NBA: The 25 worst players to ever win Rookie of the Year

NBA: The 25 worst players to ever win Rookie of the Year: 17. Terry Dischinger

The very first year that the NBA started selecting an All-Rookie team was after the 1962-63 season. The inaugural five-man team included four Hall of Fame players: John Havlicek of the Boston Celtics, Dave DeBusschere of the Detroit Pistons, Zelmo Beaty of the St. Louis Hawks and Chet Walker of the Syracuse Nationals. While Beaty played some of his best seasons in the ABA, all four were high-level players with strong careers.

Yet it was the lone player not destined for a Hall of Fame career who won Rookie of the Year that season. Terry Dischinger was a two-time All-American at Purdue and was a starter on the famed 1960 Olympic team that won gold at the Rome Olympics. The Chicago Zephyrs took him eighth overall in the 1962 NBA Draft.

As many players of that era did, Dischinger came into the league from college fully formed and ready to score. He put up 25.5 points and 8.0 rebounds per game for the Zephyrs, who would move to Baltimore the following season and become the Bullets. Dischinger’s points-per-game decreased each of the following four seasons, interrupted by two years of military service in 1966 and ’67. An All-Star in each of his first three seasons, he would never come close in the remaining years of his career.