NBA Draft: Ranking every first overall pick in NBA history

Ranking every first overall pick in NBA history

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24. 1961: Walt Bellamy, Chicago Packers

Walt Bellamy had an interesting career arc. If you go by Basketball-Reference’s similarity score — which lists a player’s win shares from best to worst and compares them to players with similar numbers — you’ll find Bellamy’s name beside the likes of Moses Malone, Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing, and Shaquille O’Neal, some of the game’s all-time great centers.

Bellamy certainly belongs in the same category as those men, but his career trajectory looked a bit different than theirs. For one thing, one could argue that Bellamy’s best years came before he entered his prime, which made the ensuing dropoff in production all the more surprising.

In his first three seasons in the league with the Chicago Packers/Zephyrs/Baltimore Bullets, Bellamy averaged 28.8 points and 17.7 rebounds, including ridiculous 31.6 point and 19.0 rebound averages in his rookie season.

However, his numbers gradually dropped after that, as he never averaged 20 points per game after his fifth season and did not finish with a PER above 20 following his fourth.

No, Bellamy did not have a sustained run of dominance, but there are plenty of NBA players that would sell their soul to put up the numbers he did at the peak of his powers.