YouTube Gold: Calvin Murphy Torches The San Antonio Spurs

Just 5-9, Murphy was one of the most feared players in the NBA and for more reasons than one.

As Jay Bilas likes to say periodically, and correctly, basketball is a big man’s game: if a big guy can do what a smaller guy can do, you typically go with the big guy.

But not always.

There have always been small players who can light an arena on fire and one of the very best is Calvin Murphy.

Just 5-9, Murphy was a second-round pick out of Niagara in 1970 by the Rockets, then in San Diego.

He quickly established himself in the NBA, making the All-Rookie team in 1971, when he averaged 15.8 ppg and 4.0 assists.

Somewhat surprisingly for a 5-9 player, he spent his entire career with Houston.

Murphy distinguished himself in two other ways, which were connected: first, he was a world-class baton twirler, winning a national championship in that when he was a mere eighth grader.

And second, partly due to baton twirling, Murphy had brilliant hand-eye coordination. That, paired with his tough-guy persona, meant no one wanted to fight him. On one occasion, he got into it with Sidney Wicks, who, at 6-9, was a full foot taller.

He didn’t stand a chance and it remains a legendary NBA butt-whipping.

And in 1981, Murphy laid a butt-whipping of a different kind, putting up 42 points on the San Antonio Spurs in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals in 1981.

He set a standard for small guards that has been approximated but never surpassed.