It’s one thing to make a bad draft pick.
It’s another to potentially set your franchise back a decade in doing so.
The 2023 NBA Draft kicks off Thursday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn with another opportunity for stars to emerge out of nowhere — and big-name prospects to possibly flop.
Victor Wembanyama, the 7-foot-4 Frenchman who’s had scouts drooling for months on end, is set to be the No. 1 pick when the San Antonio Spurs step up the podium.
Even with all the hype around Wembanyama, history can tell us there’s no such thing as a sure thing.
Will he successfully avoid the label of NBA Draft bust?
Time will tell.
Here is our list of the biggest NBA Draft busts in history, in chronological order.
NBA Draft busts
Sam Bowie, Trail Blazers, (No. 2, 1984)
When you take a largely forgettable center No. 2 overall, and Michael Jordan gets picked third, you made the worst draft pick of all time.
There’s no telling how much picking Sam Bowie cost the Trail Blazers and the city of Portland.
Bowie played parts of five seasons in Portland as injuries hampered his ability to get on the floor.
Over the last three of those seasons — 1986-89 — he played a combined 25 games.
Though he ended up reviving his career with the Nets and later the Lakers, he did so while Jordan led the Bulls to their first of two championship three-peats.
Today, Bowie is involved with the harness racing scene in Lexington, where he attended college.
He also spent time doing color commentary for Kentucky basketball games.
Dennis Hopson, Nets, (No. 3, 1987)
Even the 5-foot-3 Muggsy Bogues would’ve been a better selection here — as would have the likes of Scottie Pippen, Reggie Miller, Kenny Smith, Horace Grant and Kevin Johnson, all taken after the Nets picked Dennis Hopson at No. 5.
If you don’t remember him, here’s why: He played just five seasons in the NBA.
Over that time, he averaged 10.9 points, 2.8 rebounds and did not become one of the best-ever defenders or clutch shooters as Pippen and Miller did.
After the NBA, Hopson played for a while in Europe before launching a coaching career.
He was an assistant at Bowling Green from 2009-14 and landed the head job at Lourdes University, where he has enjoyed some moderate success.
Pervis Ellison, Kings (No. 1, 1989)
It’s never a good thing when your teammate nicknames you “Out of Service Pervis.”
Danny Ainge bestowed the name on Ellison, who was frequently injured and never lived up to his billing as the first-overall pick.
Only one time — his second season — did Ellison play more than 70 games.
Ellison, who averaged 9.5 points throughout his career, was traded by the Kings after his rookie season and bounced around the league for the rest of his time in the NBA.
His career ended brutally as a member of the Celtics, where he played 69 out of a possible 246 games.
Among his career-best outings, one came in 1992 when he had 19 points and 19 rebounds with six assists, five blocks, and two steals against the Knicks.
Ellison was coaching basketball in Burlington, New Jersey for Life Center Academy, though it’s unclear if he’s still doing that.
Joe Smith, Warriors, (No. 1, 1995)
Joe Smith was Exhibit A of the Warriors’ franchise ineptness as they passed on Kevin Garnett, Rasheed Wallace, Jerry Stackhouse and others to pick the Maryland product.
Taken with the first pick, Smith had a long NBA career but spent barely over two seasons with the Warriors.
Though he was productive, averaging 17 points and 8.2 rebounds per game in the Bay, Golden State traded him to the Sixers for Jim Jackson and Clarence Weatherspoon — neither of whom did anything of note with the Warriors.
Smith was never much more than a journeyman, and Garnett was inducted in the Hall of Fame in 2020 as one of the best players of the early aughts.
Garnett is an NBA champion and former MVP, while Smith now runs a private coaching service in Atlanta.
Michael Olowokandi, Clippers (No. 1, 1998)
The Los Angeles Clippers could’ve had at least three Hall of Famers here, with Vince Carter, Dirk Nowitzki, and Paul Pierce were all ripe for the taking.
Instead, they blew the top draft pick on Michael Olowokandi.
“The Kandi Man” only scored more than 10 points per game twice in his career as the center for the bottom-dwelling Clippers and seemed intent on getting in his own way, against the advice of another Hall of Famer.
“When I coached for the Clippers, I had to deal with Michael Olowokandi, a player who perfectly fit the description ‘talented but uncoachable,'” Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, a Clippers assistant in 2000, wrote for ESPN in 2011. “At practice, I would attempt to point out Mr. Olowokandi’s faults to him, ones he constantly repeated and resulted in lost possessions for the team or personal fouls that sent him to the bench. His reaction to my attempts to correct his bad habits was to take my input as a personal insult and embarrassment.
