Not height, but talent: top 5 short NBA players
This 1xBet review highlights five basketball players who succeeded in the NBA despite their anthropometric profiles.
Muggsy Bogues (160 cm)
It’s hard to believe, but American Muggsy Bogues, standing just 160 cm tall, carved out a solid NBA career and won a gold medal at the 1986 World Championship. Muggsy is the nickname of Tyrone Curtis, derived from the English word mugger. He turned his height into a weapon, stealing the ball from much taller opponents while dribbling. Here are Muggsy’s career averages per game:
- points – 7.7;
- rebounds – 2.6;
- assists – 7.6;
- steals – 1.5.
Over a 14-year professional career, Bogues played 889 games and recorded 39 blocked shots. In the 1987-88 season, he was teammates with Manute Bol, one of the tallest players in NBA history. The height difference between them was 71 cm.
Spud Webb (170 cm)
Most scouts believed Spud’s ceiling was playing in Europe or joining the Harlem Globetrotters, where a 170 cm man could entertain crowds with flashy tricks. The experts were wrong. Webb was selected in the fourth round of the 1985 NBA Draft by the Detroit Pistons. However, Detroit already had plenty of guards on its roster, so the front office didn’t oppose his move to Atlanta. With the Hawks, Spud quickly became a starter, and on March 5, 1991, he scored a career-high 32 points in a 139-127 win over the Denver Nuggets. Two years later, playing for the Sacramento Kings, he put up 34 points, a new personal best.
Webb made NBA history by winning the 1986 NBA Slam Dunk Contest during All-Star Weekend. He amazed the crowd with a variety of dunks: an elevator two-handed double pump dunk, an off-the-backboard one-handed jam, a 360-degree helicopter one-handed dunk, a reverse double-pump slam, and finally, a reverse two-handed jam from a lob bounce off the floor. In the final round, Spud defeated his teammate and world basketball legend Dominique Wilkins (204 cm).
Calvin Murphy (175 cm)
Calvin Murphy is a rare one-club man in professional basketball. He began his NBA career with the San Diego Rockets in 1970. In 1971, the franchise relocated to Houston, where the guard remained until retiring in 1983. More than 50 years ago, Houston wasn’t considered a basketball city, but thanks to Murphy’s talent, the sport gained thousands of new fans.
Calvin dominated the team’s play — it’s no surprise that supporters packed the arena to watch him play. Over 13 seasons, Murphy appeared in 1,002 games, a record among players 175 cm tall or shorter. He averaged nearly 18 points per game and became the shortest player inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and to play in an NBA All-Star Game.
Isaiah Thomas (175 cm)
Let’s be clear: the fourth hero of the 1xBet pagsusuri (1xBet review) is Isaiah Thomas, born in 1989, not his namesake, who was born 28 years earlier. This guard’s career path differs significantly from that of Calvin Murphy. Over 12 years, Isaiah has played for 10 teams, traveling coast to coast across the NBA. His professional career began with the Sacramento Kings in 2011, and his prime came with the Boston Celtics (2015-2017). During the 2015-16 campaign, he appeared in all 82 regular-season games for the Celtics. However, at the team level, the highest achievements remained out of reach. Still, Isaiah Thomas made history as the shortest player earn multiple NBA All-Star Team selections and record a triple-double.
Yuki Kawamura (175 cm)
Yuki Kawamura makes the list because he is an active player. This 24-year-old Japanese guard tried to establish himself in Memphis and Chicago, but, unable to withstand the competition, he was assigned to the Grizzlies’ and Bulls’ G League affiliates. Given his age, it’s fair to say that his best years are yet to come.
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