WHAT HAPPENED TO ROBERT BOBROCZKY (2022)

At the age of eight, he was six foot two. At the age of 12, he was seven foot one. Robert Bobrowski was one of the most intriguing high school basketball players of the last decade, who has now seemingly disappeared. Many believed he would go on to become the tallest player in the NBA, but we never got to see Rob Bob play pro ball. We never got to see him play college ball. In fact, we really didn't even get to see him much on the court in high school. A lot of people just assumed Robert was too skinny and slow to play, and that's why we never got to see him on the court, but that is not the real reason we haven't seen Rob Bob these past four years. So I'm here to break down Robert Bobrowski's entire story, including the serious health struggles he faced that kept him off the court, and give you some insight into what he is doing now. Rob Bob is of Hungarian descent, but was born in Romania. His father, Sigmund Bobrowski, was a seven foot one professional basketball player that had a long 22 year career. Funny enough, Sigmund actually played alongside George Mursan on the Romanian national team at one point. For those of you who don't know who George Mursan is, he was tied for the tallest NBA player ever at seven foot seven. He was also a cheat code in NBA 2K. Anyways, imagine going up against a front court of George Mursan and Sigmund Bobrowski. So Rob Bob grew up in a basketball family, and it became obvious at a very young age that he acquired the genetics of his father when it came to height. Robert was six foot two by the time he was in the third grade. So when he walked into that third grade classroom at the age of eight, he was already towering over his teacher. Robert grew to seven foot one by the age of 12, and at 13 he was recruited to play for the amateur basketball club Stella Arosa in Italy. This is the same youth program that produced former number one overall pick Andrea Bargnani. So at that young age, Robert left home to play basketball and go to school in Rome, Italy. And this is when Rob Bob first went viral. Highlights surfaced of him dominating in an under 15 competition for Stella Arosa. He was deemed Europe's tallest teenager who showed real promise for European basketball in years to come. In these early videos, his skinny frame obviously jumped off the screen, but people looked past that because he was only 14 years old and had so much time to develop. The fact that Rob could hit mid-range jumpers and pass the ball at his staggering seven foot two size shocked the basketball world. He continued to gain buzz when one of the most popular basketball YouTubers at the time, Oprah Seid, reacted to one of his highlight tapes. Seven, six. But Robert Wibrowski really became a household name when he made the decision to move to the United States in 2017 to play high school basketball. He was recruited by a few of the top programs in the nation, including Montbert, but he ended up deciding to go to Spire Academy in Ohio. Many thought he would dominate high school hoops with his height, but that was not the case. Rob Bob couldn't really get on the court much at all in his first year due to a lack of strength, mobility, and endurance. But there were some positives in his first year at Spire. While playing limited minutes, he did put on weight. He was on a 5,000 calorie a day diet and worked tirelessly to put on the pounds. He reportedly ended up going from 190 to 205 pounds, but 205 pounds at seven foot seven is still a cause for concern. Despite barely playing, the legend of Rob Bob continued to grow. Max Prebs posted a video of a three point shootout with Rob Bob and he made four threes in a row. People started talking about how as soon as he puts on some weight, he'll break any league he's in with his shooting ability. Robert still expressed his main goal of making it to the NBA and becoming just the third Romanian player to ever do so. I would love to get the opportunity to be in a position where I'm that good that I can actually join the league. That would be huge. Then things got even more interesting in Rob Bob's career. At that time, LaMelo Ball announced he would be returning to the United States for his senior year of high school at none other than Spire Academy. Everyone was talking about the potential duo of LaMelo Ball, one of the most viral high school basketball players ever and the seven foot seven Rob Bob. Robert continued to struggle with his mobility and weight. But it turns out his health struggles were more serious than that as he was dealing with the severe effects of a scoliosis curve in his spine. His scoliosis curve that got progressively worse over time caused severe back pain and misalignment of his hips. This was the real reason he struggled to move up and down the court. Rob Bob never got the chance to share the court with LaMelo Ball. In 2020, after the pandemic hit and after not hearing from Robert in a while, he appeared on an overtime podcast hosted by Jordan McCabe. And this one hour plus conversation revealed a lot about what happened to him over those past two years. Robert revealed that he got back surgery in his time at Spire, something that was not known publicly up until that point. I had a back surgery during my senior year. Yeah. That's why I was out for the entire past two years pretty much. This surgery was likely done to mitigate the severity of his scoliosis curve. His back problems and eventual surgery is what kept him off the basketball court those last two years of high school. So while many believed he was just not good enough or too skinny to compete, he was battling major health issues and recovering from a major spine surgery. Robert was not someone that posted on social media very much, so it wasn't too surprising that he didn't decide to announce his reason for his absence. But another huge piece of information came out of this conversation with Jordan McCabe. While most people thought Robert was done with basketball, he announced in this podcast that he was not. Couple days ago, I committed to Rochester University in Michigan. Like I said, almost everyone thought Robert's career was over, but it turned out there was at least one college that wanted to give him another chance. And he made it clear that he was ready to play. He was fully healthy coming off of that surgery. Interestingly enough, he also went on to say that his back surgery might have even given him another inch of height. So from 7'7 to 7'8. But unfortunately, Robert didn't play for Rochester University in the 2020-21 season and he didn't play in the 2021-22 season either. He had been attending Rochester for school over those two years though. In March of this year, 2022, he did another podcast, this time with his friends from Rochester University and we learned more about what he's been up to. We got some insight into Robert's hobbies, which include crypto, playing the piano, producing EDM music, and playing chess. But of course, everyone wants to know an update on his basketball career. Robert was in fact a part of the Rochester basketball program over his first two years, but he just did not play in games. At one point during this podcast, he expressed that he was at the point where he had to decide between continuing to pursue basketball and doing something else. And he said he was leaning towards doing something else. So that tells me Robert will not be rejoining the basketball program this fall. After years of intense training, trying to put on weight, and battling serious back problems, it now officially looks like Robert's basketball career has come to an end. I really wish things could have worked out better for Rob Bob as a player, especially considering the hype and expectations that were placed upon him. But one thing is certain, Robert is a very smart guy with a lot of interesting hobbies, and he will find something to do post-college. Also in this podcast, he said that he wanted to start capitalizing on the opportunity to build his personal brand moving forward. And we can see that this did start to happen. Robert started posting on Instagram earlier this year, which is something he never did prior. And something that I don't think anyone actually knows is that he started his own podcast called The Novocast, where he and his buddies talk about things like crypto, movies, college, and life as a seven-foot-seven person. I definitely don't think we've seen the end of Robert Wroblewski in the public spotlight. And that's gonna do it for today's video. We do a ton of research leading up to these videos, and we have a lot more where this came from. So if you enjoyed this story, make sure you subscribe and smash that notification button. And if you're wondering whatever happened to the kid that famously one-v-one Julian Newman at a showcase a few years ago, Jathan Bosch, you can find that video here.