THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 8, 1995 TAG: 9501030047
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BY TIM WARREN
LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines
IN THE LAND OF GIANTS
My Life in Basketball
TYRONE ``MUGGSY'' BOGUES WITH DAVID LEVINE
Little, Brown. 233 pp. $19.95.
WHEN TYRONE ``MUGGSY'' BOGUES was growing up in the Lafayette Court housing project in Baltimore, he and best friend Reggie Williams engaged in memorable battles in rec ball against a team that featured David Wingate and Reggie Lewis. The four were reunited on the Baltimore Dunbar High School teams of the early 1980s that won 59 games in a row, then became stars in college. All four went on to play in the National Basketball Association, a remarkable occurrence.
That Muggsy Bogues was a part of this group was especially remarkable because he is only 5 foot 3, the smallest player in the history of the NBA. As he notes in his engaging autobiography, In the Land of Giants, his mother was only 4 foot 11, his father 5 foot 6; ``I knew I had no chances of ever getting out of the five-foot range, no matter how hard I wished and dreamed about getting taller.''
Bogues never did get taller, but he certainly got better. Today, as a member of the Charlotte Hornets, he's one of the more accomplished point guards in the NBA and, for my money, one of the five most enjoyable players to watch. How can you not love a player who will challenge anybody, steal the ball from players a foot and a half taller or drive on a 7-footer? He's a player who works hard, knows the game and plays with enthusiasm.
That enthusiasm suffuses this book is one reason it is considerably better than the standard jock autobiography. As with most books in this genre, there is a co-author who, one assumes, did a lot of the actual writing. But even the best ghostwriter can't supply his subject's character, warmth or honesty. These traits are found in abundance in In the Land of Giants.
Bogues is forthcoming about such matters as the birth of his daughter when he was a senior in high school. ``I had no money, and I was just seventeen,'' he writes. ``I knew I didn't want to marry her mother. I had to grow up quickly.''
Then there was his father, Richard, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for armed robbery when Muggsy was 12.
``I understand now that when he wasn't at home, he was out hustling for whatever money he could make, doing whatever it took to make sure his family had enough to eat,'' Bogues writes. ``He got into some things he shouldn't have. He was selling drugs. He was committing stickups and robberies.'' But this is where character comes in. The young Muggsy stayed in touch with his father, concluding, ``I refused to let his being in prison affect my relationship with him in a negative way. . . We still had our conflicts, like most fathers and sons, but he was my dad first, last, and always.''
Bogues writes with mixed feelings about growing up in a housing project. He was raised by a close-knit, caring family, and he also learned that hard knocks can bring many lessons. ``It's an environment that can bring out the best in an individual, or the worst,'' he observes. ``I think for my family, it brought out the best.''
But the young Muggsy also saw the worst: the druggies and drug-dealing, the violence. He saw someone beat another man to death with a baseball bat, a memory that haunts him. He notes, ``For a long time I was afraid to walk past any row of bushes because a rat might jump out of it.''
He had a sterling career at Wake Forest University and led the U.S. team to a gold medal in the 1986 world basketball championships. Never a great scorer, he did all the things that point guards must do: He passed, played defense and set up his teammates. In the gold-medal game against the Soviet Union, he didn't score a point. But he had 10 steals, an extraordinary figure, and five assists.
Today, as he zips around the court for the Hornets, he creates havoc among much taller, better-known and better-paid players. In the Land of Giants is a fine book by a most improbable and appealing player. MEMO: Tim Warren is a writer who lives in Silver Spring, Md. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Muggsy Bogues
by CNB