Editor’s notes: List counts down from best to worst. List only includes non-active players, as of 2020. The “Draft class rank” for each player is their rank on our overall pro career list amongst players in their draft class (i.e., Shawn Bradley is the 14th best NBA player drafted in 1993).

22) Alex Groza, 1949 (#1 pick: Howie Shannon, #3 pick: Bob Harris). Draft class rank: #5

The last one held before the league merged with the NBL and officially became the NBA, the 1949 BAA Draft was an interesting one. It featured two territorial picks, Ed Macauley to the St. Louis Bombers and Vern Mikkelsen to the Minneapolis Lakers, who went on to have Hall of Fame careers, but then a first round that consisted almost entirely of future also-rans. Groza was the best of that group and might have been a future Hall of Famer himself if he hadn’t been caught up in the 1951 point shaving scandal. The younger brother of football Hall of Fame kicker Lou “The Toe” Groza, Alex was captain of the “Fabulous Five” Kentucky team that won the ’47-’48 NCAA title and then made up the majority of the 1948 U.S. Olympic team that won gold in London. His NBA career started off equally impressively, being named 1st-Team All-NBA twice and an All-Star in the inaugural 1951 game, but Groza was arrested right before the start of the ’51-’52 season for accepting a bribe to shave points during the 1949 NIT Tournament. He was subsequently banned for life from the NBA by commissioner Maurice Podoloff, and ended his career having averaged 22.5 points and 10.7 points per game over only two seasons for the Indianapolis Olympians (struggling to contend after the suspension of Groza and his star teammate, Ralph Beard, the Olympians folded two years later).

21) Phil Ford, 1978 (#1 pick: Mychal Thompson, #3 pick: Rick Robey). Draft class rank: #14

After finishing his career as the all-time leading scorer in North Carolina history (he still sits second behind Tyler Hansbrough), Ford was considered easily the top guard prospect in 1978. Drafted second overall by the Kansas City Kings, he won Rookie of the Year in ’78-’79 and averaged an impressive 16.5 points and 8.2 assists per game over his first three seasons. But Ford’s effectiveness waned dramatically from there, following an eye injury that required surgery. His final four pro seasons with the Kings, Nets, Bucks, and Rockets were nondescript and Ford retired in 1985. This draft class was a weak one overall, with only second round pick Maurice Cheeks eventually getting inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame.

20) Jim Brewer, 1973 (#1 pick: Doug Collins, #3 pick: Ernie DiGregorio). Draft class rank: #11

One of many disappointments in one of the worst draft classes in NBA history, Brewer did at least put in a few solid seasons as a defensive specialist for the Cavaliers team that drafted him. His best season came in ’75-’76, when he averaged a double-double with 11.5 points and 10.9 rebounds per game, and helped the “Miracle at Richfield” Cavs reach the second round of the playoffs. Brewer would also eventually win a championship in 1982 as a lightly used bench forward for the Lakers. It wasn’t a terrible career by any metric, but it was hardly befitting a player who was such a star at Minnesota that the school retired his #52 immediately after he graduated. Top pick Collins had a decent NBA career, but the top 10 of this draft also included major disappointments in DiGregorio, Dwight Jones, Kermit Washington, Ed Ratleff, Mike Green, John Brown, and Ron Behagen.

19) Shawn Bradley, 1993 (#1 pick: Chris Webber, #3 pick: Penny Hardaway). Draft class rank: #14

The list of seven footers that never lived up to potential in the pro ranks is legion, and any discussion of them has to include Bradley. The 7’6″ beanpole starred in one season at BYU, then took a two-year leave of absence for his Mormon mission before declaring for the NBA Draft. His size was undeniable but critics rightly wondered whether his slight frame could handle the rigors of the pro schedule. The Sixers were a year removed from Charles Barkley’s free agency departure and looking to make a splash with the second pick they had won in the lottery (moving up from the fifth pick). They signed a 38-year-old Moses Malone as a backup center to mentor Bradley, and hired Mr. Universe Lee Haney to help bulk him up. None of it seemed to work and Bradley failed to break out as a star, though he did put together a decent 12-year career as a shot blocking specialist for the Sixers, Nets, and Mavericks. He ranks as the 14th best player in his draft class, and technically the best center if you count Chris Webber as a power forward.

