17) Khalid El-Amin, ’00-’01

Most fans remember him for his heroics at Connecticut, but before even that, El-Amin was a prep legend in his home town of Minneapolis. He led Minneapolis North High School to three straight state titles, and was named Mr. Basketball for Minnesota in 1997. Opting to play at Connecticut instead of Minnesota, which heavily recruited him, he became the starting point guard as a sophomore and memorably led the Huskies to an upset win over Duke in the 1999 National Final. Though NBA scouts were concerned about his height (listed at 5’10”), El-Amin skipped his senior year to declare early and fell to the Bulls in the second round in 2000. It was a team in disarray and he won the starting point guard spot on opening night over fellow rookie Jamal Crawford and became a fan favorite for his hustle and play making. Though his numbers weren’t terribly impressive (6.3 points and 2.9 assists per game), El-Amin played well enough to participate in the Rookie Challenge during All-Star Weekend (fellow Bulls rookies and lottery picks Crawford and Marcus Fizer were not selected) but at that point was starting to lose playing time in the notoriously fickle Tim Floyd’s rotations. According to management, El-Amin responded by regularly showing up late or altogether skipping practices and shoot-arounds, and in late March, with 15 games still to play, he was waived. He spent some time in the D-League before kicking off a long and successful career in Europe, finally retiring in 2017 after winning championships in leagues in Turkey, Croatia, and the Ukraine. 

16) Sylvester Gray, ’88-’89

Knowing they had little chance to contend, the expansion Heat really just needed some warm bodies in ’88-’89. Gray was one of six players that Miami selected in the 1988 NBA Draft, and one of 10 rookies to appear in at least one game in the ’88-’89 season. In fact, despite being a second round pick, he started in 15 games at small forward, with his best performance coming in a March loss to the Knicks, in which Gray put up 25 points and 14 rebounds. He averaged a respectable 8.0 points and 5.2 rebounds per game but also struggled at times with his weight and a thumb injury, and reportedly clashed with coach Ron Rothstein. After drafting Glen Rice that summer, the Heat waived Gray on the eve of the ’89-’90 season. Though he never appeared in the NBA again, he did spend 17 years playing overseas, with a couple stops in between with various teams in the CBA.

15) Eddie Phillips, ’82-’83

Nets coach Larry Brown was reportedly stunned when Phillips was still available with the 21st pick in the 1982 NBA Draft. The smooth shooting power forward had been a dominant force at Alabama, carrying the team to a Sweet 16 appearance in 1982 and finishing as the program’s second all-time leading scorer. New Jersey needed some scoring boost, as they had reached the playoffs in 1982 despite being one of the league’s worst offensive teams. But Phillips was a bit of a tweener, and often got outworked on the boards by opposing power forwards and outrun by enemy small forwards. It also didn’t help that the team traded for a veteran power forward on the eve of the season, bringing in Mickey Johnson from the Bucks. Most of Phillips’ playing time came late in blowouts but he did make the most of his limited opportunities, finishing the season with 3.2 points and 1.6 rebounds in just 8.7 minutes per game. With Brown having resigned late in the ’82-’83 season, Phillips had no backers left in New Jersey and was traded in the offseason to the 76ers but never suited up in Philly, opting to sign with a team in Italy instead. He played for another decade overseas, also making stops in Israel and Spain.

14) Ed Sherod, ’82-’83

Drafted in the seventh round by the Nets in 1981, Sherod was cut before the regular season and spent the next few months in the Continental Basketball League. He returned to New Jersey in April, signing with the team on the eve of the playoffs due to an injury to third-string point guard Foots Walker. Sherod appeared in both Nets playoff games, tallying one assist, one rebound, and one steal as New Jersey was swept by the Bullets (first round series were still best-of-three). He was then traded across the river to the Knicks and actually won the starting point guard job in the wake of Micheal Ray Richardson getting traded to the Warriors for Bernard King. Sherod started the first 33 games of the season, averaging 7.8 points and 6.2 assists per game over that stretch, before the struggling Knicks opted to shift Paul Westphal to take over at the point. When Rory Sparrow was acquired at the trade deadline, Sherod’s numbers fell even further and he barely left the bench in the postseason, when the Knicks defeated his former Nets teammates in round one before losing to the “fo’, fo’, fo’” Sixers in the second round. Planning to hand over the reigns to Sparrow full time in ’83-’84, the Knicks waived Sherod that summer and his pro career was finished. He eventually wound up coaching the women’s team at his alma mater, VCU, where he once held the program record for career assists. 

