- Isiah Thomas expressed his assumption that smaller guards will be phased out of the league in an episode of Open Court.
- It was controversial to select a little man at number two (in the draft).
- Everyone began picking little guys after the Pistons won with him as a point guard.
- The only problem is that it may not swing as far back as you anticipate.
In 1988, Jack McCallum predicted that the center position was doomed. The game altered because young kids like Olajuwon and Ewing were no longer playing the same way.
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“I lied about my height 6-1.”
With all of the big guys handling the ball so well on the perimeter, Isiah Thomas expressed his assumption that smaller guards will be phased out of the league in an episode of Open Court.
“The other thing I see is about to happen, and Kenny (Smith), this is going to hurt you and me, the tiny guards, because McHale, Bosh, Grant – these are the sizes of the point guards coming in.”
Then Isiah had an open moment and stated something that many of us can relate to:
“Everyone had large point guards, and it was quite contentious to choose me at 6’1…you know, I lied about being 6’1,” everyone gained an inch.
It was controversial to select a little man at number two (in the draft).
Then we won, and everyone gravitated toward the little point guard. Everyone is measuring up right now.”
Open Court, Isiah Thomas
There is a pattern when someone tries something new and then other teams adopt that approach to the game.
Isiah’s final sentence emphasizes this. Everyone began picking little guys after the Pistons won with him as a point guard.
While length is the current tendency at all positions, it just takes one or two tiny guards to invent a new style of play and the pendulum will swing the other way.
The only problem is that it may not swing as far back as you anticipate.
Remember that even in his prime as The King of the Fourth, the Celtics’ Isaiah Tomas was such a liability on defense that he only made sense on the court when he was the best fourth-quarter scorer in NBA history.
From the standpoint of team formation, that’s an atomic margin for error.
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The best policy is (dis)honesty
It’s not just in basketball that people lie about their height. Above all, it’s an ego thing.
According to dating app research, women lie about their weight and age, while males lie about their height and wealth.
It corresponds well with the images that society portrays on us, and, believe it or not, NBA players may be egotistical as well.
Surprisingly, the guy who had bogus Twitter accounts to laud himself and quarrel with random people online is one of the rare players who probably lied about his height, making himself shorter.
Guards typically add an inch or two to their height, whereas tall players may drop their height.
They both do it because they want to play a specific position. Being tall enough to play both the one and the two positions adds value to a guard.
Saying you’re 6’10” helps a lot of 7-footers project themselves as power forwards, and a lot of players didn’t want to play the five (see Kevin Garnet). As KD told Wall Street Journal’s, Chris Herring:
“When I’m talking to women, I’m 7 feet tall,” he stated. “I’m 6-foot-9 in basketball circles.”
But, to be honest, I’ve always felt it was fun to identify as a 6-9 small forward.
That is, in fact, the conventional size for a small forward. Any taller than that, and they’ll start calling him a power forward.
WSJ, Kevin Durant
KD put it best: “For women, he is 7 feet tall; for coaches and general managers, he is 6’9”.
We still haven’t found out how to measure someone’s height in the age of powerful analytics. That makes sense.
