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Muggsy Bogues talks about his 14-year NBA career, the obstacles he overcame, his documentary "Always Believe" and much more.

Muggsy Bogues on 14-year NBA career, overcoming obstacles, documentary

Tyrone Curtis "Muggsy" Bogues is a man of many things.&nbsp;
He was the drink stirrer of one of the greatest high school basketball teams <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evrEKGZl_kQ">ever</a>, a victim of the Monstars' <a href="https://youtu.be/pbnyVj2iVlw">banditry</a> and, most notably, the <a href="https://www.sportingnews.com/ca/nba/news/who-are-10-shortest-players-nba-history-mugsy-bogues-spud-webb-boykins/zjapq718gzek16uxepv5w284r">shortest</a> player to ever don an NBA uniform.&nbsp;
His professional life resembles the six degrees of Kevin Bacon in how intertwined it is with so many iconic players and moments in league history. He was on the Hornets when the <a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/406279-the-vlade-divac-effect-analyzing-the-ground-breaking-trade">infamous</a> Vlade-Divac-for-Kobe-Bryant transaction went down. He was in the gym the day Latrell Sprewell got <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egvyGi61exo">physical</a> with Coach P.J. Carlesimo. And he had a backstage pass to the rise of one of the most <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jq6AAD53_uM">transcendent</a> players in league history, Stephen Curry.&nbsp;
And now, he&rsquo;s finally decided to chronicle his tale in his upcoming book, "Muggsy: My Life from a Kid in the Projects to the Godfather of Small Ball."
&ldquo;I wrote [a book] early on in my life in <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Land-Giants-My-Life-Basketball/dp/0316101737">1994, </a>&nbsp;but this one has a lot more substance. [It&rsquo;s] a lot more about the way I impacted some of the players I played with, as well as some of the current players that [are] playing today,&rdquo; Bogues said.
But time has a way of muddling our ability to recall the past, and those unfamiliar with Bogues&rsquo; game may not realize that he was far more than a funhouse mirror phenomenon. He was a damn good professional basketball player for almost a decade and a half.
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Many critics point to his existence as a referendum against the talent pool of the Jordan era, but Bogues&rsquo; skillset &mdash; a game predicated on pushing the pace, passing and hounding people on defense &mdash; actually makes him a solid fit for the way the game is played today.
When asked how he would fare in 2022, Bogues acknowledged the tendency of humans to overestimate their own individual abilities. &ldquo;I think any NBA player feels like they can play in any era.&rdquo;&nbsp;
However, even with that caveat, his conviction was unwavering, culminating his response with an emphatic, &ldquo;Oh, absolutely!&rdquo;
At his best, Bogues was the quarterback of one of the fastest offensive attacks of the early 1990s. Under his guidance, the Charlotte Hornets finished top-four in pace every season from 1991 to 1994, per Basketball Reference.&nbsp;
Bogues wasn&rsquo;t just a speed demon zooming down the court with his head cut off. He was a steadying force capable of maintaining a well-oiled machine (the Hornets were <a href="https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/CHH/1997.html">fourth</a> in offensive efficiency in 1996-97).
In terms of individual numbers, Bogues ranked top-nine in Cerebro Sports&rsquo; Floor General Skills metric, a metric that explores passing ability while also factoring in usage, athleticism and feel, and he did that every year from 1989 to 1995.&nbsp;
And for the creation stans out there, he ranked in the top-10 in Ben Taylor&rsquo;s <a href="https://backpicks.com/metrics/box-creation/">Box Creation</a> metric (an estimate of open shots created for teammates per 100 possessions) every year during that time, except for 1991, when he finished 11th.&nbsp;
In Bogues' new book, Charles Oakley said this of his playmaking abilities: &ldquo;[I]n the pick-and-roll, he could turn the corner, get into the paint and drive.&rdquo; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;
In his heyday, Bogues leveraged his blink-and-you-might-miss-it speed to knife his way into the paint, force a collapse and ping-pong the ball over to his open teammates.&nbsp;
&ldquo;Penetration always hurts the defense," Bogues said. "I always had the understanding of how to get guys to think one way when I want to go the opposite.&rdquo;
That offensive aggressiveness was a big part of what made Bogues so valuable to his teams.
&ldquo;One of the things coaches always emphasized is that [they] don&rsquo;t want anyone getting in the heart of our defense. [So, as an offensive player], if you are able to do that, it puts your team at an advantage, and I was fortunate enough to be a penetrator my entire career."
An avid chess player nowadays, Bogues was playing a chess game of sorts on the basketball court long before he executed his first checkmate, treating his opponents like pieces on the board he could manipulate as he pleased:
