20. Keith Closs
There were some within the Los Angeles Clippers who believed Keith Closs was going to break out after a decent rookie season back in 1997-98. He averaged 4.0 points, 2.9 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks in limited action. That never came to fruition. Over the course of the next two seasons, this Central Connecticut State product averaged only 3.8 points and 2.8 rebounds before bombing washing out of the league in three seasons.
19. Pete Chilcutt
When the Sacramento Kings drafted Pete Chillcut in the first round of the 1991 draft, they hoped his pedigree of being a North Carolina product and his good senior season would help turn him into an impact player in the league. That never happened. While he played in the league for nine seasons and with seven different teams he never averaged more than 6 points and five rebounds during his career.
18. Lazar Hayward
A four-star recruit, “Money Man” Lazar Hayward had a brilliant college career at Marquette. Earning AP All-American honors in 2010 and leading the program to four consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances. Unfortunately for the hapless Minnesota Timberwolves, that success didn’t transfer to the NBA.
Hayward averaged all of 2.9 points on 35% shooting in parts of three seasons in the NBA. He played all of 72 games during and was eventually arrested in September of 2021 for attempting to enter Hawaii with a fake negative COVID-19 test.
17. Robert Traylor
There was a ton of hype surrounding Robert “Tractor” Traylor when he entered the league in 1998 after an impressive run at Michigan. However, it wasn’t long before the Milwaukee Bucks realized they had made a terrible decision by using the sixth overall pick that year on the big man. Unlike other players on this list, Traylor was mostly healthy during his seven seasons in the NBA. Unfortunately, he was plain bad as he averaged just under five points and four rebounds for his career.
16. Javaris Crittenton
Former Georgia high school superstar Javaris Crittenton was selected No. 19 overall in the 2007 NBA Draft by the Los Angeles Lakers. Crittenton played only two seasons in the NBA and 22 games with the Lakers. Averaging just 5.3 points in stops with three teams. The Georgia Tech product, unfortunately, will forever infamously be remembered by confronting then-Washington Wizards teammate Gilbert Arenas with a gun in the locker room. The ridiculus incident would end to a massive suspension and end his career.
15. Chris Washburn
After a pair of seasons at NC State, including averaging 17 points and 7 boards in his sophomore year, Chris Washburn seemed like a star on the rise and it’s why the Golden State Warriors used the third overall pick in 1986 on him. Unfortunately, the big man will go down as one of the biggest draft busts in franchise history. After posting just under 4 points and 3 rebounds in his rookie seasons, he was traded to the Hawks in his second season. It ended up being discovered his struggles in the league were related to a serious drug addiction and he was done after two seasons.
14. Kwame Brown
Kwame Brown was supposed to be the next great center in the league. That is why he was the first overall pick in the 2001 NBA Draft by the Washington Wizards. The high school star hung around the league for 12 seasons, but peaked with just under 11 points and 5 rebounds in the 2003-04 season. He was supposed to lead the next generation of dominant big men and instead was a role player that played on seven different teams during his forgettable career.
13. DeSagana Diop
Their was hope Desagana Diop, the No. 8 pick of the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2002 NBA Draft, could help provide some balance for LeBron James. He never came close. While Diop somehow found a way to play parts of 11 seasons in the NBA, he averaged a mere 2.0 points and 14 minutes per game. Even at 7-foot, the Senegal native never averaged more than 3.4 rebounds in a single season.
12. Anthony Bennett
The 2013 NBA Draft might have been the worst in modern history. However, Cavs first-round Anthony Bennett takes the cake. The former UNLV star averaged 4.4 points and 3.1 rebounds on 39% shooting in parts of four NBA seasons. The good news for Cleveland? He was one of the assets used in the trade for Kevin Love ahead of the 2014-15 season that helped LeBron James lead the organization to its first and only title.
11. Sun Yue
While Yao Ming helped to put China on the NBA map, he still remains the only impactful player to come out of one of the world’s most populated nations. The Los Angeles Lakers were hoping they might have found a player who could produce when they used a draft pick in 2007 on Sun Yue. However, 10 games in the league was all the team needed to figure out Yue was not going to be worth a roster spot in the NBA. He averaged less than a point in his very short career in the top basketball league in the world.
10. Mengke Bateer
Considered a legend in China (four-time CBA Player of the Year), Mengke Bateer never even came close to panning out in the NBA. Initially with the Denver Nuggets during training camp in 2002, he was let go in short order. Bateer ended up playing a combined 46 games with the Nuggets, Spurs, and Raptors in his career — averaging 3.4 points and 2.5 rebounds on 39% shooting. Perhaps he’s best known in Association circles for the video embedded above. Check it out.
