Basketball career

Mureșan was born in Tritenii de Jos, Cluj County, and played competitive basketball at Cluj University. He played professionally in the French league with Pau-Orthez during the 1992-93 season and was an instant hit with fans. The NBA took interest in him and he was selected by the Washington Bullets in the 1993 NBA draft. He played in the NBA from 1993 to 2000 showing signs of a promising career that was derailed by injuries. His best season came in the 1994-1995 campaign, when he averaged 14.5 points per game.

After returning to France and playing for the start of the 1995-96 season with Pau-Orthez, he was named the NBA's Most Improved Player for the 1995-96 season after averaging 14.5 points, 9.6 rebounds, 2.26 blocks per game while making a league-leading 58.4 percent of his field goals. He led in field goal percentage again the following season, with a 60.4% average. Overall, he holds career averages of 9.8 points, 6.4 rebounds, 0.5 assists, 1.48 blocks per game and a .573 field goal percentage. He joined the New Jersey Nets for the final 31 games of his career. After ending his NBA career, Mureșan had another stint in the French league before returning to the United States with his family. He normally wore number 77, in reference to his height.

On March 11, 2007, Mureșan played a game for the Maryland Nighthawks as part of the tallest lineup in the history of basketball. This was the only basketball game Mureșan ever played where he was not the tallest person on the court, as Sun Mingming is 7'9" (2.36 m).

Other work

In 2004, Gheorghe Muresan founded Giant Basketball Academy (GBA), a program dedicated to teaching the proper fundamentals of basketball to boys and girls of all ages.

Muresan is also part of the Washington Wizards marketing and public relations team, serving as an "ambassador" for the team.

Outside basketball, Mureșan has dabbled in acting, playing the title character in 1998 feature film My Giant starring comedian Billy Crystal. He appeared as a ventriloquist in the music video for Eminem's breakthrough single "My Name Is." He has appeared in commercials for Snickers candy bars, and sports television network ESPN. Most recently, Mureșan co-authored two young adult fitness and health books: The Boy's Fitness Guide and The Girl's Fitness Guide.

Together with his wife Liliane and sons George and Victor, Mureșan had been a resident of Franklin Lakes, New Jersey. but currently resides in suburban Washington. His oldest son, George, is currently playing for the Georgetown Hoyas as a walk-on player as of the upcoming 2016-17 season.

In 2006, he appeared at #28 on the Romanian Television's list of 100 Greatest Romanians of all-time, as the 3rd highest ranked athlete/sportsman on the list (Athlete Nadia Comăneci and footballer Gheorghe Hagi were placed 9th and 13th, respectively).

NBA career statistics

Legend
GP	Games played	GS	Games started	MPG	Minutes per game
FG%	Field goal percentage	3P%	3-point field goal percentage	FT%	Free throw percentage
RPG	Rebounds per game	APG	Assists per game	SPG	Steals per game
BPG	Blocks per game	PPG	Points per game	Bold	Career high

Regular season

Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
1993-94	Washington	54	2	12.0	.545	.000	.676	3.6	0.3	0.5	0.9	5.6
1994-95	Washington	73	58	23.6	.560	.000	.709	6.7	0.5	0.7	1.7	10.0
1995-96	Washington	76	76	29.5	.584	.000	.619	9.6	0.7	0.7	2.3	14.5
1996-97	Washington	73	69	25.3	.604	.000	.618	6.6	0.4	0.6	1.3	10.6
1998-99	New Jersey	1	0	1.0	.000	.000	.000	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
1999-00	New Jersey	30	2	8.9	.456	.000	.605	2.3	0.3	0.0	0.4	3.5
Career		307	207	21.9	.573	.000	.644	6.4	0.5	0.6	1.5	9.8

[ Source: Wikipedia ]