Would you take the term 'gangly' as an insult?

I just referred to a friend of mine as gangly when we were joking around. He's an adolescent, tall, but narrow, with very long arms and legs, so kind of lanky, and I thought the word was appropriate. He understood what gangly meant but he took it as a deep insult, saying it was basically saying he was pathetic. Is it just me or is that ridiculous???????