It’s no secret that one high draft pick can make or break a professional sports franchise; choose the right player, you’re on the championship track; choose the wrong player, and you can set your franchise back by years as you attempt to deal with the repercussions of drafting an unproductive player. This holds true for most all sports but perhaps most especially for basketball, where small rosters and hefty play time make it imperative that teams make effective use of their draft picks and ensure they are employing the best potential players at all times. With this in mind, we’ve gathered together some of the worst draft picks in NBA history in hopes of educating both our readers (and the people running the NBA franchises of the world) as to what can go wrong when you’re gifted a high first round pick in the NBA draft.
10. LaRue Martin (Portland Trail Blazers)
We’re headed all the way back to 1972 to kick things off here, and we’re taking a look at the first of what will be several appearances by the Portland Trail Blazers on this list (seriously, it’s alarming how poorly managed that franchise has been). Gifted the first pick in the 1972 NBA Draft, the Trail Blazers took a young star out of Loyola University in Chicago named LaRue Martin, a 6’11 center who turned a historic college career into a high draft pick before busting monumentally in the pros. Often cited as one of the worst draft picks of all time, Martin only played four seasons before retiring from the NBA, averaging an incredibly poor 5.3 points per game and a lowly 4.3 rebounds a game. Martin, who went on to finish his degree and work for Nike after his retirement, was selected over the likes of Bob McAdoo and Julius Erving, two future Hall of Famers who help to add insult to injury when speaking of Martin as one of the NBA’s truly spectacular draft disasters.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUvUpqSndLk Via YouTube