The Fascinating Real-Life Story Of Robert Bobroczkyi

Watch out Houston Rockets' Boban Marjanović, Memphis Grizzlies' Zach Edey, and San Antonio Spurs' Victor Wembanyama. Another aspiring basketball player is coming for their joint title of the NBA's tallest player, with each at 7 foot, 4 inches.

Yes, standing at a colossal 7 feet and 7 inches, Robert Bobroczkyi would surpass the current record by three inches should he make the leap from the college circuit to the big league. He would also equal the all-time record held by fellow Romanian Gheorghe Mureșan and Sudanese-American Manute Bol, both of whom coincidentally began their professional careers with the Washington Bullets (now Wizards).

So how did Bobroczkyi make the journey from the Eastern European city of Arad to the United States of America? What does he enjoy doing when he's not towering above his teammates and opponents on the court? And what Hollywood blockbuster has he unexpectedly graced with his lofty presence? Here's a look at the center's remarkable story.

Hailing from a sporty family from Arad, Romania, Robert Bobroczkyi was perhaps always destined to use his significant height advantage on the basketball court. Both of his parents had made a living in the sporting world, including Romania's answer to the NBA. His father, Zsigmond "Zsiga" Bobroczkyi – not exactly a shrinking violet at 7 feet, 1 inch, either — used to shoot hoops for various clubs, including West Petrom Arad and Elba Timisoara, with the former based in the family's hometown.

Even more impressively, Zsigmond represented his country on its national team. In fact, he was teammates with the ex-Washington Bullets player Gheorghe Mureșan, who at a lofty 7 feet, 7 inches (and alongside Manute Bol), became the joint-tallest player in the history of the NBA back in the early 1990s. Robert's mother, Brunhilde Bobroczkyi, was also pretty nifty on the court, although her talents lay in volleyball.

With a father who stood at 7 feet, 1 inch and a mother at 6 feet, 2 inches, Robert Bobroczkyi was never going to struggle to reach the top shelf at the supermarket. But even so, his parents were still no doubt amazed when he ended up outgrowing them both before he even reached his teenage years.

That's right, the basketball star shot up past his mom, Brunhilde, at the age of just 8, and within the span of four years, he had done the same with his dad, Zsiga. Unfortunately, Robert found it hard to deal with all of the growing pains at the time.

"I guess when I was small, I focused on the negatives," he told The Washington Post, with the term "small" referring to his age and not his stature. It was only when he met his father's 7-foot-7-inch national teammate Gheorghe Mureșan that he started to feel comfortable in his own skin. "I had to look up for the first time," he remembered. Recalling one particular phone conversation with the NBA's joint tallest player ever, he added, "We talked about never being shy, never feeling sorry for ourselves, just accept it, be happy and live with it."

Having watched their son tower past them both by the age of 12, Robert Bobroczkyi's parents were understandably concerned that he may have some sort of growth disorder. But remarkably, considering the fact he eventually shot up to 7 feet, 7 inches, the basketball player's height can't be explained by a medical condition.

As a 14-year-old, Bobroczkyi was taken by his parents to Washington's Children's National Medical Center for various tests. After a week, although doctors couldn't determine exactly when he would reach his maximum height, they did rule out that he had a disorder, such as Marfan syndrome (which impacts the connective tissue in the body and can cause heart problems) or gigantism (where the pituitary gland releases too many growth hormones).

Sadly, Bobroczkyi does have to contend with one health issue: scoliosis. The sportsman developed the condition, which affects the curvature of the spine, as a youngster and, as a result, has to constantly deal with pain in his lower back. If that wasn't enough, he also has to deal with a misalignment of his hips by a matter of inches.

It didn't take long for the basketball world to recognize that Robert Bobroczkyi's still-growing stature may be a major asset. In 2014, when the Romanian was only 13 years old, he was signed by the Italian amateur team, A.S. Stella Azzurra. But it wasn't just his physical attributes that impressed the team's scouts. Although they expressed concerns about his endurance and general court mobility due to his immense height, they also pointed out his impressive passing and midrange jumping skills.

Bobroczkyi lived in Frosinone, a small municipality roughly a 60-minute drive from Rome, with a host family. There, he was able to focus on his health, having access to a rehab and physical therapy center nearby, as well as the local soccer team's nutritionist to help with building essential muscle mass. He soon repaid their faith and time in him when he helped guide Stella Azzurra to the national under-15 title. Pretty soon, he was also helping to put the largely unknown Serie B team on the global map.

