4. Cristiano Felicio (2017)
Contract: 4 years, $32 million
For me personally, the next three players on this list feel pretty interchangeable. I’d entertain any arguments as to why each of them deserves to be ranked higher, but we’ll be starting here, with Cristiano Felicio.
After averaging a whopping 4.3 points and 4.3 rebounds per game in his first two seasons in the league, the Bulls decided to reward Felicio with a four-year contract for $32 million. Felicio should still be thanking Rajon Rondo and Dwyane Wade every day for making him look like an adequate lob threat, because the second they left town, Felicio was exposed for what he really is: a terrible basketball player.
Over the next four seasons, Felicio averaged a somehow even worse 4.2 points and 3.7 rebounds per game despite the additional play time. Each season would be plagued with trade rumors of the Bulls potentially looking for ways to get off of Felicio’s deal, but they never came to fruition. By the end of his time with the team, Felicio was practically Chicago’s second mascot.
Maybe it’s because Felicio had such a dopey yet charming personality that I find it hard to take his poor performance personally. Maybe it’s because the Bulls were never going to realistically win anything of merit during his tenure in Chicago anyways. Either way, I find this contract particularly horrendous, but just a bit more tolerable than the others ahead of it.