Who's the worst #1 overall draft pick in sports?

[therealdope]

Nobody mentioned my boy Kwame Brown?

He might not be the worst, but he’s worth a mention as a very terrible #1 pick lol

Kwame hung around the NBA for a looooong time. He had a 13 year career in the NBA.

 

[Jesus H. Sherdog]

Kwame hung around the NBA for a looooong time. He had a 13 year career in the NBA.

Yeah and he was way below expectations for a #1 pick the entire time. Played one full season, only suited up over 70 times for three seasons. Like I said, he wasn’t the worst, but he was a bust.

His draft class had Zach Randolph, Tony Parker, Tyson Chandler, Pau Gasol, Eddy Curry, Jason Richardson, Gilbert Arenas, Shane Battier, Richard Jefferson… even centers taken in the second round like Mehmet Okhur had better careers than Kwame. When you’re taken #1 and have one of the worst careers of anyone drafted it’s a bad pick.

 

[therealdope]

Yeah and he was way below expectations for a #1 pick the entire time. Played one full season, only suited up over 70 times for three seasons. Like I said, he wasn’t the worst, but he was a bust.

His draft class had Zach Randolph, Tony Parker, Tyson Chandler, Pau Gasol, Eddy Curry, Jason Richardson, Gilbert Arenas, Shane Battier, Richard Jefferson… even centers taken in the second round like Mehmet Okhur had better careers than Kwame. When you’re taken #1 and have one of the worst careers of anyone drafted it’s a bad pick.

That's true. I'm just saying he isn't the biggest bust. Terrible pick for the Wizards but a guy like Olowokandi seems much worse. The Candyman actually started more games than Kwame but Kwame played in more games than Olowokandi.

 

[DougieJones]

In the NBA has to be Hasheem Thabeet.

As a UCONN fan I remember hearing the news he had declared for the draft and knew he was going to be a bust no matter where he was taken. Anyone who watched him on a regular basis saw his numbers were PURELY size-based. He really couldn't play the game at a level better than most division 2 players, yet his immense size allowed him to put up decent numbers and fool scouts into thinking there was something there. He 10000% should have went back for his senior season, but I don't think it would have made much of a difference in the end.

 

[HonorClarityStrength]

TBF Kijana Carter was injured.

How about #2 busts? Blair Thomas or Aundray Bruce.

Aundray Bruce wasn't a true bust, more of a letdown. He played for 11 years. Obviously, he didn't deliver what you would hope from a top pick, but he was a perfectly adequate player for over a decade.

 

[haysus31]

Forgot about Kwame Brown but the NBA draft is a complete crap shoot. If your bored go through the past 20 years 1st rounds and you will see a bunch of top 10 picks who were either journey men or completely disappeared to other leagues

 

[therealdope]

Aundray Bruce wasn't a true bust, more of a letdown. He played for 11 years. Obviously, he didn't deliver what you would hope from a top pick, but he was a perfectly adequate player for over a decade.

Won't disagree but he was not a #2 overall.

 

[Foppa21]

Albert Pujols was like a 37th round pick. It's a crapshoot at best with baseball, very few #1 picks pan out

That's what I figured.. Goin gthe other way (possibly for a different thread) what are the #1 picks in baseball that do pan out?

 

[Foppa21]

Daigle scored 51 points once at least. Twice actually, he led the wild in scoring with 51 points lol. Daigle 's problem was he really didn't like hockey, he was just good at it and forced into it by his parents and had no desire to succeed.

Nail Yakupov was a worse player and worse 1st overall. The man had zero IQ and lots of skill lol

I'm sure there are #1 worse than Yakupov. Seems like he was a guy with a massive chip on his shoulder and just didn't know or care that everyone hated him. The Brian Burke's got a story saying he was the worst draft interview ever and he nearly punched him ha

 

[Roman Reigns GF]

That's what I figured.. Goin gthe other way (possibly for a different thread) what are the #1 picks in baseball that do pan out?

Griffey Jr and Bryce Harper come to mind.

Depends on what you mean by pan out really, in other sports you expect the top pick to be a future Hof'er. That is super super rare in baseball.

