Giant
I am usually the tallest person in the room, unless I’m at a basketball game. I’ve been tall for as long as I can remember, and I’m sure my coach is hoping that I have a few more inches left in me. Personally I think that I’m at my maximum height, which is about 6 ft. 4 (and a half) on a good day. Although I’m not exactly sure about that, since if I don’t see a person for a little while one of the first things they say to me is “Dave, did you get taller?!” There’s also a pretty good chance that they simply forgot how tall I seem up close, and were surprised by my somewhat mountainous presence.
Being tall is pretty cool most of the time. From an athlete’s perspective, tallness is a treasured attribute in almost every sport. It’s a unique attribute because it’s one of the few things in sports that you can’t work to get better at. You can’t go out and practice being tall; either you’re tall or you’re not. This fact makes many other athletes I’m associated with on either the basketball or the track team get jealous of my height from time to time. On the track team my teammates say that they wish that they had legs as long as mine, and that my stride lengths (distance covered in one step) are ridiculous.
This height obsession is more commonly seen, and usually more annoying, on the basketball team. That could be because, to be honest, some of the people (the guards and small forwards) are a bit on the small side in the basketball spectrum. A common thread of conversation during basketball season would go something like this:
Teammate: Damn Dave you’re so tall
Me: I know
Teammate: Man, if I were as tall as you I’d be so much better! I’d be a D1 player, easy. I’d be dunking on people all day.
Me: Yeah, I’m sure you would *goes back to ignoring teammate*
I find this obsession with height to be a both a bit funny and annoying. I just don’t completely understand why these athletes are so concerned over height, and why I just happened to hit the genetic lottery and ended up being taller than them. I guess that’s just the natural competitiveness that so many athletes have ingrained into their personality.
