Despite Dydek’s prowess in Europe, American scouts were lukewarm before she arrived in the United States in 1998 for a predraft camp. There was a reason: because of a clerical error, her height was listed as 6-6 in the advance materials they had been given.
Then Dydek walked through the door. The scouts scrambled.
May 27, 2011
Margo Dydek, the tallest WNBA female basketball player ever, has died of a heart attack at the age of 37.
She was 7'2" tall.
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53 comments:
Did she have Marfan's Syndrome?
I give up. What is the WNBA?
Size matters, even in the WNBA.
I give up. What is the WNBA?
Its the Wintertime New Baseball Academy.. dont quote me.. I think they meet in secret.
Size matters, even in the WNBA.
You can't coach height, eIther, in the WNBA.
From 7'2 to 6'6?
Let me guess.. somebody did a meters conversion and they got it wrong.
Women's sports, contrary to the feminists, just don't draw.
Big Mike said...
Did she have Marfan's Syndrome?
Prolly
WNBA..
Wisconsin Non Builders Association.
Its a union thing.
"I give up. What is the WNBA?"
You must not play for the other team (Womens League). NTTAWWT. I usually watch the WNBC, when the Short, slow man's league is finished playing.
Women's sports, contrary to the feminists, just don't draw.
So you have never seen beach volleyball. Or the brasilian or italian, especially Mauricia Cacciatore, indoor volleyball team. Or Mia Hamm . Or Brandi Chastaing taking off her shirt after score the winning goal for team USA in the World Cup. Or Jennie Finch. or Isimbayeva. or Florence Griffith-Joyner winning three gold medal and one silver in a distnce she never run before and still almost defeating the soviets.
Sherry Miller was as good as Reggie
They don't draw like men's sports.
Even bikini volleyball.
Nothing draws like NASCAR.
Women's sports, contrary to the feminists, just don't draw.
I like women's tennis. I thought Martina Hingis and Jenifer Capriati and Ana Kounikova.. wait.. are we talking about women posing in glossy magazines or what are we talking about ;)
She sounds outlandish; did she know any little Dutch boys?
Sad that their baby died also.
CL, knowing a little Dutch boy is almost a requirement to play in the WNBA.
Here's a question: If men and women are equal how come the Women only have to play 3 sets and the men five.
Tennis sexism at work.
The article offers: " Dydek, who could dunk handily in warm-ups, did not do so in games."
Like most people, I don't know anything about her or the WNBA, so tell me WHY god dammit!
I mean, it's not like you are teasing me into reading your reporting up at eleven, so educate me, please. The "Why" is the most intriguing of the W's, so could you include that next time.
@bagoh20 -
There's an unwritten but universally followed rule in the WNBA that prohibits dunking during games.
Peter
Very sad, and a child lost prematurely also. Her family must be in excruciating pain right now, even though they must have objectively known her life expectancy would be well below average.
Heck, it's hard enough for many to even give their chronological age.
Most WNBA players dislike Slamming or dunking the ball through the hole in the net - instead they prefer to softly bank, almost caress, the shot through the hole in the net.
Its all a matter of taste, like snails vs. oysters.
Thanks Peter. Now I know, but you should get the byline.
"Most WNBA players dislike Slamming or dunking the ball through the hole in the net - instead they prefer to softly bank, almost caress, the shot through the hole in the net."
Are we still talking about basketball, because this is making me feel funny inside.
What's the difference between a strike in bowling and a WNBA basketball game?
Absolutely nothing. When the ball arrives, the pins go flying helter-skelter and the women go flying into each other and they all fall to the floor. I've seen (and played in) better pick-up games at my local playground. WNBA basketball blends comedic clumsiness with a total lack of elegance or athleticism. Anyone who has ever seen Clyde "The Glide" Drexler going to the basket knows precisely what I mean by elegance.
"Heck, it's hard enough for many to even give their chronological age."
OK, so I am talking to myself about age now, ha ha, but follow along, and then help me with your own insights.
Why is it that little kids round their age UP? And you KNOW they do, because it's so sweet when the second kid call's the first kid a liar as he tries to make his pinky just a half of one so he can show you that his friend isn't four. He's just three fingers and one half a pinky! TOO CUTE!
