The Worst Draft Ever?
Not even Timmy can save ‘97As we’re getting ready to head out to Secaucus, N.J., for tonight’s Lottery, the office talk for much of the day has been about how great this draft is going to be … which naturally leads to a debate over the worst draft ever.
How about 1997? After Tim Duncan and T-Mac (and S-Jack in the second round), it’s pretty much just a mess. It’s tough to even make an argument for Chauncey Billups making this draft that much better because it took him so long to become the Chauncey we know today.
May 20th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
hahns says:
i remember collecting basketball cards that year and getting a timmy d rookie card was SO hard to get your hands on. but keith van horns were all over the place.
i dont know how the ROY voting went that year, but kvh was imo easily the second best rookie that year. i think that says enough.
May 20th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Prof. TX says:
That’s an awful lineup, really not much need for the second round at all.
May 20th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
loc says:
YES!
God Shammgod,
one of the best names in the history of sports, tough to live up to though
Anyone know where/if that dudes playing these days?
May 20th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
DaPro says:
He’s playing for the Christ Of Latter Day Saints
May 20th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
DaPro says:
Church of Latter Day Saints
With a name like that how could you go wrong!
May 20th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
DaPro says:
Wasn’t Paul in this draft??
May 20th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
CP3MVP says:
Woooooow. That is an absolutely pitiful draft. There’s no way any draft was worse than that.
I see this year’s as being deep with guys who can contribute on some sort of level as soon as next year
May 20th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
GEE...My knee bone's connected to my hardy-har-har-har says:
They should have a recall on that draft lol and mix it with another to make it better.
May 20th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Max Power says:
What a ridiculous topic to even debate. How can 1997 be worse than the 2000 draft? I mean Duncan has been to 3 times as many all star games than the entire 2000 Draft combined.
May 20th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
johnsacrimoni says:
2000 was a horrible draft. Don’t forget 1986, too.
May 20th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
daquest?on Im Regularly Irregular says:
yea its true at least this draft has two potential hall of famers and others like chauncey and captain jack that are all stars or have potential to be allstars and besides this draft had god shammgod i know he dint do n e thing in the league but that guy is a legend
May 20th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Jules says:
2000. end of discussion.
May 20th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Chuck...A source of knowldge for all says:
Ron Mercer was a decent player, dude was just injury prone, so his career pretty much flopped out
Danny fortson- undersized power forwards are doomed from the start, dude was like 6-7. They rarely succeed in the L, Barkley did it, but Barkley was a freak of nature, strong as a ox, and quick enough to beat you off the dribble.
Bobby Jackson has always been good off the bench to me, dude is just injury prone also
Matter fact all these cats that just weren’t plain old sh*tty, were just injury prone players!
Matter fact I was like 14 during this draft and I knew the o’bannon brothers wasn’t gone be sh*t, I hated them cats.
I thought Dejaun Wheat was gone be a beast though, I used to like dude’s game for some reason. Guess I was wrong huh?
May 20th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
gary says:
86 was not a horrible draft…c’mon jaybilas in like the 4th or 5th rd. drazen p in the third, mark price was the 1st pick if the 2nd round!!
May 20th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Chuck...A source of knowldge for all says:
Now I think about it, that 2000 draft was just awful, Marcus fizer, Kenyon Martin, Khalid el amin, you remember that fat bast*rd. LOL!!! The brightest spot in that draft was Hedo, and dude is like 29 years old getting the most improved player. LOLOL!!! Somebody pass me some hot sauce so I can spew hot doodoo butter all over that draft. NNaassttyyy!!
May 20th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
evan says:
I’m voting for 2000, as well. K-Mart was by far the best player in that draft class and Mike Miller only won the ROY by default per Martin’s injury.
Word to the 2-fisted head pound. Miles and QRich will be a superstar duo for years to come!
May 20th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Chuck...A source of knowldge for all says:
Naw, 86 had some bright spots.
Dennis Rodman was a beast, Price was a beast too
I don’t think they are refering to the order in which the players were picked, I think they are just talking about the talent pool you had to work with.
Ron Harper was the sh*t before the injuries!
Skiles had some decent seasons and so did Dell curry.
And Nobody knew Petrovic would be that good? Dude just came from nowhere, people didn’t even really check for overseas players like that during that time.
Jeff Hornaceck had a pretty good career.
John Salley has had a good TV career, he played in bad boys 2!! LMAO!!!
May 20th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Chuck...A source of knowldge for all says:
@gary post 14
I hate to sound ignorant when it comes to basketball matters, but I’m a just ask on this one.
Who the f*ck is jay bilas?
May 20th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Chuck...A source of knowldge for all says:
I’m from KC and I remember when they was biggin up Jacque Vaughn, I knew he wasn’t gone be sh*t either, he couldn’t shoot a BB gun at a elephants a*s if he tried. He was quick and he had handles, but he literally sucked!