 

[Roman Reigns GF]

That's what I figured.. Goin gthe other way (possibly for a different thread) what are the #1 picks in baseball that do pan out?

I just looked and Griffey Jr is the only #1 pick in the HOF

 

[Foppa21]

Morgan Reilly, Hertl, vasilievsky, Wilson, teraveinen.....
That's better than the draft where Patrik Stefan went 1st overall. The only relevant players who came from that draft were the Sedin twins and havlat. It's like bereft Of NHL talent

In fact, Stefan is one of the worst 1st overall himself.

I remember the talk around Stefan. Decent skill but too many concussions.

The Sedins wouldn't go to separate teams which made it difficult.

 

[SherdogsMVP]

Daigle is up there.
Drafted first and said that he is happy to be drafted first because people dont remember nr 2's.



Nr 2 in 93 draft was Chris Pronger who ended up having HoF career while Daigle had 2 seasons where he barely broke 50 points.

Ya but he ended up being paid to do porn afterwards so it's not that bad.

Paid to play hockey , paid to get your dick sucked.

Seems like there could be way worse than that

 

[Morning Star]

That's what I figured.. Goin gthe other way (possibly for a different thread) what are the #1 picks in baseball that do pan out?

Chipper Jones, Griffey Jr, and Arod were the best of the bunch. Darryl Strawberry, Adrian Gonzalez, and Joe Mauer had good runs cut short by injuries and other stuff in Darryl's case. David Price has had a respectable career. Bryce Harper, Carlos Correa, Steven Strasberg, and Gerrit Cole have all had respectable careers and still have time to build their legacies.

#1 in baseball is definitely way more of a crapshoot than other sports and probably has the most busts.

 

[Octavian]

It's gotta' be Jamarcus Russell... hilarious story about him that floated around for a while was that the Raiders coaching staff suspected he never looked at his playbook or studied anything - ever. So they started putting random shit and even blank pages in his binders and they'd ask him what he thought of the gameplan or certain coverages and he'd just be like "oh yeah - totally, saw that... got it".

 

[Octavian]

Also.. we gotta get a poll going for this. I grouped together some of the most common guys mentioned in this thread:

Jamarcus Russell
Alexander Daigle
Tony Mandarich
Hasheem Thabeet
Michael Olowokandi
Kwame Brown
Anthony Bennett
Courtney Brown
Tim Couch
Greg Oden

 

[Madmick]

Kwame hung around the NBA for a looooong time. He had a 13 year career in the NBA.

Olowokandi had a 9-yr career that was only abbreviated at the end by his relentless physical troubles (knee injuries, back injuries, foot injuries, abdominal tears, groin tears, severe hernia). It's why, disappointing as they were for a #1 pick, neither is a serious candidate for this thread's question. But they belong in the same breath. Olowokandi had over 4,100 career points and 3,400 career rebounds, and was 3 shy of 700 career blocks. Kwame had ~100 fewer career points and rebounds, each, with about 70 more blocks. They're roughly identical in terms of career production, and yet Kwame had the longer career.

There's no comparison to busts like Bennett or Oden.

Unexpectedly, the guy who looks like he is going to settle into the same bracket as Kwame and Candyman is none other than Ben Simmons. Never would have thought he'd finish as one of the Top 10 busts in NBA history.

 

[BAM]

I would say Ryan Leaf but if memory serves Manning went before him.. tho, there was srs debate as to who would go 1st between them prior to the draft.


So I’ll say JaMarcus Russell

Yeah, I'd say him given how overpaid rookie QB contracts were back then and how crippling it was for franchises to get that wrong. The stakes increase the awfulness of it all

Lot more busts in the NFL than NBA. Especially when you look back at the early 90s

 

[Spounman]

 

[Vogg]

Forgot about Kwame Brown but the NBA draft is a complete crap shoot. If your bored go through the past 20 years 1st rounds and you will see a bunch of top 10 picks who were either journey men or completely disappeared to other leagues

There was a breakdown thst a #1 overall pick was on average as good as Paul George

that’s a pretty good player