Ball Pythons need climbing space eh? Sweaterbox for the bigger guys too? Wow....
To the OP:
A 5.5 ft male will be fine in a 4x2x1 boaphile or animal plastics cage for its entire life. Glass tanks are bad as they are terrible at holding temps/humidity not to mention any moderate sized boa can just straight up smash out of a glass tank. Glass is not going to hold up to a 5-6 ft hunk of muscle pushing on it.