On the other hand, it's also true that, after a certain age...to be VERY personally determined, no one...not a single person, should ever ask you how old you are, especially if you are a woman. It's our "Facts about Others" phase, perhaps? Who knows.
Then we go on to those who live THAT long, it even surprises them! lol This very special group...and they are!...can't WAIT to tell you how old they are. Not sure why, exactly? Maybe so you can tell them they look good for their age? Maybe because they know something you don't? Or they really ARE lucky to be here given the life they lived? Or perhaps a LOOK AT ME!! I came from short genes, both parents died young, yet I'm still standing! This group rounds UP like the little kids, and are they not also just too darned cute for words?
So why am I thinking all this as an obviously vibrant young mother and wife just died?
Because I wonder why we don't all have a "Life Expectancy Age"... from birth, instead of a "chronological age"... from birth.
My condolences to her husband, two sons, and other relatives on their loss.
So, tell me... all in all, exactly how tall was Margo Dydek before she died?
The poll estimating that 28 percent of Americans are gay must have been taken among WNBA fans. Its no secret that the WNBA has a large percentage of lesbian players and fans.
The perception was so strong that the league made Helen Darling its "public face." She was a single mother of three whose boyfriend walked out on her shortly after she gave birth, but that was seen as a positive because she was straight.
Don't believe me? Just google Helen Darling and the ongoing dispute between the WNBA, the New York Liberty team, and the "Lesbians for Liberty" fan group.
About Margo, by Margalit. This is a pretty crappy, escalated-obit article. The writer substituted clever for insight. The most striking giveaway is the choice of the word "providentially."
Malgorzata Dydek, RIP (along with the child with whom you were pregnant at the time). I wish the best for your surviving children and family.
Jesus. I guess that now in addition to having to subscribe to every other damn thing these days at Althouse, we have to prefer short women and if not make fun of very tall ones, at least make light of their deaths, because... because...well, wtf, because why?
wv: caligifi
Caligula plus goofy! And, no, I don't think that's funny.
Essentially, this is the story (right?):
A girl was born. Genetically, she was biologically destined to be very tall. She did in fact grow to be tall, and then she played women's basketball. (Freak!--on both counts.)
Then, she died young, while pregnant with her third child who also died, leaving two other kids behind. Let's joke about her height and that she played women's basketball.
# # #
wv: misses
How f***in' perfect is that?
While we do not know all of the facts (therefore the following is just pure conjecture, leaving open all that which pure conjecture deserves to have left open): Did it occur to any of you that perhaps that medically induced coma had something to do with trying to save the child? Who ALSO didn't survive, as that bullshit, badly elevated obit at least noted?
Yet you mock, laugh and make all your little ditty cheap-shot points about--what, women's basketball? Tall women? What?
There's a word we're not allowed to use here anymore. But if we were, I'd say it.
Also dead yesterday, 100,000 other people, if it's an average day in the world.
They write news stories for entertainment value.
You may refuse to go along with the fiction. ("Oh no! Not a tall woman! The tragedy! plus a dead baby!" Learn to spot entertainment.)
The media are being mocked and its selection claiming importance.
Tragic story--RIP Ms Dydek and child
Sometimes these stories simply do not merit snark and smartass comments
Shame on those who feel compelled to be assholes
Reader: thank you for a decent display of humanity
our society has grown excessively coarse. You are a an exception.
A society might want to keep track of what's an exploitative news story.
And thank you rh.
Sometimes these stories simply do not merit snark and smartass comments
I.. I could see if we were talking about a regular commenter here or someone Althouse knew.. but no, this about someone I never even saw play. Someone who's survivors are very unlikely to read this.
'Who's survivors'.. I'm not sure I'm writing that correctly.
There was an ad on the local Seattle NPR affiliate for the Seattle Storm (the Sonics were sold to OK City a few years back)..."tired of all the off and on court scandals...come to the WBNA."
Nah, I'd rather go down and watch a few pick-up games.
