How Tall is Anthony Randolph?

Copyright NBAE 2008 (Photo by Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images)

Media Day is always fun, players across the league return to camp with extraordinary tales about muscle gain and weight loss.  Occasionally, in the case of young players, like the Warriors’ Anthony Randolph, they also claim to have grown taller.

The NBA is interesting in that player measurements are rarely if ever up-to-date or accurate.  Kevin Garnett, who came into the league as a 6’10” 18 year old, is listed at 6’11,  but has admitted to reporters in the past that he is in fact  6’13″(i.e. 7’1″.)  Randolph at the age of 20, is claimed to have grown anywhere from 2 to 4 inches over the summer from his listed height of 6’10”.

To put his claim to the test, we’ll use the latest NBA photograph of Randolph available, taken Monday during the Warriors’ Media Day.  To find Randolph’s height we need a reference, and the orange roundie he’s holding makes a good one.  A regulation NBA basketball has a diameter 9.55 inches.  The basketball in the photo has a diameter of 74 pixels.   From head to toe, Randolph is 644 pixels tall, or 8.703 basketball talls.  Translated into familiar terms, this makes Randolph 83.11 inches tall, or 6’11 going on 7 feet.  It’s evident that Randolph did grow some from his listed height of 6’10, but he didn’t make any fantastic leaps in height and he is certainly not anywhere near 7’2″.    Still, if this growth spurt keeps up, by the end of the season, maybe even the end of the calendar year, the Warriors will have a bonafide 7 footer.