Robert Bobroczkyi found himself going viral in 2014 at the age of just 13 thanks to a video clip that showed off both his remarkable stature and his skills on the court. The Romanian became the talk of the basketball world and beyond when he was shown playing for Italy's Stella Azzurra, the same amateur basketball team which helped to launch the career of the 2006 NBA Draft's number one overall pick, Andrea Bargnani.

Although Bobroczkyi helped the team win the national under-15 title, he was forced to miss most of the following season due to concerns about his physical well-being. Indeed, far from capitalizing on all the attention, Stella Azzurra admirably seemed more interested in protecting their prized asset.

"We're not interested in basketball right now. The top priority is his health," Giacomo Rossi, the general manager of its basketball academy, told The New York Times. "We've got to make sure that five years from now not only can he play basketball but that he's also a fairly normal person."

Robert Bobroczkyi's colossal height made him an instant target while growing up. But it wasn't just schoolkids who used his stature against him. As he revealed in his interview with The Washington Post, the basketball player was also taunted by passing tourists.

Indeed, during his time in Italy, Bobroczkyi would often hear heckles from travelers about his size while out and about. Proving that he had a wise head on his shoulders from a young age, the center didn't retaliate, remembering his father's adage that his size "could either be a curse or a blessing — you choose."

"At the beginning, I just tried to ignore it," the Romanian said. "But then as I grew up a bit and got more mature, I realized that just ignoring it is not necessarily the right solution. You have to be smart about it. Not everyone is necessarily polite, and some people have never seen such a tall person before, so it's a normal reaction." So, whenever someone feels the need to audibly respond to his presence, he simply chooses to smile.

So Facebook isn't just for posting live laugh love sentiments and Minions memes after all. In 2014, Bob Bossman, the head coach of the Spire Institute — which is just outside of Cleveland, Ohio and designed to train and school the next generation of athletes — used the social network to contact the basketball player who was making waves across Europe for both his height and his hoop abilities.

"I saw he has potential," he recalled to The New York Times. "You don't get to work with a kid like that often." After some Googling, during which he learned that Bobroczkyi was one of Europe's tallest players, he sent a message via Facebook inquiring about his possible availability.

Much to his surprise, Bobroczkyi messaged him back, and the pair forged a connection that would build entirely online for the next two years. With only 30 human beings officially taller than the Romanian in the entire world, Bossman recognized that his presence would be a valuable marketing tool in the age of virality, while Bobroczkyi knew that a place at the well-funded Spire would help with his athletic dreams. After a 2016 trip to see the institute in person, Bobroczkyi accepted a spot, which also came with room and board worth $55,000, sports psychology sessions, and full medical benefits.

Of course, once the Spire Institute welcomed Robert Bobroczkyi into their program, they faced a major problem. How on earth do you train a teenager who stands at 7 feet, 7 inches tall?

Strength and conditioning coach Brandon Strausser and performance director John Wallace were tasked with devising a plan that would accommodate the Romanian's imposing frame. They came up with 50 different exercises, including a body resistance workout which focused more on straps and bands than traditional weights, and a stretching routine that lasted 40 minutes. "As much as we can of each movement, in every single movement category that we can think of, is literally on here," Strausser explained to The New York Times about the all-important spreadsheet that Bobroczkyi had to tick off. "Because he needs it."

Bobroczkyi seemed fully aware of this fact, too. "I have to gain at least 60 pounds," he told The Washington Post in 2018. "Everything is centralized around getting big. The biggest struggle [on the court] is getting from point A to point B. Speed."

As you'd expect from a man who stands at well over 7 feet, Robert Bobroczkyi has more than his fair share of challenges while dealing with the everyday. While most of us take being able to fit into a bed for granted, for example, the Romanian requires a few modifications.

Officials had to bring in an 8-foot bed while Bobroczkyi was living in a dorm room at the historic prep academy, Grand River Academy. Unfortunately, when he joined his Spire Institute teammates in a shared house, the same bed couldn't fit through the door. As a result, the basketball player had to use a couple of suitcases at the end of a normal-sized bed to accommodate his frame.

Then, there's the fact that most doorways are way too low, flights can be agonizing, and his clothes need to be custom made. In fact, Bobroczkyi's shirts are sized a whopping XXXXXL! Even a family sightseeing trip in Washington D.C. proved to be difficult, with the sportsman having to constantly crouch down every time they took the subway. Luckily, Bobroczkyi appears to take all the obstacles in his stride. "You have to get used to it," he told The New York Times.

There's more to Robert Bobroczkyi's talents than his size and talents on the court. According to those who know him, including fellow Romanian 7-foot-7-inch star Gheorghe Mureșan, he's one smart cookie.

