The Eight Foot Two Schlub

[Nate tha\\\' Great]

I think you guys are neglecting the importance of conditioning and training as opposed to the more abstract concept of athletic aptitude.

Playing even 25-30 minutes a game for 82 games per season in the NBA is going to be quite difficult for our schlub at first. Even Manute Bol spent a huge fraction of his adult life in a gym.

I think the schlub would be a bench player if he joined the NBA tomorrow. Maybe he could be a fairly valuable player off the bench. But to actualize his value, he's going to need an offense built around him, and it's asking a lot to rearrange your offense for a guy that's probably limited to 15-20 minutes a game initially until improves his fitness.

By 2-3 years into the experiment, he could be anywhere from about Mark Eaton to Wilt Chamberlain depending on his coaching and work ethic.

As an aside, if the schlub were 20 years old instead of 30, he'd be an odds-on favorite to be one of the greatest players in NBA history. Maybe the greatest player. But at 30, there's a decent chance that the adjustment/learning curve doesn't come around quickly enough to overcome his inherent physical decline.