HOOPSANALYST
Gheorghe Muresan Today
by Harlan Schreiber (7/3/03)
With Pavel Podkolzine being all people will talk about until next year’s draft, it got me wondering what happened to the original giant, Gheorghe Muresan. Like Podkolzine, Muresan was a mystery from behind the former Iron Curtain that teams initially knew little about. Big Gheorghe was born in Triteni, Romania and grew to be 7’7. The growth was atypical considering that both of Muresan’s parents were less than six feet tall. Muresan did not play basketball from a young age but rather he took it up when it was obvious that he was as big as pretty much anyone on the planet. He played for a couple of years at Cluj University in Romania before going pro.
At age 22, Muresan signed on professionally with Pau Orthez in France for the 1992-93 season. He was an instant success in France, averaging 18.7 ppg and 10.3 rpg and leading the league in blocked shots. At this point, Muresan piqued the interests of NBA scouts. They did not know quite what to make of Muresan but they figured he was worth bringing to the NBA to see what he could do. The Bullets were curious and in 1993, they drafted Muresan with a second round pick.
Muresan’s first year in Washington was encouraging. He averaged 5.6 ppg and 3.6 rpg and, more importantly, he altered the complexion of the game when he came in. Even good centers like Patrick Ewing and Alonzo Mourning had to adjust to Muresan’s massive frame by taking outside jumpers and staying away from the paint. Muresan continued to improve over the next three years. He averaged double figures all three years and he peaked in 1995-96 at 14.5 ppg and 9.6 rpg and also winning the Most Improved Player Award.
After 1996-97, Muresan’s body began to break down. He missed all of the 1997-98 because of an ankle injury. He then missed all of the 1998-99 season, save for one game, recovering from back surgery to alleviate a compressed nerve in his spine that resulted from his gigantic frame. There were whispers that Muresan had contributed to the injuries by neglecting his conditioning and instead starring in a movie (the forgettable “My Giant” with Billy Crystal) over the summer of 1997. Such criticism was unfair as the problem was not conditioning but rather that Muresan’s body was unable to withstand the rigors of the long NBA season. It was also at this point that people started to realize the Muresan’s height was not a result of genetics but rather a pituitary problem called Acromegaly that made his body giant but much more susceptible to injury.
Muresan tried to come back to the NBA for 1999-00 season with the Nets. He played in 52 games and averaged 3.5 ppg and 2.3 rpg. It was clear that Muresan had lost much of the ability he had a few years earlier on the Bullets, he was extremely slow and could not really get up and down the court. To make matters worse, Muresan had knee surgery during the year, which slowed him down even more. Muresan was 28 years old at the time but this was the last regular season he would play in the NBA. Acromegaly had swollen Muresan’s joints and left him in a pre-arthritic condition.
He tried to comeback with the Utah Jazz and the Dallas Mavericks over the next summer but could not make either team. Muresan spent the 2000-01 back with Pau Orthez and he had a mediocre year, averaging 7.9 ppg and 3.1 rpg in the regular season before leaving the team with injuries during the Suproleague.
Muresan, on Pau Orthez next to Pavel Podkolzine
5'4 Shawnta Rogers
Muresan spent the next two years recovering from injuries (he had some undisclosed surgery believed to be on his pituitary gland). Finally, in November 2002, Muresan returned to basketball, playing for the Romanian National Team. Muresan played well in his first game back, scoring 24 points and grabbing 13 rebounds in a win over Austria. Muresan slowed after the nice start. He played five more games and averaged 4.6 points and 3.2 rebounds. In Spring 2003, Muresan announced that he would retire from basketball and moved back to New Jersey to live with his family. This seems like it is finally the end of the Muresan basketball saga.
Muresan is certainly an odd story. He was the type of guy that everyone rooted for because he was a physical curiosity and because his personality was light and good-natured. He put together a few good years but someone with his condition size really could not play basketball professionally much after the age of 30. The question of Muresan’s story is what management of other teams can learn from Muresan’s career and how they can apply it to their own big men who grew from disease and not naturally. Podkolzine is not the only such player. Turkish giant Sultan Kosen apparently has a more severe case of the same problem, he has grown to a reported 7’11(!).
Doctors say that Acromegaly can be treated surgically to alleviate swelling of bones and joints that result from the overactive glands. However, any such surgery can only be effective at a young age and it appears that while Podkolzine can treat his condition Muresan cannot. Whether these bigger players can avoid the long term health problems, with or without surgery, remains to be seen.
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