CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The smallest player in NBA history is getting one of the biggest honors the Charlotte Hornets can give. The team said Tuesday that the No. 1 worn by Muggsy Bogues will go up in the rafters during a halftime ceremony on Feb. 11, when Charlotte hosts the Milwaukee Bucks.
Bogues, listed at 5-foot-3, becomes only the third Hornets player to have a number retired. He joins Bobby Phills, who wore No. 13, and Dell Curry, who wore No. 30.
His path to Charlotte started elsewhere. Washington picked him 12th overall in the 1987 draft, one slot after Indiana chose Reggie Miller. A year later Charlotte took him when the 1988 expansion draft stocked its first roster, and he has made the Carolinas his home base ever since, long after his playing days ended.
Over parts of 14 NBA seasons, Bogues also suited up for Golden State, Washington and Toronto, but most of his career came in teal. His career line settled at 7.7 points a game, with 7.6 assists a night. In the 1993-94 season his scoring and assist averages both reached double figures on a Charlotte roster that also featured Larry Johnson, Alonzo Mourning and Curry.
Those early Hornets teams won 50 games in three straight seasons and gave the franchise its first playoff series win in 1993. Bogues had 19 assists in a game on three separate occasions and topped out at 24 points three times.
Before the pros, he starred at Dunbar High in Baltimore and at Wake Forest, and he was the top assist and steals man for the U.S. squad that took gold at the 1986 FIBA World Championship.
Now 61, Bogues credited the franchise and himself with raising each other’s profile, and he called the city the place he has thought of as home more than any other, including Baltimore.
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