Each year, the NBA Draft brings excitement and renewed hope for many teams. When a team has a poor season, they typically get to benefit from the one of the first picks in the draft. Taking advantage of such an opportunity can go a long way to changing the outlook of any franchise. However, it is way too often that we see teams squander their chance at reversing their own fortunes.
Don’t get me wrong. There are no guarantees when selecting a player. For whatever reasons, almost every player has the potential to be a bust, regardless of their level of talent. This has been evident through so many top prospects failing to materialize their skills in the NBA game.
But there are also times when NBA GMs simply make mistakes, and the fans will never let them forget it. Perhaps they overthink the pick, or maybe they just get a little too fancy. Other times, the player just doesn’t pan out the way both teams and the general public had initially anticipated.
Below is Sports Retriever’s list of the worst lottery picks in NBA Draft history.
[post_page_title]Shawn Bradley[/post_page_title]
Bradley was a tempting prospect for NBA teams, mostly due to his outrageous height at 7’6. He was the number two pick in the 1993 draft, but the Philadelphia 76ers would regret drafting him shortly thereafter. While he did last in the league for more than a decade, he was considered a major disappointment, relative to both his expectations and the draft equity used to acquire him. Of course, the fact that Penny Hardaway, Allan Houston, and Jamal Mashburn were all drafted after him makes the magnitude of this mistake much worse for 76ers fans.
