Fair enough, but there's a big difference between Mark and Bootsy. Mark was an exceptional point guard. If you are the one dictating the offense, you can have an exceptional basketball mind (think also, Stockton, Parker, none of whom are the best physical specimens in NBA terms), and that's enough to make you elite and NBA worthy. They had an elite skill. Bootsy did not have an elite skill - he was VERY good at everything. In fact, he was probably elite at rebounding and posting up...for his size...but in the NBA he unfortunately would have been guarded by different players that he could not do that too. Bootsy was a phenomenal college player, but he unfortunately was not an NBA talent.
Also, just curious, why would Gerry Macnamara sell any tickets for an NBA team? The only guys that sell tickets are stars who play most of the game. A back-end marginal NBA player never sells tix.
I do agree with you, that, given the shot, there could be more stories akin to Jeremy Lin...but they are going to come from extremely intelligent point guards --- thats the one thing that the NBA probably undervalues and is not as easy to see EXCEPT from watching them play the game. They won't rate as well at combines, and in all-star type games they won't look great because everyone's a ball hog. But in watching a real team during the regular season, a player like this can shine. Enter J-Lin. At all of the other positions, a player's value is harder to be hidden. It certainly can be hidden or not as obvious, but not as much as an intelligent PG's value to an NBA team can be hidden through the drills/combines/etc.