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

NBA: The 25 worst players to ever win Rookie of the Year: 18. Derrick Coleman

The 1990 NBA Draft wasn’t loaded with talent. Only two players ever made an All-NBA team, and just six made an All-Star squad. Toni Kukoc might be one of the most recognizable names from this class simply because of his connection to the Michael Jordan Bulls. That is why Derrick Coleman can be the second-best player from his class and still appear at 18 on this list.

Coleman starred for the University of Syracuse before the New Jersey Nets took him first overall in the 1990 NBA Draft. He provided solid production right off the bat for the Nets, putting up 18.4 points and 10.3 rebounds per game at power forward. He put up five straight seasons around that level, helping to propel the Nets into the postseason in three of his first four seasons.

Both of Coleman’s All-NBA nods and his lone All-Star appearance came in those first four seasons, the high watermark of his career. In 1995 he was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers, and he had a more up-and-down career from there.

The best player to come out of that 1990 NBA Draft was Gary Payton, the class’ lone Hall of Famer. Payton’s quiet rookie year meant that Lionel Simmons of the Sacramento Kings was in fact the runner-up to Coleman, who received 69 of a possible 96 first-place votes. Simmons was a flash-in-the-pan, while Coleman stuck around for a long 15-year career.