“He told me point-blank that he would not be criticized in front of the team. He stuck to his word and, as a result, had very few successful moments on the court playing the way he wanted to play.”
Kwame Brown, Wizards (No. 1, 2001)
Kwame Brown was the first sign that Michael Jordan the executive wasn’t of the same ilk as Michael Jordan the player.
Brown has been the butt-end of countless jokes during his NBA career after being taken No. 1 in a draft where Tyson Chandler and Pau Gasol were selected second- and third-overall.
The Glynn Academy product famously told Doug Collins, then the coach of the Wizards, “If you draft me, you’ll never regret it.”
The Wizards are still regretting this one.
Brown struggled to get into playing shape, left Washington after just four seasons, and never realized his potential.
Then there was, of course, Stephen A. Smith’s commentary on Brown after the Lakers traded him, among other fillers, for Gasol.
“They gave up Kwame Brown; who cares,” Smith said in February 2008. “Kwame Brown is gone; the city of Los Angeles should be celebrating. Throw a parade already whether you win a championship or not. This man was a bonafide scrub. He can’t play. No disrespect whatsoever, but I’m sorry to tell everybody the truth, the man cannot play the game of basketball.”
Brown did attempt a recent comeback, playing in Allen Iverson’s Big 3 basketball league in 2017, helping the 3-Headed Monsters make the finals.
However, he was arrested in 2019 after allegedly being found with marijuana before being let go after a short time.
Darko Milicic, Pistons (No. 2, 2003)
Darko Milicic is in some rare air, along with Sam Bowie.
The Pistons took Milicic second overall in the famed 2003 draft, just after LeBron James, hoping to shore up the future of a team that would go on to win the title the following season.
Not only did Milicic go bust, but the following three players taken — Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh, and Dwyane Wade — were all Hall of Fame-level players at their peak.
Missing out on Anthony and Wade is a particular gut-punch as they will be first-ballot Hall of Famers.
Meanwhile, Milicic was traded from the Pistons midway through his third season and averaged just six points per game over his career.
Of all the players on this list, Milicic may have the most interesting post-basketball career; in 2017, when ESPN caught up with him, Milicic was running an apple orchard in Serbia.
He also had a short kickboxing career in 2014, losing his debut fight.
Adam Morrison, Bobcats (No. 3, 2006)
The 2006 NBA Draft was far from elite level, but Michael Jordan — now with the Bobcats — could’ve had Brandon Roy or Rudy Gay instead of Adam Morrison.
Morrison came in with plenty of hype after an extremely impressive college career at Gonzaga, but was out of the league after the 2010 season with the Lakers and never played more than 15 minutes per game.
His below-30 percent 3-point shooting in his final two years is somewhat surprising, considering he was a score-first wing at the college level.
Greg Oden, Trail Blazers (No. 1, 2007)
Greg Oden was betrayed by his own body — and the fact that Kevin Durant was picked right after him.
The Blazers took Oden at No. 1 after an All-American season at Ohio State, but the big man never got off the ground at the next level.
While Oden missed three seasons because of injury, trying and failing to come back with the Miami Heat in 2014 before calling it quits, Durant blossomed into one of the best players of all time.
Oden last played in The Basketball Tournament in 2018 alongside a team of Ohio State alumni.
He also worked as a student manager for Ohio State basketball while working to finish his degree.
Anthony Bennett, Cavaliers, (No. 1, 2013)
The 2013 NBA Draft was a disaster that saw only one top-10 selection make an All-Star Game.
Still, Bennett is one of the quickest-ever top overall picks to bust.
Not only did the Cavs ship him to Minnesota after just one season, but it was as a throw-in for a deal that brought Kevin Love to Cleveland.
Bennett was out of the NBA by 2017 when he was just 23 years old.
He’s still playing basketball, albeit at a lower level.
He had a short stint with Fenerbahce in the Euroleague after the Nets ended his NBA career by waiving him in 2017 and then played in the G-League for the Agua Caliente Clippers in 2019.
Bennett has since joined Dwight Howard in Taiwan.
Dragan Bender, Suns (No. 4, 2016)
Coming into the 2016 NBA Draft, Dragan Bender was undoubtedly one of the riskier prospects than others in the top ten due to his lack of athleticism at his size.
That didn’t stop Phoenix from taking the “Croatian Sensation” with the No. 4 overall pick to continue adding to a collection of young talent, including Devin Booker.
