US Sport and height neurosis

Hello,

I just wanted to share this here : http://www.naturalheightgrowth.com/2015/03/20/the-unhealthy-obsession-of-basketball-players-towards-height/

The height obsession in basketball and in a large way in USA because I don't forget Reilly Opelka and John Isner (tennis) is very unhealthy. But finally, and especially in NBA it goes in the spectacular side. I've always wondered how people can like to see giants people running. That sport is not for average guys. We are nearer than a Freaks show rather than a true sport. But I was asking me why I am alone to think that. When I see 5'9 guys fight them about a player height (ohoh Kevin Durant are you here), I find that kind of funny. How many times I've heard from some average guys talking by a giant one like Vincent Pourchot "we should not waste his talent" just because he's very tall. And the fact is that I never saw a 6-7/8+ guy in my life and I'm talking about guys I can't even imagine how tall they are. 

That height obsession is not only for basketball, but in other sports it's more moderate. Don't forget that Mike Tyson is just an average guy. Even in NBA, there is Allen Iverson who is an average guy but there is not many exemple.

As the link show it, since 90's NBA developed a very annonying obsession for height. Like if it was the only thing important. At this level they should consider Sim Bhullar better than Derrick Rose ? That's not the case, of course.
I hope it will change, because in european sports like football height is not really important. There is a lot of famous under average players. And I'm afraid to see that kind of mentallity to develop in Europe. Basketball is more and more popular, and with basketball of course more and more tall guys come outs of the shadow : Olivier Gouez, Rudy Gobert, etc. I'm a bit afraid of that situation, see that same obsession in France. That's already the case for basketball, but not for other sports.


Also asking myself how they can find so many tall guys. I know that of course there is some, but how in a country like Philippines they can find easily 7ft guys https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippines_men%27s_national_basketball_team (my opinion is that they are upgrading their players, that's already the case in NBA and in most sports - volleyball (russian female team where the shortest girl is listed at 5-8 while she is mostly under 5-5) and tennis (Ana Ivanovic) to give an exemple - that's even more ludicrous). Also have the opinion that this height neurosis is already present in most slavic countries especially since USSR (my exemple) but not yest in western Europe.

So just made this to share an opinion, why not opening a discussion but I think that most people will agreed. Make me feel that my insecurity would be even bigger if I was american, hopefully I'm european and here popular sports are not only axed on height (but baseball is great!)
It seems that there is no place for average guys in professionnal sport. Or rather that the average guys will magically see their height increased like Porzingis who was 7ft before going to the USA and is now listed at 7ft3

Well, In NBA, it's not really a height "obsession" in my opinion cause you DO have to preferably be closer to the basket in order to have an advantage and compete at the highest level. It's a sport that revolves around height and wingspan so it's understandable. I think mainly women are more height obsessed since they want to feel protected (I guess that's the primitive part of their brain functioning). I saw a very tall good-looking security guard the other day when I went to the club and he was definitely in the 6'4+ region if I had to guess but I'd imagine most women would want to be with someone like that since they would feel protected seeing as not many people are that big generally. In the NFL/MLB/NHL/Soccer there isn't that height obsession since those sports don't really give you an advantage whether your tall/short/average as long as you can play (depending on the postion for NFL).

Maybe it's my confirmation bias but lately over the last year or two I've been seeing a lot of height related insults emerge in sports, especially the hyper-masculinized ones such as MMA. Ironically, Nate Diaz (your profile pic) is one of the main perpetrators of this. Between his bouts with Conor McGregor (who, in my opinion, just barely escapes society's threshold for cruel height related jokes at 5'9), Nate would try to discredit Conor's previous wins by stating "You've been beating little midgets (5'6-5'7 range opponents), while I've been fighting normal sized adults" and "I saw you stand on your tippy toes during our weigh-ins little man" etc. It is unfortunate to see such discrimination but it is a reality in sports.

the fact is Nate Diaz is """only""" 6ft, so he would be consider as short in some other sports. That the most funny.

https://twitter.com/si_vault/status/912492078013263872
http://www.nfl.com/player/larryfitzgerald/2506106/profile
here is a US footballer listed at ... 6'3. So the photographer have to be 6'7 or 6'8. USA is really another dimension, not the same world.

Also about basketball
In 50's Nera White was one of the tallest, listed at 6'1 (that would mean something like 6ft)
http://www.tennessean.com/story/sports/2016/04/13/tennessee-native-basketball-icon-nera-white-dies/83015652/
But now it's not enough. They want girls like Lisa Leslie (listed at 6'5.5 but rather 6'4.5) or Alisson Bales and they are still upgrading them.

Usa is the country of shallowness and stupidity, the only good thing is they have good LL doctors.

So I really can't understand why should someone care about all these.
Most of us know the height borders that after you pass them you look fine and anyone will never have anything negative to feel about your height so I really don't give a fk what Diaz or sport press in Usa say about heights.

This is irrelevent no one on this forum is an athlete and their opinions don't matter.

Quote from: Body Builder on December 08, 2017, 01:03:56 PMUsa is the country of shallowness and stupidity, the only good thing is they have good LL doctors.

So I really can't understand why should someone care about all these.
Most of us know the height borders that after you ps them you look fine and anyone will never have anything negative to feel about your height so I really don't give a fk what Diaz or sport press in Usa say about heights.

Not only the USA. Because if you look at China sports team (volleyball, basketball, strictly everything) you will see that players are very tall, taller than european players. I think it's because they have a rude policy about height, especially in sports. They choose of course tall players, they downgrade their height to give the impression that their athletes are very tall.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_women%27s_national_volleyball_team
the shortest player of their volleyball female team is 5'9, while female average in China is about 5'2. 5'9 is an average american male. 6'3-6'7 chinese girls playing volleyball, if that is not a freak show what it is ?
So you will explain me how not to be insecure when you see this ?

And yes nobody here is not an athlete, it's not an excuse.

Quote from: MrHandsome on December 08, 2017, 02:03:25 PMThis is irrelevent no one on this forum is an athlete and their opinions don't matter.

This comment is very stupid. Do you know ?
If you're insecure it's mostly because all this height atmosphere around us, and sport-show have importance.

Quote from: theophilo on December 08, 2017, 03:22:47 PM
Not only the USA. Because if you look at China sports team (volleyball, basketball, strictly everything) you will see that players are very tall, taller than european players. I think it's because they have a rude policy about height, especially in sports. They choose of course tall players, they downgrade their height to give the impression that their athletes are very tall.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_women%27s_national_volleyball_team
the shortest player of their volleyball female team is 5'9, while female average in China is about 5'2. 5'9 is an average american male.
So you will explain me how not to be insecure when you see this ?

China has 1.5 billion people. It is very easy to find 20-30 tall women to play voley ball. That has nothing to do with the average person nor it should cause any insecurity to him.

And also, sports like volley need tall players so it is normal the height to ve so important.
For other sports like lifting weights height is a disadvantage. Have you seen anyone to mention the small height of weightlifters in a negative way?

I can understand your point but we should not feel insecure about anything that has to do with height.
My only problem in height is on dating. Nothing else. If someone made fun of my previous shirt height (very rare) I made fun of his tall height or his lack of muscles or something else. Anyone has drawbacks and it is up to us to confront them if they say anything bad about our height.
But women's preferences is something that can't change and thats why I still have problem with my height. Anything else is very insignificant for me, not now I am average but even before LL.