18) Bob Houbregs, 1953 (#1 pick: Ray Felix, #3 pick: Jack Molinas). Draft class rank: #5

It may not make immediate sense that a Hall of Famer would make this list of players but keep in mind that Houbregs has the worst career metrics of any NBA player enshrined in Springfield. In fact, much of his Hall case comes from his time at Washington, when he was named NCAA Player of the Year in ’52-’53 while leading the Huskies to the Final Four. Drafted by the Milwaukee Hawks, Houbregs wound up on the roster of four different teams in his first two seasons, as he was traded to the Bullets, then selected by the Celtics in a dispersal draft, then waived, then claimed by the Pistons. He ultimately lasted five years in the NBA, averaging a respectable 9.3 points and 5.5 rebounds for his career. Houbregs is one of three Hall of Fame players from this class, along with Cliff Hagan and Frank Ramsey.

17) Sam Bowie, 1984 (#1 pick: Hakeem Olajuwon, #3 pick: Michael Jordan). Draft class rank: #15

Most basketball fans know the story of the Blazers taking Bowie over Michael Jordan because they already had Clyde Drexler at shooting guard but few realize how close they were to nabbing Hakeem Olajuwon instead. It came down to a coin flip, with the Rockets winning the rights to the top pick over the Blazers (this was one year before the lottery was instituted). It’s pretty astounding that Portland had this pick at all, having finished as the third seed in the West in ’83-’84, but they had fleeced the Pacers in a trade three years earlier to attain it. Bowie was 1st-Team All-Rookie for the Blazers, but broke his left leg in his second season and played just 59 games over the next four years before getting traded to the Nets for Buck Williams. He would later admit that he was experiencing leg pain while at Kentucky and hid it from the Blazers in pre-draft workouts and interviews. Over 20 years later, the Blazers franchise would prove that it learned few lessons from this draft when they selected Greg Oden with the top pick over Kevin Durant.

16) Steve Stipanovich, 1983 (#1 pick: Ralph Sampson, #3 pick: Rodney McCray). Draft class rank: #18

Imagine this story in today’s social media age: a college star claims that a masked assailant broke into his home and shot him, later admits he fabricated the story to cover up accidentally shooting himself, then still gets selected with the second overall pick in the NBA Draft. That this happened is a testament to Stipanovich’s size (just shy of seven feet), skin color (there’s no way a Black player would get the benefit of the doubt on a story like that), and the poor draft decision making of the Pacers in the first decade following their 1976 merger from the ABA. Though he was far from a star player, Stipanovich was solid and consistent, averaging 13.2 points and 7.8 rebounds per game in his first five seasons before a degenerative knee disorder cut his career short. This was actually another case of a team losing on a coin flip for the top pick to the Rockets, who selected Virginia sensation Ralph Sampson.

15) Charlie Tyra, 1957 (#1 pick: Hot Rod Hundley, #3 pick: Jim Krebs). Draft class rank: #4

He was Louisville’s first All-American, and is still the school’s all-time leader in rebounds. After leading the Cardinals to the 1956 NIT title and winning tournament MVP, Tyra was in the NBA a year later, as the second overall pick of the Pistons. As was standard in the early days of the league, the 1957 NBA Draft was a bit of a crapshoot for a weak class, with only Sam Jones, whom the Celtics selected eighth overall, emerging as a star talent. Listed as 6’8″, Tyra was undersized for a center even at the time, and too slow to hang with the increasingly athletic new brand of power forwards. He lasted just five seasons in the NBA, four with the Knicks (who traded for him on draft day, in a blockbuster deal that also included Harry Gallatin, Dick McGuire, Nat Clifton, and Mel Hutchins) and one with the Chicago Packers before moving on to the Pittsburgh Rens of the NBL.

14) Neal Walk, 1969 (#1 pick: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, #3 pick: Lucius Allen). Draft class rank: #13

Though the draft lottery didn’t exist until 1985, the Bucks hit the proverbial lottery in 1969 when they won a coin toss against Phoenix for the rights to the first overall pick, which would undoubtedly be UCLA megastar Lew Alcindor. The expansion Suns settled at #2 for Walk, who had just broken the NCAA record for rebounds per game in a single season while spearheading Florida to its first ever postseason appearance in the 1969 NIT. Though fans struggled to warm to their “consolation prize,” Walk was a quick success and by ’72-’73 he was averaging 20.2 points and 12.4 rebounds per game. But the Suns traded him to the Jazz in a 1974 rebuilding effort and his career spiraled from there, due in large part to recreational drug use. He would later become an inspirational figure when a tumor in his spine in 1988 confined Walk to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. He embarked on a second career as a wheelchair basketball star, earning major recognition, including a trip to the White House. He has since been inducted into the Florida and Jewish Sports Halls of Fame, and is still the only Florida Gator to his jersey number retired by the school.

