The worst NBA players in history are not talked about too often. Instead, we tend to focus on the GOATS. LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Stephen Curry and other great players.
Like most sports leagues, the NBA is a league that has players coming and going all the time. Teams will trade, waive, or easily release players after they cannot meet their defined expectations. Some players end up being so bad they just can’t even make it into their own team because of their own poor play and thus end up playing overseas. Any player who makes it through the basketball league merits is determined to have a significant basketball career.
Have anyone of you have ever wondered who the worst NBA player in history is? However, if you have ever been troubled by this question, here is your opportunity to find out the answer.
Today we have compiled a list of some of the worst NBA players in the NBA history.
Brian Scalabrine
Brian David Scalabrine, nicknamed the “White Mamba”, is an former American professional basketball player who is currently a television analyst for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association.
He was picked 34th in the second round of the 2001 NBA draft. New Jersey Nets chose him. After playing four years with them, he went to play with Boston Celtics, who won the championship in the year 2008. He went to play with Chicago Bulls in the year 2010.
He never had the athleticism required to play at the NBA level. However the Celtics gave him a five year deal worth 15 millions.
He is one of the most popular player on this list, Brian Scalabrine made a name for himself as the enthusiastic, towel-waving, bench-warming white guy on a number of good teams. Scal even has a championship ring as a member of the 2008 Boston Celtics, without playing a single minute in any of the Playoff games that year.
He played 11 seasons, earned one ring, and also had a massive wage of $20 million and at least three nicknames (White Mamba, Veal Scalabrine and The Ginger Ninja) is a pretty solid legacy for a guy with career averages of 3.1 points and 2.0 rebounds.
However, he ended his NBA career after playing two years with the Chicago Bulls. Brian Scalabrine was probably one of the worst NBA players to ever play.
Mark Madsen
Mark Ellsworth Madsen also known as Mark Madsen is an American basketball coach and a former NBA player who is currently the head coach of Utah Valley University of the Western Athletic Conference.
Nicknamed the “Mad Dog” while playing for the San Ramon Valley High School Wolves – the moniker continued during his time with the Stanford Cardinal and beyond.
He played professionally in the National Basketball Association (NBA) with the Los Angeles Lakers, winning two NBA championships. Madsen finished his Lakers career averaging only 2.6 points in his the seasons stint.
He also played for the Minnesota Timberwolves, and ended up playing another six seasons with the Timberwolves, averaging 0.4 points in his final two campaigns. Madsen does, however, have the distinction of being the worst basketball player ever to win two NBA titles.
He had a productive nine year career, but Madsen never averaged as many as four points or rebounds, despite playing over 450 games and even starting 70 out of them. He also appeared in 49 playoff games. Mark Madsen had one of the worst NBA career in the NBA history.
Anthony Bennett
Anthony Harris Bennett is a Canadian professional basketball player for Kaohsiung Steelers of the P. League+. He has also played college basketball for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Bennett was selected as No. 1 overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2013 NBA draft pick.
Selected by the Cleveland Cavaliers with the #1 overall pick, Bennett dropped out of their regular rotation before long, before getting traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves as part of the Kevin Love trade deal.
Anthony Bennett was also unable to impress anyone in the Minnesota Timberwolves dugout and after spending only one season with them he left for 2015.
In 2015-16 season, Anthony signed a one year deal with the Toronto Raptors. He was later went to NBA Development League to play for the Raptors 905.
After having disappointing stints in the NBA, Bennett is currently playing in the Chinese Basketball League with the Hsinchu JKO Lioneers. Anthony Bennett was one of the worst NBA player in the NBA and will surely go down as one of the biggest draft busts in the NBA draft history.
Brian Cardinal
Brian Lee Cardinal is an American former professional basketball player. He played 456 games in the NBA between 2000 and 2012, and won an NBA championship with the Dallas Mavericks in 2011.
Before his NBA career, he was one of the best players in the history of Purdue University.
