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NM Duke Fan
02-11-2016, 11:38 AM
An interesting article regarding the seemingly shorter than average life spans for basketball centers ...

"Taller individuals have more growth hormone, which accumulates more damage and dysfunction at a faster pace, and tend to have shorter life expectancies due to rapid aging. (Larry) Bird knows all about the problems with 7-footers and their health, and despite his wife's aversion to wanting to hear about it, reaching 75 years old isn't something Bird, 59 and now president of the Pacers, necessarily expects to accomplish."

I am guessing that cinder blocks do not have the same effect ?


http://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on-basketball/25479885/larry-bird-doesnt-believe-hell-make-it-to-the-age-of-75

Doria
02-11-2016, 12:28 PM
I am guessing that cinder blocks do not have the same effect ?


If the players are standing on them, this would seem to be clearly not the case! Cinder blocks would incur a much higher rate of serious injury due to falling combined with elderly bones, and a staggeringly higher rate of drowning!

(Seriously, though, interesting article. I'm curious as to whether this effect has a moving "floor" historically, as the general life expectancy has increased; no idea whether anyone's correlated these two things.)

kAzE
02-11-2016, 12:44 PM
I really don't think height is as much a factor in lifespan as just the amount of physical toll that a body takes playing years in a professional sport. NFL players obviously take the most pounding of the major sports in the US, and despite most of them being smaller in stature compared to NBA players, many football players pass away well before their time. In Larry Bird's case, he has an abnormal heart condition, which is rare, and should probably be considered a outlier. Height probably does play a role, but there are plenty of giants who live to a ripe old age. Bill Russell is still in remarkable condition at his advanced age, for example.

I'm no scientist, but my theory is that the body can only withstand a certain amount of physical duress before it's spent. Athletes just deplete this reserve faster than the average human. Basketball players endure one of the toughest grinds in any sport. The best players often play over 100 games a season, and playoff games probably count double as far as the wear and tear they cause to the body. Kudos to the spurs for managing player minutes and rest. They always have been and are still far ahead of the pack in this regard.

Henderson
02-11-2016, 01:33 PM
I am guessing that cinder blocks do not have the same effect ?

Obvious solution: Make cinder blocks bigger.

madscavenger
02-11-2016, 01:46 PM
Irrespective of athletics, look around you. Do you see a lot very tall seniors? Are comparative percentages of tall people at younger ages substantially different than what you observe amongst us geezers? While not an actuarial based demographic, i sure don't see it.

Listen to Quants
02-11-2016, 02:31 PM
Shorter generally seems to correlate with longer life.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1071721/

MCFinARL
02-11-2016, 02:42 PM
Irrespective of athletics, look around you. Do you see a lot very tall seniors? Are comparative percentages of tall people at younger ages substantially different than what you observe amongst us geezers? While not an actuarial based demographic, i sure don't see it.

Sure. Of course we do shrink as we age. :-)

Indoor66
02-11-2016, 03:58 PM
The taller they are the harder they fall - or something like that....:cool:

MChambers
02-11-2016, 03:59 PM
Is this why Coach K always goes small when the going gets tough?

TruBlu
02-11-2016, 04:03 PM
Another reason my wife will outlive me.

Dev11
02-11-2016, 06:03 PM
I've never met Jason Evans, but this does at least indicate that blazindw and I will be podcasting well past the long and storied coaching tenure of Tyler Thornton.

camion
02-11-2016, 06:31 PM
Irrespective of athletics, look around you. Do you see a lot very tall seniors? Are comparative percentages of tall people at younger ages substantially different than what you observe amongst us geezers? While not an actuarial based demographic, i sure don't see it.

From the web site, "Compared with northern Europeans, shorter southern Europeans had substantially lower death rates from CHD and all causes."

But, but, but... I thought the death rate was the same for all classes, one per person.




Okay, I'll leave now. :p