Now they got the call from the shortest Tyrone Bogues.

He is now the shortest player in the NBA.

Tyrone Bogues from Wake Forest at the age of five.

You know, I got shot growing up in the city of Baltimore was challenging, you know, as a kid, you know, it was a lot of drug infested areas in our neighborhood, A lot of shooting, a lot of violence.

Unfortunately for me, at the age of five, you know, I got shot, you know, being outside, being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

My mom and dad was going crazy, not knowing that I was outside.

And then knowing that, you know, I was one of the kids laying out there with a couple bucks shots all over his body was very frightening and scary for them as well as myself.

Um, but it was It was their life, you know?

It was a man of growing up.

I mean, no one felt like that.

No one thought they have a life expectancies past 20.

You know that?

Which was very strange, you know, knowing that that was the case, but that was the mindset back then because we had a lot of guys at, ah, young age dying mainly because, you know, they wanted that fast money.

They wanted to get into that world a lot sooner.

And they want, you know, possibly take care of their family as well as tryto provide for their, you know, for their household.

So, you know, people did all sorts of things in terms of try to make ends meet.

But luckily that we had a game called basketball in sports.

Sports was really a mechanism that kept us really at a safe, kept us where gave us a safe haven place to really feel comfortable with.

That was a way of keeping us, you know, off the streets, keeping our mind, you know, active in other area, as opposed to thinking about Hey, it's time to try toe, you know, over and get a few of those quick dollars.

You know, at that time, I had no in clean or no idea that, you know, I want to pursue this as a career, you know, it was just a hobby.

It was just something that I wanted to dio.

But unfortunately for May you know, being small and trying to play a sport that didn't know at the time was supposed to been meant for a bigger, taller player.

You know, we got a lot of criticism from it, you know, a lot of backlash, a lot of name calling, you know, which could affect with confidence.

Well, at the beginning, you know, it was challenging.

It was tough, you know, many days and many nights going home, just crying to my mom and just telling them how cruel the kids are out there.

And you know how mean they were.

I wanted it all.

You know, it wasn't just gonna satisfied, Satisfied with what someone else had planned for me.

You know, I want to create my own destiny, and I start to understand that I was in position to do that.

And, you know, when I became 12 and 13 years old, you know, words never matter.

You know, it came in one day out the other.

You know, I was on the journey.

I was on my path, trying to become this basketball player, that no one felt like he had any, you know, any opportunity to do some little jokes.

That's that was out there.

You know, you're short, you know, you need to be sitting on the curb which feet swinging off.

You know, we could put you in the drawer when we're traveling.

You know, as they said, growing up as a kid when they say sticks and stones may hurt your bones, the world words will never hurt you.

It's not true.

Worse will hurt you.

Now they're killing folks.

So where is a very empower ful?

And then, you know, that was very deterrent at the time, But it didn't distract because your heart, you know it measure it pretty much, doesn't have a height talk, you know, pretty much set the tone of who you are, which were able to accomplish, you know, And the height factor was the game of basketball.

So, you know, my heart was bigger than my height, so I didn't have no, no second or no no hang ups on e believing that I belong with, you know, the best of the best.

Because my heart was just, you know, just biggest.

There's things that have happened to me in my life, Allowed me to reflect, allowed me to to resonate who I am.

Especially when I got shot.

You know, those things became so clear in terms off.

Hey, almost wasn't here, you know?

So why I have to worry about what?

Someone else saying That hurt me and deteriorate me from becoming who I wanna be.

So you know, that changed my mindset.

You know, I remember early on when I used to go down on the court with my basketball and hearing all the words and having all the, you know, the criticism about me being short.

Um, but after I got shot, I remember going back down there and hearing those same criticism about myself, but they didn't have the same impact.

You know, when in one there are others I alluded to earlier.

Everybody has some sort of opinion about who you are.

Don't give them that platform.

Don't give them the ammunition.

That's their opinion.

Don't mean that it's true about who you are.

So you know, anything is possible.

Um, positive thinking is also translate to that.

Everything happens for a reason.

No regrets are the negative things that happened.

Thankful for it because I learned hopefully I learned from those situations and other positive things.

I'm humbly grateful that those able to take place and still struggling be the best I could be in, you know, going forward.

Hopefully, I can caress and cared to be the best they could do.

We're all human beings.

Treat one as you would want to be treated.