"I used to like to read about myself, but now I don't care because whether it's good or bad, either way, I'm going to do what I want to do, and I'm going to keep pushing my goals."ĭespite all the improbable bracket-busting in the NCAA tournament, Bill Littlefield says the real March Madness is happening off the court. so they choose to write about it and they think their opinion is the end of the world," he said.
"There's a lot of people who aren't good enough to play sport. It reads, in part, "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." He’s got a quote - often attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt - tattooed on his arm. I kinda notice it all the time, but I mean, I'm not going to lie, if I was short and I saw someone like me, I'd probably do the same thing."Īt 26, Sturgess is older than many current NBA stars, but he's unfailingly upbeat. "People think they’re so slick sneaking pictures and stuff like that. "I have to say that camera phones are my worst nightmare," he said. (Though he can still get pushed around by shorter, lighter centers because his center of gravity is so high.) Sturgess enjoys the attention that comes with his height, for the most part. Today, Sturgess is 7-foot-8 and weighs 330 pounds. He’s just not good enough yet to earn many minutes on the court for the Legends. Sturgess sat out the Friday night game I attended against the Rio Grande Valley Vipers.
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assume being a tall guy, I should be able to get 20 rebounds a night and things like that."Ī Work In Progress Paul Sturgess is the tallest pro basketball player in the world, but his biggest fans are on the shorter side. "Obviously if I was an NBA player, I'd be in the NBA now. I'm one of those guys who’s obviously starting from a low basketball, like background," Sturgess said. It was a big pay cut, but Sturgess said yes. the owner of the Texas Legends of the NBA Development League - offered Sturgess a spot on the team. During his second year with the Globetrotters, Donnie Nelson, Jr. After college, he signed with the Harlem Globetrotters. Paul could be the next millionaire because of the game of basketball."īut Sturgess played sparingly at Florida Tech and then at a community college in Florida and then at Mountain State University in West Virginia. "If he wants to be a pro, he has the size, the ability, the potential to play anywhere in the world he’d like to. "I believe Paul was born to be a great basketball player," Mims said. Sturgess's trip to college was featured in the English documentary “Britain’s Tallest Teens.” In the film, his then-coach Billy Mims was confident that the big man would make it to the NBA. But Florida Institute of Technology offered him a scholarship in 2007. He just wasn’t quick enough for big-time American college basketball. He’d only been playing basketball for a few years. But the Dukes and Kentuckys of the world did not recruit him. He joined us to discuss the season and his career.Sturgess was 7-foot-4 when he graduated high school. Now, his much-improved SMU Mustangs are in the NIT.
Larry Brown has won a championship in the NCAA and the NBA. Fans got excited tried to do it every time, really." "I never really tried to dunk until after I was playing for a few weeks. good hand-eye coordination," Sturgess said. Sturgess investigated a new sport: basketball. After tests, doctors told the Sturgess family their son wasn’t suffering from a genetic disorder. That changed when, at 15, he grew a foot - to a staggering 7-feet tall.ĭoctors were concerned. He was, he says, just another English kid who loved soccer. Paul Sturgess grew up in Loughborough, England, a town of 60,000 people north of London.