Final answer:
A basketball player's height with a z-score of 3.38 is 3.38 standard deviations above the mean.
Step-by-step explanation:
The z-score is a statistical measure that describes a value's relationship to the mean of a group of values. It is measured in standard deviations from the mean. In this particular case, a basketball player's height of 6 feet 6 inches, or 198 cm, has a z-score of 3.38. This means that the player's height is 3.38 standard deviations above the mean height. In other words, the player is significantly taller than the average height which, according to the provided statistics, is 79 inches with a standard deviation of 3.89 inches.
To answer the question more directly: the basketball player's height is exactly 3.38 standard deviations above the mean.