The Backstory: The Tallest Man in the World Dwarfs NBA Players

Watching the NBA Finals, a Lot of Us Became Mesmerized by the Size of These Athletes. A Lot of Those Guys Are 7 Feet or More. But Imagine Somebody Who Was a Full 2 Feet Taller Than Those Players. This Is Robert Wadlow’s Life.

Feel Free to DM Me if You Have a Story You’d Like Me to Cover . . On Facebook It’s Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
All right, we were all amazed watching the NBA Finals,
not just because of the skills of these people, but
with the sheer size of some of these players. The
championship team, the Knicks, have three players who are seven
feet tall. Of course, the Spurs have the towering Victor
Wembanyama who's seven feet four inches tall, as well as
three other players all over seven feet So you got

(00:24):
to ask, how tall can a person grow? I'm Patty Steele,
The Life of the Tallest Man on record. That's next
on the backstory. We're back with the backstory. First of all,
I want to thank Katie Kushner for the idea for
this story about super tall folks. Now, in normal, everyday life,

(00:45):
we're kind of blown away when we meet somebody much
over six foot five Right at I am, since I'm
almost a towering five foot one as long as they
stretch my neck. So watching the latest NBA Championship games,
it's pretty wid seeing a whole bunch of guys seven
feet tall or more. The Knicks, who of course won

(01:05):
the trophy, have three players who are seven feet tall
and three more who are just under seven feet of course,
the Spurs have the skyscraping Victor Wembanyama, who's seven feet
four inches tall, as well as three other players all
over seven feet and they're not even the tallest NBA
players ever. The record breaking players tied at seven foot

(01:28):
seven were Minute Bowl and George Mierson. There were also
three players who topped out at seven foot six, including
Hall of Famer Yao Ming drafted into the NBA in
nineteen eighty one, Japanese player Yatsutaka Okayama was seven foot eight,
but he never got off the bench. Now seventy one,
he's been an author, a businessman, and a coach and

(01:51):
still super tall. I'm sure. But one guy in history
tops all of these folks by more than a foot
or even two. His name was Robert Wadlow. He was
born in nineteen eighteen in Alton, Illinois, weighing in at
a healthy eight and a half pounds, pretty normal, But
then something wild happened. By six months old, he weighed

(02:12):
almost thirty pounds. It's a big baby. By age five,
he was already over five feet tall. By eight years old,
he was six foot two, taller than most adults. Doctors
finally figured it out. Robert's pituitary gland was producing a
huge amount of growth hormone, a condition they called gigantism.

(02:32):
Most of us stopped growing during adolescents, but Robert never stopped,
and he grew faster than most of us too. Every
year he got taller, his clothes had to be custom made.
Shoes became impossible to find early on, so they too
were custom made. Even the furniture in his house had
to be specially built, needed to be supported for his weight.

(02:55):
Close your eyes and try to imagine this young guy's life.
You're walking down the street, you see somebody so tall
that everybody just stops and stares. Cars slow down. But
for him, doorways are obstacles. Every chair is too small.
He can't fit inside most cars. A lot of buildings
and private homes have ceilings that are too low for him.

(03:18):
Nothing in the world was designed for someone approaching nine
feet tall. That was everyday life for the tallest man
who ever lived. Standing at crazy eight feet eleven point
one inches tall, Robert Wadlow still holds the world record
eighty six years after his death. Despite his incredible size,

(03:38):
everyone who met Robert described him the same way. He
was gentle, soft spoken, patient and kind. Never wanting to
make people feel uncomfortable. But imagine not being able to
enter most buildings, ducking through every doorway, never blending into
a crowd. Wherever Robert went, people gathered, newspapers followed him,

(04:00):
Photographers beg for pictures. He became an international celebrity simply
because nobody had ever seen somebody so tall, But he
never lost patience being the object of curiosity. The press
called him the Gentle Giant. You might wonder if he
played basketball, but there were two problems there. One, basketball

(04:22):
was still just a game kids played, and also it
was just beginning to pick up steam on the college level.
But most importantly, it was Robert's physical condition that made
competitive sports pretty much impossible for him. His legs carried
enormous stress. Just walking became increasingly difficult. Eventually, his feet

(04:44):
lost almost all sensation because of nerve damage. Near the
end of his life, Robert relied on leg braces simply
to stand up. Finally, in nineteen forty, while appearing at
a public event tragedy, a poorly fitted leg brace had
rubbed against his ankle. Because he had very little feeling
in his feet, he didn't realize the injury had become infected,

(05:07):
and atibiotics were still new, and the infections spread quickly.
Just a few days later, Robert Wadlow died in his sleep.
He was only twenty two years old. More than thirty
thousand people attended his funeral. His coffin weighed nearly one
thousand pounds. In Robert's day, even college basketball was dominated

(05:28):
by guys who were quick and great shots. But by
the nineteen sixties and seventies, college or recruiters were doing
something unusual. They weren't just watching games. They were looking
for height. If somebody was six foot ten, seven feet
or even taller, chances were really good the basketball coaches
would come calling. Sometimes these super tall recruits had barely

(05:53):
ever played basketball. Only a tiny fraction of the world's
population reaches seven feet tall, but the NBA has featured
dozens of them. Even the WNBA, the women's basketball league,
has some super talls, including Margo Ddeck, a player from
Poland who is seven foot two, and there have been

(06:13):
at least seven female players over six foot seven. The
thing is, height without coordination can actually be a disadvantage
when you're that big. NBA players need agility, balance, quick reflexes, endurance,
and great hand eye coordination. The greatest big men and
women move with remarkable speed despite their size, not because

(06:37):
of it. That's why someone like Robert would never have
succeeded in professional basketball despite being almost nine feet tall. Today,
a life sized statue of Robert Wadlow stands in his hometown.
Visitors like to stand beside it to get their picture taken.
It's almost impossible to comprehend one man nearly nine feet

(06:58):
tall played in the NBA, yet his story reminds us
of something important. Being extraordinary isn't always an advantage. Sometimes
it comes with challenges the rest of us can't imagine.
Robert Wadlow is still the tallest man in recorded history,
and the NBA continues searching for the next seven foot phenon. Together,

(07:21):
those two stories reveal one fascinating truth. Nature occasionally creates giants,
but only rarely does it create a giant who can
also become a basketball legend. Once again, big thank you
to Katie Kushner for suggesting this story. I hope you
like the backstory with Patty Steele. Please leave a review

(07:42):
and I would love it if you'd subscribe or follow
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free to DM me if you, like Katie, have a
story you'd like me to take a deep dive into.
On Facebook, It's Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele.

(08:03):
I'm Patty Steele. The Backstory is a production of iHeartMedia,
Premiere Networks, the Elvis Durant Group, and Steel Trap Productions.
Our producer is Mike Pieseglia. Our writer is Jake Kushner.
New episodes are out every Tuesday and Friday, and feel
free to reach out to me with comments and story
suggestions on Instagram at reel Patty Steele and on Facebook

(08:25):
at Patty Steele. Thanks for listening to the Backstory with
Patty Steele, the pieces of history you didn't know you
needed to know.