Some of u are a little surprised to see players barefoot heights of this era - I think a lot of fans in general aren't immediately aware that list info isn't usually an actual measurement of how tall players actually are. And also a lot of fans might see list heights from back in Wilt's day and come under the impression Wilt was just your typical '00's era sized "7 footer" and that his competition must have been short (like 6-9 listed Bill Russell). But Wilt was actually a legitimate freak, and his competition was actually typical (modern) sized in stature minus the gym mass, they weren't short.
Bill Russell for example, may have been listed only 6-9 but he was 6-9 5/8ths w/o shoes and had a 7-4 wingspan. Today and ever since the NBA started really trying to become extremely popular (Sometime coming into the Bird and Magic era) players have been "listed" larger than life. In Wilt's day u typically weren't listed a size unless you were at
least that big.
Let's take a closer look at Bill Russell here, standing next to "7-0" Patrick Ewing to get an idea of this difference in how they started listing players from the old school era vs how they list players these days
There aren't many true 7 footers that play the game, there never has been, it's rare to be 7 feet tall I think statistically only like 30 people or so in the U.S. are actually 7 feet tall or taller. So for Wilt to be that big was special, and for him to be that big AND that athletic was just crazy. Just some food for thought
Oh here's big Bill with Yao