Wednesday, July 6th, 2011 at 3:02 pm  |  83 responses

Videos: Best Undersized Guards

Iverson, Hardaway, Murphy and more…

One of the most widely accepted beliefs among fans is that the NBA game is played above the rim; if you don’t have a freakishly athletic frame or have trouble grabbing the rim, you’re probably better suited for the NCAA or overseas. To be honest, this is the truth. Undersized guys are underdogs. The odds are pinned against them, and more times than not, these guys fail at the NBA level.

But then there are the select few who don’t make excuses; the guys who look in the mirror and pay zero attention to their height and wingspan; the guys who simply don’t care. Above are videos of the 10 best undersized guards in the history of our game. To counteract their lack of size, these shorties had to perfect other aspects of their games, whether it be a killer crossover, fade-away jumpshot, quick hands, or exceptional court awareness. There’s no definitive ranking here, but all of the names below can be found in SLAM’s 500 Greatest NBA Players Of All Time.

The main hurdle in compiling the best undersized players was, well, determining who and what is considered “undersized”. For this list, we set the bar at six feet (6-0) or shorter, and used Basketball Reference as the measuring stick. That means if you’re 6-1 or 6-2 according to BR, you were left off the list. Several guys fell into this category, including Nate ‘Tiny’ Archibald, Bob Cousy, Nick Van Exel, and Kevin Johnson.

There were numerous height-challenged players who attained remarkable goals and achieved special accomplishments throughout their careers, so molding together a list of 10 was no easy task. As the famous addage goes, “it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog”, and there’s no better way to represent that than these video clips.—Eldon Khorshidi

Honorable Mention: Muggsy Bogues, Anthony ‘Spud’ Webb, Earl Boykins, Brevin Knight, Speedy Claxton, Mark Price

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  • Armando

    Chris Paul is better now than what KJ was.

  • http://sdjfklf.com Jukai

    Armando: Well, Chris Paul circa 2008 was better than what KJ was, not so sure with his injuries Chris Paul is gonna ever get back to that level. Given that, KJ had three/four years of immense success at an incredibly high 20-10 level, while Chris Paul really only had two… not to mention KJ got to the NBA finals (although when he did, he had a choke job that would make Dirk, Malone and Lebron all blush) as the second best player on his team, in a STACKED western conference.
    It’s kinda hard not to put him in the same tier as the first 10. Great slasher, great passer, great defender, besides his lack of range, he really didn’t have any weaknesses back in his heyday (which of course was rather short). If it makes it easier to accept, I’d say the other ten all had better careers and were better players.
    I’ve read a bunch about Wilkens since I’ve only really seen footage of him in all-star games… From what I remember from Simmon’s, Russell’s, and Frazier’s book, he was a pure slasher who couldn’t shoot, defend, and was a bit of an overrated passer. His numbers were alright but they don’t entirely stand out, and his best years came when he was having absolutely no playoff success. But it’s all conjecture really, I honestly don’t know much about him.

  • http://www.slamonline.com Pardeep

    @Wayno: There is no way Isiah was better, Iverson in his prime would destroy Isiah he was a much better athlete a much more skilled player, he accomplished more individually but forget the accomplishments, AI could take a game over any night, Thomas could not do that he was never unstoppable at one point for a while Allen Iverson was unstoppable.

  • http://thetroyblog.com Teddy-the-Bear

    @ Jukai: Ha, what made you assume I was joking? It was actually a serious question, so I appreciate the response. Though, I guess it’s hard to tell whether someone’s being sarcastic or not over the internet.

  • http://www.slamonline.com Wayno

    @ Pardeep – no rings, no D, selfish player – end of story.

  • http://Philosophervision@blogspot.com The Philosopher

    Shout out to Mike Iuzzolino.
    Shout out to Nick Galis.

  • http://slamonline.com Allenp

    Isiah was better than Iverson because he adapted better.
    But, it’s a toss up as a pure player. But the NBA isn’t about who is the better “pure” player, it’s about who is the better player on the floor with four other guys. And Isiah was better.

