From battling Shaquille O'Neal in the paint to taking on local politics, former NBA center Greg Ostertag just scored his biggest win yet—and it didn't happen on a basketball court.
The retired Utah Jazz big man, who stands an imposing 7 feet, 2 inches tall, was recently elected mayor of Mount Vernon, Texas, a small town of just 2,500 residents located about 100 miles northeast of Dallas. The victory could make him the tallest elected official in the United States, a title his wife is already eyeing for the Guinness World Records.
"That's what my wife said. She says as soon as I get sworn in next week, she's going to call Guinness and see," Ostertag, 53, told The Kansas City Star.
If confirmed, Ostertag would edge out the current record-holder, North Dakota Insurance Commissioner Jon Godfread, who stands at 6 feet, 10 inches. That's a solid four-inch advantage for the former center, who spent 11 seasons in the NBA primarily with the Jazz and also had a stint with the Sacramento Kings.
Ostertag defeated incumbent Brad Hyman by a margin of 245 to 210 votes—a close game that went down to the wire, much like the playoff battles he once fought against legends like Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson, Tim Duncan, and Shaquille O'Neal. Coming from the hardwood to the town hall, Ostertag seems unfazed by the political pressure. "I've been patted on the back one day and told I was terrible the next day for the last 20 years," he said, showing the same resilience that defined his NBA career.
A native of the Dallas suburb of Duncanville, Ostertag has called Mount Vernon home for 11 years. When he's not serving as mayor-elect, he works as a realtor and owns Tag's Hometown Bar and Grill, a local sports bar that has become a gathering spot for the community. Now, he's setting his sights on bigger goals for the tiny Texas town.
"Taking that momentum and running with it and just making it a kind of a destination town and getting the people back involved and wanting to and believing in the town again," Ostertag said, outlining his vision for Mount Vernon's future.
For fans of the game, it's a reminder that the competitive spirit that drives athletes doesn't fade when the final buzzer sounds—it just finds a new arena. And for a town of 2,500, having a 7-foot-2 former NBA star as mayor might just be the kind of big presence that puts them on the map.