13) Dennis Nutt, ’86-’87

It was a long, hard road to the NBA for Nutt, and his place in the sun lasted just 25 games. A member of the All-Southwestern Conference team during his time at TCU, Nutt went un-drafted in 1985 and signed with the La Crosse Catbirds of the CBA. He was signed and waived by the Mavericks twice before taking the court, but the third time was the charm, with Nutt joining the roster early in the ’86-’87 season as essentially a third-string point guard. He played only limited minutes in his 25 regular season appearances, performing best in a late February win over the Warriors, with a career high 11 points in garbage time. Nutt also made a brief playoff appearance in one game and that would be that for his NBA career. After brief stints back in the CBA and in Spain, Nutt became a coach, eventually taking over at Texas State for six seasons.

12) Phil Sellers, ’76-’77

After starring at Thomas Jefferson High School in Brooklyn, earning All-American honors, Sellers had his pick of any major college program in the country. He made a shocking decision to attend nearby Rutgers and led the school to its first and only Final Four appearance in 1976. After graduating as the school’s all-time leading scorer (a record he still holds), Sellers fell to the third round of the NBA Draft, perhaps due to his matriculation decision. A strong power forward in high school and college despite standing just 6’4″, he was converted to a shooting guard by the Pistons and struggled in the new role. Sellers averaged just 4.5 points per game in limited minutes in his rookie season and was subsequently waived. He played a brief gig in the Netherlands and tried out for the Pistons again in 1979 (at the urging of his former college coach, Dick Vitale) but never re-appeared in the NBA.

11) Tom Payne, ’71-’72

On paper, his brief pro career seems unmemorable, but Payne’s story is one of the most eventful in NBA history despite playing just one season. Already a seven footer in his senior year of high school and being touted as the next Lew Alcindor, Payne opted to become the first black player in Kentucky history. His time under Adolph Rupp was historic but a struggle, with Payne ineligible for the freshman team due to low test scores then facing near constant racial taunts and on-court scraps when he did suit up for his sophomore year. He still managed to average a double-double and was named 1st-Team All-SEC but would be just one-and-done at Kentucky after he supposedly accepted a gift from the Pittsburgh Condors of the ABA. Taking advantage of the new NBA hardship rule, Payne declared eligibility for the 1971 supplemental draft and was one of just five players selected. He averaged 4.1 points and 2.4 rebounds per game for the Hawks and made a brief playoff appearance before getting arrested for rape. It turned out that Payne was a serial rapist, committing the offense multiple times during his stints with Kentucky and the Hawks. He wound up spending most of the next 46 years in jail before finally getting out on parole in 2018. When he was previously paroled in 1983, he made a brief comeback attempt with the Louisville Catbirds of the CBA before getting arrested again and returning to prison.

10) Ricky Berry, ’88-’89

The Sacramento Kings and Ricky Berry seemed like a perfect match. A local kid that was only lightly recruited out of high school in 1983, he became an unlikely star under his father at San Jose State, averaging 24.2 points per game in his senior year. His hometown Kings were collecting young talent in a rebuilding effort when they drafted Berry in the first round in 1988. Though things got off to a slow start, Berry took over as the starting small forward late in his rookie year. With a consistent jumper and smooth ball handling skills for his size (6’8″), he managed to overpower smaller guards and circumvent bigger forwards. Berry put up career highs with 34 points and eight rebounds in a February win over the Warriors, then averaged 20.0 points and 6.6 rebounds per game over a 10-game stretch at the end of the season. He was obviously going to factor in heavily in the Kings’ plans for ’89-’90 but instead he was dead that August, from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. It was a shock to his friends, family, teammates, and fans, as Berry had displayed little-to-no signs of depression. It’s possible that the stress of playing so close to home, mixed with a new marriage that was reportedly under duress, got to him in the end. 