  • http://www.slamonline.com Wayno

    I couldn’t agree more with that statement Allen.

  • http://sdjfklf.com Jukai

    In my mind, it comes down to two things: “better” and “greater”
    Better is pure skill, with playing with other players secondary, and throwing out team accomplishments. In this scenario, Allen Iverson could certainly be viewed as better than Thomas. Iverson could carry a team better than Thomas could.
    Greater takes in “better” but also looks at accomplishments, and adaptability, and other things to that nature. Thomas was a clearly greater player. Thomas was far better suited to win championships with his style of play.

  • http://slamonline.com Allenp

    I don’t think Iverson could carry a team better than Isiah. As much as I love Iverson, his run to the Finals with the Sixers, while amazing, was a byproduct of a pretty weak East.
    And, his failures in Denver and Detroit, make me question whether he truly could carry a team like Isiah did with those Detroit squads.
    Zeke was making the playoffs with lesser talent, then he was a consistent championship contender when he got some horses. That was a testimony to his skill level as a player. An all-around player.

  • http://www.slamonline.com Wayno

    AI was a better scorer than Thomas, other than that, what did he do better?

  • http://www.slamonline.com Wayno

    I think you could say that AI was pound for pound the best scorer ever without much debate.

  • http://www.slamonline.com Wayno

    Despite my history of rants and negativity towards AI, I really do respect his skills on the court and his place in NBA history. What drives me crazy is how SLAM tends to try to shove his greatness down all of it’s reader’s throats all the time which causes me to overreact and be a d!ck about it…

  • http://sjfklaf.com Jukai

    Allen, never thought I’d do this… but I think you’re downplayin’ Iverson a bit.
    In Denver, Allen Iverson did not have to carry the team. He had to adjust, I actually thought Allen Iverson had to let Melo carry the team but Karl was so obsessed with Iverson at the time, he made AI the leader and it threw off chemistry. In Detroit, it was just a really upsetting, messed up situation and there were so many things wrong there, I don’t blame Iverson for the team being awful, but Allen Iverson did look absolutely clueless on what to do…
    But those aren’t “carrying team” scenarios. Those are “adjusting to a good team” scenario, which we all know AI didn’t like doing. I don’t think Thomas could do what Iverson could do with a bad team. Iverson was one of the absolute BEST at dealing with crap, cause he could score and dish off.

  • Yann Blavec

    isiah had better teammates than Allen, that’s for sure.

  • Allenp

    Isiah had crap teams early in his career. Go check the roster on that squad that faced Bernard King in the playoffs.

  • http://sjfklaf.com Jukai

    Allen, may I ask if your opinion of Allen Iverson’s finals run has changed recently? I remember debating you about it and you were talking about it as if it was one of the greatest accomplishments in recent NBA history.

  • http://www.slamonline.com Wayno

    Isiah made playoff runs almost by himself in a much stronger Eastern conference before the championship squads. Again, other than scoring, what did AI do better than Thomas?

  • http://slamonline.com Allenp

    It is one of the great accomplishments of recent NBA history.
    But, that doesn’t make it one of the greatest of all-time.
    I’m more impressed with Isiah making those Pistons a feared playoffs opponent in a tougher league AND then making them champions and championship contenders despite a talent gap between his squads and the Lakers and Celtics. And for all the times he punked Jordan and the Bulls.
    Dude was a horse.

  • http://slamonline.com Allenp

    That 2001 run was magical. But, despite it’s greatness, it doesn’t compare to the sustained excellence that Isiah fostered as the unquestioned leader, who had to adapt his game to make his team better.
    And, Wayno is right, Iverson was a better scorer, that’s it. But goodness, was he an amazing scorer. Nothing compares to watching Iverson in his prime, accept watching Jordan in 1993 or 1996.