Unfortunately, he was anything but sensational during his NBA career.
Bender averaged only 5.3 points, 3.9 rebounds and shot an abysmal 39% from the field in three years with Phoenix before the team declined his player option and let him walk as a free agent.
In a draft that saw All-Star caliber talents such as Jamal Murray, Pascal Siakam and Dejounte Murray drafted after him, Bender’s stint with the Suns was certainly underwhelming.
The forward spent two more years in the NBA with the Milwaukee Bucks in 2019 and then the Golden State Warriors in 2020 before ultimately becoming a free agent.
At only 22 his NBA career had come to a close, as Bender signed with Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Israeli Basketball Premier League in the September of 2020.
In August of 2022, he made his way to the Spanish Liga ACB with Monbus Obradoiro.
Read the New York Post’s coverage for the 2023 NBA Draft:
- NBA Draft grades for every team
- The most outrageous outfits at the 2023 NBA Draft
- Fans were furious over this top NBA Draft pick
- Analysis of every NBA Draft pick
Markelle Fultz, 76ers (No. 1, 2017)
Trading up to get the wrong guy doesn’t exactly place much trust in “The Process.”
At the time, nobody faulted Philadelphia for picking Markelle Fultz at No. 1 overall — which cost the Sixers more than the slew of picks sent to Boston in a trade — but he quickly proved everyone wrong.
Despite being obviously talented and gifted during his time at Washington, Fultz played in just 14 games as a rookie due to a shoulder injury with the organizational frustration exacerbated when he apparently forgot how to shoot.
In one of the better draft classes in recent memory, which included All-NBA players such as Jayson Tatum — picked by the Celtics in the No. 3 slot traded by Philly — Donovan Mitchell and De’Aaron Fox, Fultz could be in the argument for the most disappointing first-overall picks in NBA History.
However, his career is far from over, as he is currently coming off his best season yet after having been traded to Orlando, averaging 14 points, 5.7 assists, 3.9 rebounds, and 1.5 steals a night with the Magic.
At 24, Fultz may not fulfill the lofty expectations that come with being picked No. 1, but he still has the chance to be a very successful role player in this league for years to come.
Josh Jackson, Suns (No. 4, 2017)
It’s not often a team gets the exact top-four draft positioning in back-to-back years and messes up both times, but Phoenix did exactly that.
Just a year after drafting Bender, the Suns went with Josh Jackson at the fourth-overall pick.
While he isn’t as big a flameout as Bender — Jackson did average 12.3 points and a steal per game — the fact that he was traded two years after he was drafted clearly indicates what the team thought about him.
Not helping his case were off-the-court issues, including theforward being arrested for attempting to enter a hip-hop concert’s VIP section without proper identification.
Jackson ended up becoming a journeyman in the league rather than a productive starter and potential All-Star like he was projected to be.
When last seen, the former Kansas player signed with the Stockton Kings in January of 2023, where he played only one game before being waived.
Marvin Bagley III, Kings (No. 2, 2018)
In a draft that included Luka Doncic, Trae Young and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the Sacramento Kings taking Marvin Bagley at second-overall seemed like one of the worst outcomes for the franchise.
Bagley had all the physical tools to compete, but he could never stay on the floor to put those tools to work; he has yet to play more than 62 games in a season during his career and routinely misses nearly half the season.
While the forward doesn’t project to be All-NBA caliber like some of the players picked after him, his production with the young Detroit Pistons may allow him to be a serviceable role player for the foreseeable future, but missing out on a generational talent like Doncic is a hard pill to swallow for Kings fans.
James Wiseman, Warriors (No. 2, 2020)
While certainly early in his career, indications are that Wiseman is not nearly as good as his No. 2 overall draft slot in the 2020 NBA Draft by Golden State would suggest.
Consider the fact that pre-draft, he was being compared to Hall-of-Fame-level big men such as Chris Bosh, Patrick Ewing and even Anthony Davis, and it becomes clear he’s fallen very short.
During Wiseman’s three years in the NBA, he has played a total of 84 games, having missed the rest with a knee injury.
On the court, the center often looked lost defensively and saw dwindling minutes for the contending Warriors before he was shipped to Detroit midway through the 2022-2023 season.
Players like LaMelo Ball, Tyrese Haliburton and Tyrese Maxey were taken after Wiseman, but at this point in time, any of those players seem like better pros than the big man will ever be.
If Wiseman can stay healthy and get it together, he can have a solid NBA career, but that is a big ask.
