NBA Draft: 30 Worst No. 1 overall picks in league history (Updated 2023)

30 worst No. 1 overall picks in league history: 2. Mark Workman

Stats:

• 4.9 points
• 2.9 rebounds

Earlier we highlighted Dick Ricketts and Si Green, the only two college teammates to go first overall in back-to-back drafts. An equally quirky piece of trivia is that only one high school has produced two first overall picks, Charleston High School in West Virginia. We already talked about Hot Rod Hundley, 15th on this list, who attended West Virginia University and went first overall in 1957. He was following in the footsteps of Mark Workman, who attended the same schools and went first overall in 1952.

While at West Virginia Workman was the quintessential dominant center in the early 1950s, averaging 23.1 points and 17.5 rebounds in his final season for the Mountaineers. He was a consensus second-team All-American as a senior before leaving for the NBA Draft, where he was taken in 1952 by the Milwaukee Hawks.

Disaster struck from there. It’s not simply that Workman struggled to find playing time, or developed slowly. He was awful from the jump and didn’t get any better from there. He was an overwhelmingly negative offensive player, shooting 33.1 percent for his career (as a center!) and amassing a negative win shares total in 79 career games. He retired after two seasons and went into sales, traveling eastern Asia and selling the region equipment for bowling.

Should have picked: Clyde Lovellette (10th)