They say you can’t teach height. If you could, Muggsy Bogues probably would have taken a lesson or two. Without the benefits of a vertical education, the 5-foot-3 point guard still managed to last more than a decade in the NBA as the shortest player in league history.
Through his career, which spanned 14 years and four teams, Bogues showed fans everywhere that basketball is about more than your measurables. And he’s not the only one who’s been able to carve out a career — or a cup of coffee — in the Association. In a sport that rewards size and length, there have been 10 players in NBA history listed under 5-foot-8. They range from athletes who didn’t even last a full season to a Slam Dunk champion in Spud Webb.
Here are the 10 shortest players in NBA history:
10. Monte Towe, 5-Foot-7
GettyMonte Towe.
- Team:
- Denver Nuggets (1975-77)*
- Stats:
- 151 games
- 2.8 points per game
- 1.9 assists per game
- 40% FG
* The Nuggets played in the ABA during the 1975-76 season.
Towe spent half of his pro career in the ABA, but the Nuggets’ transition to the NBA makes him eligible for this list. Though he only played one season in the NBA, Towe is a legend in North Carolina, where he was the starting point guard on the 1974 National Champion NC State Wolfpack.
He and David Thompson are credited with inventing the alley-oop as a workaround during an era where dunking was banned in college basketball.
9. Markquis Nowell, 5-Foot-7
GettyMarkquis Nowell.
- Teams:
- Toronto Raptors (2023-24)
- Houston Rockets (2024-present)
- Stats:
- 1 game
- 4 minutes
- 0-1 FG
Nowell‘s work as a pro is far from done. He entered the NBA fresh off one of the most memorable runs in recent March Madness history, leading Kansas State to the Elite Eight. The native New Yorker returned home for the 2023 NCAA regionals, where he set the NCAA Tournament single-game record for assists in a Sweet 16 overtime win over Michigan State at Madison Square Garden.
He hasn’t had much of a chance to make a name for himself in the NBA, playing just one game with the Raptors before the team waived him in March. The Houston Rockets picked him up, however, giving him another chance to make his NYC point god moxie stick in the NBA.
8. Wat Misaka, 5-Foot-7
Wikimedia CommonsWat Misaka.
- Team:
- New York Knicks (1947-48)
- Stats:
- 3 games
- 2.3 PPG
- 23% FG
Before there was Damian Lillard — or even Harold “The Show” Arceneaux — Misaka was the pride of the Weber State Wildcats (and later the Utah Utes). Though his NBA career was even shorter than he was, it was significant. In 1947, he became the first non-Caucasian player and first Asian-American player ever to suit up in the BAA (the Basketball Association of America, whose history the NBA claims).
7. Red Klotz, 5-Foot-7
Heavy on NBA with AIRed Klotz likeness.
- Team:
- Baltimore Bullets (1947-48)
- Stats:
- 11 games
- 1.4 PPG
- 0.6 APG
- 23% FG
- Awards:
- 1988 BAA Champion (Bullets)
Though Klotz played only 11 games in the BAA, he made significant contributions to the league and game as a whole. Notably, he is the shortest player ever on an NBA (or BAA) championship team. Outside of the Association, he played for the Philadelphia Sphas, one of the few teams to ever beat the Harlem Globetrotters more than once. Klotz later created the Washington Generals, the team that would tour with the Globetrotters and win only two games while losing more than 14,000.
6. Keith Jennings, 5-Foot-7
Keith Jennings.
- Team:
- Golden State Warriors (1992-95)
- Stats:
- 164 games
- 6.6 PPG
- 3.7 APG
- 1.5 RPG
- 44% FG
- 37% 3PT
Jennings lasted three seasons with the Warriors and made an impact on basketball around the world. After going undrafted, he caught on with the Warriors where he appeared in 164 games before the Raptors drafted him in the 1995 expansion draft. He never suited up in Toronto, but went overseas to win the French League MVP award in 1999.
A two-time Southern Conference player of the year at East Tennessee State, Jennings has been an assistant coach at Division II Less-McRae since 2014, serving on the men’s basketball staff until 2017 and on the women’s staff in the years since then.
5. Greg Grant, 5-Foot-7
Greg Grant.
