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Top 10 Shortest NBA Players In The World

In the history of NBA players, Muggsy Bogues happen to be the shortest player. He has a height of 5ft 3 equivalent to 1.60m.

Published

2 years ago

November 21, 2022

Olaitan Salam

Who are the shortest NBA players in the world?

In the history of NBA players, Muggsy Bogues happen to be the shortest player. He has a height of 5ft 3 equivalent to 1.60m, his height is even lower than the average American male height.

As we have always seen and heard, Basketball is played mainly by tall players. In fact, height is the key factor considered in the selection of basketball players. The average height of basketball players used to be 6’7” in the era between 1985 and 2006.

The two of the tallest NBA players to appear in Basketball belonged to Romania’s team Gheorghe Muresan and Sudan’s Manute Bol, who both towered at 7’7”. Still, there are rule-breakers who played Basketball despite being the shortest NBA player of all time.

Here in this article, RNN will highlight the list of the shortest NBA players in the world

No.	Name	Nationality	Height
1	Muggsy Bogues	USA	5ft 3 in (1.60m)
2	Earl Boykins	USA	5ft 5 in (1.65m)
3	Mel Hirsch	USA	5ft 6 in (1.68m)
4	Spud Webb	USA	5ft 7 in (1.70m)
5	Greg Grant	USA	5ft 7 in (1.70m)
6	Keith Jennings	USA	5ft 7 in (1.70m)
7	Red Klotz	USA	5ft 7 in (1.70m)
8	Wataru Misaka	USA	5ft 7 in (1.70m)
9	Monte Towe	USA	5ft 7 in (1.70m)
10	Charlie Criss	USA	5ft 8 in (1.73m)

1. Muggsy Bogues – 5ft 3 inch (1.60m)

Tyrone Curtis Bogues popularly known as Muggsy Bogues was born on January 9, 1965, and is a former NBA player. He is the shortest player ever to play in the National Basketball Association (NBA), 5ft 3 in (1. 60m) Moggsy played point guard for four teams during his 14-season career in the NBA. Although best known for his ten seasons with the Charlotte Hornets, he also played for the Washington Bullets, Golden State Warriors, and Toronto Raptors. Bogues finished in the top seven in assists in six consecutive seasons (1989–1995), and in the top ten in steals in three of those seasons. He had 146 career NBA double-doubles. After his NBA career, he served as head coach of the now-defunct Charlotte Sting of the WNBA.

In addition to basketball, Bogues was a standout wrestler and baseball player growing up. As a child playing basketball on playgrounds, he was nicknamed “Muggsy” after a diminutive character from The Bowery Boys. Bogues initially attended and played basketball at Southern High School in Baltimore. Because Bogues aspired to be a dental technician, he transferred to Baltimore’s Dunbar High School which offered healthcare classes. He was a teammate of future NBA players David Wingate, Reggie Williams and Reggie Lewis (the latter two of whom were in his graduating class). The Dunbar Poets finished the 1981–82 season at 29–0 during Bogues’s junior year and finished 31–0 during his senior year in 1982–83, and were ranked first in the nation by USA Today.

2. Earl Boykins – 5ft 5 inch (1.65m)

Earl Antoine Boykins born June 2, 1976, is a former American professional basketball player. Standing at 5 feet, 5 inches in height, he is the second-shortest player in NBA history behind Muggsy Bogues, who is 5 feet, 3 inches tall. He was the head coach for the Douglas County High School boy’s varsity basketball team. He is now serving as an assistant coach for the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) Miners.

Willie Williams, earl’s father would sneak Boykins into a gym in his gym bag. Boykins grew up playing in recreational leagues with his father and other grown men. Boykins played high school basketball at Cleveland Central Catholic High School where he averaged 24.6 points per game and led the school to a 23–2 record as a senior. He played college basketball at Eastern Michigan University from 1944 to 1998. Eastern Michigan won the MAC tournament in 1996 and 1998. He earned All-Mid-American Conference first-team honours in his junior and senior years. Also, during his senior season, Boykins was second in the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Championship in scoring, with an average of 26.8 points per game. He holds the career record for total assists (624) at Eastern Michigan University. In his last game, he scored 18 points in a losing effort to Michigan State.

3. Mel Hirsch – 5ft 6 inch (1.68m)

Melvin M. Hirsch born July 31, 1921 – December 1968, was an American professional basketball player. He played for the Boston Celtics of the Basketball Association of America (BAA), which would later become the National Basketball Association (NBA), for 13 games in the 1946–47 season. At 5 feet 6 inches tall, he was the shortest player in NBA history until Muggsy Bogues more than 40 years later. He is the third shortest NBA player of all time, after Bogues and Earl Boykins. Hirsch has scored19 points and was credited with 10 assists over the course of his career. He also served in the US Army Air Corps in the 1940s. Hirsch died at the age of 47 from Leukemia.

4. Spud Webb – 5ft 7 inch (1.70m)

Anthony Jerome “Spud” Webb born July 13, 1963, is an American former professional basketball player. Webb, who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA), is known for winning a Slam Dunk Contest despite being one of the shortest players in NBA history, is listed at 5 ft 7 in (170 cm) tall. He is currently the president of basketball operations for the Texas Legends, the NBA G League team for the Dallas Mavericks in Frisco, Texas.