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&ldquo;To me, it&rsquo;s just that simple. If I drive hard this way, I&rsquo;m going to make the defender have to collapse, and then that man right there is going to be open.&rdquo; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;
His 4.75:1 Assist-to-Turnover ratio is sublime and gives him a <a href="https://twitter.com/RobKSports/status/1100866647055831051?s=20&amp;t=BTkD4d0h9AIxVE3htZzNsA">higher mark</a> in this category than many of the all-time great facilitators.&nbsp;
He managed this ratio without having the elevated sight lines of a Magic Johnson or Oscar Robertson. Instead, Bogues used his physical dimensions to create a different type of ocular advantage.
&ldquo;They say Magic sees over top. [Well], I see around and through.&rdquo;
Despite his stature, his defense may have been the perfect counter to today&rsquo;s pace-and-space era because his main goal was to evaporate as much space as possible. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;
&ldquo;One thing about guards, they like a cushion. They don&rsquo;t like anyone crowding their space. I knew that drove folks crazy, so I became that pest on defense.&rdquo;&nbsp;
He likens his game on that end of the floor to Patrick Beverley in their shared ability to jam opponents up and annoy them for 94 feet:&nbsp;
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&ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard to see anyone out there of myself, but Patrick Beverley on defense is probably the closest. The way he irritates the players and gets all up in them, picking them up 94 feet and getting under their skin. He, defensively, is probably the only [comparison].&rdquo;&nbsp;
But like all people, Bogues is far more than his former job title. He is a multifaceted individual rich with layers of wisdom and life experience.&nbsp;
One thing that will dawn on readers is the candidness in Bogues&rsquo; storytelling approach. He never once holds back as he navigates readers through the various losses he&rsquo;s endured, the conflicts that persist in his most intimate relationships and his own most deep-seated insecurities.
Growing up in a low-income neighborhood in Baltimore with a father struggling to provide for his family as a stevedore in a dying industry, Bogues' early life runs parallel to many of the storylines discussed in the widely-popular Baltimore-based television show, "The Wire." Interestingly enough, his wife, Kim Bogues, later worked on the show and filled in as Kima&rsquo;s body double.&nbsp;
Bogues uses his narrative as an opportunity to outline the race dynamics that exist within American professional sports, highlighting all of its glaring hypocrisies.&nbsp;
&ldquo;How can they cheer me on the court and deride me off of it?&rdquo; Bogues asks in his book.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I always looked at this world as a human race as opposed to all the racial components that come with it. When you play sports, and you become teammates with people that don&rsquo;t even look like you, they become your brothers/sisters. You have the same goal/task at hand, and you're fighting the same fight. How can you have that affection for them and then not [have that same affection] for someone who is on the same side, just not in sports? A title should not be what makes a person like/accept you in the way you want to be accepted.&rdquo;
Even with his frustration, Bogues is optimistic about our potential as a society to correct the indifferences that have permeated from generation to generation.&nbsp;In the end, Bogues&rsquo; hope is that people will walk away from this novel with a thorough understanding of the power of resilience.
&ldquo;[In its essence], this book is about someone that had a passion and just chased it each and every day.&rdquo;
Through the name-calling, the physical limitations, the trades and the losses of loved ones, Bogues preserved and kept pushing forward.&nbsp;
&ldquo;In fifty-seven years of life, I&rsquo;ve had an opportunity to see quite a bit and experience quite a bit. [I] look at life in a light where we only get one, and we have to make the best out of it, each moment we have. Nothing is promised, nothing is given, and even if it was, we wouldn&rsquo;t want it anyways. We love earning it, we love working towards it and we love making it better, not only for [ourselves], but for others.&rdquo;
&ldquo;[It&rsquo;s about] having that resilience to where anything you feel you can accomplish, you should be able to go out there to accomplish. The only person holding you back is yourself. For me, being able to see it, and live it, and be a winner from it, I&rsquo;m always going to be able to embrace that and share that with others.&rdquo;
&ldquo;[I just want to] make sure we all know how important life is.&rdquo;
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Want to hear more from Muggsy Bogues? Check out his appearance on The Rex Chapman Show from June 2021. 
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Muggsy Bogues is most famous for his small stature, but in his new book, he discusses the journey that made him a huge star.

