link Haulin' and Callin' Out the NBA's Trash It's obvious that USA Basketball didn't send its best 12 to the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, but thank God they didn't send the worst! The 25 names listed below (not all American -- that should put some pride back in our system) may elicit a wide range of emotions ... shock, disgust, outright loathing, etc... To guide you through the pain, we've attached our patented snide commentary to help you verbalize some of your feelings. And now the very worst of what the NBA has to offer: (Disclaimer: All Bobcats were protected from this list and big, goofy white guys are all spoken for under Eschmeyer) 1. Evan Eschmeyer, C, Dallas -- The standard bearer for today's legion of big white stiffs in the NBA 2. Michael Stewart, C, Boston -- 'Yogi' is only slightly more threatening on the court than the cartoon bear 3. Wang ZhiZhi, C, Miami -- Even the Chinese government has disowned him 4. Dan Dickau, PG, Dallas -- Testament that some teams do all their scouting at the NCAA Tournament 5. Jerome Moiso, PF, Toronto -- Carrying on the proud French NBA tradition started by Frederic Weis and No. 6 on our list... 6. Tariq Abdul-Wahad, SG, Dallas -- We liked him better as Olivier St. Jean 7. Jerome James, C, Seattle -- Fulfilling the wasted on-court comedic promise of Chris Washburn 8. Steven Hunter, C, Phoenix -- A harsh reminder to any GM who mistakingly falls in love with an unknown player at the NBA pre-Draft camps 9. Ryan Humphrey, SF, Memphis -- More myth than baller, Humphrey has never actually been seen playing in a real game 10. Tom Gugliotta, PF, Boston -- Former All-Star scored in double figures once last season ... the preseason, that is 11. Kedrick Brown, SG, Philadelphia -- Interesting how many guys on this list either play for or were drafted by the Celtics 12. Reece Gaines, PG, Houston -- On a team crying out for point guard help, the No. 1 pick Gaines got into only 38 games 13. Marcus Haislip, PF, Milwaukee -- And speaking of first-round bombs, Haislip notched a team-low 8.5 minutes per game 14. DeSagana Diop, C, Cleveland -- We've taken to calling him 'Saggy' and a more fitting nickname in the League we don't know of 15. DeShawn Stevenson, SG, Orlando -- Don't shooting guards have to be able to shoot? 78 starts last season and only 19 3-Pointers made? 16. Kareem Rush, SG, Lakers -- Averaged 0.8 assists and 1.3 rebounds ... you gotta score more than 6.4 points to get away with that 17. Ira Newble, SF, Cleveland -- The patron saint of crap players getting big contracts after big years with crap teams 18. Ron Mercer, SG, New Jersey -- No team would even waste a chance on the former No. 6 pick after he got dumped by San Antonio mid-season 19. Samaki Walker, PF, Washington -- Entering the twilight years of a pitiful career -- with a name like that, how could he have failed? 20. Dajuan Wagner, SG, Cleveland -- Too bad a shooter to play SG, too bad a passer to play PG and too small to play in the NBA -- sounds like a winner! 21. Tyronn Lue, PG, Houston -- Milked his 15 minutes of fame in the 2001 NBA Finals for a big contract 22. Morris Peterson, SF, Toronto -- To think New Orleans took this clown off Toronto's hands and the Raptors matched the contract offer! 23. Dikembe Mutombo, C, Chicago -- Rigor Mortis has set in for Deke, can't wait for him to completely calcify under the basket on some February night 24. Jacque Vaughn, PG, New Jersey -- Can't wait for the night when the Nets trot out a starting backcourt of Vaughn and Mercer in front of 11 comotose fans in the Swamp 25. Juwan Howard, PF, Houston -- The burden of carrying his garish contract sucked the life out of Howard's game long ago Next Five Bringing Up the Rear: Michael Olowokandi, C, Minnesota Jake Tsakalidis, C, Memphis Eddie Robinson, SF, Chicago Shandon Anderson, SG, New York Vladimir Radmanovic, SF, Seattle Five for the Future: Kendrick Perkins, PF, Boston Ndudi Ebi, SF, Minnesota Travis Outlaw, SF, Portland Pavel Podkolzine, C, Dallas Brian Cook, PF, Lakers
All 3 of the players that are on the list came from Orlando but it makes sense seeing how they were on the worst NBA team last year. BUT i cant wait tell Gaines throws this list (back) in there face!
to say some of these guys are the worst in the nba is obviously ridiculous. am i the only one getting tired of all these lists in the media? they all follow the same formula- uninformed and controversial....
JHoward has no business being on this list. Granted, in years past his talent was not commensurate to his salary, but that is the fault of the GM. If i buy a cadillac for the price of a benz that doesn't mean the cadillac sux....... just that i'm an idiot (much like the the list's creator!)
the guy lost credibility when he put googs and wagner on there. googs was an excellent player before the injuries caused him to diminish a lot. i remember have googs on my fantasy team years ago and he was producing big time for me. and wagner also was hit with the injury bug both his rookie and soph season so we havent really seen what he can do just yet. the guy is an idiot most of the players on that list are role players on team anyways of course they arent going to be putting up 20/10/5 every night god i swear he got paid to write something like this
i think the list does not reflect past contributions or elese there's no way Googs is on it. JHoward is definitely not in the 25 worst but i think people are reading way to into his stats last year. i watched a bunch of Magic games last year (NBATV and fan of T-Mac) and he was not impressive. MoT seemed to be much more effective.
I wonder why they say Rush sucks he was playing behind allstars, so of course his stats aren't going to be that great. Not only that but why would Rush be handling the ball anyway? GP and Bryant would obviously be the guys running the plays and dishing out the assists. And if you think about it averaging 6.4 points on the Lakers last season is probably better than most of the players on his team who were not All-stars.
And who is the @$$-munch who wrote this? Nobody. Isn't a column on About.com the equivalent of playing pro ball in Taiwan? What does he make, $4.95 a piece? @#%* him and his list. I'd rather read the message boards on Real GM for insight.
Is this guy serious! JHoward should not be on this list. He will regret putting Gaines on it. Then even the future picks of Perkins and Ebi (haten on houston) I'm not saying he's wrong but to even make a future worst player list is wrong. At least give them a chance b4 rating them there not even 20.