Seven years after the Philadelphia 76ers selected Markelle Fultz with the No. 1 overall pick, the 26-year-old is unsigned and could be out of the NBA. But he’s still not the worst top pick we’ve ever seen. Here are the five worst No. 1 picks in NBA history.
Honorable Mention
The honorable mention goes to “The Man of a Million Shots,” Clifton McNeely, who spurned the Pittsburgh Ironmen after going first overall in the NBA’s very first draft in 1947. McNeely decided to become a high school basketball coach instead, which proved to be a wise career choice when the Ironmen folded before the season. McNeely may not have played an NBA game after going No. 1, but neither did the Ironmen.
5. Markelle Fultz, 2017
Philadelphia traded up to get Fultz ahead of the 2017 draft, sending Boston a 2019 first-round pick along with the No. 3 pick, which turned into Jayson Tatum. Whoops!
Fultz’s career was immediately derailed by a Summer League knee injury, then a mysterious shoulder ailment later diagnosed as thoracic outlet syndrome. After shooting 41.3 percent from three-point range in college, Fultz’s shot completely abandoned him as a pro, while he tried increasingly strange methods to regain his accuracy.
