Finding the next great big man is the source of much fascination within the game of basketball.
The last true 7-footer to attend high school in the United States and go on to earn All-NBA first team honors was Shaquille O'Neal in 2006. Before "The Big Aristotle" there was David Robinson, Patrick Ewing and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Lew Alcindor) going back 30 years.
Tyson Chandler has had a nice run in the league. Roy Hibbert and Brook Lopez are all-star-caliber performers. But over the last decade the brightest contenders to become the next big thing have come up short of expectations.
Sophomore Zach Brown of Miami Beach (Fla.) is among the most promising 7-footers in high school basketball.
Photo by Jim Redman
Andrew Bynum, Spencer Hawes, Kosta Koufos, Meyers Leonard, Byron Mullens, Greg Oden and Robert Swift all entered the NBA with fanfare, but none have achieved elite status.
So here we are in 2015, clearly overdue for the next great 7-footer.
Is he out there?
We put our data to work to try and identify the potential candidates.
Over 15,000 high school basketball teams have submitted rosters to MaxPreps this winter, producing a total of 185,421 roster entries for boys basketball athletes.
After weeding out the data entry errors and obvious embellishments (and not critically nitpicking the 6-foot-10 ½ and 6-11 players listed at 7-0), we've identified over 40 players at 7-feet or taller playing high school basketball in the United States.
Nearly a quarter are foreign-born, coming from places like Australia, Senegal, South Sudan and Turkey.
Photo by Jann Hendry/Graphic by Ryan Escobar
