"He's so Looooooong!" - the Jay Bilas Basketball Factor: Part Five

Height and length--they are two great measures of the prototypical basketball player which has great significance in the way the game can be play from an individual and team perspective, and ESPN basketball analyst and former Duke Blue Devil Jay Bilas has said as much in his NBA Draft coverage; players who are "looooooooooooooooong" are given special treatment by scouts because of how much they can theoretically do with and without the basketball. Height has always been seen as the definite way to place players at their respective positions and spots on the court, regardless of other size dimensions, but length has not always been given great account until the latter years of the NBA's existence, and because of this, the measure of length has also affected the way that young prospects are also scouted.

Because height is a vertical measure, and the game of basketball is played multidimensionally, it has its drawbacks as the standard canon for how players are used. One's length, on the contrary, can affect many other nuances of gaining the winning advantages against opponents in ways that aren't as obvious, and there are many player-specific advantages in possessing tremendous length, particularly in the wingspan of one's arms.

Elton Brand, the Chicago Bulls former No. 1 overall selection in 1999, was chosen not only for his dominating scoring and rebounding ability, but for his wingspan and hand size. Seen as somewhat undersized as a 6'8" forward/center, Brand's wingspan far surpassed being seven feet wide (normal wingspans usually measure out to be the same about of inches as one's height), giving him a great advantage against players who are taller than him. His hands were also talked about much, as the tip of his middle finger to the bottom of the palm of his hand was measured at a whopping nine inches, which rivals Michael Jordan's hand size as the largest set of hands that have palmed a Spalding leather NBA basketball.

Kevin Garnett and Rajon Rondo of the Boston Celtics each have a unique build that has allowed them great basketball advantages. Garnett's height is obvious, and he has even gone so far as to mask how tall he actually is, being 7'1" (though NBA media sources list him at 6'11"). That he is significantly longer-limbed than his height has given him a great surface area on the hardwood, despite maintaining a rail-thin build for all of his 14 years in the league. As for Rondo, though he possesses a similar build to his larger teammate, at 6'1", Rondo's combined arm length measuring at least a full seven inches longer than his height has allowed him to be an emerging defensive force in the league. Being able to catch a rebound one-handed, for instance, while cocking his head toward the other team's basket is one the things that has given Rondo the ability to be a fastbreak terror. Blocking perimeter shots has also become a noteworthy skill of Rondo's, as well as his penchant for collecting steals.

Scottie Pippen, the famed Hall of Fame-worthy small forward, is known almost exclusively for his wingspan, and has even been written about in numerous Jay-Z rap songs in reference to his amazing arms' length. While Pippen's height has been questioned numerous times over his 17-year career (ranging from 6'7" to 6'10"), his long arms have allowed him to have many advantages, to the extent that he was able to play virtually every position on the basketball court. His reach gave him a great advantage against smaller players who might have been quicker, so that he can keep good spacing and stay in front of them; he was able to wrap up defenders as an individual human wall as well; and his long arms gave him a great advantage in passing lanes, as he was a leader in steals in the NBA for many years.

Pippen's uncanny measurements and abilities encouraged his former Chicago Bulls coach (and current L.A. Lakers head coach) Phil Jackson to play with bigger backcourt lineups that often had players who were the size of small forwards in point guard-shooting guard-small forward defensive formations with combined wingspans that reached to the opposite sidelines simultaneously. From 1994 to 1998, Jackson utilized Pippen alongside Michael Jordan, Ron Harper, Toni Kukoc, Jud Buechler and Pete Myers as backcourt combinations in strategies that helped the Bulls to win three league championships. In Los Angeles, Jackson has used the same philosophy with Kobe Bryant, in lieu of Pippen, with Harper as well, Lamar Odom, Brian Shaw, Sasha Vujacic, Rick Fox, Isaiah "J.R." Rider and Shannon Brown, while winning an additional four championships from 2000 to 2009 as the Lakers' coach.

Generally, average-length players have a harder time being able to do seemingly simple tasks such as shooting over opponents, finishing strong at the basket, defending other players, etc. Through the NBA Draft evaluation process, players possessing said length measurements are usually given poor ratings, but there are exceptions to the rule. Most notably, former NBA big man Kevin Willis was a former All-Star and played in the league for over 20 seasons in 23 years, but had such short arms that he was often made fun of for resembling a tyrannosaurus rex (big muscular body, short arms). Current Spurs forward/center Matt Bonner also has what would be considered "a poor wingspan", but has made up for it with his 6'9" height and for possessing a perimeter game that most players at his position lack, thus making his shortcomings somewhat null.