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.

Early life

Mureșan was born in Tritenii de Jos,

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 h ...

disorder called

acromegaly Acromegaly is a disorder that results from excess growth hormone (GH) after the growth plates have closed. The initial symptom is typically enlargement of the hands and feet. There may also be an enlargement of the forehead, jaw, and nose. Othe ...

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 The French League (: "French League for purging, mutual aid and European collaboration") was a collaborationist Wartime collaboration is cooperation with the enemy against one's country of citizenship in wartime, and in the words of historian G ...

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, w ...

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 The 1993 NBA draft took place on June 30, 1993, at The Palace of Auburn Hills in Auburn Hills, Michigan. The draft had some talented players at the top, but injuries and personal problems hurt many of them. Chris Webber, Penny Hardaway, Allan Hou ...

. 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 of ...

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 Sun Mingming (, born August 23, 1983) is a Chinese former professional basketball player. He is the tallest professional basketball player in the world and was measured by the Guinness World Records as 2.36m tall and weighing 168kg. Early life ...

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 Washi ...

. 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's ...

'' 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 ve ...

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 music, hip hop in Middle America (United Sta ...

'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 ...

." 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, 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. Since the 2016–2017 season, his oldest son, George, has played for the

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private research university in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll in 1789 as Georgetown College, the university has grown to comprise eleven undergraduate and graduate ...

Hoyas as a

walk-on Walk On may refer to: Music * ''Walk On'', a 1994 album by Boston, and its title song Albums * ''Walk On'' (Boston album), 1994 * ''Walk On'' (John Hiatt album), 1995 * ''Walk On'' (Randy Johnston album), 1992 *''Walk On'', a 2007 album by ...

forward. 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;",

, 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;",

, 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;",

, 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 Delawa ...

, 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;",

, 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

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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 ...

, style="text-align:left;",

, 3 , , 3 , , 23.3 , , .444 , , – , , .875 , , 6.0 , , .0 , , .0 , , 1.3 , , 5.0

References

External links

* (archived from 2002)
Gheorghe Muresan profile at InterBasket
*
Georghe Muresan Trading Cards/Autographs Page

NBA.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