When NC State assistant Tom Abatemarco (aka the Alphabet Man) discovered Spud Webb at Midland Junior College and flew him in to RDU, Valvano took one look at the 5-6 guard and told Abatemarco “you're fired.”
He was joking of course. Valvano trusted Abatemarco’s bird dog instincts, and of course, Abatemarco was right: Webb turned out to be a wonderful player.
His biggest attribute was his jumping: Webb had a 46” vertical and later won the NBA dunk contest.
But there are plenty of guys with similar verticals who never made the NBA.