Fansided

NBA Draft: Every team’s least popular pick ever

By Cody Williams

CLEVELAND, OH - OCTOBER 30: Anthony Bennett
CLEVELAND, OH - OCTOBER 30: Anthony Bennett /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
16 of 31
Next
NEW YORK – JUNE 25: Second overall draft pick by the Memphis Grizzlies, Hasheem Thabeet is congratulated by members of his entourage during the 2009 NBA Draft at the Wamu Theatre at Madison Square Garden June 25, 2009 in New York City. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
NEW YORK – JUNE 25: Second overall draft pick by the Memphis Grizzlies, Hasheem Thabeet is congratulated by members of his entourage during the 2009 NBA Draft at the Wamu Theatre at Madison Square Garden June 25, 2009 in New York City. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images) /

Memphis Grizzlies – Hasheem Thabeet (2009)

Looking back at the 2009 NBA Draft is a fun exercise at this point in time, especially when you look at the top-10 picks. It’s such a hodgepodge of players that went on to have such widely varying degrees of success. However, it’s quite clear that sandwiched in between two of the most successful players of the bunch in Blake Griffin at No. 1 and James Harden at No. 3 is one of the least popular picks for any franchise ever as the Memphis Grizzlies took center Hasheem Thabeet.

If you want to know just how bad of a selection Thabeet was when the Grizzlies took him in 2009, there were people almost immediately warning that this was going to work out terribly. Those people are basically the basketball equivalent of Nostradamus because that’s exactly what happened.

Despite having 7-3 size, solid work ethic, and being a good teammate, the big man out of UConn simply wasn’t a good or skilled basketball player and it seemed like he may never even have the base line to develop into one either. His inadequacies were so evident so quickly that he lasted only 1.5 seasons with the Grizzlies before being shipped out and bouncing around the league. He hasn’t played in an NBA game since the 2013-14 season and, for a player taken No. 2 in the same lottery as Griffin, Harden, and Stephen Curry, that’s tough to think about.

Next: Miami Heat

Home/Atlanta Hawks