The Godfather of Small-Ball: Muggsy Bogues dishes out on new book

Desmond Bane and Ja Morant scored 25 points each, and the Memphis Grizzlies dominated the short-handed Chicago Bulls 119-106 on Monday afternoon for their 12th win in 13 games.
Brandon Clarke added 15 points and seven rebounds in the Grizzlies' main event of the 20th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis.
DeMar DeRozan led the Bulls with 24 points and five assists, Ayo Dosunmu had 15 points and Coby White finished with 16 points, six rebounds and five assists for Chicago, which lost its fourth straight.
Memphis built a double-digit lead in the second quarter and stretched the advantage to 23 in the third &mdash; and didn't stop there.
Memphis, which saw its 11-game winning streak end Friday in a loss to the Dallas Mavericks, outscored the Bulls 38-25 in the second quarter for a 58-45 lead at the break. Chicago also was stymied early by a dozen turnovers, allowing Memphis to benefit from its transition game.
The Bulls entered the day as the top team in the Eastern Conference, but were without key rotation players like Zach LaVine, Lonzo Ball and Alex Caruso. However, Chicago kept its top spot because Brooklyn lost to Cleveland on Monday.
TIP-INS
Bulls: Chicago has played Memphis five times in the Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Day Game. The teams split the previous four games. &hellip; LaVine missed his second game with left knee pain from an injury suffered against Golden State on Jan. 14. &hellip; Ball missed his second game, also with left knee soreness. Coach Billy Donovan said before the game that Ball flew back to Chicago to have the knee looked at by a doctor. &hellip; Chicago announced Monday it had waived two-way guard Devon Dotson. ... Dosunmu, a rookie, turned 22 Monday.
Grizzlies: As part of the day&rsquo;s celebration, the Grizzlies honored former NBA players Muggsy Bogues, Elvin Hayes and Allan Houston for their dedication to human and civil rights and the social justice movement. &hellip; Memphis missed all seven of 3-pointers in the first quarter. &hellip; Jaren Jackson Jr. left the floor with 9:20 left in the second quarter after taking a shot to the calf. He returned before halftime.
UP NEXT:
Bulls: Host Cleveland on Wednesday, Chicago's only home game over a six-game stretch.
Grizzlies: Open a four-game road trip Wednesday at Milwaukee.

Desmond Bane and Ja Morant scored 25 points each, and the Grizzlies dominated the shorthanded Bulls 119-106.

Bane, Morant score 25 apiece to lead Grizzlies past Bulls

The following article <a href="https://www.basketballnetwork.net/grant-hill-shares-why-he-feared-playing-against-muggsy-bogues/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">first appeared on Basketball Network</a>:
Muggsy Bogues was truly a remarkable athlete and once-in-a-lifetime player in the NBA. Standing at 5-foot-3, Bogues had a tremendous NBA career that lasted for 14 years despite him not having the height of your typical basketball player. He wasn&rsquo;t just a journeyman in the league, but was the starting point guard on a few really good teams in the 1990s, made a name for himself, and was a role model for kids because he showed that you don&rsquo;t have to be extremely tall and strong to be productive in the NBA.
However, despite his size, Bogues was a superior athlete by all other parameters, and Grant Hill had the opportunity to witness that firsthand. When matching up with Bogues throughout the years, Hill learned what made him one of the most dangerous guards of that era.
&ldquo;There were times when I, as premier ball-handler initiating the offense during my Detroit years, when we played Charlotte, you always wanted to know where Muggsy was," Hill said. "I didn&rsquo;t want to put the ball on the floor at all with him on the court. A lot of times, we would put Lindsey Hunter in the opposing corner, and that was our offense, just to keep Muggsy away from all the action. I think that at that size, to have that kind of impact on the game &mdash; you can&rsquo;t teach height, but you also can&rsquo;t teach heart. He played at that size and made a difference. Caused havoc defensively, offensively pushed the tempo, made great decisions. He wasn&rsquo;t really a three-point shooter but more of a mid-range, catch-and-shoot kind of guy.&rdquo;
Bogues was never the top-tier point guard in the NBA throughout the 1990s, but for a few seasons in a row, he averaged more than 10 points and 10 assists to go along with a couple of steals per game. That is pretty remarkable for someone shorter than your average high school kid. Hill hopes that the younger generations of NBA fans would learn more about Bogues and his career because it might serve as a source of inspiration for anybody that wants to become a professional basketball player.
&ldquo;He played in this NBA and played for a while and played on good teams, so one of a kind, and I think it&rsquo;s great we are honoring him and celebrating him and telling his stories, so today&rsquo;s generation can understand who Muggsy Bogues was and what he was all about.&rdquo;
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NBA TV recently aired Bogues' new documentary under the title "Always Believe," which tells a story about his life and career. Several NBA players like Stephen Curry were featured in the documentary, saying Muggsy was a significant source of inspiration for them on their path to becoming basketball players. Curry also has had a special bond with Bogues ever since he was a kid. His father, Dell, played with Bogues for a few years in Charlotte, so he had the opportunity to spend time with him off the court.
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5'3" on the court but a Giant to the game. So dope growing up in Charlotte watching him do it in person. No way he should have made it, but don't tell him that! All love Muggs! <a href="https://t.co/VfU5cN9XgT">https://t.co/VfU5cN9XgT</a>
&mdash; Stephen Curry (@StephenCurry30) <a href="https://twitter.com/StephenCurry30/status/1462305656103268354?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 21, 2021</a></blockquote>

