Top 10 Tallest NBA Players in History
On this page14
- 01Gheorghe Muresan (7 ft 7 in)
- 02Manute Bol (7 ft 7 in)
- 03Yao Ming (7 ft 6 in)
- 04Shawn Bradley (7 ft 6 in)
- 05Tacko Fall (7 ft 6 in)
- 06Chuck Nevitt (7 ft 5 in)
- 07Sim Bhullar (7 ft 5 in)
- 08Pavel Podkolzin (7 ft 5 in)
- 09Slavko Vranes (7 ft 5 in)
- 10Mark Eaton (7 ft 4 in)
- 11How we ranked the tallest players
- 12Why extreme height has a ceiling
- 13The current giants: 2025-26
- 14At a glance: the tallest tiers
We rank by verified listed height first, tallest to shortest, then break ties within a height tier by actual NBA impact, games played, and hardware won. A 7-footer who logged one career game ranks below one who anchored a defense for a decade.
- Co-tallest ever
Gheorghe Muresan (7 ft 7 in)
Muresan shares the tallest-ever listing with Manute Bol at 7 ft 7 in (2.31 m), and he gets the top spot because he did more with it. He led the NBA in field-goal percentage in 1995-96 and 1996-97 (.584 then .604) and won the Most Improved Player award in 1996 with the Washington Bullets, output no other player at this height has matched.
That is the tiebreaker over Bol: both are listed identically, but Muresan was a genuine offensive threat, not just a rim deterrent. Acromegaly drove his extreme height and also shortened his career, which ran only from 1993 to 2000.
Height: 7 ft 7 in · Country: Romania · Peak: 1996 Most Improved, led NBA in FG% twice
- Co-tallest ever
Manute Bol (7 ft 7 in)
Bol matches Muresan's 7 ft 7 in but ranks just behind him because his game was one-dimensional: elite shot-blocking and almost nothing on offense. He remains one of only two players in NBA history to record more career blocks than points, a stat line no one else at the top of this list approaches.
Bol's legacy outgrew basketball. The Sudanese center gave much of his NBA earnings to humanitarian relief back home, and when he died in 2010 the tributes weighed that as heavily as his blocks.
Height: 7 ft 7 in · Country: Sudan · Defining feat: more career blocks than points
- Best career of the tallest
Yao Ming (7 ft 6 in)
Yao stands 7 ft 6 in and leads the 7-foot-6 tier outright because his resume dwarfs everyone near his height. He is the tallest player in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, an eight-time All-Star who built a reliable mid-range jumper and a real post game rather than surviving on size alone.
He also moved the sport: Yao is the single biggest reason the NBA became appointment television across China. Recurring foot injuries, the tax of carrying that frame, cut his career off in 2011 after nine seasons.
Height: 7 ft 6 in · Country: China · Peak: 8x All-Star, Hall of Fame (2016)
- Height without dominance
Shawn Bradley (7 ft 6 in)
Bradley matches Yao at 7 ft 6 in but ranks below him because the production never followed the frame. He could block shots, yet stronger, quicker post players routinely moved him off his spot, and he finished as a rotation big rather than a star across 12 seasons.
He is the clearest case study on this list that height is a starting point, not a guarantee, a theme that also runs through the NBA's biggest draft busts.
Height: 7 ft 6 in · Country: USA · Career: 1993-2005, defense-first center
- Combine record holder
Tacko Fall (7 ft 6 in)
Fall is listed at 7 ft 6 in and rounds out the 7-foot-6 group. At the 2019 draft combine he set NBA measurement records that still stand: 7 ft 7 in in shoes, an 8 ft 2.25 in wingspan, and a 10 ft 2.5 in standing reach, meaning he could touch the rim flat-footed.
He ranks below Yao and Bradley on career weight, appearing in limited minutes for the Celtics and Cavaliers from 2019 to 2022 before his NBA run ended.
Height: 7 ft 6 in · Country: Senegal · Feat: 2019 combine records (reach, wingspan, height in shoes)
- Champion journeyman
Chuck Nevitt (7 ft 5 in)
Nevitt leads the 7-foot-5 tier on longevity. He stuck in the league for nine seasons across six teams, a rare feat for a player this size, and he owns something none of the taller names above him do at this exact height: an NBA championship, won as a reserve on the 1985 Los Angeles Lakers.
