3 most regrettable #1 draft picks

The top pick in the draft doesn't come around all too often. Since 1947, the first NBA Draft, the most times a team has ever gotten a number one pick is six, by the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Although most teams are not always as lucky as the Cavs, such as the Dallas Mavericks who only ever received the top pick once, it is also takes a bit of luck to find the next future Hall Of Famer, and not just someone who will end up on a list of the worst number one draft picks in history.

Of the 71 #1 picks, 16 of them have been inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame, while 45 of them have gone on to make at least one all-star game. While having the number one pick gives you as much of a chance as you need to get the next LeBron James or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on you roster, not all of them turn out to be future basketball legends.

We take a look at the worst number one picks in the history of the NBA:

#3 Kwame Brown - Drafted by Washington Wizards in 2001

Career Statistics: 6.6 PPG. 5.5 RPG, 0.9 APG

2001 NBA Draft

No matter who the first pick in the NBA draft is, they immediately have all eyes watching them for their rookie season and the majority of their careers. For Kwame Brown, the pressure was on him as soon as his name was called coming straight from High School.

Chosen by the great Michael Jordan, there are many rumours about the issues the two had as the then President of the Wizards decided to come out of retirement to join the side until 2003. Known for being incredibly competitive, and being very hard on his teammates to get the most out of them, many believe Jordan shot the confidence of Brown and set him up for failure before he had even begun.

Although Kwame Brown did forge a 13 season career in the NBA, moving through seven teams in this time, Brown never found close to the heights people believed the big man would reach when taken number one. Only averaging double digits in scoring for one season of his career, Kwame was waived by the 76ers in 2013 and not picked up by another team as he was dealing with heavy injury troubles.

#2 Michael Olowokandi - Drafted by LA Clippers in 1998

Career Statistics: 8.3 PPG, 6.8 RPB, 0.7 APG.

Michael Olowokandi

A draft that saw the top 10 feature three locks for the future NBA Hall Of Fame in Vince Carter at five, Dirk Nowitzki at nine and Paul Pierce at ten. Unfortunately, for the Los Angeles Clippers, they would not select any of this perennial All-Stars but instead pick Michael Olowokandi, a centre who would start more than 40 games only three times in his ten-season career.

Olowokandi played for the Clippers for five years, and was thought to be one of the best free agents available at the end of the 2003 season, after finishing the last 20 games of the 2002 season with 17 points a game and 11 rebounds. Sadly, after 36 games in the 2002-03 season Olowokandi sustained an injury that kept him sidelined for the rest of the year and started a trend of inconsistent play and constant injury troubles.

In the five years after leaving LA, three with the Timberwolves and two with the Celtics, Olowokandi never came close to the heights the number one pick once promised. After failing to start a game in the last two seasons in his career, and averaging 2.8 and 1.7 points per game in those seasons, Olowokandi called time on his underwhelming career and retired.

#1 Anthony Bennett - Drafted by Cleveland Cavaliers in 2013

Career Statistics: 4.4 PPG, 3.1 RPG, 0.5 APG

2013 NBA Draft

Heading back to the lottery portion of the NBA draft after losing their previous number one pick, LeBron James, to the Miami Heat in free agency, The Cavs were looking for the next person that could lead them to their very first NBA title.

But, instead of picking one of the future NBA All-Star players in this draft, like Giannis Antekokounmpo or Victor Oladipo, they picked Anthony Bennett. Of the six number one draft picks the Cavaliers have picked, and of the 70+ any other team has picked, Anthony Bennett goes down in many fans mind as the worst.

In his four seasons in the NBA, with four different teams, Bennett only started four of the 151 games he played. After being traded away from Cleveland as part of the three-team trade which brought Kevin Love to Cleveland, Bennett then got waived by the Timberwolves in 2015 and then waived by Toronto in 2016, and then lastly waived by Brooklyn in 2017 before leaving for the Euro League.