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Clearly, Bogues' impact on the sport far exceeded his size.

Bogues carved out a productive NBA career despite standing just 5-foot-3.

Grant Hill shares why he feared playing against Muggsy Bogues

Muggsy Bogues told a funny story about a young Steph Curry on The Rex Chapman Show with Josh Hopkins.

Muggsy Bogues tells hilarious Steph Curry story

The following is an excerpt from "1996: A Biography &ndash; Reliving the Legend-Packed, Dynasty-Stacked Most Iconic Sports Year Ever" by Jon Finkel. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/1996-Reliving-Undefeated-Undisputed-Greatest/dp/1635767504/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=&amp;sr" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The book is available now on Amazon.</a>
To borrow a song title from Green Day (the perfect mid-90s band), picks seven through 12 of the 1996 NBA Draft were a boulevard of broken dreams for NBA executives. They contain a collection of men that run the gamut from &ldquo;solid pro&rdquo; to &ldquo;absolute bust&rdquo; and no matter how defensible the selection was at the time, within 24 months it was clear that, to be blunt, these six franchises missed. This isn&rsquo;t 2021 revisionist history. This is 1997-1998 near-immediate regret.
It&rsquo;s one thing as a general manager to look in the mirror and know that taking Allen Iverson or Marcus Camby or Shareef Abdur-Rahim or Stephon Marbury or Ray Allen or Antoine Walker with one of the first six picks of the &rsquo;96 draft was the right basketball call at the time. They all made the &rsquo;96-&rsquo;97 All-Rookie Team (1st or 2nd) and there were two bona fide Hall of Famers (Iverson and Allen) several all-stars (Abdur-Rahim, Marbury and Walker) and Camby was a 4x All-Defensive Team player.
It&rsquo;s quite another thing to know that from the seventh through 12th picks, you took one of these half-dozen guys:
<ul>
<li> Lorenzen Wright &ndash; L.A. Clippers</li>
<li> Kerry Kittles &ndash; New Jersey Nets</li>
<li> Samaki Walker &ndash; Dallas Mavericks</li>
<li> Erick Dampier &ndash; Indiana Pacers</li>
<li> Todd Fuller &ndash; Golden State Warriors</li>
<li> Vitaly Potapenko &ndash; Cleveland Cavaliers</li>
</ul>
Over Kobe Bryant. Or Steve Nash. Or Jermaine O&rsquo;Neal. Or even Peja Stojakovic. That&rsquo;s a clean 35 All-Star selections from picks 13 to 17 versus none from picks seven to 12.&nbsp;
Ooooof.
Even in the moment, there was a lack of, let&rsquo;s say, sexiness, to picks seven through 12. In person, Kittles was the fastest coast-to-coast player in basketball (my opinion but I&rsquo;m right) and showed flashes of excellence, but few projected him as an All-Star-caliber talent. Wright, Walker, Dampier and Potapenko became serviceable, and in some cases, solid NBA players. But as they came off the draft board, Hubie Brown and other 1996 NBA draft analysts used phrases like &ldquo;will help shore up the defense&rdquo; and &ldquo;this helps them get bigger&rdquo; and other vague, roster-rounding-out terms, rather than things like &ldquo;game changer&rdquo; and &ldquo;potential superstar&rdquo; and &ldquo;special talent&rdquo; which he, and other draft gurus, reserved for the man picked after all of these guys: Kobe Bryant.
It&rsquo;s worth noting here that just because Bryant wasn&rsquo;t discussed as a #1 overall pick, it&rsquo;s not as if nobody knew how good Bryant could be. In fact, a lot of people suspected he could be the prize of the draft: they just didn&rsquo;t have the guts to put their jobs on the line for a high school kid, or they got talked out of it, or bullied out of it, or both.
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John Calipari really, really, really wanted him. He worked him out three times, each time becoming more and more convinced that Bryant was going to be special. So why didn&rsquo;t he take him with the eighth pick? There are three versions: one of them involves Calipari, a first-time NBA head coach, pleading with ownership to take him, but getting turned down. He described the scenario like this:
&ldquo;I had the eighth pick in the draft, and everyone thought I was nuts,&rdquo; Calipari said. &ldquo;A 17-year-old kid, a high school kid who&rsquo;s just now getting to the NBA? It shows you don&rsquo;t know what you&rsquo;re doing.&rdquo;
Version two was described in Jeff Pearlman&rsquo;s excellent book, <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-rumors-shaquille-oneal-shaq-los-angeles-lakers-best-teammate-jeff-pearlman" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Three-Ring Circus</a>, and it involves Kerry Kittles&rsquo; agent strong-arming Calipari and telling him that if he didn&rsquo;t take Kittles&rsquo; (instead of Bryant), he&rsquo;d never let any other clients sign with the Nets.
Version three involves Kobe Bryant&rsquo;s agent, Arn Tellem, talking to Calipari and telling him that if he drafted Bryant, the teenager would never suit up for the Nets.