9. Hasheem Thabeet
The University of Connecticut has one of the most respected programs in the history of college basketball. However, they have developed quite a few elite prospects that disappointed in the NBA. A top example is the second overall pick in the 2009 NBA Draft, Hasheem Thabeet.
The 7-foot-3 beast from Tanzania seemed primed to be the next Dikembe Mutombo. Instead, he was a massive fail for the Memphis Grizzlies and averaged just 2.2 points, 2.7 rebounds, and 0.8 blocks during his sad career.
8. Rafael Araujo
The eighth pick overall of the Toronto Raptors in 2004, a lot of experts thought that Rafael Araujo was going to be the next great thing up north. Unfortunaely, he played just two seasons with Toronto — averaging all of 2.9 points and 3.0 rebounds on 41% shooting. That’s impressively bad. What makes things even more damning for Toronto is the fact that three-time NBA champion and NBA Finals MVP Andre Iguodala went one pick after him.
7. Jerome James
While Jerome James was not a highly touted draft pick when he entered the league, he was able to dupe several teams into opportunities based off no real evidence he was good. After entering the league with the Kings in 1998 he would go on to play four avearge at best season with the Supersonics and averaged just 5 points and 3 rebounds. That was somehow more than enough to get five-year pact worth $29 million from the Knicks. It will go down as one fo the worst contracts ever, for a franchise that has had many, after he was even worst in New York than Seattle.
6. Todd Fuller
The Golden State Warriors decided NC State Todd Fuller was a better prospect than NBA legends Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash in the 1996 NBA Draft. That was obviously an epic mistake by the front office, and why they were a laughingstock throughout the 90s. Fuller averaged 4.0 points in 132 games before being traded to the Utah Jazz in his third season. He was so bad that he washed out of the league in just five seasons.
5. Michael Ruffin
Michael Ruffin, a former second-round pick of the Chicago Bulls, somehow found a way to last nine seasons in the NBA despite averaging 1.7 points and shooting 41% from the field. He is one of the worst basketball players ever after finishing his career averaging 0.5 points on 29% shooting with the Portland Trail Blazers in 2008-09. It is a stat line many NBA fans think they could manage if they got a shot in the league.
4. Greg Oden
There was a huge amount of hype surrounding Greg Oden when he entered the NBA out of Ohio State. Despite future Hall-of-Famer Kevin Durant coming out the same year, the Portland Trail Blazers chose to take the seven-footer first overall in the 2007 NBA Draft. It ended up being one of the worst decisions in franchise history.
During his seven seasons in the league, he only played in 105 games after constant knee injuries cut short his career. But when he was on the court, he was a decent player, but he didn’t blow the NBA world away by looking like a future superstar. Oden’s career is one of the saddest in league history, and why he’s among the worst NBA players ever.
3. Darko Milicic
Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh, Dwayne Wade, and David West. Those were the future NBA stars the Detroit Pistons passed on to take European prospect Darko Miličić in the 2003 NBA Draft. If not for LeBron James being in that class, the Serbian might have gone No. 1 overall instead of No. 2.
While Milicic lasted in the league for 10 seasons, he never averaged double-digits in points in any season and peaked with 6.1 rebounds in 2007-2008. He is not just the worst pick in Pistons history but one of the worst NBA players of all time.
2. Adam Morrison
Gonzaga star Adam Morrison seemed like the second coming of Larry Bird when he entered the league in 2006. He was a scoring machine in the college ranks and had a gutsy approach that endeared him to basketball fans. However, none of that transferred over to the next level and he went into an immediate decline from the start as a pro.
His best season in the league was surprisingly his rookie season when he averaged just under 12 points per game. He never came close to that again as he battled injuries and inner turmoil in an NBA career that only lasted three seasons.
1. Cherokee Parks
Cherokee Parks had all the criteria necessary to be at the very least a solid player in the NBA after an impressive run at college basketball powerhouse Duke. Unfortunately, after being the 12th overall pick in the 1995 draft, he became one of the first in a long line of Blue Devil alums who disappointed. However, Parks was worse than most.
He was so bad that he lasted only one season in Dallas before being traded to the Timberwolves. While he hung around in the league for nine seasons, he peaked at just over seven points and five rebounds a game in his third year in the association. That is why he is among the very worst NBA players of all time.
