Tyrone Curtis "Muggsy" Bogues (born January 91965, in Baltimore, Maryland) is a former professional basketball player and current head coach of the Charlotte Sting of the WNBA. Although he played for four teams during his fourteen-season career in the National Basketball Association (NBA), he is most well-known for his stint with the Charlotte Hornets. He is the smallest player thus far in NBA history, standing 5'3" (1.60 m) and weighing 136 pounds (62 kg).
Bogues played the point guard position, and was an extremely good ball handler and passer, abilities which compensated for his shortness.
Career
College
Bogues played at Dunbar High School in Baltimore, where he was a teammate of future NBA players David Wingate (graduating class ahead of him), Reggie Williams, and Reggie Lewis (both in his graduating class). He went on to play four years at Wake Forest, averaging 11.3 points, 8.4 assists and 3.1 steals per game in his junior year. He followed with a senior campaign in which he averaged 14.8 points, 9.5 assists, and 2.4 steals per game. He also averaged 3.8 rebounds per contest, remarkable because generally much taller players dominate that statistic.
NBA
Bogues was drafted twelfth overall in the talent-laden 1987 NBA Draft by the Washington Bullets, and was part of a draft class that also included David Robinson, Reggie Miller, Scottie Pippen and Kevin Johnson, to name a few. In his rookie year, Bogues was a teammate of Manute Bol, at the time the tallest player to have ever played in the NBA, who stood 7'7" (2.31 m). As one might expect, Bol and Bogues appeared on at least one magazine cover together.
Charlotte Hornets
The Miami Heat and Charlotte Hornets were set to enter the NBA for the 1988-89 season, and on June 221988 Bogues was selected by the Hornets in the expansion draft. As Bogues settled in Charlotte, he established himself as an exceptional passer and a great ball-stealer. His size also helped him to be one of the fastest players on the court.
Bogues spent ten years in Charlotte as the Hornets, led by Alonzo Mourning and Larry Johnson, became one of the most popular teams in the NBA and a perennial playoff contender. Charlotte Hornets jerseys were worn by children all over United States and even in Australia, and Bogues' jersey was right up there in popularity with Mourning's and Johnson's. Bogues was a popular player on a popular team, despite the fact that he would never average more than 11.2 points per game in any of his NBA seasons.
Bogues made a cameo appearance in TV series Curb Your Enthusiasm playing himself, sharing a restroom with Larry David and Richard Lewis and nearly having an altercation with David after catching them looking at his penis while urinating.
In 1996, Bogues appeared in the movie Space Jam as one of several NBA players whose playing ability is stolen by the evil Monstars.
At 5'3", Bogues is the same height as the shortest WNBA basketball player, Debbie Black.
"Muggsy Bogues".