He was raised in a small two-bedroom home and saw basketball as an inspiration. Webb was not tall, but he used his quickness and jumping ability to outplay bigger kids. Starting in the seventh grade, Webb was told that he was too short to play basketball. He got a chance to play on his junior high team only after two players did not complete the physical exam requirements in time for the first game. Webb scored 22 points in his first game. He could dunk the ball when he was 5 ft 3 in (1.60 m) tall.

5. Greg Grant – 5ft 7 inch (1.70m)

Greg Grant was born August 29, 1966, and is a former American Professional basketball player. Growing up in a broken home, Grant worked in a fish market while in high school. After being discovered at the local playground, the 5’7″ (1.70 m) point guard enrolled at Trenton State College (now The College of New Jersey, or TCNJ for short) in 1986, and led Division III in scoring in 1989.

That same year he was selected with the 52nd overall pick by the Phoenix Suns in the NBA Draft. He spent nine years in the NBA, playing for six different teams. Grant now runs a sports academy in Trenton. He also offers one-on-one instructions and clinics.

With the help of writer (and fellow Trenton native) Martin Sumners, Grant detailed his unlikely journey from the playgrounds to college and all the way to the NBA in his autobiography, 94 Feet and Rising: The Journey of Greg Grant to the NBA and Beyond, released on July 17, 2009.

6. Keith Jennings – 5ft 7 inch (1.70m)

Keith Russell “Mister” Jennings born November 2, 1968, is an American basketball coach, who formerly played professionally in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and overseas in European leagues. Jennings spent three seasons in the NBA with the Golden State Warriors playing in 164 games and averaging 6.6 points and 3.7 assists per game. Jennings, who was 5 feet 7 inches tall, played abroad later on with clubs such as Real Madrid, Fenerbache and Strasbourg.

7. Red Klotz – 5ft 7 inch (1.70m)

Red Klotz October 21, 1920 – July 12, 2014, was an American professional basketball player. He was a National Basketball Association (NBA) point guard with the original Baltimore Bullets, and he was best known for forming the teams that play against and tour with the Harlem Globetrotters: the Washington Generals and the New York Nationals. He was the oldest-living NBA champion. Over Klotz’s professional basketball career, he coached or played in over 14,000 games during eight decades and in over 100 countries.

Klotz was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, into a Jewish family. He began playing basketball at age 12. Red attended South Philadelphia High School where he led the school team to city basketball championships in 1939 and 1940, both times earning Philadelphia Player of the Year honours. He attended Villanova University on an athletic scholarship, playing on the undefeated freshman basketball team. Red left college for World War II, serving stateside.

8. Wataru Misaka – 5ft 7 inch (1.70m)

Wataru Misaka born December 21, 1923 – November 20, 2019, was an American professional basketball player. A 5-foot-7-inch (1.70 m) point guard of Japanese descent, he achieves the colour barrier in professional basketball by being the first non-white player and the first player of Asian descent to play in the National Basketball Association (NBA), known then as the Basketball Association of America (BAA).

Misaka played college basketball for the Utah Utes and led the team to win the 1944 NCAA and 1947 NIT championships. He took a two-year hiatus between these titles to serve in the United States Army in the American occupation of Japan. Misaka subsequently played three games for the New York Knicks during the 1947–48 season.

He grew up poor with his two younger brothers. His family lived in the basement of his father’s barbershop between a bar and a pawn shop in a bad area on 25th Street, which was also rife with prostitution. He recalled the neighbourhood as being a “ghetto”.

9. Monte Towe – 5ft 7 inch (1.70m)

Monte Corwin Towe born September 27, 1953, is an American basketball coach and retired basketball player. He was a starting point guard on the 1973–74 North Carolina State Wolfpack men’s basketball team which won the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship. At five feet seven inches, Towe is also one of the ten shortest players in NBA history.

Towe attended Oak Hill High School in Converse, graduating in 1971. There, he played golf, shooting in the eighties. He also starred on the basketball team, baseball team, and football team earning All-Area honours for the latter two. As a quarterback, he led the Oak Hill football team to two undefeated seasons, for a total of eighteen consecutive victories. He attended North Carolina State University, graduating with a B.A. in 1975. At NC State, he played varsity basketball from 1972 through 1975 and varsity baseball from 1972 through 1974.

10. Charlie Criss – 5ft 8 inch (1.73m)

Charles Washington Criss, Jr. born November 6, 1948, is an American former professional basketball player born in Valhalla, New York. A 5’8″ guard from New Mexico State University, Criss began his professional career in the Continental Basketball Association, earning league Most Valuable Player honours with the Scranton Apollos in 1976, next playing for the Washington Generals He joined the Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association the following year, and played eight seasons in the league with the Hawks, San Diego Clippers and Milwaukee Bucks. When he entered the NBA, Criss was the league’s shortest active player.

In his NBA career, Criss averaged 8.5 points and 3.2 assists per game, his best year being his first, posting averages of 11 points and 4 assists in 77 matches. Since retiring as a player, he worked as a golf instructor, an Atlanta Hawks television colour commentator, a minor-league basketball coach and a basketball summer camp coordinator.