13) Dave Meyers, 1975 (#1 pick: David Thompson, #3 pick: Marvin Webster). Draft class rank: #15

If you were an All-American and a leading scorer on any UCLA team in the ’60s and ’70s, you were going to get your shot in the NBA. This was certainly the case for Meyers, who won two titles as a power forward for the Bruins and was an All-American in his senior year, ’74-’75. Raised in nearby Orange County, Meyers was thrilled to stay in the area after the Lakers selected him second overall in 1975. But things shifted quickly, as he was traded to the Bucks just a few weeks later, as part of the package that brought another former UCLA star, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, back to Los Angeles. His career with Milwaukee got off to a decent start, but Meyers started to suffer from back pain and after just four seasons announced his retirement in 1980. This was a relatively weak draft class overall, especially with #1 overall pick Thompson opting to spurn the Hawks and instead start his career in the ABA with the Nuggets.

12) Danny Ferry, 1989 (#1 pick: Pervis Ellison, #3 pick: Sean Elliott). Draft class rank: #18

Coming off their third consecutive season with 60+ losses, the Clippers earned the second pick of the 1989 NBA Draft in the lottery. Even though they already had a similarly sized and skilled player in Danny Manning, and even though Ferry specifically stated he would not play for them, Clippers general manager Elgin Baylor selected the Duke star anyway, and then publicly declared he would not trade him. Ferry responded by fleeing to Italy to play for Il Messaggero of the Serie A league. During his time overseas, he was traded from one star-crossed NBA franchise to another, as Cavs general manager Wayne Embry made the ill-advised decision to acquire Ferry for Ron Harper and two first round picks, and then lavish him with a 10-year, $34 million contract. Though Ferry was not a terrible player by any means, he certainly never lived up to his draft status or contract with Cleveland, averaging double-digit scoring in just two seasons in his career. He did play out all 10 years of his contract with the Cavaliers before signing with the Spurs late in his career and winning a championship in 2003.

“[Don] Rehfeldt may have just been a little too ahead of his time, having supposedly mastered the sky hook 20 years before Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.”

11) Jim Baechtold, 1952 (#1 pick: Mark Workman, #3 pick: Dick Groat). Draft class rank: #4

A three-sport star at his high school in Pennsylvania, Baechtold wasn’t recruited by any colleges and opted to join the U.S. Army in 1946. He returned from his tour of duty in Japan much bigger from a growth spurt and seasoned from playing pick-up ball overseas, and accepted a scholarship at Eastern Kentucky. After a star turn with the Colonels, he was the second pick in 1952 of a Baltimore Bullets in 1952 that was struggling in the standings and in ticket sales, so they traded him to the Knicks for the aging star Max Zaslofsky. Though never a star player, Baechtold was one of the Knicks’ leading scorers for three seasons before a knee injury forced him to retire. He was also one of the first players to embrace the jump shot rather than the set shot which made him popular with Knicks fans, including a young Marv Albert, who became president of the short-lived Jim Baechtold Fan Club.

10) Stromile Swift, 2000 (#1 pick: Kenyon Martin, #3 pick: Darius Miles). Draft class rank: #15

The 2000 NBA Draft class was atrocious, an uneasy mix of too young prospects (Darius Miles, DeShawn Stevenson, Jerome Moiso), guys who obviously peaked in college (Marcus Fizer, Chris Mihm, Mateen Cleaves) and international reaches (Jake Tsakalidis, Dalibor Bagaric). The undisputed top overall prospect was Kenyon Martin, who had broken his leg just months earlier, derailing a potentially all-time great Cincinnati season. Having moved up two spots thanks to the lottery, the Vancouver Grizzlies had a much more difficult decision at number two. They went with Swift, an exceedingly athletic combo forward from LSU, and he would end up being the franchise’s final pick in Vancouver, as they moved to Memphis a year later. After a quiet rookie season, Swift was having a breakout campaign in ’01-’02 when an ankle injury sidelined him for 14 games, and the offense was refocused around rookie Pau Gasol in his absence. Swift averaged 11.8 points and 6.3 rebounds per game that season, which both turned out to be career highs in a nine-year career with the Grizzlies, Rockets, Nets, and Suns.

