88 lines about 44 draft picks

[Fight_n_back]

All the number one draft picks the NBA saw fit to keep track of such things. Feel free to comment....If you are any of these people then I apologize, all in good fun, what, what?


1966 Cazzie Russell Knicks//....medium dissappointment...sixth man He always seemed to be traded for the final piece of the puzzle on a chmpionship team. C

1967 Jimmy Walker Detroit// DYNO-MITE before Napolean..not Good Times in Detroit. Sired Jalen Rose F

1968 Elvin Hayes Houston// Karl Malone without steroids. A

1969 Lew Alcinder Milwaukee// Ever see a grown man naked? I know he didn't say that line but what he said required some setup. Roger. What? A+

1970 Bob Lanier Detorit// Big shoes, Big shirt, big servicce B+

1971 Austin Carr Cleveland// Why do the Cavaliers suck so bad because they draft guys like this? F

1972 LaRue Martin Portland// This isn't the guy they chose instead of Jordan. F-

1973 Doug Collins Philadelphia// Serviceable player but not worth a number one. Famous for being on ESPN and getting fired by Jordan when he was coach of the Bulls. C

1974 Bill Walton Portland// If they had drafted a better player than LaRue Martin then they wouldn't have had a chance to draft Bill Walton. He won championships BOTH seasons he was healthy. Albeit that is a fairly small sample size. B

1975 David Thompson Atlanta// They didn't sign him and he went on to light up the ABA. F

1976 John Lucas Houston// They used to say he had "white man's disease" which we thought meant that he couldn't jump. Turns out it meant he did more blow than Jack Nicholson.

1977 Kent Benson Milwaukee// Famous for breaking Kareem's hand with his noggin. D

1978 Mychal Thompson Portland// A skilled player who made Christian Laettner look like Pete Rose. B-

1979 Earvin Johnson Los Angeles// This pick seemed to work out rather well. Believe it or not there were questions about him coming out of college. Questions about his quickness, defense and shot. The fact that Jerry West ignored those questions is probably one of the qualtites that make him the best General Manager ever. Magic got laid a lot. Caught a terminal disease because of it and won a Gold Medal with said disease. A+

1980 Joe Barry Carroll Golden State//Not only was he a shitty choice but they traded two HOF caliber players to get the pick. This pick simultaneosly doomed GS and fed Boston a couple of championships. Inconceivable. F

1981 Mark Aguirre Dallas//Mark was pretty good and Dallas succeeded with him plus he won a championship with the Nasty Boys BUT with the first pick you want at least a franchise player and hopefully a HOF player. C

1982 James Worthy Los Angeles//I never liked this guy and when Magic left Worthy's shooting percentage dropped about 30 points but you can't quibble with the success. B+

1983 Ralph Sampson Houston//Gimpy kneed goofball that feared the painted area of the court but for one brief shining moment he was the dominant player in the league. A-

1984 Akeem Olajuwan Houston//The reason for the lottery...Houston got Sampson the year before and then set about on a course that guarenteed getting the number one pick. To this day Houston denies that they took the pipe but allowing the first five ticket holders to start the last twenty games of the season shows otherwise. A+

1985 Patrick Ewing New York//Not an attractive man. A

1986 Brad Daughtery Cleveland//Pretty solid player on a rather solid team till his back gave out. That Cleveland team was the one that Jordan hit that shot over Ehlo. B-

1987 David Robinson San Antonio//Tremendous on and off the court. The other shoe never dropped with this guy. A+

1988 Danny Manning Clippers//This would have been the very first good draft pick in team history until he blew out his knee. Went from being a potential franchise player to being a very solid helpmate. C+

1989 Pervis Ellison Sacramento//Nothing Pervis Ellison could have ever done would have been able to overcome the fact that he was drafted by Sacramento during their "Sacramento Stephen Kings" era. Suicides. car accidents, bizarre injuries, flops, nutty coaches. Just plain odd for awhile there. D

1990 Derrick Coleman New Jersey//More bloated than a Bush budget. As hard a worker as Joe Barry Carroll, heh, heh. D

1991 Larry Johnson Charlotte//When he wasn't wearing Jeff Van Gundy as an ankle bracelet he was a wonderfully overrated player. Floated through some years with the Knicks before retiring to a crack farm outside Las Vegas. C-

1992 Shaquille ONeal Orlando//Took Orlando to the finals before getting grumpy, then took LA to three titles before taking Miami to the Conference Finals. Orlando not making him happy lowers his grade. A

1993 Chris Webber Orlando//This was when Orlando got high lottery picks against all odds for about twenty years in a row. He was traded on draft day to the Warriors because they had so many bad first round picks they decided to just swap all of theirs to other teams just to shake up the karma. Dint werk.

