Billy Crystal’s Favorite Sports Giant
July 7, 1997

What a life! Gheorghe Muresan is living the American dream. Born to humble beginnings in Triteni, Romania –Gheorghe has gone from being selected in the second round of the 1993 NBA(National Basketball Association) Draft by the Washington Bullets to starring in a feature film with Billy Crystal in just four years in the U.S. .

At 7-foot-7, he is the tallest player ever to play in the NBA. Gheorghe is not just getting by on his height alone in his professional basketball career. He has improved greatly in each of his first three seasons, increasing from 5.6 PPG his rookie year to 14 PPG last season. Last year, he earned the NBA’s Most Improved Player Award. Note: Gheorghe is not the tallest player ever selected in NBA Draft, that honor goes to 7-foot-8 Yasutak Okayamo of the University of Osaka who was drafted by Golden State in 1981

Getting Discovered in Hollywood…

After appearing in the movie "Princess Bride," Billy Crystal was taken with the film’s "Andre the Giant " character. He wanted to do a feature film surrounding this character. As Billy developed the idea, he began his search for the "Giant." Now, this would not be a typical actor casting call, not many actors in Hollywood are past 6-foot. Plus, Billy really wanted to cast someone with an European accent to play the character based on the "Andre the Giant."

Billy first came up with the idea of casting Gheorghe while watching the NBA Draft show on television. He knew he’d found the guy when Gheorghe, after being picked by the Washington Bullets (recently renamed the Washington Wizards), exclaimed "I love this game!" in his thick Romanian accent.

The movie’s title "My Giant" is the story of Sammy (Billy Crystal), a 3rd rate Hollywood agent who attempts to exploit an innocent-hearted giant named Max (Gheorghe) as his ticket to the top. One attribute Gheorghe shares with his character is his kindness. While working on this story, everyone I talked to just raved about how sweet and personable Gheorghe is in real life. Another unfortunate quality Gheorghe has in common with Max is they both suffer from an overactive pituitary gland —an ailment found in gigantesque people.

Think his height came from his parents? Oddly enough, both his parents are under 6-feet, his father is 5-foot-9 and his mother, who died of cancer just before Gheorghe started his rookie season with the Bullets, was 5-foot-7.

So, Gheorghe will live the ultimate American or should I say Hollywood dream that so many people strive for but for many never comes to fruition. Currently, he is in Prague, Czechoslovakia shooting his scenes for his acting debut In the movie, Max is Sammy’s ticket to the top but in real life, Billy may just be Gheorghe’s ticket to Hollywood super stardom.

A Little of This and a Little of That…

Speaking of the NBA—lots of players are busy during the off-season. Milwaukee Bucks’ Guard Walter Ray Allen has been tapped to star in Film Director and one of the NBA’s top fans, Spike Lee’s "He’s Got Game" which has just started production…CBS SportsLine superstar Shaquille O’Neal stopped by the Official All Star Café, the restaurant he co-owns in New York, to teach some teens how to rap. The teens are participants in the New York Salvation Army Career Awareness Program. But, before he got busy with the kids, he ate not one, but four entrees including a Shaq favorite--a smoked turkey sandwich. His poor mother must have spent a fortune feeding him as a youngster…

Even if the Chicago Bulls management doesn’t appreciate Scottie Pippen, children will appreciate his book titled "Reach Higher." Scottie wrote the book to inspire children to set high goals for themselves. After all, he didn’t even earn a college basketball scholarship at Central Arkansas until his sophomore year, and yet he his one of the game’s best players. "Reach Higher" hits bookstore mid-July…

Scottie’s former (and possibly future) teammate Dennis Rodman’s bestseller book "Bad As I Wanna Be" is being turned into a television movie-of-the-week. My sources tell me that the movie is in pre-production and that Dennis will have a cameo role. No, they have not cast an actor to play Dennis, yet. I’ll keep you posted…

CBS SportsLine superstar Joe Namath, the former New York Jets’ quarterback who led his team to a Super Bowl win, really knows how to pack a house. Joe played "Dr. Dorn" in the Anton Chekov play "The Seagull" which sold-out all four performances at the Arc Light Theater in New York City last week. His wife who also had an acting role in the play produced the show. So, Joe used the casting couch system in a big way to get the acting job.