Early Life
Tyrone “Muggsy” Bogues was born January 9, 1965, in Baltimore, Maryland. During his high school junior and senior years, he led Dunbar to gain rank as one of the top high school team in the United States. He graduated from Wake Forest where the school retired his jersey number. Muggsy was selected 12th in the first round of the NBA draft by the Washington Bullets. He retired from the NBA ranking 16th among all time assist leaders.
Bogues was the youngest child of Richard and Elaine Bogues. Muggsy grew up along with his two brothers, Richard and Anthony and one sister Sherron in the Lafayette Public housing projects of the city’s east side. There he earned his nickname “Muggsy” from neighborhood playmates.
"Muggsy"
Among his childhood playmates were future NBA players Reggie Williams and David Wingate. He and his friends practiced slam dunks with an open-bottomed milk crate hung on a fence. A coach named Leon Howard steered Muggsy towards organized sports, and Muggsy got another break when he was able to transfer from Baltimore’s Southern High School to Dunbar High, a school with a top-flight basketball program. Dunbar star Dwayne Woods dubbed Bogues “Muggsy”, telling him that his physical style of play reminded him of a mugging.
NBA Career
Muggsy was selected 12th in the first round of the NBA draft by the Washington Bullets. He gained plenty of attention with his unique ball handling skills; he could maintain a legal dribble so close to the ground that his knuckles dragged on the floor; and with his high jumper range 44 inch leaps on the court. But the Bullets were among the teams that did not know how to exploit Muggsy talent, and his playing time declined as the season went on. As a result, the Bullets didn’t shield him from the expansion draft that occurred when NBA added teams for the 1988-89 sea.
Muggsy was drafted by the Charlotte Hornets. He raised his points-per game average to ten in the 1992-93 season and helped lead the Hornets to their first ever appearance in the NBA playoffs. They made the playoffs again in 1995. Muggsy was sidelined by knee injuries for much the 1995-96 season, but he bounced back the following year, leading the NBA with an assist per turnover ration of 4.34. Despite his popularity with the Charlotte fans, especially young ones, he was traded to the Golden State Warriors early in the 1997-98 season.