10 Worst Players in NBA History: You Won't Believe!

Not every player that comes to the NBA is destined for greatness. There are some that just hang around for a cup of coffee and some that manage to endure their poor play long enough to build a slow but reassuringly lengthy career of mediocrity. So just like there are all-time great NBA players, there are some bad ones too. Today we are going to take a look at the worst players in NBA history. Number 10, Mark Madsen. We'll start off our list with Mark Madsen who deserves credit for the way he turned what little natural basketball ability he had into a pretty productive nine-year career, which also included titles with the Los Angeles Lakers in his first two seasons. However, he failed to average as many as four points or rebounds even though he played over 450 games and even started 70, not to mention the 49 playoff games he appeared in. But Mark Mad Dog Madsen is mostly best remembered for his cringeworthy moments in the Lakers' victory parades during Shaq & Kobe times in the 2001 rally when he danced along to Shaquille O'Neal's rap on stage. Number 9, Anthony Bennett. Being the only number one overall pick to be featured on this list, many thought Anthony Bennett had what it took to make it to the top. Classic case of the college basketball player that can dominate amateur competition because of his super physicality, but struggling to perform well when surrounded by players at his own level of physicality, but with better skills. He was drafted with the number one overall pick in the Cleveland Cavaliers. However, he was dropped out of their regular rotation before it was long, heading to the Minnesota Timberwolves as part of the Kevin Love trade package. But he was unable to crack the rotation there either, and since then, Bennett has been in and out of the league while playing Canadian pro basketball. 8. Brian Scalabrine Scalabrine is probably the most popular on our list. He made his name by being the enthusiastic towel-waving, bench-warming white guy on a number of good teams. He even got a championship ring as a member of the 2008 Boston Celtics, despite not having played a single playoff minute that year. But to be sure, getting at least three nicknames that we know of, White Mamba, Brian Scalabrine, and the Ginger Ninja along with 11 seasons, one right and $20 million in salary has to count for something. So all in all, Scalabrine built a pretty solid legacy for a guy whose career averaged at 3.1 points and 2.0 rebounds. 7. Zan Tabak Zan Tabak, a stats-hungry NBA player, found himself in an expansion team with the 1995-96 Toronto Raptors. But even with 18 starts and 20 minutes per game at the center position, Tabak could only managed to score a measly 7.7 points and 4.8 rebounds on a team that has Sharone Wright scoring 16.5 points per game. Because seven-foot basketball players are so hard to find, Tabak managed to stick around the league for six injury-marred seasons even though he never could manage his modest numbers in Toronto. Number 6, Elliott Williams Elliott Williams is a player who wasn't very widely known, so if you're an ardent NBA fan and the name still doesn't ring a bell, don't be too surprised. His career lasted from 2010 to 2016. The former first-round pick spent his time between Utah and New Orleans on 10-day contracts in his third season as a professional, averaging at just 2.8 points on 37.8% shooting across the two stops. However, Williams ended up being signed by the Charlotte Hornets to a tryout contract for the upcoming season, including a D-League standout and a veteran of over 100 NBA games. 5. Rafael Araujo Rafael Araujo was taken only a pick before 2015 NBA Finals MVP and Olympic gold medal winner Andre Iguodala. Even though Araujo was marketed as a strong interior force when he was drafted by much-reviled GM Rob Babcock, the eighth overall in 2004, Araujo ended up looking quite out of place at the NBA. He was neither strong nor quick nor athletic enough to compete at the highest level of basketball played. The Brazilian basketball player ended up playing a total of 139 regular season games in the league. After two seasons of disappointment in Toronto during their post-Vince Carter times, he was traded to the Utah Jazz. However, the 6'11 center was never able to truly find where he belonged in the NBA. Number four, Pete Chillcutt. With a reputation on a clutch shooting stroke, Pete Chillcutt had a standout college career at UNC under Dean Smith. However, that shot could only take him so far during a nine-year NBA career where his lack of athleticism ended up being quite a nuisance for him. Averaging a maximum of 21 minutes per game with the Sacramento Kings in their 1993-94 campaign, he bounced around seven NBA teams. Chillcutt also won a title with the 1995 Houston Rockets. However, he never could average more than 6.1 points, with the shooting stroke being his only skill that he could translate to the pro game. He finished his career with a 38.1% field goal percentage from a three-point territory. Number three, Kyle Singler. As a four-year starter for the Duke's men's basketball team, Singler was quite instrumental in their 2010 NCAA championship run as he went on to earn the most outstanding player of the final four. However, his pace of play clearly did not translate to the NBA, so despite all the achievements he had in college, he was only taken with the 33rd pick in the 2011 NBA draft by the Pistons and promptly stashed in the Spanish ACB. Singler started 150 games over the course of his career with the Pistons, where he lasted three seasons from 2012 to 2015. After that, Oklahoma City Thunder thought it would be best to somehow sign him on to a four-year deal despite his highest scoring average being 9.6 points per game and being a foot slower on defense than the rest of the league. But after he fell completely out of their garbage time lineups, Singler was waived in 2019 by the franchise. 2. Nikolaos Skidisvili Dario Milicic might be more famous when it comes to keeping the company of Hall of Famers among the top five picks within the 2003 NBA draft. However, the trend of drafting highly coveted European big men, who then failed to translate their game into pro NBA basketball, actually started when the Denver Nuggets decided to spend their number 5 overall pick on the Georgian Nikolaos Skidisvili. The front office of the Denver Nuggets had never really seen him play, which doesn't make much sense as a 7 foot tall basketball player only averaged 6.6 points and 1.8 rebounds per game through 11 games with Benetton Treviso. So why would they pick him then? Bill Simmons called Skidisvili the worst case scenario for any foreign pick in the NBA and many people tend to agree with that statement. 1. Michael Ruffin Although the undersized power forward and center did not have the skill set needed to play as a swingman in the league, he never could make it far. Because he did not have the size to play heavy minutes in the roles he was best at, Michael Ruffin went on to become pretty much a poster boy for the unsuccessful players who hung around playoff first-round teams for 10 seasons. He was drafted by the Bulls with the 32nd overall pick in the 1999 NBA Draft. The highs in points per game of Ruffin's career are 2.6 points per game, and rebounds per game are 5.8 RPG, which he ended up achieving in his second season. Ruffin has the reputation of being one of the few players to have more fouls than points in the NBA. He was called for 946 fouls while putting up only 716 points through 10 years in the league. Honorable mention, Sun Yu. What the Los Angeles Lakers thought could be the next Lamar Odom, they expended a second-round pick on Chinese import known as Sun Yu. He had played for the Beijing Olympics and the Chinese Basketball Association since he was 17, which is why it was easy to assume that his experience of pro basketball would help him adjust to the pace and space in the NBA. So after seeing him somewhat competent in a short D-League stint, the Lakers decided to offer you a platform to see what he could do for them at the NBA level. However, it did not go well. His debut in which he collected four fouls and two turnovers in five minutes was followed by more fouls, ten to be exact, then his six points and three turnovers were equal to his assists and steals combined. Ten games were all it took for the Lakers to realize you was simply not NBA material.