YouTube Gold: Muggsy Bogues’ First NBA Three Pointer
Probably not what you were expecting
If you look at the really elite NBA players over the years, how many can you say are one of a kind that could never happen again?
Consider Wilt Chamberlain. Possibly. Magic Johnson? Well yeah...there could be another. Larry Bird? Sure. Michael Jordan? Talent wasn’t what set Jordan apart. Kobe wasn’t all that far off of Jordan really. LeBron? Kareem? Bill Walton? Alan Iverson? Tim Duncan?
They were all phenomenal players, but arguably the only one on that list who we probably couldn’t see a relatively close facsimile of is Chamberlain - but you could argue that Shaquille O’ Neal was close enough and we’d buy that.
Sort of, anyway.
There is one guy though who was so utterly unique that we will almost certainly never see another guy like him again and that guy was...drum roll...
Muggsy Bogues, who starred in college at Wake Forest.
At just 5-3, Bogues terrified his taller rivals. There are clips of him stripping Michael Jordan after Jordan taunted him, of him blocking a shot by 7-0 Patrick Ewing. The late Temple coach John Cheney once said that trying to guard him was like trying to take the ball from a groundhog.
Although he was just 5-3, Bogues was unbelievably powerful and had a 44” vertical. Most NBA players have some serious ups.
But it didn't help defendenders on this play. Watch as Bogues goes up and launches a buzzer beater from the backcourt against - we think - John Lucas, who, aside from starring at Maryland, is Jai Lucas’s dad.
To top it off, this was his first NBA three pointer.