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Singles: 25 more notable players who lasted just one season in the NBA

Ossie Schectman: The man who scored the first basket in NBA history in 1946 was already 27 years old and a five-year pro veteran at the time; Schectman was the third leading scorer on the ’46-’47 Knicks but returned to the NBL after one season and then retired from basketball to focus on his salesman career
Dan Swartz: Drafted by the Celtics in 1956 but didn’t join the team until six years later, winning a championship in his one and only season before returning to his native Kentucky to become county sheriff
Alfredrick Hughes: Set the Horizon League career scoring record while at Loyola-Chicago and was drafted #14 overall by the Spurs in 1985 (over Joe Dumars, Terry Porter, and A.C. Green) but was cut after one disappointing season and spent the rest of his career in the CBA and WBL
Vassilis Spanoulis: One of the greatest players in FIBA and EuroLeague history and actually took a pay cut to chase his NBA dream but found playing time scarce under Jeff Van Gundy on the ’06-’07 Rockets and subsequently returned to his native Greece
Lorenzo Charles: The hero of the 1983 NCAA Tournament National Final with his unlikely buzzer beater but couldn’t cut in the NBA, averaging just 3.4 points per game in one season with the Hawks before spending the rest of his career in the CBA, Europe, and South America
Korleone Young: A poster child for the pratfalls of the prep-to-pro era, he played just three games for the Pistons in ’98-’99 at age 19 and couldn’t make another NBA roster due to concerns over his injury history, immaturity, and connection to an AAU corruption scandal
Cleo Hill: First ever player to be drafted in the first round out of an HBCU (Winston-Salem State) and had serious star potential as a dynamic point guard but was frozen out of the St. Louis Hawks rotation and then blackballed by the other owners due to the ongoing Black player quota
Fennis Dembo: Struggled to make the transition from NCAA scoring champ to NBA bench warmer but did win a title with the Pistons in his one-and-only season, even making a brief appearance in game one of the 1989 NBA Finals
Wayne Yates: An All-American at Memphis and #5 overall pick of the Lakers in 1961 but absconded for the nascent ABL after just one NBA season spent mostly sitting on the bench behind Rudy LaRusso and Jim Krebs
Miles Simon: His 1997 NCAA Tournament performance for Arizona was the stuff of legends but concerns over his size (a 6’3″ shooting guard) bumped him to a second round pick and after playing in just five games for the Magic in ’98-’99, he moved on to a career in Israel
Mirsad Turkcan: Made history as the first Turkish NBA player but his brief career was marked by bad luck (the 1998 lockout greatly delayed his debut) and instability (traded from the Rockets to the 76ers to the Knicks in less than a year) and he found much greater success later in his native Turkey
Billy Donovan: The two-time NCAA champion coach was once a star player at Providence under Rick Pitino, who brought Donovan into the fold on the Knicks, albeit for just parts of the ’87-’88 season; Donovan spent some time as a stock broker before landing his first coaching gig at Kentucky, under the newly hired Pitino
Tom Stith: How does a two-time All-American and #2 overall pick in the NBA Draft last just one season? It was a double whammy of bad luck as his rookie season was missed due to tuberculosis, then Stith played just 25 games for the Knicks before suffering career-ending injuries in a car accident
Yuta Tabuse: He made history in 2004 as the first Japanese-born NBA player but played just four games that season for the Suns, then failed in several attempts to return via the D-League before returning to his native country to become a league MVP and champion
God Shammgod: A breakout star of the 1997 NCAA Tournament due largely to his unique name and patented cross-over dribbling style, he was a second round pick of the Wizards but found his playground style difficult to translate to NBA courts and played in just 20 games in his one and only season
Mychel Thompson: While Klay Thompson developed into one of the biggest NBA stars of the ’10s, the older son of longtime NBA stalwart Mychal had a more difficult time, playing just five games as an un-drafted free agent for the Cavaliers in ’11-’12 then bouncing around the D-League for six years before retiring
Press Maravich: Already 31 years old by the time the league started, a lengthy NBA career was infeasible for the father of Hall of Fame inductee Pete, and he played one season with the Pittsburgh Ironmen then retired to become a coach when the franchise folded
Keith Smart: He likely still never needs to buy a beer in Indiana thanks to his exploits in the 1987 NCAA Tournament but Spurs fans are less enamored with Smart, who appeared in just two games in the ’88-’89 season before moving on to gigs in France, Venezuela, the Philippines, and various secondary U.S. leagues
Royce White: For all the controversies involving his contract, his mental health, his untapped potential, his clashes with team management, and now his political views, White played in only three NBA games for the Kings during the ’13-’14 season, failing to score a single point
Georgi Glouchkov: It’s still debatable whether the brevity of his NBA career was the result of poor conditioning, culture shock, steroids, or mismanagement from the Suns, but the Bulgarian was an undeniable trail blazer, as the first NBA player to come from the European Eastern bloc

