If you’re short, you know the pain of looking up to others. It’s an inconvenience, but a reality that’s difficult to change. It is especially bad when you are in high school watching as others hit their growth spurts.
If you were one of those people, Boston Celtics guard Isaiah Thomas felt your pain. His family has always been vertically challenged and Thomas knew that he probably wasn’t going to be very tall. He tried everything he could, at one point deciding to hang upside down to accelerate the growth spurt.
Here is the Sports Illustrated excerpt where Thomas’s mother explains his thought process.
“Thomas’s father is 5’ 6″. His grandfather was 5’ 6”. Upon reaching adolescence and still awaiting a growth spurt, Thomas tried to accelerate the process.
“In my basement, he had one machine that was supposed to stretch him out and another machine so he could hang upside down,” says Thomas’s mother, Tina Baldtrip (5’ 7″). Thomas would tell everyone that he was going to be 6 feet someday, but he is 27 years old and that day is not coming.”
This reminds me of a guy from my high school who did something similar. He not only hung upside down, he supposedly took HGH as well to accelerate the process. While being 6-foot-4 sounds nice, going to such lengths seems unnecessary.
Averaging 29.9 points per game on the season and 6.4 assists per game, Thomas doesn’t need to worry about his height anymore.He is taking on NBA players and winning despite his size. Thomas made his first NBA All-Star Game this season, leading a Celtics team which currently has the second-best record in the Eastern Conference.
That’s one hell of a role model.