- Teams:
- Phoenix Suns (1989-90)
- New York Knicks (1990-91)
- Charlotte Hornets (1991-92)
- Philadelphia 76ers (1991-92, 1992-93, 1995-96)
- Washington Bullets (1995-96)
- Denver Nuggets (1994-95, 1995-96)
- Stats:
- 274 games
- 2.8 PPG
- 2.7 APG
- 0.9 RPG
- 38% FG
If you need proof that just about anybody can make it in the NBA (provided you’re naturally gifted and more skilled at basketball than 99% of the population), look no further than Grant. At 5-foot-7 and coming from Division III TCNJ, he’s not exactly the prototypical player who lasts in the NBA for the better part of a decade. The 1999 Division III Player of the Year, he later became a high school coach and served on the coaching staff at his alma mater.
4. Mel Hirsch, 5-Foot-6
Wikimedia CommonsMel Hirsch April 9, 1945, during WWII, while playing on the U.S. Army Air Corps 13th Troop Carrier Squadron’s officers team against the enlisted men for the 403rd Group Championship, on Biak Island, New Guinea.
- Team:
- Boston Celtics (1946-47)
- Stats:
- 13 games
- 1.5 PPG
- 0.8 APG
Hirsch played 13 games in the BAA, coming into the league as a rookie three years removed from his Brooklyn College days. During the time in between, he served in the US Army Air Corps.
3. Spud Webb, 5-Foot-6
GettySpud Webb.
- Teams:
- Atlanta Hawks (1985-91, 1995-96)
- Sacramento Kings (1991-95)
- Minnesota Timberwolves (1996)
- Orlando Magic (1998)
- Stats:
- 814 games
- 9.9 PPG
- 5.3 APG
- 2.1 RPG
- 45% FG
- 31% 3PT
- 85% FT
- Awards:
- 1986 Slam Dunk Contest winner
Few players under 6 feet tall are more accomplished than Webb, and it’s virtually guaranteed that no other player on this list could have won an NBA Slam Dunk Contest. Webb’s 1986 Dunk Contest win wasn’t just a result of the gimmick — a 5-foot-6 player going up against players more than a foot taller than him. Webb was athletic enough to make his dunks every bit as creative as his competitors’.
Outside the Dunk Contest, Webb scored more than 8,000 points in his career and tallied more than 4,000 assists. He is now the President of Basketball Operations for the Texas Legends, the Dallas Mavericks‘ G League affiliate.
2. Earl Boykins, 5-Foot-5
GettyEarl Boykins.
- Teams:
- New Jersey Nets (1999)
- Cleveland Cavaliers (1999, 2000)
- Orlando Magic (1999)
- Los Angeles Clippers (2001-02)
- Golden State Warriors (2002-03)
- Denver Nuggets (2003-07)
- Milwaukee Bucks (2007, 2011)
- Charlotte Bobcats (2008)
- Washington Wizards (2009-10)
- Houston Rockets (2012)
- Stats:
- 652 games
- 8.9 PPG
- 3.2 APG
- 1.3 RPG
- 42% FG
- 35% 3PT
In two NBA stints with a stop in Italy in between, Boykins played for a third of all current NBA franchises (the Bobcats are now the Hornets). His best seasons came with the Nuggets in the early 2000s, where he placed in the top 5 of Sixth Man of the Year voting in three straight years.
Outside of the NBA, Boykins won a EuroChallenge championship in 2009 and his No. 11 hangs in the rafters at his alma mater, Eastern Michigan.
1. Muggsy Bogues, 5-Foot-3
.GettyMuggsy Bogues.
- Teams:
- Washington Bullets (1987-88)
- Charlotte Hornets (1988-97)
- Golden State Warriors (1997-99)
- Toronto Raptors (1999-01)
- Stats:
- 889 games
- 7.7 PPG
- 7.6 APG
- 2.6 RPG
- 46% FG
- 28% 3PT
- 83% FT
Bogues takes the cake as the shortest player to ever play in the NBA, yet he was able to make it more games than anyone else on this list. Though he was one of the best distributors in the league during his prime, perhaps his greatest accomplishment came in 1993 when he blocked a shot attempt from 7-footer Patrick Ewing.
Since retiring from the NBA, Bogues has remained involved in the game — and in the North Carolina community. He was the final coach of the WNBA‘s Charlotte Sting, has his number retired at Wake Forest, served as a brand ambassador for the Hornets during their 2014 rebrand, and is a member of the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame.
Comments
The 10 Shortest NBA Players of All Time