A few years ago there was a guy at my uni (Cal) who was easily over 7’ tall. He walked into a burger store when I was eating and it was hard not to stare because he was so fucking tall but literally the skinniest person I’ve ever seen relative to his height. He was considered a project player on the bball team, (I guess because he was so obscenely tall) but even he barely saw much play time iirc because he was always injured and probably too damn skinny to be of much use, despite the fact that he towered over D1 basketball players.

It’s like you said - you generally have to be very very tall, insanely coordinated and have a ridiculous work ethic to even sniff the NBA. I walk around town a lot and there are days when I don’t see a single person over 6’5”. And then there are the people who meet all those requirements but it’s still not enough to make that jump from being D1 to being drafted.