His minutes were always thin, but sustained roster survival at 7 ft 5 in earns him the top of this tier over players with shorter runs.
Height: 7 ft 5 in · Country: USA · Feat: 1985 NBA champion, 9 seasons
- Barrier breaker
Sim Bhullar (7 ft 5 in)
Bhullar is listed at 7 ft 5 in and ranks just behind Nevitt in the tier. His career was brief, three games with the Sacramento Kings in 2015, but historically significant: he became the first player of Indian descent to appear in an NBA game.
He edges the remaining 7-foot-5 players below because he actually logged regular-season NBA minutes, if only a handful.
Height: 7 ft 5 in · Country: Canada · Feat: first NBA player of Indian descent
- Draft-day project
Pavel Podkolzin (7 ft 5 in)
Podkolzin, also 7 ft 5 in, was a raw project the Dallas Mavericks acquired on draft night in 2004. He appeared in only six NBA games across 2004-06, and mobility limits kept him from ever earning a rotation role.
He sits below Bhullar on impact but above Vranes because he logged more than a token appearance.
Height: 7 ft 5 in · Country: Russia · Career: 6 games, Mavericks (2004-06)
- One-game footnote
Slavko Vranes (7 ft 5 in)
Vranes closes the 7-foot-5 tier. His entire NBA career was a single game for the Portland Trail Blazers in 2003-04, roughly three minutes on the floor, one of the shortest careers of any player this tall.
That lone appearance is why he ranks last among the 7-foot-5 group despite matching them inch for inch.
Height: 7 ft 5 in · Country: Montenegro · Career: 1 NBA game (2003-04)
- Best defender of the giants
Mark Eaton (7 ft 4 in)
Eaton leads the 7-foot-4 tier and, by career value, outperformed nearly everyone above him. He won Defensive Player of the Year twice (1985 and 1989) and still holds the career record for blocks per game at 3.5, plus the single-season mark of 456 blocks in 1984-85.
He played to his strengths as a pure rim protector across 11 seasons with the Utah Jazz, proof that self-aware role-playing beats raw size. He died in 2021.
Height: 7 ft 4 in · Country: USA · Peak: 2x DPOY, career blocks-per-game record
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- Gheorghe Muresan (7 ft 7 in)
- Manute Bol (7 ft 7 in)
- Yao Ming (7 ft 6 in)
- Shawn Bradley (7 ft 6 in)
- Tacko Fall (7 ft 6 in)
- Chuck Nevitt (7 ft 5 in)
- Sim Bhullar (7 ft 5 in)
- Pavel Podkolzin (7 ft 5 in)
- Slavko Vranes (7 ft 5 in)
- Mark Eaton (7 ft 4 in)
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How everyone ranked them
Built from reader rankings using position-based points.
The tallest NBA players ever cleared 7 feet with room to spare, but height alone never told the whole story. The ranked cards above sort the league’s giants by verified height and real career impact; the sections below explain how we weighed them and add the context the ranking can’t hold on its own.
How we ranked the tallest players
Listed height is the primary sort, tallest to shortest, using the figures NBA teams and reference sites publish. Because so many players share the exact same listing, we break ties inside each height tier by what a player actually did on the floor: games played, longevity, and awards. That is why Muresan sits above Bol despite identical heights, and why Mark Eaton, at “only” 7 ft 4 in, earns a spot ahead of taller players who barely appeared in a game.
Heights in basketball are reported with minor variations across sources, and official listings sometimes differ from barefoot measurements. The figures here reflect the most commonly cited NBA listings, and we flag disputed cases rather than pick a single number and hide the disagreement.
Why extreme height has a ceiling
Every inch adds rebounding reach, shot-blocking range, and scoring room around the basket, which is why so many teams gambled on 7-foot-5 projects. But the advantage has a limit. Past roughly 7 ft 3 in, stamina and coordination often erode, and the skeleton takes on more stress with every sprint and landing. That trade-off shows up plainly in the data: the four tallest tiers on this list are dotted with players who logged only a handful of NBA games. The center position rewards size, but it rewards mobile size most of all.
