NBA Stars With INSANE Growth Spurts

NBA players are complete giants. I mean, we see them on TV and they look like normal-sized humans. Someone even like Steph Curry looks like a short dude on TV, but if an average person walked up on him in real life, they'd be looking straight up and thinking, what the f***? Well, did y'all know that some of these people weren't always tall, and some even actually had height insecurities at one point in their life? I'm serious. And if you don't believe me, then you're in for a surprise. Alright guys, we're going to kick off this list with Zion Williamson. Before the world got to know him as this 6 foot 7, 285 pound freak of nature, would you believe that Zion was once a 5 foot 9 scrawny kid back when he was in 8th grade? Yeah, that's right. The 2019 number one pick wasn't always the tallest kid on the block. But between the 8th grade and his freshman year in high school, he grew 6 inches to 6 foot 3. And then from there came the monster we know today who bullies full-grown men on the hardwood floors of the NBA. I mean, here's Zion talking in detail about his crazy growth spurt. I didn't pick up all this weight until junior year of high school. During freshman year, I was small. I was 6'3", 175. Like, I was small. And over the course of about 2 years, I picked up 100 pounds. I mean, I wouldn't look at myself and go, wow, I'm 250. I wouldn't know I was 250 until I stepped on the scale. And then I'm like, oh, I'm 250? I don't feel 250. I don't feel slow. Like, with all that weight just came more athleticism and finding myself able to do new things. It made me faster and stronger. It helped me become a more versatile player. Sheesh, guys. It's hard to believe that a few short years ago, I would have been able to bully Zion on the basketball courts. Anyway, from a number one overall draft pick, let's now go over to this year's top pick and talk about the growth spurt of Paulo Banqueiro. As we all know, Banqueiro currently stands at 6'10". But before he dominated the paint and played like a true big man, Banqueiro actually played as a guard before his growth spurt hit him hard. In his own words, I had a big growth spurt in middle school. I started 7th grade at 5'11", 6'. And by the summer going into 8th grade, I was 6'5". By the start of high school, I was 6'6", and then hit another spurt to 6'9", by the end of my freshman year. As he grew inch by inch, he kept his guard skills intact while developing his big man game at the same time. And now we're seeing the fruits of this lethal combination, and I'm just in awe of his versatility and the things he can do on the court. I mean, he can hit you with hezis and pull up jays like AI. He can lead the break and throw dimes in transition. And he can go coast to coast and finish plays like a one-man fast break. This kid is amazing and is putting up insane stat lines in his rookie year, but I'm pretty sure that he wouldn't be this effective if he didn't have that insane growth spurt. Anyway guys, just like Banqueiro, this year's number 2 overall pick, Chet Holgrim, also had a crazy growth spurt back when he was in high school. Standing only 6'2 in 8th grade, Holgrim grew to 6'10 over the course of just a single year. Sheesh. And if you want to be more specific about it, Chet incredibly grew an inch every six weeks. Not surprisingly, according to his high school coach Lance Johnson, they knew he was going to be a special player when he almost got to 7 feet. When he became 6'10, he literally was a one-man defensive show. Offensives wouldn't even go inside. We could switch ball screens with him, feel really comfortable that he could guard a guard. If they got by him, he could just block shots from behind. He could give them enough space where he's 6 feet away and still block their jump shot. Aside from his coach, Holgrim himself also knew that he'd dominate the competition once he grew those extra inches. After I hit my growth spurt, I grew into my body and learned how to move my body. That's when I started to pass people up, even older kids. Though he still has some work to do in the weight room, Chet is surprisingly mobile with his polished footwork and he moves smoothly for a guy who currently stands heads and shoulders above 99% of the NBA. I mean, how many unicorns can you see handle the ball like this? Now aside from these big men, there were also some other players that had significant growth spurts that changed them from Frodo Baggins into decent sized NBA guards. And one of them is this little guy right here. Just to be clear guys, this is not photoshopped or edited for clickbait purposes at all. This right here is an actual photo of CJ McCollum taken when he was playing as a freshman in high school, standing at just 5 foot 2 inches tall. I mean, for the sake of comparison, McCollum at this point in time was shorter than Spud Webb, Earl Boykins, and uh, he was so small and scrawny that even Muggsy Bogues, who currently holds the record for being the shortest player in NBA history, was actually taller than him at 5 foot 3. Though he considerably lacked in size, McCollum relied on his athleticism and outside shooting to compete against the giants around him. But ultimately, he knew that skills alone wouldn't get him to the next level if he didn't get taller. Uh, you just gotta really work on your game, really tighten up, you know, your handle, be able to create space and pray for a growth spurt. Like, I was like, I can't make it 5'2", but if I have the skills that I have at 5'2", and I can translate that to 6'6", 6'2", 6'3", whatever the case may be, then nobody will be able to check me. Well, after his freshman year, the basketball gods finally heard him and added some inches to his body. From 5 foot 2, CJ grew to 5 foot 6 as a sophomore. Then one year later, he grew another 4 inches, and in his fourth year, he was already listed as 6 foot 2 before adding another inch just before entering college. If you sum it all up, McCollum grew a total of 14 inches in the span of four years. His height journey is crazy. Who would have thought that that kid in that photo would eventually become one of the elite scoring guards in today's NBA? Anyway, guys, since we talked about guards, Jeremy Lin was also one of the smallest guys who had a curious case of growth spurts. I mean, both his parents stood at 5 foot 6 and none of his family members reached beyond 6 feet. But for some weird reason, Lin had a 30 centimeter growth spurt from 5 foot 3 as a freshman to 6 foot 3 by the end of high school. With this in mind, lots of theories were being thrown around on how he got such an insane growth spurt. I mean, some people were saying that it was just pure luck, while others were saying that his ancestors were perhaps tall and he maybe got those extra inches from them. But among the hundreds of theories that had been floated around, the most convincing theory for me that was he just ate the in order to grow taller. It was said that Lin's father asked some help from a nutritionist to help Jeremy plant his daily meals to get necessary nutrients to make him stronger and eventually taller. According to what I found, his regular diet would consist of a combination of carbs, a lot of protein and even more veggies. Well, regardless of if this was true or not, his growth spurt journey has got to be one of the most peculiar ones. And similar to Lin's story, the Argentinian slasher Manu Ginobili also dealt with some height issues back when he was just 15 years old. At this point in time, he stood just at around 5 foot 5 and was way shorter than his towering elder brothers. Manu eventually got concerned about his height and although he was already developing his skills on the court, he knew that size really does matter if he wanted to make it in the big leagues. According to his father, Jorge, Manu became obsessed on how to become taller since then. When he was young, Manu would measure his height on the kitchen door every single day. Those marks are still there today. He would also get upset and worried and would close himself in his room because he would never reach the height of his elder brothers. Fortunately, his prayers were answered when he grew to about 6 foot 6 two years later at the age of 17. And from then on, his basketball career took off and he never looked back. Alright guys, we're now down to the last guy on this list and to close this one out, we have Anthony Davis. The young and athletic AD that we see in today's NBA is definitely far from the kid he was back in high school. You see, AD started out as a 6 foot 2, 175 pound guard back when he was a sophomore. But after that, his growth spurt hit him hard and he began to grow both in height and weight. I mean, two years later he became 6 foot 7 and two more years after that, he'd grown 3 inches to end up with a massive 6 foot 10 frame in his senior year. People around him were astonished by the quick phase of his growth, especially his mom who at first had a hard time grasping what just happened. His feet were dangling off the bed. That really made it noticeable. His sleeves on his shirt began to be short and the pant legs. He was like, mom, I need new school pants. I'm like, well, I just bought those.