Ah, draft night.
The night when sucking for an entire year finally pays off as a 19-year-old savior walks onto the stage, dons your team’s hat, shares an awkward moment with the commissioner and gets ready to do battle for the next 82 games.
Or not.
While we all have pipe dreams of our team finding the next phenom, the wishful thinking that the general manager we have berated through our televisions for years finally shows us that he was playing the slow game and has it all figured out is sometimes just that -- wishful thinking.
Here are some of the Nets’ biggest busts.
Ed O'Bannon, 1995 -- Round 1, Pick 9
O’Bannon had just come off a national championship at UCLA when he was drafted by the Nets in 1995. His stock was sky high,and it seemed like a perfect match with the Nets at the time. O’Bannon’s time in New Jersey was not long, as he played 64 games in 1995-96 before getting traded midseason the following year. O’Bannon was somewhat productive in his time with the Nets, but not nearly what one would expect from a centerpiece player on a national championship team the year before.
Related
Terrence Williams, 2009 -- Round 1, Pick 11
Williams had an OK rookie campaign for the Nets in 2009, appearing in 78 games and averaging about 8 points per contest along with 3 assists and 4 1/2 rebounds. However, after slumping in his first 21 games the following season, Williams found himself headed to Houston in a three-team trade. He was almost immediately waived by the Rockets and was never able to find stable footing in the league again.
Zoran Planinic, 2003 -- Round 1, Pick 22
Jim McIsaac/Getty Images Planinic never found his way with the Nets. After being drafted, he played for three seasons and started only 10 of the 148 games in which he saw action. All the first-rounder has to his name following the three seasons in the NBA were averages of 3.8 points, 0.9 assists and 1.3 rebounds per game. But on the bright side for Planinic, after being waived by the Nets in 2006, he was able to go back to Spain and find work before calling it a career in 2008.
Antoine Wright, 2005 -- Round 1, Pick 15
Wright was somewhat productive in his first three years in the NBA with the Nets. He ate up minutes but was only able to contribute fewer than 5 points, less than 1 assist and just over 2 rebounds per game. There’s a lot left to be desired there. Wright found himself packaged into the deal that sent star Jason Kidd to the Mavericks in 2008 before he was bounced around to the Raptors and Kings.
Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images Williams had a solid rookie year playing 79 games and starting 29 of them. He averaged over 4 rebounds and over 6 points across those games and was able to make a bit of a difference. However, Williams saw his role diminish over the next two seasons. He spent time in the D-League before being recalled and then waived the following year by the Nets. That would foreshadow what was to come for Williams as he was assigned to and then recalled from the Dallas Mavericks’ affiliate three times before being cut in a span of three months with the team.
Dennis Hopson, 1987 -- Round 1, Pick 3
In comparison to the rest of this list, Hopson is not as big of a bust. He averaged 10 points, an assist and 2 boards per game in the three years he spent in New Jersey. He was then dealt to Chicago for three draft picks. However, the 1987 draft was no ordinary draft. This class was a legendary one, stacked like few first rounds have been stacked before. Headlined by David Robinson, the Nets were one of the only teams to make a mistake with a top-10 pick. Hopson was the only player of the first 13 selected to not play at least a decade in the league. Three future Hall of Famers graced that top 10, but the Nets went with Hopson.