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NBA Draft: 30 greatest No. 1 overall picks in league history

By Josh Cornelissen

25 Jun 1997: Center Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs speaks with a reporter during the NBA Draft at the Charlotte Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina. Mandatory Credit: Craig Jones /Allsport
25 Jun 1997: Center Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs speaks with a reporter during the NBA Draft at the Charlotte Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina. Mandatory Credit: Craig Jones /Allsport /
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Mark Aguirre
Mark Aguirre (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images) /

NBA Draft: 30 greatest No. 1 overall picks in league history: 30. Mark Aguirre

The Detroit Pistons of the late 1980s battled against the great star-laden squads of the decade, getting closer and closer to a title but unable to break through until 1989 when the “Bad Boy” Pistons won the first of two consecutive titles. What changed in 1989? Detroit traded their incumbent small forward, Adrian Dantley, to the Dallas Mavericks for Mark Aguirre.

A Chicago native, Aguirre went to local DePaul University and was the best collegiate player in the nation his junior year before declaring for the NBA Draft. The Dallas Mavericks, coming off of a 15-67 record as an expansion franchise, took Aguirre with the first overall pick to bolster a roster bereft of star talent.

Aguirre exploded out of the gate for the Mavericks, getting all of the shots he could handle and averaging 18.7 points per game as a rookie. By year three that number was up to 29.5 per game, 2nd-best in the league behind only Dantley. Aguirre earned his first of what would be three All-Star game appearances.

After seven-and-a-half seasons in Dallas, averaging 24.6 points per game as one of the league’s most prolific scorers, fellow Chicago native Isiah Thomas lobbied for the Pistons to trade for Aguirre. His ability to fit into his role on a defense-first squad helped to unlock the ceiling for the Pistons. In a league where the best teams won with high-flying offenses, the Pistons gummed up the works and leveraged elite physicality to punish their opponents.

Despite a pedigree as an elite scorer, Aguirre gave up shots for the good of the whole and became a key rotation player on two NBA champion teams in 1989 and ’90. His ability to both be “the guy” in Dallas and pivot to being a useful member of an ensemble cast in Detroit speaks highly of him and gets him onto a list of all-time greats.