The current giants: 2025-26
The 7-foot-7 listed record still stands, but the modern game has its own outsized names. Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs is the tallest established star, officially listed at 7 ft 4 in, and unlike the historical centers above him he shoots from the perimeter and handles like a wing. In the summer of 2026, the LA Clippers signed 7-foot-5 center Jamarion Sharp to a two-way contract after his G League Defensive Player of the Year season, making Sharp the tallest player on an NBA roster, though he had yet to log regular-season NBA minutes.
Behind them, Grizzlies center Zach Edey and Timberwolves center Rocco Zikarsky rank among the tallest active players at roughly 7 ft 3 in. Where the old giants relied on standing reach, today’s tallest players increasingly need the athleticism to switch and run, which is one reason a metric like vertical leap now matters even at the extremes of height.
At a glance: the tallest tiers
| Height tier | Players | Notable career marker |
|---|---|---|
| 7 ft 7 in | Muresan, Bol | Muresan: 2x FG% leader; Bol: elite shot-blocker |
| 7 ft 6 in | Yao Ming, Bradley, Fall | Yao: Hall of Fame, 8x All-Star |
| 7 ft 5 in | Nevitt, Bhullar, Podkolzin, Vranes | Nevitt: 1985 NBA champion |
| 7 ft 4 in | Eaton (plus Rik Smits, Boban Marjanovic) | Eaton: 2x DPOY, blocks-per-game record |
Note: ranks among players at identical heights reflect career impact, not a strict height order. For the opposite extreme, see our look at the shortest NBA players, where quickness and skill did the work that height does here.
Frequently asked questions
Who is the tallest player in NBA history?+
Gheorghe Muresan and Manute Bol are jointly the tallest players in NBA history, both listed at 7 ft 7 in (2.31 m). Muresan, a Romanian center, was drafted by the Washington Bullets in 1993, while Bol, from Sudan, debuted in 1985. No player has ever been officially listed taller in the NBA. Japanese center Yasutaka Okayama, reportedly 7 ft 8 in, was drafted in 1981 but never played a game.
How tall is the average NBA player?+
The average height of an NBA player is roughly 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m), a figure that has stayed fairly steady across recent seasons even as the game has gotten more perimeter-oriented. That baseline makes the league's 7-foot-plus giants extraordinary outliers, and the 7-foot-5-and-up players on this list stand more than a full foot above a typical roster spot.
Who is the tallest active NBA player for 2025-26?+
Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs is the tallest established star, officially listed at 7 ft 4 in. In the summer of 2026, however, the LA Clippers signed 7-foot-5 center Jamarion Sharp to a two-way contract, making Sharp the tallest player on an NBA roster. Sharp was the G League Defensive Player of the Year in 2025-26 but had not yet logged NBA regular-season minutes.
Why did so many of the tallest players have short careers?+
Past roughly 7 ft 3 in, mobility, stamina, and coordination tend to work against a player, and a taller skeleton absorbs more stress with every jump and landing. Several of the tallest names, including Slavko Vranes and Pavel Podkolzin, appeared in only a handful of NBA games. Extreme height also often stems from medical conditions like acromegaly, which carry their own health tolls.
Is Tacko Fall really one of the tallest players ever?+
Yes. Tacko Fall is listed at 7 ft 6 in, tying him with Yao Ming and Shawn Bradley as the third-tallest in NBA history behind only Muresan and Bol. At the 2019 draft combine he set the NBA records for tallest height in shoes (7 ft 7 in), longest wingspan (8 ft 2.25 in), and highest standing reach (10 ft 2.5 in). He last appeared in the NBA in 2022.
How is Wembanyama different from the historical tallest players?+
Almost every giant on this list was a back-to-the-basket specialist who lived near the rim. Wembanyama, at a listed 7 ft 4 in, pairs that reach with guard-like ball-handling, a jump shot, and rim-to-rim mobility, a skill package the league had never seen at that height. That versatility, not just his size, is why he anchors the modern conversation about the tallest players.
Who holds the NBA record for blocks per game?+
Mark Eaton, at 7 ft 4 in, holds the career record for blocked shots per game at 3.5, and also owns the single-season records of 456 total blocks and 5.6 blocks per game, both set in 1984-85. He won Defensive Player of the Year in 1985 and 1989 across 11 seasons with the Utah Jazz, the most decorated defensive resume among the league's tallest players.
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