Does Sam Bowie deserves to be considered the Biggest Draft Bust of all-time?

Recently, I was reading an article about Sam Bowie in wikipedia. Curious about his career and being infamous as the player the Portland Trailblazers picked ahead of Michael Jordan with the number two pick of the 1984 NBA draft, Portland still gets harshly criticized for that infamous pick.

But was the pick really as bad as it was made out to be? There was no possible way The Trailblazers could have foreseen the future and have known how these players careers turned out. Even if they picked Jordan over Bowie it is possible Portland wouldn't have won any championship titles and could have made a winning team dynamic. Jordan and Drexler on the same team could be a volatile situation as both are go-to guys when it comes to scoring. It could very well be a Allen Iverson/Jerry Stackhouse situation.

And when Portland drafter Bowie the consensus was in order to win an NBA Championship you needed a big man at the center.

Has the Sam Bowie pick been grossly overstated by sports writers? Where I live in Sacramento the Sacramento Kings used to be notorious for making just plain stupid draft picks. For instance, in the 1990 draft they drafted four, count 'em four, first round draft picks and here were their picks: Lionel Simmons, Travis Mays, Duane Causewell and Anthony Bonner. None of them had anything resembling a meaningful career in the NBA. Yet, not many sports publications bring this up.

Often times there is no possible way a team could know what they are drafting and how good they will turn out to be.

If you are interested in the articles here it is: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=schoenfield/060427 and http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/mu...y/2005/06/24/gallery.nbabusts/content.20.html

''Dishonorable mention'': http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/k/koncajo01.htmlJon Koncak (Atl Hawks) total bust!

Article from S.I.:

November 06, 1989
Millions From Heaven
The Atlanta Hawks' Jon Koncak was a center of little renown—averaging 6.2 points and 6.1 rebounds, career—until he signed a six-year contract worth $13 million. Now other lesser NBA players should find gold at the end of the rainbow

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http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1069012/index.htm

Bowie was injured so much, it is tough for me to qualify him as a bust. A bust, to me, is a guy like Kwame Brown, who probably never should have been drafted, let alone taken number one. Bowie was unfortunate, Brown was a bust.

picked ahead of jordan, aka the best player to ever play the game?

yeah. that's a fucking miss right there.

Bowie had a decent career. That miss is on Portland, not Bowie. Having great players picked after you doesn't make you a bust.


Also...

http://board.freeones.com/showthread.php?403330-Biggest-bust-in-sports-history

No. As Feller469 mentioned he was injury prone. There's Michael Westbrook (WR-Washington), Lawerence Phillips, Akilii Smith and I could go on. They have dismal, I mean Desmond Howard on the list,. He was a bust as a WR, but he has a ring as a return man. So I guess when the pundits say he was a bust, he can give them the finger with his Super Bowl ring on.

was Hakeem a bust too? His only championships came when Jordan retired. He was taken #1 that year.

feller469 said:

was Hakeem a bust too? His only championships came when Jordan retired. He was taken #1 that year.

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No Hakeem as a center had about as complete set of skills as you could have (IMO). It's just that Jordan was that good and the rest of the team fit. Also I think I would put Vince Carter in the bust category as well. Hakeem reminded me of Bill Russell in that he studied what the other center likes to do and try to take that away from him.

Portland may be on the hook for two often injured busts.

STDiva said:

Bowie had a decent career. That miss is on Portland, not Bowie. Having great players picked after you doesn't make you a bust.

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yep. this isnt a shot at bowie i hope. its the poor management of portland back then. they obviously missed out on jordan but it doesnt mean its bowies fault. obviously he had some prospects to be picked first. nba jitters and injuries can be a bitch during a players transition to the "big leagues." sports are like 90% mental.

Oden is a bigger bust.

They can't even have a healthy back-up.

Ok,let's examine what it is exactly to be labeled a "bust".

First off,there has to be a pretty good amount of hype before a guy enter whatever sport they play.So for instance,Andrew Luck in football this year.

Second,I personally think that a player getting injured DOES NOT let him off of the hook for being labeled a bust,and here's why.Say that you are a GM or owner of a team,let's use basketball in this case.You draft a guy and he get's hurt in preseason and misses the entire regular season,a la Greg Oden.As the person holding the purse strings,if your number one pick hasn't returned investment that you put into him,you are ass out and that,in essence is a bust of a pick and player for your organization.Plain and simple,you will be looking for a player to replace him asap because of lack of production,no matter the reason.

Another obvious thing about being labeled a bust is that you have to be a high draft pick,but you can also be a free agent signing and be a bust as well,like in the case of New York Yankees pitcher Hideki Irabu.

I guess imo,the biggest busts in sports are:

Basketball-Greg Oden
Football-There are really too many,but Brian Bosworth,Akeli Smith,Kijana Carter,and probably the biggest of them all,Ryan Leaf.
Baseball-Probably Mark Prior just off of the top of my head,and being from Chicago.

Tony Mandrich has to be right below Leaf, to soon to tell but Strausberg could be a canidate.

The memory of Sam Bowie has faded from the minds of us Trailblazer fans as we now have Greg Oden to kick us in the balls for 20 years.......FUCK!!!!!!!

zell said:

Ok,let's examine what it is exactly to be labeled a "bust".

First off,there has to be a pretty good amount of hype before a guy enter whatever sport they play.So for instance,Andrew Luck in football this year.

Second,I personally think that a player getting injured DOES NOT let him off of the hook for being labeled a bust,and here's why.Say that you are a GM or owner of a team,let's use basketball in this case.You draft a guy and he get's hurt in preseason and misses the entire regular season,a la Greg Oden.As the person holding the purse strings,if your number one pick hasn't returned investment that you put into him,you are ass out and that,in essence is a bust of a pick and player for your organization.Plain and simple,you will be looking for a player to replace him asap because of lack of production,no matter the reason.

Another obvious thing about being labeled a bust is that you have to be a high draft pick,but you can also be a free agent signing and be a bust as well,like in the case of New York Yankees pitcher Hideki Irabu.

I guess imo,the biggest busts in sports are:

Basketball-Greg Oden
Football-There are really too many,but Brian Bosworth,Akeli Smith,Kijana Carter,and probably the biggest of them all,Ryan Leaf.
Baseball-Probably Mark Prior just off of the top of my head,and being from Chicago.

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Valid Points. So then one could add Ralph Samson, Brad Daugherty, and Bobby Hurley as well.

3 words: Ja Marcus Russel.

Greg Oden, as of yesterday. At least the Blazers were eventually able to trade off Bowie (and a draft pick) to a rebuilding Nets team for Buck Williams. Oden? He was just waived to make room for fellow draft busts Hasheem Thabeet and Jonny Flynn.

Granted, the Blazers were in a better situation when Bowie was traded then they are now, but at least they got something for him.

Kwame Brown is up there as well. Can't believe the Warriors paid so much to get him before the season.

gunslingingbird said:

3 words: Ja Marcus Russel.

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4 words: val kilmer as batman

vorador_1971 said:

Tony Mandrich has to be right below Leaf, to soon to tell but Strausberg could be a canidate.

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You know absolutely nothing about the NFL you moronic fucktard. Mandrich turned into a serviceable offensive lineman and he was highly praised by Peyton Manning whom he protected in Manning's rookie season.

Now go get run down by a bus and never post here again, fuckwad.