Gheorghe Dumitru Mureșan (; born 14 February 1971), also known as "Ghiță" (), is a Romanian former professional
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
player. At , he is tied with
Manute Bol
Manute Bol (; October 16, 1962 – June 19, 2010) was a Sudanese-American professional basketball player and political activist. Listed at or tall, Bol was tied with Gheorghe Mureșan as the tallest player in the history of the National Bas ...
for the
tallest player ever to have played in the
NBA
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...
.
Early life
Mureșan was born in
Tritenii de Jos
Tritenii de Jos ( hu, Alsódetrehem) is a commune in Cluj County, Transylvania, Romania. It is composed of six villages: Clapa (''Szentkirályi tanya''), Colonia (''Detrehemtelep''), Pădurenii (''Țigăreni'' until 1964, also formerly called ''C ...
,
Cluj County
Cluj County (; german: Kreis Klausenburg, hu, Kolozs megye) is a county ( județ) of Romania, in Transylvania. Its seat ( ro, Oraș reședință de județ) is Cluj-Napoca (german: Klausenburg).
Name
In Hungarian, it is known as ''Kolozs megye ...
, Romania. Although his parents were of normal height, he grew to his remarkable height due to a
pituitary gland
In vertebrate anatomy, the pituitary gland, or hypophysis, is an endocrine gland, about the size of a chickpea and weighing, on average, in humans. It is a protrusion off the bottom of the hypothalamus at the base of the brain. The ...
disorder called
acromegaly.
Professional career
CS Universitatea Cluj-Napoca (1991–1992)
Mureșan played competitive basketball at
Universitatea Cluj
Fotbal Club Universitatea Cluj (), commonly known as Universitatea Cluj or simply as U Cluj, is a Romanian professional association football, football club based in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, that competes in the Liga I, the first ...
, becoming national champion in 1992.
Élan Béarnais Pau-Orthez (1992–1993)
Mureșan played professionally in the
French league with
Pau-Orthez during the 1992–93 season and was an instant hit with fans, also managing to win the
French League Cup
The Coupe de la Ligue (), known outside France as the French League Cup, was a knockout cup competition in French football organized by the Ligue de Football Professionnel. The tournament was established in 1993 and, unlike the Coupe de France, ...
.
Washington Bullets / Wizards (1993–1998)
Mureșan was selected by the NBA's
Washington Bullets
The Washington Wizards are an American professional basketball team based in Washington, D.C. The Wizards compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The team plays ...
in the
1993 NBA draft.
He played in the NBA from 1993 to 2000 showing signs of a promising career that was derailed by injuries. His best season came in the 1995–1996 campaign, when he averaged 14.5 points per game.
Mureșan was named the
NBA's Most Improved Player for the
1995–96 season after averaging 14.5 points, 9.6 rebounds, 2.26 blocks per game while making a league-leading 58.4 percent of his field goals. He led in field goal percentage again the following season, with a 60.4% average. Overall, he holds career averages of 9.8 points, 6.4 rebounds, 0.5 assists, 1.48 blocks per game and a .573 field goal percentage.
New Jersey Nets (1999–2000)
Mureșan joined the
New Jersey Nets
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
for the final 31 games of his NBA career.
Return to Pau-Orthez (2000–2001)
After ending his NBA career, Mureșan had another stint at Pau-Orthez where he won the French league before returning to the United States with his family.
He normally wore number 77, in reference to his height.
On 11 March 2007, Mureșan played a game for the
Maryland Nighthawks
The Washington GreenHawks were a team of the Atlantic Coast Professional Basketball League (ACPBL) based in Washington, D.C. As the Maryland Nighthawks they were formerly part of the American Basketball Association (ABA) and a founding member o ...
as part of the tallest lineup in the history of basketball. This was the only basketball game Mureșan played where he was not the tallest person on the court, as
Sun Mingming is .
Other work
In 2004, Mureşan founded the Giant Basketball Academy (GBA), a program dedicated to teaching the proper fundamentals of basketball to boys and girls of all ages.
The Academy is located in
Ashburn, Virginia
Ashburn is a census-designated place (CDP) in Loudoun County, Virginia, United States. At the 2010 United States Census, its population was 43,511, up from 3,393 twenty years earlier. It is northwest of Washington, D.C., and part of the Washingt ...
.
Mureşan is also part of the Washington Wizards marketing and public relations team,
serving as an "ambassador" for the team.
Outside basketball, Mureșan has dabbled in acting, playing the title character in 1998 feature film ''
My Giant
''My Giant'' is a 1998 American comedy film directed by Michael Lehmann. The film stars Billy Crystal, who also produced and co-wrote the story for the film, and Romanian NBA player Gheorghe Mureșan in his only film appearance. David Seltzer' ...
'' starring comedian
Billy Crystal
William Edward Crystal (born March 14, 1948)On page 17 of his book ''700 Sundays'', Crystal displays his birth announcement, which gives his first two names as "William Edward", not "William Jacob" is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. ...
.