Nicknamed, “The Custodian”, Cardinal couldn’t reach double digit scoring averages in any of his 12 NBA Seasons.
His highest average being 9.6 points in the 2004-05 season with the Golden State Warriors.
Despite having a inferior career, Brian Cardinal is probably best known for scoring an humungous six-year worth $34.5 million contract from the Memphis Grizzlies, where he promptly saw his minutes and production cut in half.
Brian Cardinal is probably one of the worst NBA player to ever play in the NBA.
Rafael Araujo
Rafael Paulo de Lara Araujo known as Rafael is a Brazilian retired professional basketball player. He played for three years in the National Basketball Association.
He was the first round eight overall draft pick of the Toronto Raptors in the 2004 draft, one pick before 2015 NBA Finals MVP and Olympic gold medal winner Andre Iguodala. He spent two seasons with the Toronto Raptors and played a total of 139 regular season games in the league before being traded to the Utah Jazz.
In his two seasons with Toronto he averaged around 2.9 points and 3.0 rebounds on 41% shooting.
The 6’11, Brazilian Center had a very disappointing NBA career, he then moved to the Russian Basketball League and spent one season Spartak Saint Petersburg before eventually moving back to his hometown, Brazil in 2009 and playing for Flamengo. Arujo became the razilian League champion in 2009.
He lastly played for the Pinheiros in 2014 before taking retirement. He was one of the worst NBA player to ever play in the NBA.
Pete Chilcutt
Peter Shawn Chilcutt is a retired American professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association.
After having a standout college career at UNC under Dean Smith, Pete Chilcutt build a reputation on a clutch shooting stroke. That shot, however, only took him so far during a nine-year NBA career.
Chilcutt’s lack of athleticism was one of the main reasons of him not to succeed in the NBA. became a rather pesky problem. He averaged a maximum of 21 minutes per game with the Sacramento Kings in their 1993-94 campaign.
He played for around seven NBA teams, like Houston Rockets, Utah Jazz, Los Angeles Clippers, and Detroit Pistons. He even won a NBA title with the Houston Rockets in 1995, but the lanky power forward never averaged more than 6.1 points per game.
His shooting stroke was his only skill that he was able to translate to the pro game, as he finished his career with a 38.1% field goal percentage from 3-point territory.
Pete Chilcutt was probably one of the worst NBA player to ever play in the NBA.
Nikoloz Tskitishvili
Nikoloz Tskitishvili is a Georgian former professional basketball player. He was a 7 feet tall forward-center, who was selected fifth overall by the Denver Nuggets in the 2002 NBA draft.
Tskitishvili has also played for the senior Georgian national basketball team.
The 7-footer only averaged 6.6 points and 1.8 rebounds per game through 11 games with Benetton Troviso. Skitishvili played for 4 NBA teams in 4 seasons before going back to European basketball. Bill Simmons claimed that Tskitishvili is “the worst-case scenario for any foreign pick” in the NBA, and I tend to agree with that notion.
Tskitishvili averaged all of 3.2 points on 30% shooting in two seasons with Denver before being sent to the Golden State Warriors.
He finished his career having averaged 1.7 points over his final two seasons. Tskitishvili was one of the worst NBA players ever.
Keith Closs
Keith Mitchell Closs Jr. is an American former professional basketball player. He played at the center position.
Odds are, if you’re 7’3″ and athletic, you’re going to get a shot in the NBA. And if you’re Keith Closs, even a crippling, long-standing alcohol problem wasn’t going to stand in the way of a three-year NBA career with the Los Angeles Clippers that included a five-year, $8.5 million contract with the team.
Some basketball fans believed the, Closs was going to break out after a decent rookie season back in 1997-98. He averaged 4.0 points, 2.9 rebounds and 1.4 blocks.
Closs’s unspectacular 130-game NBA run was made more notable by a checkered off-court history that included three DUIs and multiple clashes with Clippers coaches.
Most notably, Closs was the subject of a viral video in which he is seen being beaten up by a mob of people.