If you get to a tipping point of Lefties in your city, you too may well end up killing off men's sports, the poor refugees forced to make neutered indie band music..or become yoga instructors...
not pretty.
RIP big tall lady.
I haven't seen anything more on whether or not Dydek had any problems with her first two pregnancies that could have raised the risk factor and contributed to her fatal heart attack.
Pregnancy does put a strain on your body, and I would think the odds of complications after 35 on an over 7-foot body would be even greater. One of my co-workers (who's about two feet shorter than Margo) almost died during her third pregnancy, at age 35, and ended up having to undergo an emergency C-section to deliver the baby at 28 weeks (which thanks to modern technology survived, albeit with an emergency C-section scalpel scar on her back).
It's very sad and my condolences go out to Margo's family and friends for their dual losses.
When I was nine we went to St. Augustine, Florida and actually met the World's Tallest Woman at the time outside the Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum there. She sat on the front end of a late 60's/early 70's 2 door Cadillac "boat" like it was chair. Her feet were on the street and her legs were bent at a 90 degree (or close to it) angle. She was tall. Of course, I was nine and probably only four feet tall then, but still.
they know how to draw,
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/sports-sentinel-sports-now/2011/05/26/wtas-new-campaign-shows-why-tennis-no-1-womens-sport/
http://www.abc.es/20110527/deportes-tenis/abci-video-strong-beautiful-sexy-201105271909.html
I have actually seen her play. She was pretty good. Sort of like Tom McMillian.
May God have mercy on her soul and that of her unborn child and our prayers for her family.
Also dead yesterday, 100,000 other people, if it's an average day in the world.
I could see if we were talking about a regular commenter here or someone Althouse knew.. but no, this about someone I never even saw play. Someone who's survivors are very unlikely to read this.
Anything can be said to rationalize callousness.
No one is asking you to go into paroxysms of grief or to fake sympathy. But this is something you'd have to realize on your own - that making "clever" comments (not that any of these comments about the WNBA or the deceased are particularly clever or original) can just be cheap and callous. Accept it for what it is at least, and don't try to pretend that your comments serve a greater good of pointing out exploitative news stories or that the deceased's remaining family members will be "unlikely" to read your words.
A society might want to keep track of what's an exploitative news story.
Yes, RH, and that's exactly what I did (and I even have a bit of history doing that).
The fact that I ALSO did something else speaks to an ability to multi-task (and that things often enough don't exist in a vacuum: Instead, they intertwine).
And then they spawn--again, often enough.
Someone who's survivors are very unlikely to read this.
Is that so? It seems to me this assumes facts not in evidence. It's a search engine world, and Althouse--after all--is neither a teeny blog without traffic nor a blog to which various and diverse media outlets doesn't pay attention. There's a time when I'd've assumed the content of that italicized quote atop this comment. That time isn't now. It might be true, and then again it might not.
wv: psychce
Uh-huh.
outlets doesn't
Originally, I didn't type "outlets," for example. When I went back and did such, I didn't adjust elsewhere appropriately.
Thus, that abomination.
And so it goes.
"Sorry about your father."
You say that, even if you're not sorry, to somebody that you know; it's code for releasing him from his usual duties, be it some work assignment, or the social necessity to laugh at the same joke you've told every day for ten years.
He has no use for your sympathy but he does have a use for some slack in obligations.
That's why sympathy is offered.
If you don't know the guy, your sympathy does him no good; he has no use for it, literally and figuratively; it's you indulging yourself in soap opera at his expense.
The media (and politics, now that women can vote) work entirely off of people indulging themselves in soap opera for their own entertainment of themselves.
The media ALSO works off people's tendency to be callous, rhhardin. That's ALWAYS been true, every bit as much as the soap opera thing. (Hell, that was true even before the advent of mass media.) When in doubt, recreate small towns, with all their callousnesses and dramas: That's the fundamental thing.
Have you never noticed or thought about that? And it ain't confined to girls' issues either. It never was.
wv: extracks
Well, how special is that!
Honestly, Patrick Henry was a drama lover, for example. What's wrong with people, that they can't tell that just by the rhetoric, not to mention other things about him?
; )
He also, IMO, was pretty callous.
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