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9) Jay Williams, ’02-’03

Winner of the Naismith Award and an All-American at Duke, Williams obviously had the requisite skill set to thrive in the NBA, but one fateful motorcycle ride ended things just as they were getting started. Drafted second overall by the Bulls in 2002, he averaged 9.5 points and 4.7 assists per game, was named 2nd-Team All-Rookie, and seemed primed to take over the starting point guard spot for years to come. Then, just weeks after his rookie season ended, he crashed his motorcycle into a streetlight, shattering his pelvis, tearing his ACL, and severing a nerve in his leg. Williams was unlicensed, not wearing a helmet, and violating his contract by riding a motorcycle at all. He was lucky that the Bulls paid out part of his contract when they waived, as they could have voided it completely. It was unsure whether Williams would ever walk again, but he did eventually make a full recovery and attempted a comeback with the Nets that ended before he could re-take the court.

8) Bennie Swain, ’58-’59

If your NBA career is going to last just one season, then you might as well win a championship. Such was the case for Swain, who was an NCAA scoring champion and All-American at Texas Southern, a role player on the ’58-’59 Celtics, and then a retiree after a debilitating knee injury. Red Auerbach certainly expected Swain’s pro career to go differently. The Celtics coach and general manager drafted Swain in the first round in 1958 as a long-term front court mate with Bill Russell. There were signs of his potential in his rookie season, as Swain averaged 4.6 points and 4.5 rebounds per game in just 12.2 minutes of average playing time, mostly as Russell’s backup. The knee injury came in the summer of 1959, just after Swain earned his title ring and a couple subsequent comeback attempts fell short.

7) Bert Cook, ’54-’55

Initially drafted in 1952, Cook missed two years due to service in the U.S. Army and in 1954 finally joined a Knicks team that was fresh off three consecutive NBA Finals losses. He managed to carve out a decent role in the rotation in ’54-’55 as a backup shooting guard, including a 16-point performance late in the season against Boston. In his first playoff appearance, Cook scored eight points in game one of a first round series versus the Celtics, but also suffered a knee injury in that game which would end his career. Though his time in pros was relatively unmemorable, Cook is still a legend in his home state of Utah, where he earned the nickname “Heater” for his scoring prowess at Weber High School and Utah State, and was inducted into the state’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1991.

6) Dick Groat, ’52-’53

It wasn’t injury, organizational chaos, or off-court issues that cost Groat his potentially great NBA career, but rather his abundance of talent in another sport. An All-American at Duke in both basketball and baseball, Groat decided to try his hand at both in the pros, almost four decades before Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders. He signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates to play shortstop and with the Fort Wayne Pistons (who drafted him third overall) to play point guard. After batting .284 for the Pirates and finishing third in Rookie of the Year voting, Groat averaged 11.9 points in 26 games for the Pistons, before shutting it down due to exhaustion (he was also attempting to complete his degree at Duke). Following a two-year stint with the U.S. Army, Groat was eager to return to both sports but Pirates general manager Branch Rickey was insistent that he quit the NBA. He eventually was named to five MLB All-Star teams, and in 1960 won league MVP while leading the Pirates to a World Series title.