&ldquo;It was a calculated gamble," Tellem <a href="https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/charlotte-hornets/article239760573.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told The</a><a href="https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/charlotte-hornets/article239760573.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&nbsp;Charlotte Observer</a>.&nbsp;"I remember meeting with John Calipari and John Nash, pressing them not to take him if he fell. I left not knowing if they would pass. I thought they would pass, but didn't know.&rdquo;
In the end, it really doesn&rsquo;t matter which version is right, or even if it&rsquo;s a combination of all three. Calipari and the Nets didn&rsquo;t select Kobe Bryant and neither did the next four teams in line or any of the top-12 teams in the draft. It was only at Jerry West&rsquo;s urging, after a trade involving Lakers center Vlade Divac, that Kobe went off the board and found his way to the Lakers.
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West coveted Bryant like card collectors covet the Honus Wagner T206 and he planned to do whatever it took to land him. He worked with Tellem to limit Bryant&rsquo;s&rsquo; workouts. He massaged Vlade Divac&rsquo;s hesitation about going to Charlotte (Vlade once threatened to retire if traded).&nbsp;
As Bryant fell in the draft, West realized that his plan was coming to fruition when the Hornets selected him. And then the whole thing almost fell through because, well, someone on the Hornets said, &ldquo;Holy sh*t, we just got Kobe Bryant.&rdquo;
&ldquo;There was such excitement about the pick that Charlotte didn&rsquo;t want to go through with the deal,&rdquo; Mitch Kupchak, Los Angeles&rsquo; assistant general manager in 1996, said. &ldquo;There was a time there, whether it was Vlade (Divac threatening to retire) or just pressure on the franchise, where the deal was actually in jeopardy.&rdquo;
But it got done.
And instead of Bryant joining Anthony Mason, Glen Rice, Dell Curry and Muggsy Bogues in Charlotte, he teamed up with Shaq in Los Angeles and you know the rest.
***
With 25 years having passed since that epic day in East Rutherford, New Jersey, the legacy of the draft has been solidified.
Looking back on his class, Ray Allen says, &ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got to remember where our mindset was. We&rsquo;re walking into a league with Jordan, Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Reggie Miller, Hakeem Olajuwon, Scottie Pippen. There were some horses in this league that we were stepping into that we had been watching forever. We didn&rsquo;t think we were the next coming or next generation, but we were excited to be there.&rdquo;
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Allen explains that the toughest part about being drafted is balancing your excitement with any inclination to sit back and say, &ldquo;I made it." Guys who do that don&rsquo;t go far. He goes on to say that one thing that &rsquo;96 draft class shared was the mentality to keep pushing yourself and to self-motivate like you&rsquo;re on a mission.
&ldquo;When you look at myself, Nash, Kobe, Iverson, Marbury, Camby, Shareef, Jermaine, Peja, [Derek] Fisher, Walker, all these guys, they were all good to great in college [or high school] and scored a lot of points,&rdquo; Allen says. &ldquo;But they weren&rsquo;t in it to be famous or liked by everybody. It was evident in someone like Steve Nash, a white kid from Canada out of Santa Clara, he was on a mission. Kobe came in from high school and he was on a mission. Marbury wanted to prove what the legacy of New York City ballers could do, and he was on a mission. I came from meager beginnings and I was on a mission.&rdquo;
That was the big differentiator between past &ldquo;great draft classes." Rather than two or three or even five guys with the mindset to chase greatness, the &rsquo;96 class had a dozen.
&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the reason the &rsquo;96 draft class is thought of as one of the best,&rdquo; Allen says. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the mentality we had. We were all on a mission to be better than we were. For all of us, there was a constant search to win. Every year, the championship was a carrot we were chasing. I didn&rsquo;t win until my 12th season. It comes down to watching basketball in June or playing basketball in June. This class had a lot of guys play in June. We knew what it took.&rdquo;
<a href="https://twitter.com/jon_finkel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Follow Jon on Twitter: @Jon_Finkel</a>
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/1996-Reliving-Undefeated-Undisputed-Greatest/dp/1635767504/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=&amp;sr=" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Buy this book on Amazon: 1996: A Biography &ndash; Reliving the Legend-Packed, Dynasty-Stacked Most Iconic Sports Year Ever.</a> 
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Jon Finkel looks back at the 1996 NBA Draft, which included Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson, Steve Nash, Ray Allen, Jermaine O'Neal, etc.

