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

30 worst No. 1 overall picks in league history: 28. Glenn Robinson

Stats:

• 20.7 points
• 6.1 rebounds
• 2.7 assists

The history of the No. 1 overall pick is one of general success; 45 of 71 players chosen first overall have made at least one All-Star Game, a 63.3 percent hit rate. 18 of those players are already in the NBA Hall of Fame, and another handful are locks to join when their careers end. While this list is highlighting the times when the pick didn’t turn out, that doesn’t mean all of these players were bad. To build out a list of 30 “worst” first overall picks, we dip into a handful of “pretty good” players to start.

Glenn “Big Dog” Robinson, in addition to bearing a great basketball nickname, also had a lot of natural basketball scoring talent. He was the nation’s leading scorer as a junior at Purdue and led the Boilermakers to the Elite Eight. It was enough to catch the eye of NBA teams, as Robinson was taken first overall in the 1994 NBA Draft by the Milwaukee Bucks.

Robinson came into the league confident in his abilities and refused to play for the Bucks until he could ink a lucrative long-term contract. That ended up being a 10-year, $68 million contract, that to this day is the richest rookie contract in league history; the following year the rookie salary cap was worked out.

“Big Dog” lived up to the contract from the jump, averaging 21.9 points per game as a rookie. He would go on to average over 20 points per game in eight of the next nine seasons, earning a pair of All-Star berths in 2000 and 2001 for a Bucks team that was a legitimate title contender. At the tail end of his career, he bounced around the league as injuries sapped his ability to score at an elite level. He did catch on with the San Antonio Spurs as a reserve in 2005, winning a championship to complete his career.

Should have picked: Jason Kidd (2nd pick); Grant Hill (3rd pick)