From Michael Jordan to LeBron James, the NBA has seen some of the greatest players of all-time take to the court. Fans around the world have been able to witness greatness in front of their eyes, and many of those stars have been enshrined in the league's Hall of Fame, which even features modern greats like Kawhi Leonard and Kevin Durant who are among the best in the NBA right now.
But for every Jordan that ends up dominating the league, there are countless others who fall by the wayside, whether it was simply not matching up to the level, struggling to deal with the hype or simply being undone by injuries. Making it into the NBA is an achievement in and of itself, but even basketball's biggest and most popular league has seen some major busts over the years.
So with that in mind, here's a ranking of the 10 worst NBA players of all-time.
Ranking Factors
Stats like points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks
Hype and expectation coming into the league including when and where they were drafted
Their impact (or lack thereof) on the league
10 Sun Yue
Sun Yue playing basketball
Despite winning the NBA championship with the Los Angeles Lakers, Sun Yue would play just the 10 games with the legendary franchise. A 6 foot 9, shooting guard who could also play at the three, the Lakers decided to use their second-round pick on him in the 2008 NBA draft. A short spell in the G-League hinted at some initial promise, but Yue simply found the step-up in quality far too high to handle.
His debut game saw him pick up four fouls and commit two turnovers in just five minutes of NBA action, and that sparked the end rather quickly. By his final 10th game with the Lakers, Yue had made more fouls than actually scored points (ten to six), while he also had more turnovers with three, than assists and steals combined.
9 Rafael Araujo
Rafael Araujo with his Toronto Raptors jersey
A three-year career in the NBA that started with being picked eighth in the 2004 draft by the Toronto Raptors, the 6 foot 11 Rafael Araujo looked like he had all the physical tools to be a real threat in the league. The Raptors' front office at the time, led by Rob Babcock, had envisioned Araujo forming a big three alongside All-Star Vince Carter and Chris Bosh.
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Instead, Araujo played just two seasons with the Raptors, averaging about three points and three rebounds apiece on 41% shooting. Such were his struggles, that Toronto fans weren't shy in voicing their displeasure with Araujo at home games, and he would eventually leave the franchise to play for the Utah Jazz for a year. Given that the 2004 draft saw future Finals MVP and multiple-time champion Andre Iguodala be picked 9th overall, it's safe to say Araujo's career didn't quite pan out.
8 Todd Fuller
The 1996 NBA Draft ended up producing some of the best players the game has ever seen, including the likes of Hall of Famers Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson and Steve Nash. That's not to mention All-Stars in Peja Stojakovic and Jermaine O'Neal too. But with the 11th pick, the Golden State Warriors decided that they were going to pass up on the likes of Bryant and Nash by going with Fuller.
In his five-year spell in the association, Fuller would average just four points in his 132 games before slipping out of the league with little fanfare accompanying him.
Hindsight is always 20/20, but when I came out to the Warriors, it was a team in flux and I actually played a lot early and got off to a good start. But one of the things I didn’t learn is I put too much pressure on myself. I wasn’t that athletically talented, but I had enough tools to get the job done if I’d just worked a bit harder and had a little bit more stable mindset toward myself.
7 Chris Jent
Chris Jent coaching with the Los Angeles Lakers
In the conversation for one of the worst players to win the NBA championship, Chris Jent's career remarkable when you consider that he made more appearances in the playoffs than in the regular season. He took to the court 11 times in the post-season compared to just the six he played during the regular season.
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Jent's title would come with the Houston Rockets in 1994 when Hakeem Olajuwon was in his prime, but would then leave the league for a couple of years before returning for three more games with the New York Knicks in 1997. Since his playing days, Jent has bounced around the association as an assistant coach, including most recently with the Charlotte Hornets.
6 Greg Oden
Entering the 2007 NBA Draft out of Ohio State, the hype was real around Greg Oden - so much so that the Portland Trail Blazers decided to take him with the no.1 pick instead of Kevin Durant. But just three months after that, the 7 foot center underwent microfracture surgery which ruled him out for his entire rookie season. Oden would belatedly make his NBA debut on opening night in 2008, but the surgery and his subsequent injury issues blighted his entire career in the association.
