Why 7-foot-3 Jordan Wilmore left his pro basketball career behind to pursue his true passion, policing

Kemah, Texas — At 7-foot-3, Jordan Wilmore has always had lofty goals, but ones that he kept mostly to himself.

“It was hard for me to share, like, my dreams or, you know, the stuff I wanted to do growing up because it was, ‘Well, you just got to focus on basketball because it can make you millions,'” the 24-year-old Wilmore explained to CBS News.

So for years, he did focus on basketball, like his friends and family insisted.

A Memphis, Tennessee, native, he played college basketball at Missouri, Northwestern State and Austin Peay State University. He then played professionally overseas, with his last stop in the Philippines last year.   

Ever since he first hit his head on a door jamb, people have been telling Wilmore he should play professional basketball. But other people can’t dictate your dreams — and basketball was never his passion.

“I’ve always liked to help other people,” Wilmore said. “That’s just who I am. I would do anything to help out whoever I can. There is nothing really else I want to do.”

Which is why Wilmore is now, almost certainly, America’s tallest police recruit. Once he graduates from the police academy, he’ll go to work in Kemah, Texas, located just southeast of Houston, where Kemah Police Chief Raymond Garivey is already preparing for his arrival.

Garivey has been scouring the country for a uniform big enough, and a cruiser that won’t crush him.

“Knees are touching the dash,” Garivey said after Wilmore climbed into one particular police cruiser. “It’s very, very tight.”

But Garivey says he’s willing to make any accommodation necessary for an officer this dedicated.

“He wants to serve,” Garivey said. “He truly wants to make a difference. I’m proud that he chose the thin, blue line.”

Wilmore says that if he received a phone call from an NBA team, he’d turn it down, he wouldn’t even think about it.

Said Wilmore, “No, I stay here.”