While the #1 spot on a 2aDaysTop 5 list is typically a positive, it's the exact opposite here. The biggest NBA Draft disappointment of all-time is Sam Bowie, a 7'1” Center from the University of Kentucky.
High Expectations
Averaging 28 points and 18 rebounds per game in high school, Bowie was highly recruited, receiving interest from many of the nation's best college basketball programs, but he ultimately chose to play for the Wildcats and head coach Joe B. Hall. Bowie started strong with the Wildcats, averaging 12 points and eight rebounds as a freshman, then 17.5 points and nine rebounds as a sophomore. However his basketball career was temporarily put on hold when Bowie suffered a stress fracture in his left tibia the following offseason, which would force him to use a medical redshirt and miss the coming two seasons.
Related: The 5 Worst NCAA Basketball Busts in the NBA–#3: Adam Morrison
Bowie managed to recover well and returned in time for the start of his final season at Kentucky, where he averaged a respectable 10.5 points and nine rebounds per game, but perhaps more importantly led the Wildcats to their best season as a team during his time there. The Wildcats won the SEC Championship, finished with a Top-3 national ranking, an overall 26-4 season record, and advanced to the Final Four. Coming off a great comeback season and having exhausted his NCAA eligibility, Bowie would head for the 1984 NBA Draft.
Draft Drama
Unlike the last couple draft classes highlighted on this list, the 1984 NBA Draft class was exceptional–there were four future NBA Hall of Famers selected in the first sixteen picks of the 1984 draft. Bowie, of course, wasn't one of them, and the back-story you'd need to know for context here is the Houston Rockets were tied with the Indiana Pacers for the worst record in the NBA entering the 1984 draft. However, in 1981, the Pacers traded their 1984 first round draft pick to the Portland Trail Blazers for center Tom Owens. When 1984 came around the Pacers beat the Blazers in a coin toss, thus having the opportunity to pick first, then used their first overall spot to take future Hall of Fame Center Hakeem Olajuwon. This put the Blazers in a predicament because they very clearly needed a center. Rumor has it they wanted Olajuwon or Patrick Ewing, but Olajuwon went right ahead of them, and Ewing didn't declare for the NBA Draft until the following season, in 1995. The Blazers had just taken a future NBA Hall of Fame shooting guard, Clyde Drexler, in the previous year's draft.
Additionally, their franchise player for a lengthy time, Bill Walton, a future NBA Hall of Fame Center, had left the team a few years back and Portland noticeably suffered without him or a replacement Center to fill his gap. Therefore at the time, it made sense for the Blazers to take Sam Bowie with the second overall pick. This left the Chicago Bulls, who had the third overall pick in the 1984 NBA Draft, to take a junior shooting guard forgoing his senior year with the University of North Carolina Tar Heels: Michael Jordan.
Related: Rate the University of North Carolina
Comeback Kid?
Bowie had a very lackluster career that was plagued with recurrent knee injuries, which ultimately led the Blazers to trade him to the New Jersey Nets after four seasons with the team since he only started in five games the last two of them. His best year came when he first landed with the Nets, averaging 14.7 points and 10.1 rebounds per game, which was the only season of his career where he averaged a double-double. Throughout his NBA career–which was technically ten seasons though several were cut short or completely missed due to injury–Bowie averaged 10.9 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 1.78 blocks per game. His career shooting percentage from the field was 45.2%. To put that into context, today all Top-10 centers in the NBA shoot over 55% from the field. This prompted ESPN to name Bowie the “worst draft pick in the history of North American professional sports” in a 2005 Top-100 list they created on that topic. In that same year, Sports Illustrated named Bowie the “biggest draft bust in NBA history,” using him to make the case that teams should select players from the draft based on talent, not on current position needs.
These draft busts go to show that your recruiting process is about far more than just playing a sport–it's about getting a degree whether you have pro potential or not. If you do go pro and fall short whether due to injury, pressure, or any other reason, you'll always have your degree.
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* Originally published on February 22, 2023, by 2aDays Staff