He appeared as a
ventriloquist
Ventriloquism, or ventriloquy, is a performance act of stagecraft in which a person (a ventriloquist) creates the illusion that their voice is coming from elsewhere, usually a puppeteered prop known as a "dummy". The act of ventriloquism is v ...
in the music video for
Eminem
Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem (; often stylized as EMINƎM), is an American rapper and record producer. He is credited with popularizing hip hop in middle America and is critically acclai ...
's breakthrough single "
My Name Is
"My Name Is" is a song by American rapper Eminem from his second album ''The Slim Shady LP'' (1999). It is also the opening song and lead single of the album. The song samples British singer Labi Siffre's 1975 track "I Got The..." as a bass and g ...
." He has appeared in commercials for
Snickers
Snickers is a chocolate bar made by the American company Mars, Incorporated, consisting of nougat topped with caramel and peanuts that is encased in milk chocolate. The annual global sales of Snickers was over $3 billion .
In the United ...
candy bars, and sports television network
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
. Most recently, Mureșan co-authored two young adult fitness and health books: ''The Boy's Fitness Guide'' and ''The Girl's Fitness Guide''.
In 2013, Mureșan participated in the first annual 3v3 UMTTR (You Matter) Basketball Tournament to increase awareness, prevention and research of
teen suicide
Youth suicide is when a young person, generally categorized as someone below the legal age of majority, deliberately ends their own life. Rates of youth suicide and attempted youth suicide in Western societies and other countries are high. Yo ...
, the leading cause of death among adults and children between the ages of 15 and 24.
Personal life
Mureșan and his wife Liliana and sons George and Victor have resided in
Franklin Lakes, New Jersey
Franklin Lakes is a borough in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 11,079, an increase of 489 (+4.6%) from the 2010 census count of 10,590, which in turn reflected a ...
, but they relocated to the suburbs of
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
Since the
2016–2017 season,
his oldest son, George, has played for the
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...
Hoyas as a
walk-on forward
Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward.
Forward may also refer to:
People
* Forward (surname)
Sports
* Forward (association football)
* Forward (basketball), including:
** Point forward
** Power forward (basketball)
** Sm ...
. His younger son Victor joined the Hoyas as a walk-on in the
2020–2021 season. Victor is 6'10" and 190lbs and has not played in the
2021–22 season.
Career statistics
NBA
Regular season
, -
, style="text-align:left;",
1993–94
, style="text-align:left;",
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
, 54 , , 2 , , 12.0 , , .545 , , .000 , , .676 , , 3.6 , , 0.3 , , 0.5 , , 0.9 , , 5.6
, -
, style="text-align:left;",
1994–95
, style="text-align:left;",
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
, 73 , , 58 , , 23.6 , , .560 , , .000 , , .709 , , 6.7 , , 0.5 , , 0.7 , , 1.7 , , 10.0
, -
, style="text-align:left;",
1995–96
, style="text-align:left;",
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
, 76 , , 76 , , 29.5 , , style="background:#cfecec;", .584* , , .000 , , .619 , , 9.6 , , 0.7 , , 0.7 , , 2.3 , , 14.5
, -
, style="text-align:left;",
1996–97
, style="text-align:left;",
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
, 73 , , 69 , , 25.3 , , style="background:#cfecec;", .604* , , .000 , , .618 , , 6.6 , , 0.4 , , 0.6 , , 1.3 , , 10.6
, -
, style="text-align:left;",
1998–99
, style="text-align:left;",
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
, 1 , , 0 , , 1.0 , , .000 , , .000 , , .000 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 0.0, , 0.0
, -
, style="text-align:left;",
1999–00
, style="text-align:left;",
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
, 30 , , 2 , , 8.9 , , .456 , , .000 , , .605 , , 2.3 , , 0.3 , , 0.0 , , 0.4 , , 3.5
, - class=sortbottom
, style="text-align:center;" colspan=2, Career
, 307 , , 207 , , 21.9 , , .573 , , .000 , , .644 , , 6.4 , , 0.5 , , 0.6 , , 1.5 , , 9.8
Playoffs
, -
, style="text-align:left;",
1997
File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...
, style="text-align:left;",
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
, 3 , , 3 , , 23.3 , , .444 , , – , , .875 , , 6.0 , , .0 , , .0 , , 1.3 , , 5.0
See also
*
*
List of tallest people
This is a list of the tallest people, verified by the Guinness World Records or other reliable sources.
According to the Guinness World Records, the tallest human in recorded history was Robert Wadlow of the United States (1918–1940), wh ...
References
External links
* (archived from 2002)
Gheorghe Muresan profile at InterBasket*
Georghe Muresan Trading Cards/Autographs PageNBA.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Muresan, Gheorghe
1971 births
Living people
CS Universitatea Cluj-Napoca (men's basketball) players
Centers (basketball)
Élan Béarnais players
New Jersey Nets players
People from Cluj County
People from Franklin Lakes, New Jersey
People with gigantism
Romanian emigrants to the United States
Romanian expatriate basketball people in France
Romanian expatriate basketball people in the United States
Romanian men's basketball players
Washington Bullets draft picks
Washington Bullets players