Why The NBA Wouldn’t Let This 7’ 8” Giant Play

Robert Bobroczky, the tallest high school basketball player, is too small for the NBA #NBA At the age of 12, he was taller than 7’ 2” Kristaps Porzingis. By 13, he was going viral for running like a penguin… And at 14 years old, Robert Bobroscky stood at 7’ 7”. And since then, he’s grown even more. But what if I told you that he was too small for the NBA? What happened to Robert Bobroscky? As someone who followed his career the past couple years, I’m going to go through the 3 reasons why despite being the tallest high school high school basketball player, he was too small for the NBA. That was the first reason, Rob Bob’s weight. I’m sure you’ve noticed that proportionally, something is off and that’s because at the age of 16, he was only 180 pounds. Most of his weight looking like it’s in his neck…I don’t know. One of the first times I talked about Rob, I called him stick man. The concerns were that if any bigger player was to back down Rob, he would get hurt. They even genetically tested him, worried that he may have had Marfan’s syndrome, but his dad was 7’ 1”, his mom 6’ 1” and they concluded it was some good old genetics. But since then, he was put on a strict regimen to gain weight, eating 7 times a day at Stella Azzura, the Rome basketball academy that got Andrea Bargnani into the NBA. Rob helped them win the under 15 national title and was then only focusing on his weight. He moved to Spire institute with world class facilties, dedicated trainers, a set meal plan of about 5000 calories a day. He would eventually become teammates with LaMelo Ball in 2018, we’ll get to that and by then Rob would be much bigger. He would make his debut at 17 years old and looked, well, interesting. He would get to 190 pounds and still look tiny. To explain why that is problematic, Stephen Curry before he bulked up was 190 pounds and if you want a comparison of a tall big man, 7’ 6” Tacko Fall is 280 pounds. Rob Bob was literally still slenderman. He was able to shoot mid ranges and threes, and at that height, it looked unstoppable. His was committed and according to everyone, one of the nicest guys with a heart bigger than his height. By the time he was 18, Robert was training multiple times a day, excited to be teammates with LaMelo. We finally thought there would be more coverage of him, literally there were searches about the “tall player from Spire” but that’s when it all went wrong. Those weight issues were leading to problem #2, no playing time. What made Robert so special was also ruining him. He was built like no other basketball player in the history of the sport. Doctors were continuously running tests, the Spire Insititue trainers said that” nobody has ever trained anyone like him” Taller NBA players are more injury prone than shorter players*.* Head trainer of the Lakers Vitti said that Shaq’s weight caused injuries and more surgeries, but forget excess weight, longer limbs lead to more leg injuries. 7’ 6” Yao Ming retired after 8 seasons. So Spire was being cautious. It was all for the goal to make a D1 college. And in his senior year, his last chance to show scouts what he had, there was a health problem that finally needed to be addressed. Robert Bobroczky was suffering from severe scoliosis, a lateral curvature in his spine that had also misalligned his hips by the age of 14. It’s why we saw a weird gait and run. But the doctors opted against surgery at the time. Not until they said it needed to happen his junior year in 2018. It shut down any hopes of playing, and the surgery got pushed to his senior year. The surgery was a success and actually elongated Rob Bob to 7’ 8”. He would be the tallest player in NBA history. But Robert disappeared for two years and that caused reason #3 on why he didn’t make the NBA, no D1 school made an offer. As Robert graduated, there were new reports on his weight, all of a sudden being 225 pounds. 35 pounds in one year? I don’t know if that’s true. He popped up in a podcast out of the blue in 2020 and said he committed to D3 Rochester University just as the pandemic started, but a D3 teams that wasn’t even part of the NCAA…Rob wasn’t visible at all. He started on the JV team, playing a couple of games in 2021 with very little footage that you’re seeing right now. Setting picks, moving a bit better. He literally has no stats Rather, he’s also looking beyond basketball now. He wants to share his unique experiences and perspective like being able to fit into cars… It’s good to see him in good spirits and I hope we get to see more of him, the 7’ 8” giant that was too small for the NBA.