9) Darrell Griffith, 1981

As the electric leader of the famed ’79-’80 Louisville team that won the school’s first ever national title, Griffith was a hot property when he was selected second overall by the Jazz in 1980. Newly relocated to Salt Lake City from New Orleans and having recently waived Pete Maravich, the Jazz needed an immediate infusion of talent and Griffith obliged. He averaged 20.6 points per game in his rookie season and just edged out Portland’s Kelvin Ransey and Golden State’s Larry Smith for Rookie of the Year honors (the only Hall of Famer in this rookie class, Kevin McHale, finished fourth in voting). Griffith remained a star for Utah in his first five seasons, averaging 21.0 points per game, leading the league in three point percentage in ’83-’84 and living up to his “Dr. Dunkenstein” nickname. Then he suffered a stress fracture in his foot late in the ’84-’85 season and was never the same afterwards, struggling through five more seasons before retiring in 1991.

8) Ray Felix, 1954

Though his career pales in comparison to most Rookies of the Year, Felix does deserve recognition as the first Black player to win the award. Granted, he was just the second player period to ever be so honored, as the NBA had instituted it starting in ’52-’53. The first overall pick of the Baltimore Bullets in 1953, Felix, at 6’11”, was immediately the tallest player in the league and used his height to great advantage right out the gate. In his rookie season, in addition to Rookie of the Year honors, he also finished fifth in the NBA in scoring (17.6 points per game), fourth in rebounding (13.3 per game), and was named an All-Star. The cash-strapped (and soon to fold) Bullets traded him before the ’54-’55 season to New York, where he continued to put up solid though less impressive numbers, and his rookie stats would turn out to be career highs, as more athletic centers like Bill Russell started to dominate the league. Felix ultimately averaged just 10.9 points and 8.9 rebounds per game for his nine-year career, and was never again an All-Star.

7) Mike Miller, 2001

Selected fifth out of Florida in 2000, Miller was part of arguably the weakest post-merger draft class in NBA history and managed to win Rookie of the Year despite averaging just 11.9 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 1.7 assists per game. In fact, his total amounts of average points, rebounds, and assists (17.6) set the record for lowest ever by a Rookie of the Year, until Malcolm Brodgon broke it in ’16-’17. Miller played in all 82 games for the Magic in his rookie year and, thanks to an injury to Grant Hill, started in 62 of them at small forward. He won the award pretty handily, with #1 overall pick Kenyon Martin finishing a distant second despite putting up more impressive numbers for New Jersey. Martin was ultimately one of just three players from this draft class (along with Jamaal Magloire and Michael Redd) to be named to an All-Star team, although Miller did receive more accolades later, winning Sixth Man of the Year in ’05-’06. Miller did put in some solid seasons, averaging as much as 18.5 points per game for the Grizzlies in ’06-’07 but always slotted as a bench scoring specialist more than a star player. His rookie season came in the right place at the right time to be honored.

6) Phil Ford, 1979

Starting off strong as a rookie was nothing new for Ford, who had been an instant star as a freshman for North Carolina. The first ever freshman to make a varsity team under Dean Smith (freshman eligibility had just been installed a year earlier), Ford was the assist leader and third-leading scorer on the ’74-’75 Tar Heels, and eventually was a three-time All-American and won every major NCAA award. He was drafted second overall by the Kings in 1978, immediately took over as the starting point guard, and averaged 15.9 points and 8.6 assists per game (good for fourth in the NBA) as the Kings made their first playoff appearance in four years. He easily won Rookie of the Year, picking up 62 out of a possible 66 votes (only Chicago’s Reggie Theus also received consideration) and was not only 1st-Team All-Rookie but also 2nd-Team All-NBA. Ford played even better the next two seasons but then suffered an eye injury in 1981 that required surgical repair and was never the same afterwards. He averaged just 7.3 points and 4.8 assists per game over his final four seasons, bouncing around between four different teams before retiring in 1985. His draft class turned out to be a weak one overall, with only Maurice Cheeks (who was a second round pick) eventually becoming a Hall of Fame inductee.

5) Tyreke Evans, 2010

2009 was a banner draft class, with future legends Stephen Curry and James Harden on the board, plus eventual All-Stars Blake Griffin, Jeff Teague, Jrue Holiday, and DeMar DeRozan. But the ’09-’10 Rookie of the Year was Evans, the fourth overall pick out of Memphis, who 10 years later would be out of the NBA completely, with an uncertain future. Standing 6’6″ with an impressive handle and rim attacking skills, Evans had one of the most impressive rookie seasons in modern NBA history. He’s one of just five rookies to average 20+ points, five-plus assists, and five-plus rebounds per game and he’s in lofty company in that regard, alongside LeBron James, Oscar Robertson, Luka Doncic, and Michael Jordan. But the rest of his career would be marked by misuse (the flailing Kings continually moved him around in the lineup and schemes and he never managed to develop a consistent jumper) and injuries, including multiple knee surgeries that cost him almost the entire ’15-’16 and ’16-’17 seasons. His scoring (20.1 points per game) and rebounding (5.3 per game) outputs in his rookie year would turn out to be career highs and in 2019 he was delivered a potentially fatal blow to any kind of career turnaround when the NBA suspended him for two years for violating the substance abuse policy.