1994 Glenn Robinson Milwaukee//When he called himself the Big Dog he probably had something else in mind. Can't pass, dribble, play defense or rebound but other than that he is a well rounded player. D

1995 Joe Smith Golden State//Seemed like a good idea at the time. Was traded for Donyell Marshall in what became a bad trade for both teams. F

1996 Allen Iverson Philadelphia//Mercurial miscreant that always brings that AndOne spirit every night. Best itty bitty player in history but just too tiny to be a number one pick. B

1997 Tim Duncan San Antonio//This couldn't have worked out any better. One of the top five blokes on this list. A+

1998 Michael Olowikandi Clippers//There is a simple test on draft day if you aren't sure that a player will make it. How interested are the Clippers? Then the player will be a bust. If he had been a lower pick he probably would be considered ok. C-

1999 Elton Brand Chicago//Chicago didn't think they made a good choice since they traded him the next year. They were wrong both times. C

2000 Kenyon Martin New Jersery//Good player with a lot of energy but he isn't a franchise player and should have gone lower. B-

2001 Kwame Brown Washington//Jordan used to make this guy cry in practice which about says it all. D

2002 Yao Ming Houston//God, who knows. He is REALLY slow. B

2003 Lebron James Cleveland//How would the age requirement have helped him exactly? Someday we will have to work very hard to convince people that Jordan was as good as this guy. Inc

2004 Dwight Howard Orlando//Maybe this rookie of the year is the reason for the age requirement. Inc

2005 Andrew Bogut Miwaukee//I refuse to compare him to a white guy so I will compare him to Brad sellers Inc


In conclusion, it seems more likeley that the first pick in the draft will be pretty decent than the other way around. The strangest thing is how often really good teams end up on this list. The top teams repeat here as much as the bad teams. It is not designed to work that way. The thing is, smart people figure things out.

[stevedeshazer]

1. Pretty good take, thanks for the memories

As a Portland fan, I agree that LaRue Martin rates an F-. :)

[Fight_n_back]

2. How low can it go?

Is there a lower grade?

He averaged 5.3 pts per game for his career. Thats only 5.3 PPG more than me and I didn't even play.

[democracyindanger]

3. Top (Bottom?) 10 busts

according to the SF Chron. Guess who's number one?

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/06/29/SPG4NDGFKN1.DTL

1. LaRue Martin (1972) -- The gold standard for bad No. 1 picks in all of professional sports. In his four NBA seasons, the 6-foot-11 center had more personal fouls than field goals while averaging 5.3 points. Stu Inman was Portland's general manager when the Blazers picked Martin, and Inman was still the Blazers' GM in 1984 when they took Sam Bowie with the No. 2 pick instead of Michael Jordan. However, Inman also was GM when Portland won the NBA title in 1977. Other players available: Julius Erving, Bob McAdoo and Paul Westphal.

[Fight_n_back]

4. Poor guy

I wonder what he is doing now

[democracyindanger]

7. Manager at UPS

http://www.luc.edu/insideloyola/030204/photofeature4.shtml



And being used as a metaphor by a wingnut to argue for keeping the government out of prescription drug regulation.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,133701,00.html

Damn, that sucks.

[stevedeshazer]

5. Sam Bowie, another colossal mistake, although a #2 pick not #1

Speaking of Blazer blown draft picks, Walter Berry ranks right up there.

[enigmatic]

6. Austin Carr

He was a helluva player at Notre Dame and was far and away the concencus 1st pick in the draft. He blew out his knee the first season and lost the step that made him so dangerous; nonetheless, he was an all-star for a couple of seasons, and hardly rated an F.