Basketball’s tallest, sometimes gangliest, often limited centers.

I’ve never stood beside a seven-footer. But twice in my life — once when I was a teenager, and once in grad school — I found myself looking up at six-foot-ten basketball centers, both of them now retired NBA players. Hall of Famer Bob Lanier was the first “big” I met, at a charity event in Milwaukee. Egyptian-born Alaa Abdelnaby, a Duke University star before getting drafted by the Portland Trail Blazers in 1990, was the second.

Meeting Lanier was like meeting a giant. I still remember his catcher’s mitt-sized left hand (the Dobber, as he was nicknamed, was one of the greatest lefties to ever hit the hardwood). To raise money for charity, Lanier, then a Milwaukee Buck, had donated a pair of his size-22 white leather Converse sneakers. My dad bid on the autographed shoes, our bid won, and moments later I was shaking Lanier’s hand. Lanier had the biggest feet the NBA had ever seen, and now a pair of his shoes sits in the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts. It’s an exhibit. You can compare your shoe size to his.

Abdelnaby was one of nine Duke Blue Devils in a pickup game in Card Gym, adjacent Cameron, on a day before the season started, and I was the tenth player on the court. For a goof, he played point guard one game, and I remember being struck by his dexterity. He shot some threes, showed a good handle dribbling the perimeter, and delivered accurate passes into the post. He did this with a smile on his face. He was having fun.

Needless to say, there are ballers taller than Abdelnaby with handles and shooting skills far superior. Seven-footer Dirk Nowitzki comes to mind. As does seven-footer Karl-Anthony Towns, and seven-foot-three Kristaps Porzingis. These latter, younger bigs won the NBA All-Star Skills Challenge in 2016 and 2017, respectively. Husky Lithuanian Arvydas Sabonis, seven-three, knocked down a third of his NBA three-pointers. This November, Milwaukee Bucks center Brook Lopez, a hair over seven feet, drained an insane eight three-pointers against the Denver Nuggets. Video of his barrage went viral, and a nickname was born: Splash Mountain, a riff on the Steph Curry/Klay Thompson “Splash Brothers” moniker. The Magic Kingdom echo couldn’t be more appropriate for Lopez, a self-described “Disney nerd” who owns a Disney-decorated home on the Disney resort property in Orlando.

And as far as big guys who can dribble, we might never see another six-eleven superstar with a seven-foot-five wingspan and size-18 shoe who can handle the rock (and do everything else) as well as Kevin Durant. And then there’s Giannis Antetokounmpo, “The Greek Freak,” who, at six-eleven, can fly down a basketball court, has a silky midrange game, and is so extraordinarily athletic, his former Bucks coach, Jason Kidd, turned Antetokounmpo into his primary ball-handler during the 2016-2017 season. Kidd, a Hall of Fame point guard, converted his lanky young superstar into a point-center.

Former Lakers point guard Magic Johnson is six-nine. Uncannily coordinated Ben Simmons, six-foot-ten, plays point for the Philadelphia 76ers.

And then there are tall guys who never develop a handle or an outside shot. Skyscrapers with limited skills. Professional beanpoles — guys who can clog up the lane, block shots, rebound, and not much else (sometimes they can’t even rebound that well, being too rickety, earthbound, and slow). These are basketball centers so huge — in terms of body length — that they grab the eye camped in the paint even in the NBA.

If they make it to the NBA, that is. More than one guy standing seven-and-a-half-feet or thereabouts, with Association dreams, never did acquire enough of a hoops skill set, and/or was too frail, injury-prone, plodding, and lacking in stamina to get drafted.

I’m thinking of seven-foot-seven Kenny George, he of the size-26 custom Nikes, who played two seasons for UNC-Asheville. George was reportedly the tallest college basketball player ever. I’m thinking of Englishman Paul Sturgess, also seven-seven. He played in the NBA G League and for the Harlem Globetrotters, but never made the big show. I’m thinking of China’s Sun Mingming, tallest of them all. Mingming is seven-foot-nine. He played one season for a community college in Ventura, California, and then spent several years playing professionally for teams in America, Mexico, and China, but never for an NBA team.

(You might remember Mingming from Rush Hour 3. There’s a scene where he lifts Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker off the ground simultaneously, with help from a bamboo stick.)

No salute to on-court human sequoias would be complete without mention of the classic scene in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest where towering “Chief Bromden,” played by Native American former rodeo star Will Sampson, is coached by Jack Nicholson’s character, during a pickup game at an insane asylum, to simply stand beneath the basket and raise his arms. Asylum patients cheer when Chief gets a lob and drops the ball in the hoop.

And before we meet our four NBA beanpoles, let’s check in with seven-foot-seven high-school baller Robert Bobroczkyi. Only 30 known human beings on planet Earth are taller than him. He’s aiming for the NBA, but he’s so skinny he resembles a stick figure in a hoops uniform. He runs in slow motion. He quickly gets exhausted. But he has a decent mid-range shot, he can pass, and he can play with his back to the basket. So who knows. Maybe before too long Bobroczkyi will follow in the huge footsteps of these four guys…

Shawn Bradley
A seven-foot-six ectomorph, Bradley played 12 seasons in the NBA, and though he notched some impressive individual performances (multiple triple doubles, fueled by blocks, not assists), he never fulfilled the promise of his No. 2 draft position. Oft-injured, Bradley ended up scoring 8.1 points per game, with 6.3 rebounds in 23.5 average minutes.

Gheorghe Muresan
At seven-foot-seven, with an otherworldly wingspan of nearly eight feet, Muresan is as tall a player to ever lumber up and down an NBA court. In six injury-plagued seasons, four for the Bullets/Wizards, and two for the Nets, this Romanian, who costarred in the Billy Crystal movie My Giant, did best in 1995-96, averaging 14.5 points per game and 10 boards.

Manute Bol
This Sudanese center played on and off for four pro teams between 1985 and 1995, was as tall as Muresan, a lot skinnier, and blocked many more shots. Twice, he blocked eight shots in one quarter. He goes down as the only NBA player to have more career blocks than points. And that’s despite the fact that he liked to launch the occasional three, once hitting six of 12 in a half. Bol could alter and erase shots, but otherwise struggled on defense.

Boban Marjanovic
The shaggy-haired, seven-foot-three Serbian, with a wingspan rivaling Muresan’s, has become a fan favorite around the league, just as the late Bol had during his career. Bobi, as he is known, doesn’t play a lot of minutes for the L.A. Clippers (his current team), but gets serenaded with cheers at the Staples Center whenever he checks in. He electrified social media in the Clippers’ opening game this year by taking a pass in the paint and one-hand dunking without jumping. Briefly grabbing the rim while flat-footed, he damaged it and caused a delay. Bobi scored 18 points in 18 minutes that game. Be sure to look up the YouTube videos of Bobi being taught dance moves by his teammate Tobias Harris.