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'Smaller' Basketball Players: Perhaps the Best Athletes of All

By Thomas Emma, Coach's Clipboard, 03/20/18, 12:00PM PDT

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Any player big, medium or small who develops his or her game enough to play the great, extremely competitive sport of basketball at a high level deserves the utmost respect and credit.

Recently while watching a program on Public Television relating to why individuals grow to extreme heights, a certain fact caught my interest and attention. According to the show only 3 percent of American men reach the height of 6-foot-5 or taller.

Since I'm around tall people daily (one aspect of my job is training basketball players in strength, conditioning and skill development) I had a hard time believing this.

But after a little research of my own, I found the statement to be true. Not only that but the majority of countries around the world had an even lower percentage of 6-5 and overs than did the USA.