Shawn Bradley – 2nd Overall (Philadelphia 76ers)/1993 Draft
Long story short, Bradley was a 7’6″ monster that the Sixers thought could be massive (pun intended) for them moving forward. The only thing Bradley ended up going big on was the posters he appeared on after various (and much shorter) players dunked all over him. Oh yeah and he was in Space Jam. Can you say superstar?
Revised Selection: Penny Hardaway (3rd Overall)
Kent Benson – 1st Overall (Milwaukee Bucks)/1977 Draft
You would think that the guy Larry Bird said taught him to be nice would be a good basketball player. Well you don’t get good by association (or bad by it either in the case of Bird). Benson is probably going to be forever remembered as the guy who broke Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s hand with his face. Benson threw an aggressive elbow in the second game of his career and Abdul-Jabbar threw an aggressive fist into Benson’s jaw, breaking it. Besides that, Benson played 11 years in the NBA but his pal Larry Bird had it wrong when he said any team with Benson on it would be hard to beat.
Revised Selection: Bernard King (7th Overall)
Greg Oden – 1st Overall (Portland Trailblazers)/2006 Draft
The Trailblazers have a fetish for picking the wrong guy when the guy they passed on was oh so right. Oden was already a question mark coming out of Ohio St. where he had planted the seedlings of being injury prone. But they wouldn’t be the Blazers if they had listened to common sense. Oden has played exactly 82 games since being drafted 7 years ago. It actually was a pretty hot debate of who should go 1-2 but Portland went for Greg Oden over the future scoring champ and soon to be MVP of the league. But hey to balance the scales at least the team that drafted the other guy doesn’t technically get to enjoy him either.
Revised Selection: Kevin Durant (2nd Overall)