In basketball as in many sports, body composition, size, length, reach and weight can help coaches and analysts determine a player’s propensity to succeed. As such, each year at the NBA Draft Combine, incoming rookie hopefuls are measured in the following areas: body fat percentage, hand length, height (both with and without shoes), standing reach, weight and wingspan.
At the recent 2015 NBA Draft Combine in Chicago, 63 NBA hopefuls completed their anthropometric measurements. The median body fat percentage in the group was 7.44%, and Michael Qualls (Arkansas) recorded the lowest overall percentage at 4.00%. The player with the biggest hands was Robert Upshaw (Washington), whose hands are 10.0 inches long and 11.00 inches wide. The tallest player recorded at the combine was Frank Kaminsky (Wisconsin), who is 6 feet, 11.75 inches without shoes, and 7 feet, 0.75 inches tall with shoes. Robert Upshaw’s reach (9.50 inches) was the longest, however, Rakeem Christmas (Syracuse) had the biggest wingspan (7 feet, 5.25 inches).