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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Speaker 1: All right, we were all amazed watching the NBA Finals,

Speaker 1: not just because of the skills of these people, but

Speaker 1: with the sheer size of some of these players. The

Speaker 1: championship team, the Knicks, have three players who are seven

Speaker 1: feet tall. Of course, the Spurs have the towering Victor

Speaker 1: Wembanyama who's seven feet four inches tall, as well as

Speaker 1: three other players all over seven feet So you got

Speaker 1: to ask, how tall can a person grow? I'm Patty Steele,

Speaker 1: The Life of the Tallest Man on record. That's next

Speaker 1: on the backstory. We're back with the backstory. First of all,

Speaker 1: I want to thank Katie Kushner for the idea for

Speaker 1: this story about super tall folks. Now, in normal, everyday life,

Speaker 1: we're kind of blown away when we meet somebody much

Speaker 1: over six foot five Right at I am, since I'm

Speaker 1: almost a towering five foot one as long as they

Speaker 1: stretch my neck. So watching the latest NBA Championship games,

Speaker 1: it's pretty wid seeing a whole bunch of guys seven

Speaker 1: feet tall or more. The Knicks, who of course won

Speaker 1: the trophy, have three players who are seven feet tall

Speaker 1: and three more who are just under seven feet of course,

Speaker 1: the Spurs have the skyscraping Victor Wembanyama, who's seven feet

Speaker 1: four inches tall, as well as three other players all

Speaker 1: over seven feet and they're not even the tallest NBA

Speaker 1: players ever. The record breaking players tied at seven foot

Speaker 1: seven were Minute Bowl and George Mierson. There were also

Speaker 1: three players who topped out at seven foot six, including

Speaker 1: Hall of Famer Yao Ming drafted into the NBA in

Speaker 1: nineteen eighty one, Japanese player Yatsutaka Okayama was seven foot eight,

Speaker 1: but he never got off the bench. Now seventy one,

Speaker 1: he's been an author, a businessman, and a coach and

Speaker 1: still super tall. I'm sure. But one guy in history

Speaker 1: tops all of these folks by more than a foot

Speaker 1: or even two. His name was Robert Wadlow. He was

Speaker 1: born in nineteen eighteen in Alton, Illinois, weighing in at

Speaker 1: a healthy eight and a half pounds, pretty normal, But

Speaker 1: then something wild happened. By six months old, he weighed

Speaker 1: almost thirty pounds. It's a big baby. By age five,

Speaker 1: he was already over five feet tall. By eight years old,

Speaker 1: he was six foot two, taller than most adults. Doctors

Speaker 1: finally figured it out. Robert's pituitary gland was producing a

Speaker 1: huge amount of growth hormone, a condition they called gigantism.

Speaker 1: Most of us stopped growing during adolescents, but Robert never stopped,

Speaker 1: and he grew faster than most of us too. Every

Speaker 1: year he got taller, his clothes had to be custom made.

Speaker 1: Shoes became impossible to find early on, so they too

Speaker 1: were custom made. Even the furniture in his house had

Speaker 1: to be specially built, needed to be supported for his weight.

Speaker 1: Close your eyes and try to imagine this young guy's life.

Speaker 1: You're walking down the street, you see somebody so tall

Speaker 1: that everybody just stops and stares. Cars slow down. But

Speaker 1: for him, doorways are obstacles. Every chair is too small.

Speaker 1: He can't fit inside most cars. A lot of buildings

Speaker 1: and private homes have ceilings that are too low for him.

Speaker 1: Nothing in the world was designed for someone approaching nine

Speaker 1: feet tall. That was everyday life for the tallest man

Speaker 1: who ever lived. Standing at crazy eight feet eleven point

Speaker 1: one inches tall, Robert Wadlow still holds the world record

Speaker 1: eighty six years after his death. Despite his incredible size,

Speaker 1: everyone who met Robert described him the same way. He

Speaker 1: was gentle, soft spoken, patient and kind. Never wanting to

Speaker 1: make people feel uncomfortable. But imagine not being able to

Speaker 1: enter most buildings, ducking through every doorway, never blending into

Speaker 1: a crowd. Wherever Robert went, people gathered, newspapers followed him,

Speaker 1: Photographers beg for pictures. He became an international celebrity simply

Speaker 1: because nobody had ever seen somebody so tall, But he

Speaker 1: never lost patience being the object of curiosity. The press

Speaker 1: called him the Gentle Giant. You might wonder if he

Speaker 1: played basketball, but there were two problems there. One, basketball

Speaker 1: was still just a game kids played, and also it

Speaker 1: was just beginning to pick up steam on the college level.