During his seven years in the league, he would play just over 100 games, turning out for the Trail Blazers and then the Miami Heat after the former decided to waive him in March 2012. Were it not for injuries, Oden may well have enjoyed a rather successful career, but given all the excitement around him and what his career transpired to be, he takes his place on this list.
5 Nikoloz Tskitishvili
Nikoloz Tskitishvili with NBA Comissioner David Stern
Given some of the influx of talent from Europe during the 1990s, the Denver Nuggets seemed to think that they were going to hit on absolute gold when they drafted Nikoloz Tskitishvili with the fifth pick in the 2002 NBA Draft. A 7 foot, athletic power forward who could stretch the floor is what the Nuggets thought they were getting, but his 6.6 points and 1.8 rebounds per game with Benetton Treviso didn't seem to hint at that.
In fact, reports even suggested that the Nuggets' front office hadn't actually seen him play, which perhaps was one of the reasons why Tskitishvili would end up averaging just 3.2 points per game on 30% shooting from the field in his two seasons in Denver. The Georgian would then be traded to the Golden State Warriors, and would finish his NBA career averaging 1.7 PPG.
4 Michael Ruffin
Michael Ruffin was a former power forward/center who was picked by the Chicago Bulls in the second round of the NBA draft in 1999. His nine seasons in the association was nothing to write home about, averaging just 1.7 points and shooting 41% from the field. As if to underline Ruffin's struggles on the basketball court, his gaffe in March 2007 that cost the Washington Wizards the game against the Toronto Raptors was disastrous to say the least.
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Up by three with less than four seconds remaining in regulation time, Ruffin intercepted an inbound pass, but after trying to run the clock out, threw the ball in the air and saw it caught by the Raptors' Morris Peterson who promptly sank a three-pointer to level the game - the Wizards would then lose in overtime. Ruffin's final season in the NBA was arguably his worst, averaging 0.5 PPG on 29% shooting with the Portland Trail Blazers in 2009/2010.
3 Darko Milicic
Darko Milicic
The 2003 NBA draft class is widely considered to be one of the best of all-time - not surprising when you consider LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh were all a part of it. But while James went no.1, the Detroit Pistons passed on all the other aforementioned talents to take Darko Milicic with the second pick.
While Milicic did win the NBA title in his rookie season - although he did only average 1.8 minutes per game in the playoffs - he never once averaged more than 10 points per game in the league across his nine years. Milicic never got the playing time that he needed for his development, and was eventually traded to the Orlando Magic in 2006 after his two years with the Pistons. His career averages in the NBA read as just six points and 4.2 rebounds per game.
2 Hasheem Thabeet
Hasheem Thabeet
Another NBA star whose draft stock was higher than what their actual playing careers ended up realising, Hasheem Thabeet was drafted second overall by the Memphis Grizzlies, but is now seen as one of the biggest busts in NBA history. A 7 foot 3 center who averaged 3.8 blocks per game with the Connecticut Huskies in his freshman season in college, the Grizzlies clearly saw the potential of someone who could be a significant rim protector.
Instead, Thabeet would average just 2.2 points, 2.7 rebounds and 0.8 blocks during his NBA career, before leaving the association after five seasons. The fact that the Grizzlies passed up on the likes of James Harden and Stephen Curry who would both go on to win MVP awards only added to the frustration.
1 Anthony Bennett
After landing the no.1 pick in the 2003 NBA Draft class and selecting LeBron James, the Cleveland Cavaliers must have been rubbing their hands with glee after getting that same opportunity again just 10 years later. The first Canadian to ever be drafted first overall, Bennett would play just the four seasons in the NBA.
Bennett would not score a single field goal until his fifth NBA game, missing his first 16 shot attempts in 43 minutes of NBA action. His first double-digit scoring game, meanwhile, came after 33 games, which was three times as long as any previous no.1 draft pick. The Cavaliers would cut their losses on Bennett pretty early, and a trade would send him to the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2014. He would then finish up his short NBA career by turning out for the Toronto Raptors and Brooklyn Nets, but his stint as one of the worst NBA players in history was secured.