Revisiting the star-studded 1996 NBA Draft: 'We were all on a mission'

Each day, BasketballNews.com scours #NBATwitter to bring you the best tweets from the previous day. Some are insightful, some are just hilarious (so we had to include them).
Without further ado, here are the tweets of the day for March 11, 2021.
Was It Worth It?
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Pistons turned Blake Griffin Tobias Harris Andre Drummond Reggie Jackson Into one second round pick 💀
&mdash; 𝒞𝒽𝓇𝒾𝓈 🦎 (@SlenderCRP) <a href="https://twitter.com/SlenderCRP/status/1369242864140492809?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 9, 2021</a></blockquote>

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The 2021 NBA Draft class is setting up to be one of the best in recent years, but is a second-round pick worth every notable name since the Bad Boy Pistons era? Guess we&rsquo;ll find out!
Finally
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Step 1: Spurs and LMA agree to part ways Step 2: Spurs buy out LMA Step 3: LMA signs with Lakers Step 4: LaMarc Gasaldridge starting frontcourt
&mdash; Adam Reisinger (@AdamReisinger) <a href="https://twitter.com/AdamReisinger/status/1369805742631452682?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 11, 2021</a></blockquote>

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My favorite game to play is &ldquo;What is the longest name you can make using NBA players&rdquo; so the thought of it actually coming to fruition is very pleasing to me. I&rsquo;m also still waiting for an all-headband lineup, but that will come.
Bring It Back
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Y&rsquo;all, I recently found these vintage WNBA denim overalls and they are officially the coolest thing I own 🔥 What&rsquo;s the most treasured <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WNBA?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WNBA</a> merch item you have?! I wanna see 👀 <a href="https://t.co/wYteAEhXRu">pic.twitter.com/wYteAEhXRu</a>
&mdash; wubble news (@NewsWubble) <a href="https://twitter.com/NewsWubble/status/1369695206141014019?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 10, 2021</a></blockquote>

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And sell it. And make it the uniform for the next All-Star Game.
Lil Fellas
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Legends <a href="https://t.co/dqRtUACOkQ">https://t.co/dqRtUACOkQ</a> <a href="https://t.co/JoX2bGEcqC">pic.twitter.com/JoX2bGEcqC</a>
&mdash; Pascal Gibern&eacute; (@PascalGibBN) <a href="https://twitter.com/PascalGibBN/status/1369942004415729667?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 11, 2021</a></blockquote>

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Nothing brings more joy than seeing basketball players maintain friendships long after their tenure in the league is done and over.
Big Tuna
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BIG DOUBLE-DOUBLE FOR JONAS VALANCIUNAS TONIGHT! 🙌🏼 <a href="https://t.co/BubVQa3Qoz">pic.twitter.com/BubVQa3Qoz</a>
&mdash; KJ (@kelwright) <a href="https://twitter.com/kelwright/status/1369852576561209345?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 11, 2021</a></blockquote>

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Jonas Valanciunas had a big game last night. Almost as big as these gigantic fish.
See a tweet that should be featured in our next Tweets of the Day piece? Send it to <a href="https://twitter.com/kelsea_lately" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@kelsea_lately</a>.

Every day, our Kelsea O'Brien scours #NBATwitter to find the best posts. Here are the tweets of the day for March 11, 2021.