From Steve Schrader in the Detroit Free Press
A lot has been made about [Tayshaun] Prince’s wingspan during his two-year career — and now about how it helped him block Miller’s shot. (His hustle, speed and leaping ability certainly helped more, of course.)
Think back to Leonardo da Vinci’s famous drawing of Vitruvius’ theory. (That’s the naked guy standing with his arms spread wide.) Vitruvius, an architect and engineer under Julius Caesar, created his measurements of the human body. (Four fingers make one palm, four palms make one foot, six palms make one cubit, etc.)
Vitruvius declared that the length of a man’s outspread arms was equal to his height.
This is where Prince comes in. He is 6-feet-9, or 81 inches. But from fingertip to fingertip he supposedly is 86 inches. That’s the wingspan you’d expect of someone 7-feet-2.
Prince isn’t some freak of nature, but, obviously, five extra inches of reach is a huge advantage in basketball.
Don’t trust Vitruvius? We didn’t around the Free Press. So we grabbed a tape measure and, sure enough, everyone’s wingspan was within 1-3 inches of his height.
Hey Dad, you always told me that wingspan equalled height when I was a kid. I didn’t know you knew Da Vinci.
I knew that before I read the Davince Code. I read it twice as a mater of fact. I enjoyed it the second time, perhaps more than the first.
One advantage of growing old, you can read books the second time. Some of them more than twice.