Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • 214

Chicago Bull 8 Section 9 Chicago Tribune, Friday, November 2, 1990 A tall tale: Will and Stacey's travels through life Big foot Here's how the Bulls' Wil Perdue's basketbal shoe sizes up to some other sports equipment, In height them just as the movie's about to start. (Then again, short people 1 get their revenge: airplane shoes out of his locker and says 'Look fellas, I can play tennis with this Racquetball maybe. Will's feet are 21Vi inches long a mere two And, sometimes, if your gross Will Perdue's shoe 21 .5 Inches Spud Webb's shoe 10.5 Inches Basketball 9 Inches Football 11,3 Inches Bowling pm 15 inches Baseball 4.5 Inches By Gary Reinmuth nnne take you now to the ill If land of the Pituitary Gland VJ Your guides: Will Perdue and Stacey King. These two big Bulls didn't choose this place and they haven't always liked it here but over time, they've learned to make the best of it Up above the world so. high, motor development all comes inches longer than a racquetball gether right, tall means getting to racket A they can see the advantages.

Not to mention four states and Canada. Being tall, they know, means never having to say you're sorry to short people, if you don't want to. A tall person, they cantell you, never has to worry about a tall person my hick. Why does this always happen to me. suddenly plopping down in front of play in the NBA.

By comparison: King's feet (size Perdue, the big galoot, is 7 feet tall, 240 pounds; King 6-11, 230. And you're not Go ahead, say it "Hey, Stretch, How's the weather up there?" Sources: Vanderbitt, Pony shoe company, The Rule Book. UULRJEf SPORTS DAILY IS shoes) are petite. "In Oklahoma they didnt have big and tall shops," he says. "It was a nightmare.

My mom had to special-order my shoes from At-. lanta. And to what you'd pay for say boat shoes, I'd frobably end up having to. pay 50-60 more 'cause I'd have to go through shipping, mailing, plus there's a lot more cow." Chapter Girls, girls, girls No problem. King: "I have a girlfriend She's 5-4.

I generally like girls smaller than me. It gives you that macho-type image. Small girls, it seems like you just have a little more authority over a smaller woman. A bigger woman it's like, shoot, I'm just as big as you are. So you say, 'Honey, I don't want you to shop so and the smaller women will say, 'OK, honey, whatever you A bigger woman says, 'If you don't give me your wallet right now, you and me are gonna have a fight' Chapter IV They really can walk and chew gum at the same time Now.

King: "Between the 9th and 10th grade, that summer, I grew from 6-0 to 6-7. It was really weird I felt like I was another person. And as soon as you get to be that height everybody expects you to be able to do a lot of things. And you're uncoordinated You're not used to being that height So it was awkward You feel like the Incredible Hulk or something." Chapter Wise guys Everybody's a comedian. King: "People see me and they say, 'Man I didnt know you were that tall You don't look that tall on Of course not If you're looking at me on a 24-inch television set, I'm about the size of a Ninja Turtle.

"And the first question they always ask is, 'How's the weather up there? In high school people always asked me that My history teacher said the next time somebody asks you that just spit on 'em and say, 'It's I never did do that, but it was funny he'd say that" Chapter VI Sometimes, being tall is no fun at all Perdue: "I went to Great America last summer and they asked me to please not ride on some of the rides. I don't know what they expected I guess they thought I'd hit my head or something." King: "I went on a cruise ship. Ever been on a cruise ship? On a cruise ship everything is km. I Set Feet, pg. 12 For what theyre making King a million, Perdue nearly half that they can take it This is a (short) story about what it's like being 10 feet talL Well, 7 anyway.

The bottom line: It isn't all a King-sized bed of roses. Chapter I Planes, trains and automobiles Leg room? Hah! "My fantasy is to one day get a Ferrari or one of those fast, fast type cars," King says. "But it's hard for a guy over 6-5 to get in them. I tried to get into a ZR-1 Corvette once. I got in, but it was like if you were to crash or something they'd have to cut you out with a can opener.

You'd be in the glove compartment knocking to get out" Then there are the sometimes not-so-friendly skies. The good news is that Bulls will be flying by charter this season. No more knobby knees playing chin music. This season each player will plunk down in his own captain's chair, meaning plenty of room to s-t-r-r-e-e-tch out No more moms and babies grabbing the precious bulkhead seats on commercial flights. "I always try to get the bulkhead whether we're in first-cass or coach," says Perdue.

"The problem is, if you cant get the seat you want, you sometimes have to do a little negotiating. It's not something worth getting into a big argument about, though." Chapter II If the shoe fits, Will and Stacey probably had it special-ordered The average shoe size in the-NBA is 13M. Former Detroit Pistons star Bob Lanier wore a size 18V4-D. Perdue checks in at 18ft-6A. Growing up in Merritt Island, Perdue spent a lot of time walking around with his 10 big toes curled up inside his shoes, which invariably were too short and too narrow for his ever expanding feet Not till he enrolled at Vander-bilt, where he went on to become the Bulls' No.

1 draft choice in 1988, was he given much relief. Vandy had plaster casts made of his feet and sent them to Converse, which ever since has custom-made Perdue's shoes. So that's a hassle. Then there are the jokes. This one comes courtesy of former Vanderbilt trainer Tim Bream: "Kentucky came to play us once and they had to use our locker room for their practice session the night before the game.

Rex Chapman pulls one of Will's.