5) Lazaro Borrell, ’99-’00

At the 1999 FIBA Tournament of the Americas in San Juan, a qualification for the ensuing summer’s Olympics, the Cuban team lost all four games they played and one of their best players, Borrell, who defected once the competition ended. Having already dominated in the Cuban Liga Superior de Balancesto, Borrell wanted to try his hand at the NBA level and was signed almost immediately by the Sonics, despite being already 27 years old and facing a language barrier. He found playing time limited early in the season but then in the home stretch, coach Paul Westphal decided to send a message to his star power foward, Vin Baker, by benching him for Borrell. The Cuban responded with a solid four game stretch, averaging 11.8 points and 6.3 rebounds, helping Seattle reach the playoffs as a #7 seed. He even got to start game one of their first round series against the Jazz but when the Sonics lost, Baker was inserted back as a starter for the remainder of the postseason. Borrell was traded that summer as part of the landmark deal that ended Patrick Ewing’s time in New York. Unable to make the Knicks roster for the ’00-’01 season, Borrell played one year in the CBA before returning overseas, playing out the rest of his career in Puerto Rico and Argentina.

4) John Richter, ’59-’60

When Bennie Swain tore up his knee in the summer of 1959 (see #8 above), Red Auerbach had to search for a new backup center behind Bill Russell. He settled on Richter as a new potential long-term solution for that role but like Swain, Richter lasted just one season. He was solid in that short career, with 4.7 points and 4.3 rebounds off the bench in the regular season plus some important minutes in the NBA Finals, facing off against the fearsome Hawks front line. Though Richter played relatively well and came away with a title ring, he didn’t quite live up to the expectations Auerbach had for a first round backup, and was waived from the team before the ’60-’61 season after Satch Sanders was drafted. Richter returned to his native Pennsylvania and played sucessfully for the Sunbury and Scranton franchises in the Eastern Basketball League before retiring in 1972.

3) Juan Carlos Navarro, ’07-’08

His one season in the NBA is really just a footnote in Navarro’s pro career. It came in ’07-’08 with the Grizzlies and was sandwiched between two legendary decade-long stints with FC Barcelona in his native Spain. His pro debut came at age 17 in 1997 and in his first 10 years he was 1st-Team All-EuroLeague twice, Liga ACB MVP and scoring champion, a EuroLeague champ once, and a Liga ACB champion four times. He initially declared for the NBA Draft in 2002 but was struggling at the time with injuries and fell to the Wizards in the second round. With his draft rights later traded to Memphis, he decided to make a go of it in 2007 so that he could join his friend Marc Gasol on the court. Splitting time between the starting lineup and bench at shooting guard, Navarro played in all 82 games, averaging 10.9 points per game and getting named to the All-Rookie team at age 27. But his interest in the NBA waned mid-season, when Gasol was traded in a blockbuster deal to the Lakers, and after the season ended Navarro returned to Spain. In his second stint at Barcelona, he won EuroLeague MVP, EuroBasket MVP, EuroLeague Final Four MVP, one more EuroLeague title, four more Liga ACB titles, and three Olympic medals before finally retiring in 2018.

2) Jack Molinas, ’53-’54

Maybe the most notorious figure in NBA player history, Molinas played 32 games for the Pistons, made the All-Star team, then was banned from the league for life for betting on games. An undeniably great player, Molinas was a star for Columbia in the early ’50s but was also making mob connections and supposedly throwing games or over/under totals to help out his new friends and his own gambling addiction. He was averaging 11.6 points and 7.1 rebounds per game at the time of his banning and immediately shifted into full-time bookmaking and game fixing afterwards, eventually making headlines for his involvement in the 1961 point shaving scandal that embroiled the NCAA.

1) Jack Stephens, ’55-’56

It wasn’t injury, suspension, or franchise mismanagement that cut Stephens’ career short, but rather the Air Force. A first round pick of the Hawks in 1955 out of Notre Dame, Stephens immediately slotted in as starting shooting guard and averaged 10.3 points per game in his rookie season. By the end of the season he was the second scoring option after Bob Pettit as St. Louis reached the cusp of the NBA Finals, losing a winner-take-all game five to the Pistons in the Conference Finals. He choose to step away from a promising career and join the U.S. Air Force, eventually attaining the rank of captain before his honorable discharge 12 years later. Though his pro career wasn’t honorific, he was eventually inducted into the Illinois Basketball Hall of Fame (for his high school exploits) and named part of Notre Dame’s All-Century Team in 2005.

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