Kenny George is tall, really tall

January 9th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanR

The name Kenny George is not entirely new to me; I watched the highlights of this cat against UNC last year on SportsCenter. (Back when, you know, I watched SportsCenter.) He was incredibly slow, but also insanely captivating in the way he went after blocks and scored. Dude is 7 foot 7, 360 pounds as the point guard center for UNC-Ashville. I cannot fathom a life of ducking through doorways, size 26 shoes or sitting like a freak in classroom chairs. His life is like something out of a J.R. R. Tolkien novel.

In any event, there are a myriad of other problems with being that size, as the NYT details today:

But as with many of the extremely tall basketball players before him — including Gheorghe Muresan, Manute Bol and Shawn Bradley — such size brings serious drawbacks. George’s joints are under considerable stress, and everything from buying shoes to going out with his friends can be difficult.

He is too tall to fit into a driver’s seat, so he does not have a driver’s license and must ask friends for rides. When the semester ends, his father drives 650 miles from Chicago, his hometown, to Asheville so George does not have to squeeze into an airplane seat.

“I don’t hate it, but there are times I wish that I weren’t so tall,” George said.

[ … ]

George’s body kept growing. By his senior year, his feet had grown beyond size 23, the largest athletic shoe made. In search of a size 25, VanderMeulen appealed to college and N.B.A. teams. Weeks later, Shaquille O’Neal sent several pairs of his size 22’s to Chicago. VanderMeulen shipped them to a New York City shoemaker who cut off the soles and toes and reshaped them into 25’s.

Asheville has a contract with Nike, which makes 12 pairs of size-26 shoes for George. They are the only shoes he wears.

Anyways, KG and his Ashville crew are playing against the Tar Heels tonight on ESPNU. If you have that channel, I would highly recommend tuning in because you wouldn’t want to miss him doing this to Tyler Hansbrough, would you?

Actually, it’s bound to end up on YouTube tomorrow if he pulls off a move like that. So go get drunk instead tonight. It’s Wednesday, after all.