The NBA was taken over by a three-point revolution in the last decade, forever changing how basketball is played. The stylistic shift hasn’t erased the importance of tall forwards and centers, however. It has forced them to adapt their games so that just about every player on the court can spread the floor and avoid clogging the lane.
That much is clear in 2025–26, as Victor Wembanyama has ascended into true superstar status. Wemby has the Spurs in the NBA Finals against the Knicks, beating the defending champion Thunder in the Western Conference final in large part because of his ability to dominate the paint on defense and fill it up from all over the floor on offense.
At a listed 7'4" (though some are convinced he is up to three inches taller), Wembanyama is the league’s tallest player, but he’s just one of the 7-plus footers who are tailor-made for the modern game.
Tallest NBA Players in 2025–26
According to the NBA’s official listings, there are 42 players in the league who are at least 7-feet tall on a 2025–26 roster.
Wembanyama is the league’s tallest man. The No. 1 pick in the 2023 draft, he entered the NBA as a phenom, not for his height alone but for the grace with which he can handles the ball, shoots and maneuvers up and down the court. Wembanyama was an MVP finalist this year and, at 22 years old, has a real argument as the best player in the world already.
Two players are listed as one-inch shorter than Wemby at 7'3": Grizzlies center Zach Edey and Timberwolves two-way center Rocco Zikarsky. Edey, a Purdue product, was a dominant college basketball player and a first-round seleciton in 2024, but was limited to 11 games in ‘25–26 due to injuries.
Zikarsky, a native of Australia and former player in the country’s NBL, was a second-round pick in 2025, but spent most of his time this year with Minnesota’s G League affiliate the Iowa Wolves, for whom he averaged 15.8 points and 2.8 blocks per game.
In total, 10 NBA players eclipsed the 7-foot mark in 2025–26. Many of them are stars in the league. Here’s the full list:
| Player | Team | Height |
|---|---|---|
| Victor Wembanyama | Spurs | 7'4" |
| Zach Edey | Grizzlies | 7'3" |
| Rocco Zikarsky | Timberwolves | 7'3" |
| Donovan Clingan | Trail Blazers | 7'2" |
| Kristaps Porzingis | Warriors | 7'2" |
| Walker Kessler | Jazz | 7’2” |
| Rudy Gobert | Timberwolves | 7'1" |
| Chet Holmgren | Thunder | 7'1" |
| Dereck Lively II | Mavericks | 7'1" |
| Brook Lopez | Clippers | 7'1" |
The tallest players in NBA history
Unless Wembanyama is in fact secretly 7'7", he is just a bit short of being the tallest NBA player of all time.
That honor goes to Manute Bol and Gheorghe Mureșan, each of whom was listed at 7'7".
Bol became a national story with the Bridgeport Purple Knights in 1985, when he averaged 22.5 points, 13.5 rebounds and 7.1 blocks and led the tiny Connecticut school to the NCAA Division II men’s tournament in his lone season of college basketball.
A native of South Sudan, Bol continued to be a fan favorite in the NBA. Drafted in the second round by the Washington Bullets in 1985, Bol averaged a league-leading 5.0 blocks in the 1985–86 campaign to finish second in Defensive Player of the Year voting as a rookie. His career mark of 3.3 blocks per game ranks second all time behind only Utah Jazz legend Mark Eaton (3.5).
Bol’s son, Bol Bol, was a second-round pick out of Oregon in 2019 and became one of the NBA’s tallest players at 7'3". He last played in the NBA in 2024–25 for the Suns, moving on to the Philippine Basketball Association’s TNT Tropang 5G last season.
Mureșan was just as much a curiosity for basketball fans. He wasn’t as marauding of a defensive presence as Bol, but the Romanian had a very soft touch around the rim for an extremely large big man.
The No. 30 pick in 1993, Mureșan developed into a capable scorer for Washington, raising his scoring average from 5.6 points as a rookie to 10.0 points in his second season. In 1995–96, he scored a career-best 14.5 points per game and shot a league-leading 58.5% to earn the NBA’s Most Improved Player award.
The charismatic Mureșan dabbled in acting, and in 1998, he made his feature film debut in My Giant with comedian Billy Crystal.
Yao Ming is the tallest player to be elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. The 2002 No. 1 NBA draft pick by the Houston Rockets, the 7'6" Yao won Rookie of the Year, made the All-Star team in all eight of his NBA seasons and nearly averaged a double-double with career marks of 19.0 points and 9.2 rebounds.
Below are the nine players listed at 7'5" or taller in NBA history. The marker puts Wemby tied for 10th among the league’s all-time tallest players.
| Player | Team(s) | Years Active | Height |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manute Bol | Bullets, Warriors, 76ers, Heat | 1985–86 to 1994–95Tallest players in the 2026 NBA draft class | 7'7" |
| Gheorghe Mureșan | Bullets, Nets | 1993–94 to ‘99–2000 | 7'7" |
| Shawn Bradley | 76ers, Nets, Mavericks | 1993–94 to 2004–05 | 7'6" |
| Tacko Fall | Celtics, Cavaliers | 2019–20 to ‘21–22 | 7'6" |
| Yao Ming | Rockets | 2002–03 to 2010–11 | 7'6" |
| Sim Bhullar | Kings | 2014–15 | 7'5" |
| Chuck Nevitt | Rockets, Lakers, Pistons, Bulls, Spurs | 1982–83 to 1993–94 | 7'5" |
| Pavel Podkolzin | Mavericks | 2004–05 to ‘05–06 | 7'5" |
| Slavko Vranes | Trail Blazers | 2003–04 | 7'5" |
Tallest players in the 2026 NBA draft class
With the draft just weeks away, there aren’t a ton of 7-footers set to join the league. Only two measured at the NBA draft combine at 7-feet or taller: Michigan’s Aday Mara and Italy’s Luigi Suigo. They’re joined by a number of players at 6'11". There could be draftees over 7-feet who did not attend the combine as well, of course.
Here are the five tallest rookies-to-be measured at the combine:
| Player | College | Height |
|---|---|---|
| Aday Mara | Michigan | 7'3” |
| Luigi Suigo | N/A (Italy) | 7'2" |
| Malachi Moreno | Kentucky | 6'11" |
| Henri Veesaar | North Carolina | 6'11" |
| Ugonna Onyenso | Virginia | 6'11" |
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