The tallest NBA players ever (2026 update)

Published April 19, 2026 · By The Basketball Fans Editors

The tallest player in NBA history is, officially, a tie between Gheorghe Mureșan and Manute Bol at 7’7” (about 231 cm). Both are listed at that exact height by every reputable basketball-historical source. Mureșan is the only seven-footer of his height ever to win an NBA award (Most Improved Player, 1996). Bol, who played 624 NBA games and recorded 2,180 blocks, is the only player ever to record more career blocks than career points (he had 1,599 career points). Both played roughly the same era (1985-2000); they were never opposing centers because Bol retired in 1995 and Mureșan made his NBA debut in 1993.

This page tracks the full list of the tallest players in NBA history, the complications around the official height of each one, and the active 2026 list led by Victor Wembanyama and Zach Edey.

The asterisk on every pre-2017 height

NBA player heights before 2017 were not officially verified. Players self-reported their heights to teams; teams listed those heights on rosters. The standard inflation was about an inch, by every retrospective analysis from sites including Basketball-Reference and FiveThirtyEight. Charles Barkley was listed at 6’6” through his career; he is, in retirement interviews, has confirmed he is closer to 6’4”. Kevin Durant is the famous exception in the opposite direction; he is listed at 6’10” but is closer to 7’0” by his own admission.

The 2017 NBA Combine was the first year the league required official barefoot height measurements at the pre-draft event. From 2017 forward, the listed heights are reliable; before 2017, treat every roster height as plus-or-minus an inch.

This list uses listed heights for pre-2017 players (because that is how they appeared in NBA records during their careers) and combine heights for post-2017 players (because those are the numbers official NBA listings now use).

The complete top 25

(The list is rough below rank 11 because the differences between 7’3” and 7’4” are within the measurement margin for any pre-2017 player.)

The 2026 active list

The tallest active NBA players as of April 2026:

Wembanyama and Edey are the two active players at the absolute top of the height distribution. Wembanyama, the 2023 first overall pick, is the most physically distinct top-ten NBA player ever produced by the league; he is 7’4” with a 8’0” wingspan and the perimeter mobility of a 6’4” guard. Zach Edey, the 2024 ninth overall pick out of Purdue, is 7’4” with a more traditional center build (slower laterally, dominant in the paint). The two of them together are reshaping how scouts evaluate physical-frame outliers.

Why average NBA centers are shorter than they used to be

The average height of an NBA center has, paradoxically, declined since 1996. The 1995-96 season’s average starting center height was approximately 7’0.4”. The 2024-25 season’s average starting center height was approximately 6’10.7”, a decline of nearly two inches.

The structural reasons:

The death of the back-to-the-basket center. Modern offenses prioritize floor spacing. A 7’4” center who cannot shoot from the perimeter is, in the contemporary NBA, a defensive specialist who cannot stay on the floor in late-game situations. Teams have, since approximately 2014, drafted shorter, more athletic, more shooting-capable players at the five.

The three-point revolution. A team that plays a 7’4” non-shooting center loses the spacing the offense needs to operate. The average modern starting five contains four players capable of shooting threes; the fifth (the center) needs to be agile enough to switch on perimeter screens. 6’10” players are better at this than 7’4” players.

The international scouting shift. The international pipeline that historically produced 7’4” specialists (Mureșan, Bradley, Sabonis, Smits) has, since approximately 2010, focused more on perimeter wings and stretch fours. There are fewer 7’4”-plus prospects entering the league each year than there were in the 1990s.

The Wembanyama-Edey pair are, in this context, the structural exception. Wembanyama can shoot threes (35.7% on five attempts per game in his rookie year) and switch onto guards. Edey, drafted in 2024 specifically because he had developed a corner-three weapon at Purdue, fits the same template. The next era of 7’4” centers may be the one in which the height advantage is finally re-paired with the offensive skill set the modern game demands.

Honorable mentions: tall players who are not on the list because they technically did not play in the NBA

• Sun Mingming, 7’9”, from China. Played professionally in Iran and Mexico, never in the NBA. He would be the tallest professional basketball player ever measured if he had reached the NBA.
• Suleiman Ali Nashnush, 8’0.4”, from Libya. Played briefly in the 1960s in Libya. Never in the NBA. Holds the all-time tallest measured basketball player record.

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Sources

• Basketball-Reference: NBA height leaders.
• NBA Combine official measurements (2017-2025).
• Sports Illustrated, Jack McCallum, Manute Bol obituary (June 2010).
• ESPN, Gheorghe Mureșan retrospective (April 2014).
• Hoophall, Yao Ming Hall of Fame induction (2016).