For people in the Triangle, it may come as a big surprise that people in the NBA didn’t know that Spud Webb could jump.
People in the Triangle knew. We heard the stories first, that this 5-7 kid from Midland Junior College could really get up off the ground, but no one understood that his vertical might be as high as 47”. That, combined with his insane quickness, made him a real threat.
But he was still 5-7, and there have only been a handful of NBA players that small who had significant careers. Think Earl Boykins and Muggsy Bogues, or Wat Misaka, the first non-Caucasian to play in the NBA (Misaka, who grew up in Utah, didn’t actually have a great NBA career, but he did have an extraordinary journey.