9) Rod Thorn, 1963 (#1 pick: Art Heyman, #3 pick: Nate Thurmond). Draft class rank: #5

Known more now for his general manager and league executive careers, Thorn was once one of the hottest prospects in the country. He averaged 30+ points per game in high school, and accepted a scholarship to West Virginia. Following in the apparent footsteps of the legendary Jerry West – Thorn had a similar build and style of play – he was seemingly doomed from the beginning by the shadow of “The Logo.” When the Bullets drafted Thorn second overall in 1963, they already had a talented young front line with Walt Bellamy, Gus Johnson, and Terry Dischinger, and were looking to build a back court to match. Thorn was slotted immediately into the starting lineup and had a solid rookie season, averaging 14.4 points per game. But Baltimore traded him that summer to the Pistons, in a blockbuster seven-player deal, and he struggled to find a place in the Detroit rotation. He was taken by Seattle in their 1967 expansion draft, and infused himself into Sonics lore as part of the franchise’s original starting five. He had a career-high 15.2 points per game for Seattle in ’67-’68, but tailed off slowly from there and retired in 1971, having scored just 5,012 career points in 466 games. Thorn became general manager of the Bulls in 1978, and was serving in that capacity when the team was gifted Michael Jordan with the third overall pick in 1984.

8) Scott May, 1976 (#1 pick: John Lucas, #3 pick: Richard Washington). Draft class rank: #14

After consecutive surprise Conference Finals appearances in 1974 and 1975, the Bulls were a disaster in ’75-’76. The aging roster, anchored by 30-somethings Jerry Sloan, Tom Boerwinkle, Nate Thurmond, and Bob Love, fell apart due to injuries and ineffectiveness. Management brought in a young new head coach, Ed Badger, and with the first pick in the ABA dispersal draft landed a new star center in Artis Gilmore. With the second pick in the NBA Draft, they decided to take the surest thing, Indiana star Scott May, despite his perceived low ceiling. He was 1st-Team All-Rookie while securing career highs in points, rebounds, blocks and steals, and the Bulls returned to the playoffs in 1977. But injuries dogged May for the rest of his career, which lasted just five seasons with Chicago, then one each with Milwaukee and Detroit. As none of the top five picks in 1976 panned out, the teams that selected them (Houston, Chicago, Kansas City, Detroit, and Portland) were especially kicking themselves over the years as four later picks (Adrian Dantley, Robert Parish, Dennis Johnson, and Alex English) turned in Hall of Fame careers.

7) Darko Milicic, 2003 (#1 pick: LeBron James, #3 pick: Carmelo Anthony). Draft class rank: #31

The disastrous decision so renowned that it led to one of the all-time greatest player nicknames (“The Human Victory Cigar”), one of the all-time greatest sports blogs (Free Darko), and will forever live on as shorthand for misguided draft strategies. It was a superlative draft class that included maybe the greatest player of all time (James), one other definite future Hall of Famer (Dwyane Wade), two perennial All-Stars (Anthony and Chris Bosh), one of the greatest three-point shooters of all time (Kyle Korver), and whatever you want to label Boris Diaw. Detroit, which was coming off a Conference Finals appearance and owned this pick thanks to a shrewd trade of Otis Thorpe to the Grizzlies six years prior, could have taken any of those players besides James. Instead they took a flier on Milicic, a raw teenage prospect from Serbia. His NBA career did last nine years, and even included a championship with the Pistons in his rookie season, but it was an undeniable bust, especially compared to the players drafted immediately after him.

6) Archie Dees, 1958 (#1 pick: Elgin Baylor, #3 pick: Mike Farmer). Draft class rank: #16

Some guys are just meant to peak in their careers in college, no matter how talented, and that was especially true in the early years of the NBA. Still considered one of the greatest ever to suit up for Indiana (he was named to the program’s All-Century team in 2001), Dees could compile only a middling pro career that lasted just four years. When he was drafted by the Royals in 1958, they were still scrambling to recover from Maurice Stokes’ untimely demise and a year away from falling into Oscar Robertson. Despite posting decent numbers at power forward in his rookie season, Dees got caught up in Cincinnati’s organizational disarray and was soon traded to Detroit. After brief, unsuccessful stints with the Pistons, Packers, and Hawks (plus a gig with George Steinbrenner’s Cleveland Pipers in the ABL), he retired in 1962 and returned to his native Bloomington, Indiana.

5) Don Rehfeldt, 1950 (#1 pick: Chuck Share, #3 pick: Bob Cousy). Draft class rank: #14

Granted, the talent level in the early ’50s in the NBA was meek but even by those standards the original Baltimore Bullets did a terrible job of scouting and drafting. Here were their first round picks before folding in 1955: Larry Killick (zero career games), Walt Budko (253 career games), Ron Livingstone (117), Rehfeldt (98), Gene Melchiorre (zero, and he was a top overall pick), Jim Baechtold (321), Ray Felix (631), and Frank Selvy (this was a decent pick, but he lasted just 14 games before the team folded). It’s no wonder the franchise lasted just seven seasons before closing up shop. Rehfeldt was a huge success at Wisconsin, and the school’s only All-American for over 50 years. His subsequent NBA career was extremely brief, cut short after two seasons with the Bullets and Milwaukee Hawks. Rehfeldt may have just been a little too ahead of his time, having supposedly mastered the sky hook 20 years before Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He would later utilize it as essentially a parlor trick for years on various semi-pro and exhibition teams. It’s worth considering how the fortunes of the Bullets franchise may have changed if they had passed on Rehfeldt and instead drafted one of the four future Hall of Famers available in the 1950 class: Bob Cousy, Bill Sharman, George Yardley, or Paul Arizin.

