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" It isn&amp;#039;t shocking that NBA players lie about their height, but is surprising that some of these players sell themselves\u00A0short. Chris Herring of The Wall Street Journal wrote a fantastic article the other day about the phenomena of\u00A0pro basketball players providing misleading heights. Herring found instances of players both overestimating and underestimating their heights. The most interesting\u00A0culprit\u00A0was Oklahoma City Thunder superstar Kevin Durant. Although Durant is actually 6-11, he has\u00A0insisted to the basketball world that he&amp;#039;s 6-9, which is the height the NBA &amp;quot;officially&amp;quot; considers him to be. So why did Durant want to appear shorter?\u00A0He told Herring: I&amp;#039;ve always thought it was cool to say I&amp;#039;m a 6-9 small forward.\u00A0Really, that&amp;#039;s the prototypical size for a small forward. Anything taller than that, and they&amp;#039;ll start saying, &amp;#039;Ah, he&amp;#039;s a power forward.&amp;#039; Herring found that players like Durant undersell their height to avoid being pigeonholed into being associated with a\u00A0position they would rather avoid. However, outside the basketball world, these\u00A0players are less likely to cut off a few inches. &amp;quot;For me, when I&amp;#039;m talking to women, I&amp;#039;m 7 feet,&amp;quot; Durant\u00A0said. &amp;quot;In basketball circles, I&amp;#039;m 6-9.&amp;quot; Given that women tend to prefer taller men, Durant&amp;#039;s strategy is very\u00A0logical. But you&amp;#039;d think the incentive to exaggerate height would drop off for someone who is already 6-11. NBA players aren&amp;#039;t unique in exaggerating height. Many men fib about how tall they are, and there&amp;#039;s reason to believe that some\u00A0MLB pitchers and college basketball players do so too. And it&amp;#039;s not like NBA players can exaggerate their heights to the extent\u00A0that\u00A0pro wrestlers do. But Herring&amp;#039;s reporting is valuable because he\u00A0provides actual proof of\u00A0something that some\u00A0fans have suspected. [h/t: The Wall Street Journal] "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/sports/news/a44598/nba-height-durant/>