So, this whole Brian Skinner height thing. It all kicked off in a pretty weird way, as these things often do for me. I was actually trying to fix a leaky faucet in the guest bathroom, a job I’d been putting off for weeks. You know how it is. Finally got the wrench out, spread some old towels, and then my phone buzzed. It was my brother-in-law, Dave. Now, Dave’s a good guy, but he gets these obsessions.
He was watching some throwback college basketball game, one of those grainy broadcasts from the 90s. And Brian Skinner was playing. Dave, he’s convinced Skinner was way shorter than he looked on TV. Sent me a text: “No way Skinner was the 6’10” they sometimes said. Look at him next to [some other player]. Max 6’8″!” And then, of course, the challenge: “Bet you can’t find a definitive answer, old man.” He knows I can’t resist a pointless internet deep dive, especially when I’m supposed to be doing chores.
So, faucet forgotten, I wiped my greasy hands and fired up my laptop. The thing takes ages to boot these days, probably full of digital dust. First thing, I just typed “Brian Skinner height” into the search bar. Easy, right? Wrong. It’s never easy.
What I got was a complete mess. A real digital wild west. One site, looked like it was designed in 1998, said 6’9″. Another, full of pop-up ads, claimed 6’10”. Then you get into the forums. Oh, the forums. People arguing passionately, citing “sources” that were probably just some other guy’s guess on a different forum. It’s like that with everything online now. Everyone’s shouting, nobody’s really checking facts. Just a swamp of opinions. You try to find one simple piece of information, and you end up needing a machete to cut through the junk.
I started getting a bit annoyed, honestly. It’s just a height, for crying out loud! How hard can it be? I specifically started looking for NBA draft records, official college athletic pages, stuff that might have a bit more credibility than “*”. This took a while. Clicking, scrolling, closing annoying cookie banners. My coffee went cold. The faucet was probably still dripping. But I was committed now. Dave wasn’t going to win this one.
So, what did I actually nail down after all that digging?
After sifting through what felt like half the internet, and ignoring at least three calls from Dave asking if I’d given up yet, a consensus started to emerge from the more reputable sources. The places that actually look like they employ someone to, you know, verify things.
Most official listings, like those from his NBA career and his college stats, consistently put Brian Skinner at 6 feet 9 inches. That’s 2.06 meters for those of you across the pond. Yeah, there were a few outliers, an occasional 6’10” sighting, but 6’9″ was the number that kept showing up on the solid sites. Good enough for me.
So, I texted Dave back: “6’9″. Official. Pay up.” Haven’t heard back yet, probably sulking. And now I guess I should probably go fix that faucet. Or maybe look up why it’s so hard to find a decent plumber these days. That’s a whole other investigation, though.