4) Jay Williams, 2002 (#1 pick: Yao Ming, #3 pick: Mike Dunleavy). Draft class rank: #33

Drafted by the Bulls to be their new face of the franchise, Williams didn’t quite have the skill set that was going to make fans forget about Michael Jordan but he certainly had the talent to be the team’s biggest post-Jordan star. The Duke product was 2nd-Team All-Rookie and his potential was seemingly endless, until an off-season motorcycle accident cut it all short. Williams shattered his pelvis, severed a leg nerve and tore his ACL, leaving him lucky to ever walk again, let alone play basketball. After attempting unsuccessful comebacks with the Nets, Spurs, and Heat, Williams officially retired in 2010 having played in just 75 career NBA games. The 2002 draft class turned out to be disappointing overall, with star players Yao Ming and Amare Stoudemire hampered throughout their career by injuries, while top 10 picks Dajuan Wagner, Chris Wilcox, and Nikoloz Tskitishvili joined Williams on the list of busts.

3) Hasheem Thabeet, 2009 (#1 pick: Blake Griffin, #3 pick: James Harden). Draft class rank: #43

Though he spoke little English and had only picked up the game of basketball at the age of 15, Thabeet quickly progressed into stardom at Connecticut. By his junior year he was an All-American and won National Defensive Player of the Year, and headed into the 2009 NBA Draft as one of the top prospects behind clear-cut #1 Blake Griffin. Though scouts were rightfully worried about his lack of offensive refinement, and the Grizzlies had a defense-first center already in Marc Gasol, they still selected Thabeet second overall. The next seven picks then included James Harden, Stephen Curry, Ricky Rubio, and DeMar DeRozan. Ouch. Thabeet struggled to crack the Memphis rotation and played just 113 games for the franchise before moving on to equally disappointing stints with the Rockets, Blazers, and Thunder. He wound up averaging 2.2 points, 2.7 rebounds, and 0.8 blocks per game over a five-year career, followed by several comeback attempts in the D-League, and a recent star turn leading the Yokohama B-Corsairs to Japan’s B.League championship.

2) Paul Hogue, 1962 (#1 pick: Bill McGill, #3 pick: Zelmo Beaty). Draft class rank: #18

Ohio State had two All-Americans in 1961 and 1962 in Jerry Lucas and John Havlicek, but couldn’t win a national championship. Each of those seasons they lost in the Final Four to their in-state rival, Cincinnati, who featured a star center from rural Tennessee named Paul “Duke” Hogue. Though Hogue was named Most Outstanding Player of the 1962 NCAA Tournament while leading the Bearcats to their second consecutive title, the local Cincinnati Royals opted to select Lucas with their territorial draft pick that summer. After the Chicago Zephyrs took Utah’s Bill McGill, Hogue fell to the Knicks with the second overall pick (the Celtics ended up stealing Havlicek at #7). His game seemed tailor-made for NBA success but it just didn’t work out for him. Hogue’s career lasted for only 65 games spread across two seasons and he’s gone down as one of the all-time biggest Knicks draft busts.

1) Tom Stith, 1961 (#1 pick: Walt Bellamy, #3 pick: Larry Siegfried). Draft class rank: #22

Though his NBA career was a certified bust by our metrics, there’s no denying Stith was ultimately successful in life, against long odds. Born in poverty in Virginia, he was raised mostly by his older sister after both their parents passed away, then moved to Brooklyn to accept a basketball scholarship at St. Francis Prep School (other notable alumni include Vince Lombardi, Joe Torre, and Frank Serpico). After a star turn at St. Bonaventure, where he finished second to Oscar Robertson for the NCAA scoring title, Stith was thrilled to be selected by the hometown Knicks in the 1961 NBA Draft. Unfortunately his childhood dream of playing at Madison Square Garden would last just 25 games, as he was forced to retire during his rookie season after contracting tuberculosis, which was still a potentially deadly disease at the time, then severely injuring his leg in a car accident. Stith would recover from both the disease and the injury to live a full life, working as a marketing rep and eventually seeing his jersey retired at St. Bonaventure.