4) Woody Sauldsberry, 1958

An eighth round selection in 1957, #60 overall out of Texas Southern (and following a stint with the Harlem Globetrotters), Sauldsberry still stands as the lowest ever draft pick to win Rookie of the Year. He was an instant star for the Warriors, then based in Philadelphia, first playing alongside Neil Johnston in the front court, then eventually taking over for the aging Johnston as the starting center. Sauldsberry averaged 12.8 points and 10.3 rebounds per game, and beat out top overall pick Hot Rod Hundley in the Rookie of the Year voting. The only player in this class who had a truly great career was Sam Jones, who played only sparingly in his first season with the Celtics. Though he was solid again in his second season and even named to the 1959 All-Star team, Sauldsberry saw his playing time decrease dramatically in ’59-’60 when the Warriors drafted Wilt Chamberlain. Disillusioned by trades to the Hawks and Chicago Packers (which were likely induced by the unspoken Black player quota of the time), Sauldsberry retired in 1963 but was lured back two years later to back up Bill Russell and earn a championship ring with the ’65-’66 Celtics.

3) Geoff Petrie, 1971

His devastating knee injury cutting short a promising career is a topic we’ve covered before and continues to make Petrie one of the league’s all-time greatest tragic stories. A star at Princeton, he was the eighth overall pick in 1970 and the first draft selection in franchise history for the expansion Trail Blazers. Portland and Petrie was a perfect fit, as the prolific shooter could be immediately unleashed on a roster that was otherwise lacking scoring punch. He averaged 24.8 points per game in his rookie season, which was seventh in the NBA, and shared Rookie of the Year honors with Boston’s Dave Cowens. Three other future Hall of Famers placed in the voting that year, with Pete Maravich finishing a close third, Calvin Murphy fourth, and Bob Lanier fifth (the stellar draft class also included Sam Lacey, Tiny Archibald, Dan Issel, and Rudy Tomjanovich). In his first six seasons, Petrie finished in the top 10 in the NBA in scoring three times and was named to two All-Star teams, but he shredded his knee during the preseason of the ’76-’77 season and never played professional basketball again.

2) Ernie DiGregorio, 1974

Drafted three years after Geoff Petrie, DiGregorio’s pro career took on a similar arc, with early promise and stardom waylaid by a major knee injury. The third overall pick out of Providence, DiGregorio averaged 15.2 points and 8.2 assists per game for the Braves in his rookie season. That assist mark actually led the NBA that season, and was the sixth highest amount ever by a Rookie of the Year winner. The knee injury came in his second season and DiGregorio was never the same, averaging just 7.6 points and 4.0 assists per game for the remainder of his career, ultimately retiring in 1978 at the age of 27. In addition to leading the NBA in assists in ’73-’74, DiGregorio also topped the leaderboard in free throw percentage twice, including a 94.5% rate in ’76-’77 that’s stands ninth in NBA history in a single season. He won Rookie of the Year in a runaway, netting 16 of the 17 first place votes, with Kansas City’s Ron Behagen finishing a distant second. The 1973 draft class would ultimately go down as one of the worst in NBA history, with no Hall of Fame inductees and only six All-Stars.

1) Monk Meineke, 1953

Our list is appropriately topped by the inaugural winner of Rookie of the Year in ’52-’53, when the NBA was still figuring out its talent evaluation. Meineke supposedly didn’t even know he had been honored as Rookie of the Year until he read about it in the newspaper. A star power forward at Dayton, he was drafted by the (then Fort Wayne) Pistons in 1952 and made an instant impact, finishing with 10.7 points and 6.9 rebounds per game in his rookie campaign. The NBA has never released voting records going back that far, but it’s difficult to say who could even have challenged Meineke for the honor. In fact, the class of 1952 is the only NBA rookie cohort to not place a single player in our list of the top 500 of all time. Meineke lasted just five seasons in the NBA, three with the Pistons and two with the Royals, never matching his rookie stats again. He did play in one NBA Finals with the Pistons in 1955, but soon retired to return to his hometown of Dayton to work as a sales rep. He’ll always be the trivia answer to the question “who was the first NBA Rookie of the Year?” and according to our metrics, is also the answer to the question “who was the worst NBA Rookie of the Year?”