The NBA Rookie of the Year award is often a prerequisite for a superstar career. Formerly the Eddie Gottlieb Trophy, the winners now receive the Wilt Chamberlain Trophy. The all-time great won MVP during his rookie season. Sixteen winners would go on to win at least on MVP in their careers, and 30 would become Hall of Famers.
However, the Rookie of the Year hardly has a flawless hit rate. There are so many rookies who looked like stars off the jump but turned out to be bit players, or sometimes even worse.
There are many reasons why a player can go from a star shining bright to out of the league quickly. Some had injuries, while others just didn’t put their all into the game. Every so often, there would be a bad draft class, and this was their ceiling the whole time.
We take a look at the 10 Rookie of the Year winners who just couldn’t turn their early hype and production into a stellar NBA career.
10. LaMelo Ball
2021 Rookie of the Year
Charlotte Hornets
We admit, we’re going out on a limb right off the bat. LaMelo Ball is 24 years old, made an All-Star Team after winning the 2021 Rookie of the Year, and he is still the main star of the Charlotte Hornets, but it has not been an easy three years since that All-Star appearance.
Ball is still a 20-25–point scorer every night, but he can’t stay healthy. In the last three seasons, he’s played 36, 22, and 47 games, respectively. This season, he looks a little off, averaging under 20 points per game at the time of this writing (although, it being early in the season, that could change quickly). While nobody is upset with 20 points a game, this was looking like one of the stars of the game. The Hornets thought they got an absolute gem in the draft, but he might be a little too one-dimensional to be the star Charlotte needs to contend.
Is Ball going to be a bust? No, that seems like it’s close to off the table right now, but his career in Charlotte might have hit its peak. Maybe a trade would reinvigorate his passion for the game and drive him to the next chapter of his career, but if this is what he is (a volume shooter with little efficiency), then he didn’t transcend into the player we hoped when he won ROY.
9. Damon Stoudamire
1996 Rookie of the Year
Toronto Raptors
Damon Stoudamire was the first player ever drafted by the Toronto Raptors, and boy did he make an impact. Ironically, at the 1995 NBA Draft, which was held in Toronto, the fans were chanting for the new franchise to take Ed O’Bannon out of UCLA. Instead, the Raptors selected Stoudamire out of Arizona.
The former seventh-overall pick appeared to be the good choice off the jump. One of the smallest players on the court at 5’10, Stoudamire stood out for his impeccable scoring ability and tenacious defense. He would thrive in today’s game, showing the value of volume three-point shooting. He broke the record for three pointers by a rookie with 133, although that has since been broken several times.
Stoudamire averaged a little over 19 points per game and had 9.3 assists. This looked like the next big star in the league. However, he missed the end of the season with knee tendonitis. It was a sign of things to come, as Stoudamire never got settled with a franchise, suffered a few nagging injuries, and never made an All-Star team in his career. He was definitely a contributor to this league, but he never met the high regards he had in his rookie season.
8. Mike Miller
2001 Rookie of the Year
Orlando Magic
Mike Miller has done a ton in this league, winning the Sixth Man of the Year Award, being on the 2012 and 2013 Miami Heat team that won championships, and suiting up for seven different franchises in his career, but he didn’t meet the hype that came from his rookie season. It was a pretty weak class, as Miller was the only rookie in the league to appear in all 82 games. He averaged just over 11 points and four rebounds while showing a decent stroke from behind the arc.
Miller didn’t have a bad career, but it wasn’t terribly special either. He scored 10,000 points, averaging 10 points per game for his career. Still, he couldn’t stick with one franchise, and he was traded from the Orlando Magic to the Memphis Grizzlies in his third season in the league.
This was a fine player in an era where bench players had a role. There’s nothing wrong with the career Miller had on the court, but it isn’t what we’re used to from a guy who won Rookie of the Year. Maybe this was always his ceiling. Maybe the 2000 NBA Draft was just one of the worst of all time (it was, with Kenyon Martin being the only player of note outside of Miller), but we want a little more out of our top rookies.