May 20th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
djKianoosh says:
who else was drafted with kwame brown? now THAT was a horrible draft, just by his presence.
on the flip side, just cause of Duncan, that year couldn’t be so bad, cause he makes up for it with all his bling.
May 20th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
Washington the Frog says:
Jacque Vaughn??? For some reason, I still think of him as a young cat like 3 or 4 years in…hard to believe it’s been that long…
May 20th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
Washington the Frog says:
Yo I thought Khalid was gonna be nice…AND Ricky Moore! Kevin Freeman? C’mon! Those dudes used to tear up the NCAA…I guess that’s me being a homer…But how in the world is Voskhul more accomplished than them!?
May 20th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Jeffrey says:
I went on wikipedia and it said Shammgod is playing for the Portland Chinooks of the IBL
May 20th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Eric says:
Man those are some scrubs, after Timmy, Tmac, and Chauncey, that draft was straight filthy. I am going to take a shower now
May 20th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
daquest?on Im Regularly Irregular says:
@ chuck jay bilas is the college basketball announcer for espn lol… have u ever noticed that only the losers work for espn?? the only legit good basketball player espn has is mark jackson
May 20th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
Chuck says:
I don’t watch a lot of college ball. Only the NBA, I never really liked college basketball for some reason.
May 20th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
daquest?on Im Regularly Irregular says:
chuck if u wanna see jay bilas hes talking right now on espn
May 20th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
Tim says:
In Chauncey’s defense, he really didn’t get a chance to bloom into anything until he met Larry Brown.
May 20th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
eyeused2b says:
There are only three stars in the first round: Duncan (League MVPs, Finals MVPs, T-Mac (All-star), & Billups (Finals MVP), but half of them are still in the league 11 years later, so I guess something positive could be said about that. If you really want to dig for something, Anthony Parker did go on to become a Euroleague MVP.
But damn, that was a horrible draft
May 21st, 2008 at 5:56 am
Lee says:
What was the year Olowacandi was the No. 1 pick ??
May 21st, 2008 at 8:27 am
MSkittle says:
Any draft with Tim Duncan can’t be considered the worst draft ever.
May 21st, 2008 at 8:58 am
VQ says:
I was there in the comfy confines of the Charlotte Coliseum also known as the original Hive. We sat in front of Brevin Knights extended family when he was drafted by the Cavs the section went crazy!! Good times. I remember meeting Bobby Jackson, Tim Duncan, Maurice Taylor, TMac and his dad, and Tariq Abdul Wahad. I miss my Hornets…not the NO Hornets but my Charlotte Hornets
May 21st, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Austin Burton says:
@Chuck — Danny Fortson’s problems were mental, not him being undersized. People just don’t like him and he makes it hard to do so.
Nate McMillan was also drafted in ‘86, I believe.
May 21st, 2008 at 1:17 pm
jimmhumm says:
Its just bad because its after 1996(Iverson,Nash,Kobe) and before 1998 (Vince, Paul, Jwill).
Tim Duncan and T-mac are future hall of famers. Van Horn WAS nice. Seriously, dude was balling his first year he averaged like 19 pts. Granted there are some bumms on the list but 2001 and 2002 where hardly better.
May 21st, 2008 at 3:12 pm
Kudabeen says:
I remember thinking Marko Milic was going to be sick…jumping over cars and stuff… Think I was just a little to in love with the dunk at the time…
He really did look like he was going to be what Linas Kleiza turned out to be…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp7Y5D-HJR0&feature=related
May 21st, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Johnathan says:
Is there a count of the most amount of combined rings from all the players in the draft classes over the last 15 years? Not saying rings mean everything Tim Duncan has gotten many a bench player a ring it seems, but which class has the most Rings over all not matter what role they played
May 21st, 2008 at 5:28 pm
doc says:
Duncan was in the draft so its not the worst.And jimmhumm 98 hadDirk I’d put him over white chocolate.
May 21st, 2008 at 5:54 pm
Ian says:
1997 had duncan
any draft that has one of the greatest players ever cant be considered bad
now 2000 was just ugly
mike miller was rookie of the year
wtf
1998 was worse also
May 21st, 2008 at 6:36 pm
John says:
How about God Shamgod? He had a nice career
May 21st, 2008 at 11:19 pm
Icy says:
Freak, that makes Utah picking Jaque Vaughn look like a steal. I never thought I’d say that
May 22nd, 2008 at 9:41 am
AM says:
The worst draft in history is the 1986 draft, not one of those players ever became a true force, I would take the best 5 from the 1997 draft over this draft class any day.
There are some solid 2nd and 3rd guys in this draft (Rodman, Hornacek, Price, Skiles, Sabonis, Daughtry and Person) but there are no clear cut #1 options like Duncan, Billups, TMac and Captain Jack (in his mind anyways). And with all the issues surrounded Len Bias (This is when the Celtics started falling) and Roy Tarpley
This draft brought us Jay Bilas, Dan Bingenheimer and the king of pop, Michael Jackson (hee-he!)