Every year at the NBA Draft, teams hope to receive the highest possible pick, so they can draft the best possible player to help contribute to their team.
Ideally, the highest draft pick will end up being a star, collecting championship trophies and racking up the All-Star Game appearances.
Well, there have been many high draft picks that have not lived up to their draft day expectations and have been deemed "busts.” Here are the top five draft "busts" in the NBA in the last 10 years.
5. Nikoloz Tskitishvili
The fifth overall pick in the 2000 NBA Draft by the Denver Nuggets, Tskitishvili is not on this list because he was a player with potential who never developed, he’s here because he did not have any talent.
He spent four years in the NBA, never averaging more than four points a game.
4. Kwame Brown
He was the first overall pick by the Washington Wizards in the 2001 NBA Draft. Some say his lack of development was because of the pressure put on him as the first No. 1 pick from high school.
Kwame has shown that he does have some talent, going for 30 points and 19 rebounds in a game against the Sacramento Kings, but his inconsistency, bad hands, and poor offensive skills have overshadowed him during his NBA career.
3. Jonathan Bender
The fifth overall pick by the Toronto Raptors in the 1999 NBA Draft suffered through chronic knee problems throughout his career, leading to his retirement at the young age of 25. He lasted seven years in the league, amassing only 237 games, with a mediocre average of 5.6 points per game.
Some say that when healthy, Bender was a very exciting player who had all-star caliber skills.
2. Michael Olowokandi
He was the first overall pick by the Los Angeles Clippers in the 1998 NBA Draft, after a great career at the University of Pacific.
Olowokandi is known throughout the league as a lazy, underachieving player, who had a terrible field goal percentage, despite being a center. Has career averages were 8 points and 7 rebounds.
Olowokandi is currently not with a team after warming the bench for the Boston Celtics last year.
1. Darko Milicic
Darko was the second overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft by the Detroit Pistons. He was a little-known forward out of Europe who sat on the bench his first two and a half years with the Pistons.
Remember, he is still young, but with five years under his belt, and career averages of five points and four rebounds per game, he has not developed into the type of player the men that were picked immediately after him (Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, and Carmelo Anthony) have.
Honorable Mentions: Robert Traylor, Rafael Araujo, DaJuan Wagner, Jay Williams, Eddie Griffin
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