If you're looking for the ultimate underdog story, Muggsy Bogues is your guy. At just 5'3", the former NBA point guard redefined what it meant to play in the NBA, going toe-to-toe with giants.
But the story of the shortest player ever didn't start with him getting drafted 12th overall in 1987; it goes way back to when he was just five years old and barely survived a life scare.
Rough beginnings
Before the NBA, Bogues had already survived a near-fatal incident that could've ended everything before it even began. Growing up in Baltimore's housing projects neighborhood, life threw Muggsy challenges left and right, including being shot at the age of 5.
On Mark Jackson's "Come And Talk 2 Me" podcast, Bogues recalled that he joined other kids in his neighborhood doing what youngsters usually do, fooling around before the situation escalated.
"Just being in the wrong place at the wrong time," Bogues recalled of his life-changing story. "A fight had broken out outside our apartment building, and me at the age of 5, just being nosy, looking out the window, wanted to go see what's going on because my brother and my sister was already outside."
Related: Lawrence Taylor recalls Michael Jordan begging for foul calls during their UNC scrimmages: "I just hit you a little bit, come on, man"
Close call
Growing up in such neighborhoods isn't exactly easy. Crime and hardship were part of the everyday scenery, and the former Charlotte Hornets star almost became another name on the endless list of young and old people lost due to the project's streets.
"One of the kids took a rock and broke one of the men who owned this bar; [broke] his window," Bogues added. "So the old man just came running out of the store and went straight to his shed as opposed to just coming out and talking to the youngsters… he just grabbed his double-barreled shotgun, and we all just started running. He pumped it and just started shooting; luckily for me, the bullet missed my head, but all the buckshot hit me all over."
That wasn't the only harrowing experience Bogues had while growing up. He had witnessed a man being beaten to death, and by the time he was 12, his father had been locked up in jail for 20 years after an armed robbery charge.
But somehow, Muggsy went to college and became a pro, playing 14 seasons and averaging a modest 7.7 points per game in the NBA. The former NBA star became the Hornets' all-time leader in both assists (5,557) and steals (1,067).
Related: "I'd see guys get really frustrated, which is what you want when you're a pest" - Muggsy Bogues loved it when players got annoyed while playing him
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