The Charlotte Hornets announced Tuesday that they will retire Muggsy Bogues' No. 1 jersey on Feb. 11. The ceremony will place his number in the rafters of the Spectrum Center.
Bogues stands 5-foot-3, making him the shortest player the NBA has ever seen. Once his jersey is retired, he will also be the shortest player in league history to receive that honor, and by a considerable margin. The previous holder of that distinction was Calvin Murphy, a 5-foot-9 point guard who spent his whole career with the San Diego and later Houston Rockets.
Bogues starred in college at Wake Forest before the Washington Bullets selected him 12th overall in 1987. The pick gave him a memorable start to his professional career, as he shared a roster with the 7-foot-7 Manute Bol, who was then the tallest player in NBA history. Bol now shares that title with Gheorghe Mureșan.
Washington did not keep Bogues for long. The Bullets left him unprotected in the 1988 expansion draft, and the incoming Charlotte Hornets took him ahead of their first season.
The move paid off for Charlotte. Bogues became the team's full-time starting point guard during the 1989-90 season and kept the job through 1997. He never earned an All-Star selection and never averaged more than 11.1 points per game. Even so, he posted double-digit assist averages on multiple occasions and remains the franchise's all-time leader in steals.
His tenure overlapped with the most successful stretch in Hornets history. Bogues, Larry Johnson and Alonzo Mourning led the club to several postseason appearances during the 1990s.
Beyond basketball, Bogues is also remembered fondly for his part in Space Jam. He was one of five then-active NBA players whose talent was taken by the MonStars so they could take on Michael Jordan and the Looney Tunes.
Bogues will be the third member of the Hornets to have his jersey retired. He joins former teammates Bobby Phills, who died in a car accident in 2000, and Dell Curry, who remains with the organization as a broadcaster.
