The NBA Draft is always an exciting time for fans and young hopefuls alike, with 60 young men seeing their dreams of being a part of the league come true, which is an incredible moment. Every player coming into the NBA has worked extremely hard to make it to the league and is one of the very best in the world at what they do, but sometimes, certain players end up performing better than others.
The margins are quite small at the top, and the difference between becoming a star and not isn’t as big as a lot of people might imagine. This massive disparity in the way careers turn out for players due to various factors always means that some will be greater than others. And every once in a while, a draft class comes along that doesn’t produce any players that turn into bona fide stars in the league.
Everyone hears about the draft classes that were stacked, producing several players that went on to become superstars and stars in the league. 1984, 1996, and 2003 are right up there in terms of how many great players joined the league in the same season, and the 2018 class has shown some signs of potentially also going down that path.
However, the more intriguing case is of the class that didn’t pan out, one that failed to live up to expectations and produced just 3 total All-Star appearances among all the players. The 2000 draft class is often labeled a huge bust even though there were a few really good players in there (via BallIsLife).
“The “Worst Draft in NBA history” was 22 years ago today. Only 3 All-Star appearances from the entire draft.
1: K-Mart
2: Swift
3: Miles
4: Fizer
5. Mike Miller (ROY)
8: J. Crawford
16: Turkoglu
18: Q-Rich
19: Magloire
29: Mad Dog
43: Michael Redd.”
Jamal Crawford and Hedo Turkoglu both became excellent players in their careers while Kenyon Martin and Quentin Richardson also had their moments in the league. While every class cannot produce LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Carmelo Anthony, it must be acknowledged that the 2000 NBA draft class really didn’t end up being that good in hindsight.