Speaker 1: But most importantly, it was Robert's physical condition that made

Speaker 1: competitive sports pretty much impossible for him. His legs carried

Speaker 1: enormous stress. Just walking became increasingly difficult. Eventually, his feet

Speaker 1: lost almost all sensation because of nerve damage. Near the

Speaker 1: end of his life, Robert relied on leg braces simply

Speaker 1: to stand up. Finally, in nineteen forty, while appearing at

Speaker 1: a public event tragedy, a poorly fitted leg brace had

Speaker 1: rubbed against his ankle. Because he had very little feeling

Speaker 1: in his feet, he didn't realize the injury had become infected,

Speaker 1: and atibiotics were still new, and the infections spread quickly.

Speaker 1: Just a few days later, Robert Wadlow died in his sleep.

Speaker 1: He was only twenty two years old. More than thirty

Speaker 1: thousand people attended his funeral. His coffin weighed nearly one

Speaker 1: thousand pounds. In Robert's day, even college basketball was dominated

Speaker 1: by guys who were quick and great shots. But by

Speaker 1: the nineteen sixties and seventies, college or recruiters were doing

Speaker 1: something unusual. They weren't just watching games. They were looking

Speaker 1: for height. If somebody was six foot ten, seven feet

Speaker 1: or even taller, chances were really good the basketball coaches

Speaker 1: would come calling. Sometimes these super tall recruits had barely

Speaker 1: ever played basketball. Only a tiny fraction of the world's

Speaker 1: population reaches seven feet tall, but the NBA has featured

Speaker 1: dozens of them. Even the WNBA, the women's basketball league,

Speaker 1: has some super talls, including Margo Ddeck, a player from

Speaker 1: Poland who is seven foot two, and there have been

Speaker 1: at least seven female players over six foot seven. The

Speaker 1: thing is, height without coordination can actually be a disadvantage

Speaker 1: when you're that big. NBA players need agility, balance, quick reflexes, endurance,

Speaker 1: and great hand eye coordination. The greatest big men and

Speaker 1: women move with remarkable speed despite their size, not because

Speaker 1: of it. That's why someone like Robert would never have

Speaker 1: succeeded in professional basketball despite being almost nine feet tall. Today,

Speaker 1: a life sized statue of Robert Wadlow stands in his hometown.

Speaker 1: Visitors like to stand beside it to get their picture taken.

Speaker 1: It's almost impossible to comprehend one man nearly nine feet

Speaker 1: tall played in the NBA, yet his story reminds us

Speaker 1: of something important. Being extraordinary isn't always an advantage. Sometimes

Speaker 1: it comes with challenges the rest of us can't imagine.

Speaker 1: Robert Wadlow is still the tallest man in recorded history,

Speaker 1: and the NBA continues searching for the next seven foot phenon. Together,

Speaker 1: those two stories reveal one fascinating truth. Nature occasionally creates giants,

Speaker 1: but only rarely does it create a giant who can

Speaker 1: also become a basketball legend. Once again, big thank you

Speaker 1: to Katie Kushner for suggesting this story. I hope you

Speaker 1: like the backstory with Patty Steele. Please leave a review

Speaker 1: and I would love it if you'd subscribe or follow

Speaker 1: for free to get new episodes delivered automatically. Also feel

Speaker 1: free to DM me if you, like Katie, have a

Speaker 1: story you'd like me to take a deep dive into.

Speaker 1: On Facebook, It's Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele.

Speaker 1: I'm Patty Steele. The Backstory is a production of iHeartMedia,

Speaker 1: Premiere Networks, the Elvis Durant Group, and Steel Trap Productions.

Speaker 1: Our producer is Mike Pieseglia. Our writer is Jake Kushner.

Speaker 1: New episodes are out every Tuesday and Friday, and feel

Speaker 1: free to reach out to me with comments and story

Speaker 1: suggestions on Instagram at reel Patty Steele and on Facebook

Speaker 1: at Patty Steele. Thanks for listening to the Backstory with

Speaker 1: Patty Steele, the pieces of history you didn't know you

Speaker 1: needed to know.