I've seen this many times from multiple reputable sources that McHale had a monstrous wingspan of 8ft but even though he was long I've seen multiple pictures that don't support him having a wingspan of 8ft.
Next to Parish Here he is next to Parish (who apparently visibly has a similar wingspan, probably not 8 ft though), note how far his finger tips end relative to his knees.
Here is a picture of Kawhi, who notoriously has a long wingspan and look how much closer his fingertip end up next to his knees.
A better example is Anthony Davis who is a similar height with a 7ft6 wingspan, and even his arms look longer.
Finally another picture of Kevin McHale.
I understand they have different body proportions from torso/leg length and the tucked in shirt/high shorts make McHale's legs look even longer. But no one is convincing me McHale has a legit 8 ft wingspan, based purely off these pics I remain unconvinced, what do you guys think?
Edit: Yes I am aware chest size also affects wingspan, you can look at standing reach aswell but there's less data/obvious pictures about that. Part of the reason I added the AD comparison because he has quite a broad upper torso.
by tradtrad100
26 Comments
I have personally hugged Kevin McHale, and he had enough arm to hug me twice at the same time
I need him to get a picture with Wemby
You understand that people have different torso and femur lengths right?
Players used to embellish and manipulate their physical traits all the time back then, hell even some still do it as recently as just a few years ago.
KD was listed at and told everyone he was 6’9 for years out of fear he’d be used more like a center rather than a scoring wing. Then the viral pic of him standing directly next to Demarcus Cousins at a 2016 team USA practice came out and it became a lot harder to deny the fact that he was at the very least 6’11.
Same thing with Kevin Love. Love’s height was listed at 6’10 in his college and early NBA days because he wanted to be a stretch rebounding PF/C and not a SF. When in reality his height is 6’8.
Manipulating these things are much much harder to do nowadays and on top of it just plain useless because there isn’t the positional and height biases in the league anymore like there was a decade or so ago. A player who is 6’4 can be a PF, a player who is 6’10 can be a PG, it doesn’t matter what your height or physical traits are.
im gonna go ahead and say no human has ever had a +14 inch wingspan
unless they dont have legs
Analyzing photos to determine relative sizes is always peak Reddit.
Kevin McHale had some loss ass arms. Really long. Whether his wingspan was really 8 feet or not, who knows. But it was freakish.
>Next to Parish
Someone else used that same picture to point out that McHale’s fingers extend further past his shorts so he has a longer wingspan than Parish
undisputed NBA stat for 40 years. peak reddit.
Before the internet people would just say whatever
googling “[player name] wingspan” will give you the wrong answer more often than the right one. unfortunately, a bunch of articles in recent years ran with that 8’0 number even though it’s very visibly not accurate.
The only player I can think of that was 6’9-6’10 in height with north of a 7’6 wingspan would be Bismack Biyombo (6’9, 7’6 or 7’7 wingspan depending on the source) and just by looking at the two you can tell McHale definitely doesn’t have 6 extra inches of wingspan on him.
McHale is definitely up there but it’s not quite 8’0 for sure. Wemby’s wingspan is 8’0
I doubt it was 8 feet but you cant really do much with this analysis. First off, in the first pic he’s ahead of Parish and his arms are bent. But more importantly, people’s knees, hips, torsos, etc. arent all the same proportion, so you cant really compare things like distance from the knee.
I don’t think he had a 8 ft wingspan either. Best guess is probably north of 7’6, 7’8 possibly? How his shoulders are built and arm joint inserted to them also play a role. I’m sure it helps his standing reach as well. Using those pictures is incomplete analysis – for example kawhi is just a smaller person. Look how big the ball is compared to his body. Parish is also another guy with freakish wingspan. Doesn’t really help your case to compare them.
McHale is Irish. He has shorter legs and a longer torso than any of those guys. He has broad enough shoulders that people called him Herman Munster.
Remember that wingspan is an end to end measurement, arms to the side across your body.
Don’t confuse it with arm length.
Whatever his actual wingspan was, it was long enough that he had no problem scoring in the post against any player of any height. And that wasn’t just because of clever footwork and fakes. That’s about all you need.
You’d have to take torso as a measurement into account too. If he has a longer torso his hands would naturally sit higher on the leg than a shorter torso. That said both Parrish and McHale look to have longer torsos.
Dude had super long arms and a broad chest, wide shoulders. IDK if he was all the way to 8ft but McHale is absolutely an all-time outlier freak. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpPJA59If40&t=51s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpPJA59If40&t=51s)
Wingspan includes the broadness of the players shoulders, not just the arm length. If Mchale had much broader shoulders his wingspan would be longer. A better measurement for basketball would be standing reach.
Obviously not
McHale was made in a lab.
Yeah I mean all those pictures you showed really kinda confirmed it?
McHale appears to be at least a couple steps ahead of Parish in that photo though tbf and Parish’s wingspan was 7’4”.
Most height and wingspan numbers was inflated back in those days. There was no technology, so it was easy to lie and get away with anything.
But McHale did have an outrageously large wingspan, compared to his height. He was 6’9, at best. But he had ALIEN arms.
Was it exactly 8 feet? Most likely not. But it was large enough that anyone could believe 8 feet
The wingspan stuff is another of the made of stuff from that era, including the standing 45inch vertical from you know who.
The fish was thiiiiiiiis big.
Breanna Stewart has a 7’1 wingspan
Question: Who has a longer wingspan, DLo or Zion?
Answer: Trick question. They have the same exact wingspan.
Look it up.
Wingspan is a funny thing. It has a lot to do with your torso width and the angle of your shoulders.
I believe McHale was eight or close to eight feet for wingspan.
He had very broad shoulders… plus that pic with parish… he is a few steps infront of parish.