Former NBA star's daughter comes forward with secret she'd been keeping for years
Being the daughter of a famous basketball player can insulate you from a lot of life’s struggles, especially financially.
But it doesn’t make you immune from domestic violence.
Brittney Bogues is the daughter of former NBA player Muggsy Bogues, who at 5-foot-3 is the shortest player to ever be drafted into the league.
Despite his diminutive size, Bogues had a 14-year career in the league. He was an original member of the expansion Charlotte Hornets in 1988 and spent nine full seasons with the team. He is the all-time franchise leader in several categories and was one of the most popular players in team history.
Several years after her father retired from the NBA, Brittney Bogues was attending Wake Forest University — the same school her father played at. She went to a party in 2007 hosted by a former boyfriend from high school. While the two talked privately in a bedroom, the man told Bogues he wanted to get back together with her, but she declined.
Bogues says her ex-boyfriend became enraged, smashing her cell phone against the wall.
“I was trying to grab my stuff and get out of the room. He pushed me on the bed that he was on and started choking me,” she told The Charlotte Observer.
“He had his hands wrapped around my neck, and I did my best to pull him off me. I don’t know what snapped in him, but he stopped.”
Bogues recalled grabbing her bag and sprinting to her car in terror.
“I feared for my life,” she said. “Once he did stop and I got away, I felt ashamed, like I deserved it, but I don’t know why. I felt so alone because I didn’t want to tell anybody. I didn’t want them judging me. I felt hopeless, which is totally not like me.”
Bogues kept the incident to herself for nearly a decade. But after working for the Charlotte-based Safe Alliance — which offers counseling and other services to victims of domestic and sexual abuse — Bogues saw so many women coming forward with their stories of abuse that she felt compelled to share her own.
Nine years after the attack, she finally found the courage to tell her parents about the incident.
Bogues said her mother broke into tears, telling Brittney that she should never be afraid of telling her parents anything about her life.
As for her father, Bogues said he gave her a big hug and told her how much he loved her.
“I was angry, not about her not telling us, but about what happened,” Muggsy Bogues told the newspaper. “I had to let all that go. Once I digested it, I understood. I processed it, that this was part of her growth.”
Brittney Bogues said that today, the years of anxiety and fear she felt after the attack are gone. She is devoted to helping abuse victims — not only in the immediate aftermath of an attack but also in the months and years after.
“It’s not you, no matter what someone is telling you. You didn’t ask for this and you didn’t deserve it,” she said of the message she delivers to victims. “Nothing you do or say would justify someone putting their hand on you.”
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