Over the course of his final two seasons, this Central Connecticut State product, he averaged 3.8 points and 2.8 rebounds before bombing out in the Association.
In his final NBA season, Closs joined Olowokandi in helping Los Angeles post a 15-67 record.
He ended his career with Yunnan Bulls in 2008. Keith Closs will surely go down as one of the worst NBA player to ever play in the NBA.
Michael Ruffin
Michael David Ruffin is an American former professional basketball player currently working as an assistant coach for the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association.
He is currently working as an assistant with the Phoenix Suns.
Drafted by the Bulls with the 32nd overall pick in the 1999 NBA draft, Ruffin’s career highs in points per game and rebounds per game are 2.6 ppg and 5.8 rpg, which he achieved in his second season.
Ruffin players the 2001-02 season with Philadelphia 76ers. Then he played for the Utah Jazz in the 2003 season.
In 2004, he moved to Washington Wizards and played three seasons with them, before being transferred to Milwaukee Bucks in 2007. The last NBA team was the Portland Trail Blazers in 2009.
Ruffin has the dubious distinction of being one of the few players to have tallied more fouls than points in the NBA, getting called for 946 fouls and putting up only 716 points through 10 years in the league.
Micheal Ruffin ended his NBA career with Obradoiro CAB in 2011. He was one of the worst players in the NBA.
Sun Yue
Sun Yue is a Chinese former professional basketball player, who played for the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA. He even won an NBA championship with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2009.
Sun Yue was drafted as the 40th overall pick by the Lakers in 2007. However, he didn’t actually signed the contract up until August.
His career highlight came against the Milwaukee Bucks as he tailed four fouls and two turnovers in the span of five minutes. He averaged 0.6 points on 27% shooting in less than three minutes of action per game for the Los Angeles Lakers. It took only ten games for Lakers to realise that Yue was not at the NBA level.
He was then sent to a short D League stint after playing few games with the Lakers, before eventually being waived by the team in 2009.
He then moved to the Chinese Basketball League and became two time CBA Champion in 2014 and 2015.
Sun Yue was undoubtedly was one of the worst players to ever play in the NBA.
JaVaris Crittenton
Javaris Cortez Crittenton is an American former professional basketball player and convicted murderer. During his four year career, Crittenton played for the Los Angeles Lakers, Memphis Grizzlies, and Washington Wizards of the National Basketball Association (NBA), the Zhejiang Lions of the Chinese Basketball Association, and the Dakota Wizards of the NBA D-League.
Javaris was selected by the Los Angeles Lakers as the first round 19th overall draft pick in the 2007 NBA draft.
He played two seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers playing only 22 games. He averaged just 5.3 points with three teams.
His basketball career was cut short as he confronted his then Washington Wizards teammate Gilbert Arenas with a gun in the locker room. The presence of guns in the locker room breached just about every player code that the league offers and it brought a end to Criftenton’s NBA career.
He was sentenced to 23 years in prison after being charged with manslaughter in killing a 22 year old mother of four kids back in 2011.
Cherokee Parks
Cherokee Bryan Parks is an American former professional basketball player. He played for nine nba seasons in the National Basketball Association.
The former High School All-American earned a championship under Coach K while averaging 19.0 points and 9.3 rebounds in his final collegiate season.
After college, he was selected by the Dallas Mavericks in the 1st round (12th overall pick) of the 1995 NBA Draft. In his nine seasons in the NBA career from 1995–2004, he played for the Mavericks, Minnesota Timberwolves, Vancouver Grizzlies, Los Angeles Clippers, San Antonio Spurs, Washington Wizards, and Golden State Warriors.
He averaged career-highs of 7.1 points per game and 5.5 rebounds per game during the 1997–98 season with Minnesota.
Parks came out of retirement in 2011 to play in France.
Cherokee Parks will probably be remembered as one of the worst NBA player to ever play.
Also check out the list of Tallest NBA players of all time.
