When I first thought of this question, I couldn’t help but think of many NBA players whose careers did not pan out well because of injury. Yao Ming is 7’6”, but numerous foot injuries forced him to retire in 2011. Joel Embiid,who is 7 feet tall, has yet to play a game for the Philadelphia 76ers due to a broken foot. There are other tall players who experienced numerous injuries like Greg Oden and Bill Walton. Even Derrick Rose, who is only 6’3” but is still taller than the average male, has had multiple knee surgeries. Obviously, athletes in all sports get injured all the time. But in the NBA, 7 foot giants are more common. I want to know if you are more prone to getting injured if you are really tall.
This article points out that taller players have missed more games than shorter players. The author of the article states, “Since 2000, 97 players 6’9” and taller have been drafted by teams with lottery selections… These players missed 17.9 percent of their potential NBA games (regular season and postseason, where appropriate) to injury over the course of their careers, while the 95 players 6’8” or shorter missed just 13.5 percent (Stotts).” He even goes specifically into 7 footers who “have missed 24 percent of their games (Stotts).” The article shows that there is a recent trending correlation between height and games missed since 2000. Meanwhile, this article looked at injury histories/records of over 1000 players during a 17 year period. The review “found no correlation between injury rate and player demographics, including age, weight, NBA experience, and most importantly, height (McCarthy)”. Two articles with conflicting results. This doesn’t help to answer the question at all.
However, I found an article that might. There is evidence that shows that having a high stride frequency “can reduce stress on the body and prevent injuries (Davis)”. It is easy to assume that tall people will have longer strides with their tall legs and therefore, less stride frequency. By the way, stride frequency is the number of steps you take over a period of time.) This might explain why tall players are more prone to injury. However, the observational study in the article was able to show that there was no relationship between leg length and stride frequency. Three Boston researchers reported the height and stride frequencies of the 10 runners they used. That is a very small sample size, but it is a study nonetheless! The article goes on to conclude that a taller height doesn’t always mean low stride frequencies, and that tall people can work on improving their stride frequencies too. It is not just some curse that they are stuck with.
My conclusion to this question is that it is not likely that height has a factor in giving tall people injuries, although I have not presented the strongest evidence to support my conclusion. I guess it is percieved that tall NBA players get injured all the time because we hear it on the news often. Joel Embiid’s two foot surgeries were front page news on ESPN. What do you guys think?
Picture source:
http://www.businessinsider.com/76ers-tweet-about-joel-embiid-reaction-2014-6
The first thing I thought of when I saw the title was Brook Lopez. The 7 foot Center has always had foot problems, and many say that it is because of his height and too much pressure being put on his foot. He always seems to be dealing with ankle and foot problems. I wonder if this is actually because he is tall. He is not large, he is pretty skinny, but he still always seems to struggle with these types of injuries.
When thinking about professional athletes and their injuries I never took into consideration their height. However, now that I think about it it does make sense that taller athletes may be more prone to injury. Although there may not be sufficient evidence to prove this it can be possible. Sports broadcasters are always talking about the latest injury an it is usually about an athlete taller than the average male or female. You talked about the NBA in this article so this can also bring up the scenario that aren’t most NBA athletes tall? So it is most likely when an NBA athlete gets injured he is taller than the average height.