7. Ben Simmons
2018 Rookie of the Year
Philadelphia 76ers
We’ve never seen a player fall off like Ben Simmons, and we might never see it again. Simmons was one of those players that NBA teams were scouting early in high school. He had the number-one overall pick secured years before he was eligible, and he chose to go to LSU to play with a family member. The 76ers, who were at what they thought was the end of “The Process,” got the number-one overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft.
Simmons missed his entire first season with a foot injury he suffered in the preseason. However, in 2017, Simmons showed that he was worth the wait. He had 18 points and 10 rebounds in his first game, recording a double-double in his NBA debut. In his fourth game, he had his first triple-double. He finished his season with 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, and 500 assists, the third rookie to do that after Magic Johnson and Oscar Robertson.
Simmons would go on to be a superstar, winning All-NBA and Defensive Player of the Year recognition. After a really disappointing playoff performance in 2021, his entire career fell apart. He held out and demanded a trade from the Sixers. The team was cracking at its foundation, with what many thought would be a championship-level contender on the horizon. Instead, Simmons forced a trade to the Brooklyn Nets. The magic he had early in his career was gone, and he’s currently out of the league, just eight years after his much-anticipated debut.
6. Don Meineke
1953 Rookie of the Year
Fort Wayne Pistons
Going way back in time for this one, Don Meineke was actually the first player ever to win the Rookie of the Year award after the 1952-53 season. He averaged 10.7 points and 6.9 assists, which is impressive for a rookie of this era. He made an impact for the Pistons, but some of that impact probably wasn’t welcomed.
Meineke was notorious for losing his temper and fouling out all the time. He broke the record for game disqualifications with 26 in his first year. That remains the record to this day. Nicknamed “Monk”, Meineke didn’t last very long in the league. Because of his penchant for fouls, his effectiveness didn’t last, and he was out of the league after his fifth season.
Obviously, lasting just five seasons in the league isn’t great, but it also wasn’t that rare back then. The money wasn’t prolific enough to keep pursuing something that wasn’t working. He would try to stay in the league for a few seasons after leaving the Pistons, but nothing ever stuck. He will always have the distinction as the “first” Rookie of the Year, even if he says he never got a trophy for it.
5. Tyreke Evans
2010 Rookie of the Year
Sacramento Kings
Tyreke Evans looked like the truth in his first season in the NBA. Coming out of John Calipari’s offense at Memphis, Evans had the makings of a superstar both in demeanor and on-court abilities. At least, that’s how it appeared to all of us. He was drafted fourth overall to the Sacramento Kings, which was the first issue. The Kings are still known as a dumpster fire that can’t get it together, but it was someone even worse during this time.
Evans averaged 20 points, five rebounds, and five assists in his rookie season. Only three players had done that before him: Oscar Robertson, Michael Jordan, and LeBron James. Look at those names. Evans had put himself in elite company.
Then, inexplicably, he just never got that much better. Maybe it was the plantar fasciitis, but he was just kind of the same guy for the rest of his career. He came into the league looking as NBA-ready as anyone could possibly be, which is why he won Rookie of the Year. But he’s the rare case where a player comes in and hits his ceiling, only for that to be his ceiling. The floor for Evans was always high, but we didn’t realize that the floor was the ceiling. He had a fine career until a drug case got him banned by the league for two years, and he never returned.
4. Ernie DiGregorio
1974 Rookie of the Year
Buffalo Braves
Ernie DiGregorio should have been one of the premier distributors in the history of the game. He had a knack for finding assists that other players could not see. There was a way about him that he could get the team in the best place to score, even if it was him doing the scoring. In his rookie season, he averaged a league-leading 8.2 assists per game. He also led the league in free-throw percentage, hitting more than 90 percent.
