The Best and The Worst

Today I am starting a new series that will occur only when the timing is right for me. It is called "The Best and The Worst" which will have a list of the top five of the best and top five of the worst in the category that is given. With the NBA Draft this week all you can do before the draft is have bar talk about the best or the worst picks ever. Since I had a ton of time this weekend, I went and did some hard nose research. This week up until the draft I will be listing the top 5 best followed by the 5 worst draft picks of all time starting with the 5th overall pick to the #1 pick. This was pretty difficult to do especially finding the overall 5th pick of every NBA Draft. What I am doing to decide my top 5 is taking into account what the player meant to the team as a franchise, whether he was traded, how he handled himself on or off the court, if he won with that team, and his overall legacy to that team. So I am letting my readers help me out this week. On the side of my blog please vote for who you believe is the best #1 pick of all-time which will help me decide for the finale this week. Hope you enjoy!

THE 5TH OVERALL PICK

BEST

1. Scottie Pippen 1987 Seattle - Pippen was drafted by the Seattle Supersonics then immediately traded to the Chicago Bulls for Olden Polynice. In 1988, he got his chance to shine finally becoming a regular starter who helped the Bulls to the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals for the 1st time in over a decade. Scottie played 12 seasons with the Bulls leading them to 6 NBA titles. Other achievements were being a 7-time all-star, 3-time All-NBA 1st team, 8-time All-Defensive 1st team, and also holds a career playoff record for steals (395). Pippen's #33 was retired in Chicago in 2005.

2. Charles Barkley 1984 Philadelphia

3. Kevin Garnett 1995 Minnesota

4. Dwayne Wade 2003 Miami

5. Mitch Richmond 1988 Golden State

WORST

1. James Earl Ray 1980 Denver - Not to be confused with the killer of Martin Luther King, Ray (pictured above on draft day) was picked by a team just entering the NBA looking to be a very competitive franchise. Unfortunately Ray wasn't the answer. After playing college basketball at Jacksonville University, everyone thought of him in northern Florida as a hoop legend in the making. He is still talked about today down here. He subsequently played three seasons for the team, appearing in just 103 games and finishing with career averages of 3.4 points and 2.2 rebounds per game. Moving to Europe, he went on to play professionally in Italy, Spain and Turkey.

2. Nikoloz Tskitishvili 2002 Denver

3. Danny Vranes 1981 Seattle

4. Kenny Walker 1986 New York

5. Isaiah Rider 1993 Minnesota

Other notables that were drafted in the 5th slot were:
Ray Allen, Vince Carter, Steve Smith, J.R. Reid, Kendall Gill, and Jon Koncak