Report: NBA teams must provide player's exact height, age this season

Ryan Young
·Staff writer
The NBA will now require players to measure their exact heights without wearing shoes during training camp this fall.
The NBA will now require players to measure their exact heights without wearing shoes during training camp this fall. (AP/Tyler Kaufman)

Exaggerating your height is something basketball players have been doing for decades across all levels of the sport.

The NBA, though, has apparently had enough.

According to Marc Stein of The New York Times, the league told teams that they must submit exact player heights and ages during the first week of training camp this fall. Height will be measured with players’ shoes off. Weight will not be included, per Stein, because it fluctuates too often during the season.

The move, in reality, doesn’t alter much in the league. Sure, some players will see their height increase or decrease a few inches on official rosters, but that’s about it. The decision, however, is another step in the NBA’s push to be as transparent as possible.

Blame, in part, Buddy Hield

According to Stein, Buddy Hield was actually a big motivation for the change.

Though it has nothing to do with his height.

The 6-foot-4 guard revealed in December that he was in fact turning 26, not 25 — like the league and most media outlets had thought. The mistake, Hield said, wasn’t his fault.

“That’s their fault, not my fault,” Hield told The New York Times in December. “The first time I saw it on Wikipedia, my mom said, ‘Why do they have your age wrong?’ I said, ‘I have no idea.’”

While his age hasn’t had an impact on the Sacramento Kings star’s game, it is a bad look for the league — and nearly everybody else — to simply not know how old Hield is.

And in a time where transparency is key — especially with an increase in sports gambling across the United States — the NBA has decided it’s time to tighten up.

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