It looked like DiGregorio would build on his career from there. Then, he suffered a devastating knee injury. This being the 1970s and the technology for these types of surgeries not being near what it is today, this devastated his productivity. His speed was pretty much gone, and it didn’t allow him to get to the places he needed to for that elite production.
He remained an incredible free-throw shooter, hitting 94.5% of his attempts in 1976-77. That was an NBA record at the time, but it has since been broken. Seeing the writing on the wall about DiGregorio’s production, the Braves acquired future Hall of Famer Nate "Tiny" Archibald and sold their former rookie sensation to the Los Angeles Lakers. He didn’t play well there and was waived after 25 games. He would come off the bench for the Celtics, but that ended up being the end of his career.
3. Emeka Okafor
2005 Rookie of the Year
Charlotte Bobcats
Going into the 2004 NBA Draft, many were analyzing who should be the number-one overall pick: Dwight Howard or Emeka Okafor. Okafor was a national sensation for his work at the University of Connecticut, leading them to an NCAA Championship. He Orlando Magic ended up going with Howard, and the expansion Charlotte Bobcats took Okafor.
In the beginning, it looked like the Bobcats got the right player. Okafor was incredible in his rookie year. At one point, he had double-doubles in 19 games in a row. He was great on both sides of the court, and he beat out his former teammate Ben Gordon for Rookie of the Year. Dwight Howard wasn’t even really in the conversation.
Okafor played well enough through his rookie contract, but his feud with head coaches and weight gain limited his effectiveness. Still, the Bobcats gave the face of their franchise a $72 million contract. One year in, the Bobcats traded him, as legendary coach Larry Brown felt he wasn’t tall enough to face off with the top centers in the game. He went on to have a fine career, but he never made an All-Star Game, and the hype he had coming out of college was not near worth it.
2. Michael Carter-Williams
2014 Rookie of the Year
Philadelphia 76ers
The poster boy for “What is happening in Philadelphia?” is Michael Carter-Williams. The former 11th-overall pick surprised everyone when he won Rookie of the Year in 2014. He averaged 16.7 ppg, 6.2 rpg, and 6.3 apg that season, showcasing an amazing all-around player, at least on the surface. It looked like the losses made sense for a little bit, but then the 76ers traded him.
There was shock in Philadelphia when MCW was just traded away to the Milwaukee Bucks for a future first-round draft pick. That seemed like a strangely low return for the reigning Rookie of the Year. That’s right, he was traded while on the second year of his contract. The shock turned into realization as to what Philadelphia's goals were, as they were taking chances on high-leverage picks to find superstars, and Carter-Williams didn't fit the bill in their opinion.
He had a few decent stretches for the Bucks, but he never materialized into that superstar player that looked to be on the horizon in his rookie season. He would keep moving teams, playing for the Bulls, Hornets, Rockets, and Magic, before going to Mexico to keep his career going. MCW was supposed to be a star, but he had to settle for a player on the edges of the roster by the time it was all said and done.
1. Woody Sauldsberry
1958 Rookie of the Year
Philadelphia Warriors
Woody Sauldsberry had one of the most interesting careers in the NBA from an analysis standpoint. He was incredibly inefficient, but he had a knack for numbers. His defense was ferocious, similar to an early-NBA Rasheed Wallace, and he averaged a double-double in his second season.
Sauldsberry won Rookie of the Year despite coming into the league as an eighth-round pick. Yes, at one point, there were more rounds in the NBA Draft than there are in the NFL Draft today. Sauldsberry was drafted from the Harlem Globetrotters (yes, those Globetrotters) with the 60th-overall pick. He’s still the latest draft pick ever to win the award.
Sauldsberry showed promise here and there, but unfortunately, he fell off a cliff after leaving the Warriors. He was a center who was around 6-foot-7, so undersized for the style the league was moving towards. His career would fall further and further, and today, he actually holds the record for worst career Win Shares of all time at -10.7.