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2014 NBA Draft: Biggest draft mistakes of the lottery era

By Michael Dunlap

Feb 18, 2014; Dallas, TX, USA; Miami Heat center Greg Oden (20) warms up before the game against the Dallas Mavericks at the American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 18, 2014; Dallas, TX, USA; Miami Heat center Greg Oden (20) warms up before the game against the Dallas Mavericks at the American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports /
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1993 — Avoidable tragedy

Although the 1993 NBA Draft will go down as one of the weakest in terms of pure star power, it did give us seven All-Stars and countless valuable rotation guys at the top of the draft. In fact, of the top 12 players, only one had lower than 22 win shares for their career. While that’s not overly impressive, it’s certainly not in the bust/mistake category. The one who didn’t get to that level was Bobby Hurley.

At Duke University, Hurley was a stud point guard with a sweet 3-point shooting stroke. In his senior season, he averaged 17.0 points, 8.2 assists and 1.6 steals per game with an impressive .421 3-point shooting percentage. It looked like he was going to be a leader and the type of player who could carve out a role in the NBA, albeit perhaps not as a superstar.

Then, tragedy struck as Hurley was rear-ended by a truck just 19 games into his career. He wasn’t wearing his seat belt and was thrown from the car, suffering life-threatening injuries. He’d come back during the next season, but he was never the same player. We can chalk this mistake up to Hurley himself and remember, that’s why we wear our seat belts.

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