I've always thought the official NBA measurements were "in shoes" so that bit in the article helped put the height variations in better context. Regardless, I've always taken the "official" measurements with a grain of salt and refer to the Draftexpress.com "in shoes" pre-draft measurements for more accurate listings.
I remember laughing out loud in my car this year as I heard Crowder proclaim that he's 6'4 during the starting lineup intros on the radio, knowing that he's at least 6'6 in shoes. I'm pretty sure Pierce was generally listed as 6'6 in his SG days until he started playing more SF with the Big 3 when he started going by 6'7.