao Ming became an 8 time All Star, was a former #1 overall Draft pick, and won 3 Gold medals in international competition.
More recently, the famed Harlem Globetrotters stumbled onto another superhuman-sized hoops sensation in the form of 24 year old, 7‘8 British big man Paul “Tiny” Sturgess, who is a native of Loughborough, England.
Sturgess was initially a great soccer player but grew more than a foot between ages 16 and 17 to reach a height of 7‘2 as a senior in high school. His school didn’t offer soccer as a sport so he gave basketball a try. You could say the move turned out quite well as he parlayed his immense height and skill into playing for Mountain State University in West Virginia, before graduating in 2011.
Standing a legitimate 7’8, Paul officially holds the record as the world’s tallest professional basketball player, passing Muresan, Ming, and former Globetrotter Dat Muyer(7’6).
Tiny reportedly wears a size 20 shoe, is an avid golfer, capable of 360 foot drives and loves to play video games on specially made controllers.
Check out Tiny’s amazing “No Jump Dunk”:
Allen Moll has been a lifelong NBA and NCAA College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously, and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen has also provided content to Bleacherreport.com, Upperdeckblog.com, Cleveland.com, CSN Philly.com, Buckets Magazine, in addition to being a tenured NBA and NCAA columnist for TheHoopDoctors.com.