  • http://sjfklaf.com Jukai

    Wayno: Why are you asking that? The gap between Isiah’s passing compared to Thomas’ passing is the same as the gap between Iverson’s scoring compared to Thomas’ scoring. Their rebound numbers are pretty much identical, neither was a great defender, Thomas played a more natural position to his height and weight so he had an easier time guarding one guards while Iverson killed the passing lanes a lot better…
    I mean, the difference wasn’t in anything tangible, it was the intangibles. Thomas’ leadership, his adaptability, his energy and how he managed to get everyone involved separated them as players.
    Allen: I don’t really agree with these “weak” Pistons teams you’re talking about. Early in Isiah’s career, he had a decent cast with Laimbeer, Tripuka, Microwave, Tyler… and it was a first round exit every year. Then they picked up HOFers Dumars and Dantley, grabbed John Salley and were suddenly a contender. This was a fantastic team. They were playing against aging dynasties. Iverson’s Finals team was compared with Thomas’ first round exit teams. That doesn’t kinda seem like a fair comparison to me.

  • http://sjfklaf.com Jukai

    And I definitely think Thomas is a lot better than Iverson… but that has a lot to do with their careers.

  • http://slamonline.com Allenp

    Laimbeer Tripuka, Microwave and the rest were bad. I have watched some of those games. Those guys were really bad.
    As has been noted on here several times, while Iverson’s teammates were challenged offensively, they were ELITE defensively. And even the East was weak. He still had to be a beast to carry them at his size, but Iverson had better talent for several years.
    I’m not saying the gap between AI and Isiah is large, just saying it’s there.

  • http://sjfklaf.com Jukai

    Of course there’s a gap… but let’s not go crazy.
    Laimbeer, Tripuka and Microwave were not bad at all. Laimbeer was dropping 16-12 a game, Tripuka was a two-time all-star… and while you can say both were ‘made’ by Thomas, Vinnie Johnson came off the bench and just get buckets, he was Jamal Crawford before Jamal Crawford.
    This was a decent team Isiah was working with. He took this decent team and made them great. But I don’t think Isiah could work with dirt the way Iverson does. Likewise, Iverson could not make diamonds from stones like Thomas could.
    Just my humble opinion.

  • http://www.slamonline.com Wayno

    While Thomas wasn’t a great defender, he wasn’t that bad either especially considering he was small. AI gambled a ton on D and it worked out for him some of the time, other than that he was a liability defensively, I don’t think you could say that Isiah was a liability. Also I don’t think the gap in AI and Thomas’ scoring ability is that huge either. AI was a better scorer, but Thomas could have scored more, he just deferred. Skill wise, Thomas just had a better all around game than AI.

  • http://Slamonline.com nbk

    First of all Thomas IMO was better over the course of his career then Iverson. But in iverson’s best season vs Thomas’ I’ll take Allen. He was not as bad a defender as you guys are trying to make him out to be. You don’t lead the league in steals, & minutes while playing on the best defense in the league unless your at least a decent defender. He was just no good against modern shooting guards, but just fine against point guards.

  • Hugo

    i like how good the quality of the dlock vid is

  • Yann Blavec

    Dear Slam, i’m currently reading issue 150. There are a few, too much, pictures of allen iverson where we don’t see his sneakers. (pages 46,47,and 49.)Please don’t make it again.

  • http://slamonline.com Ugh

    There’s no way Wilt Chamberlain would make it to this list. Players back then were much taller.

  • Gregg

    Can’t you just put Mugsy Bogues on there for old time’s sake? I know he didn’t average alot…but c’mon, he managed to play in the NBA despite only being 2’7”.

  • http://slamonline.com thaiceman

    @gregg thats some real sh!t. btw this article has no credit due to the fact that Nate Archibald has no mention, and you said in the history of the game…. joke.

  • dnyce

    ROBERT PACK!!!
    STEVE FRANCIS

  • http://www.smykicks.com Jay

    Nick Van Exel, was a baller on the Lakers him and Eddie Jones. the Lakers all was find a way to get player that create highlight reels

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