Not only is he a straight-A student, he can also speak four languages: his native Romanian, of course, as well as English, Italian, and Hungarian. So what does he like to do when his head isn't buried in his books? Well, Bobroczkyi is a keen gamer, with "NBA 2K" as a particular favorite. He also enjoys watching horror movies, used YouTube to teach himself how to play the piano, and is a bit of a sci-fi geek at heart, too.

Bobroczkyi also appears to be the perfect gentleman. When a campaign event for Donald Trump in 2016 came to the Spire Institute, the sportsman was asked to take a front row seat. But aware that his significant stature may spoil the view of anyone sitting behind him, he politely declined the offer. "Everybody wants to talk about how big he is," Mureșan explained to The Washington Post. "But his heart is bigger than him."

In order to gain the muscle mass needed for a career in the NBA, Robert Bobroczkyi was put on the kind of diet plan that would make most people feel bloated just by looking at it. Indeed, during his stint at Ohio's Spire Institute, the Romanian was advised by the nearby Cleveland Clinic to consume a whopping 4,500 calories every single day!

By doing this, Spire hoped to increase Bobroczkyi's weight, which was 195 pounds on his arrival, by at least one pound every month. So what did an average meal look like? Well, during an interview with The New York Times, the Romanian consumed a feast of turkey tetrazzini, breaded chicken, and green beans followed by not just one but two portions of rice pudding.

At least that was a little more varied than what he was required to eat during his time in Italy. Thanks to a little help from the National Institutes of Health, Stella Azzurra's team devised a meal schedule which, perhaps unsurprisingly, was dominated by pasta. In fact, poor Bobroczkyi's daily consumption of the stuff amounted to two whole pounds!

Robert Bobroczkyi's sporting career looked to be heading in the right direction in 2020 when he accepted an offer to play for the men's basketball team at Rochester Christian University. The Romanian made the move after a four-year spell at the Spire Institute in which he also studied at Ohio's Saint John Ashtabula High School.

And no one was more delighted than his coach at Spire, Dawud Abdur-Rahkman. "Robert is a rockstar," he told Spire's official website. "In my 25 years of coaching, I've never seen someone with such a sweet and pure stroke. When he's in the paint, he cannot be stopped, period. He could be one of the greatest basketball stories ever told."

Bobroczkyi's story was told a year later on national television. The man nicknamed "Rob Bob" joined Rochester men's head basketball coach Dr. Klint Pleasant for an episode of HBO's "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel" which centered on "giants."

"If I make it, my whole country would be proud," Robert Bobroczkyi once told The Washington Post about his dreams of gracing a professional court. "Everyone would know me, and it would be a reason to be proud." Unfortunately, unlike several of his classmates, including LaMelo Ball – the point guard for the Charlotte Hornets  dating a social media influencer 13 years his senior – the Romanian has yet to fulfill this particular hoop dream.

It certainly hasn't been for the want of trying, though. Many of his fellow teammates at the Spire Institute believed he had what it took to make it into the big league. "He's so skilled for his height," teammate Julian Dancy told The New York Times. "I've never seen a guy that can shoot threes like him, especially the college three already."

Bobroczkyi's promising sporting career was no doubt disrupted by the pandemic. As COVID-19 started to spread across the world, the center returned to his homeland to spend time with his family. He made his way back to Rochester Christian University's men's basketball team for the next school year, and it seems that the player has been keeping busy between his basketball schedule and extracurricular activities, including appearing in a blockbuster film.

Robert Bobroczkyi followed in the footsteps of serial retiree Michael Jordan ("Space Jam"), Caitlin Clark-supporting LeBron James ("Trainwreck"), and Olympic gold medal winner Shaquille O'Neal ("Kazaam") in 2024 when he swapped the basketball court for the big screen. Unlike his predecessors, however, the Romanian was more interested in inducing scares than snickers.

Indeed, Bobroczkyi appeared in the terrifying finale of "Alien: Romulus," Fede Álvarez's long-awaited seventh installment of the sci-fi horror franchise that launched name-changer Sigourney Weaver onto the A-list and introduced the immortal tagline, "In space, no one can hear you scream." Of course, the sportsman was required to sport so many prosthetics that even his own family is unlikely to have recognized him.

Without giving too much away, Bobroczkyi pops up as the horrifying human/Xenomorph hybrid that we see toward the end of the interquel, which takes place between the events of 1979's Ridley Scott-directed "Alien" and five-time married James Cameron's 1986 follow-up "Aliens." Could this be the start of a glittering new career for the 7-foot-7-inch multi-talent?