The NBA is hard. Chances are that you, the reader, aren't good enough to play in the league. Don't feel bad—neither am I. The extreme difficulty and selectivity of the NBA makes even getting looked at an achievement in itself.
Getting drafted and actually making it in the league are two different things, though. Practically every NBA player experiences the former, but it's the latter that poses the real challenge. Players who fail to reach their potential often cost front office execs their jobs, drive coaches into pits of despair, and break the hearts of otherwise stable fans. "We could've had SO-AND-SO!" They're your Greg Odens and your Anthony Bennetts, but are most commonly referred to as busts. They're the basketball equivalent to Lionel Richie's "Hello" video: They're supposed to be one thing, but end up being something completely, irredeemably different. Hope is a dangerous thing, fans of lottery teams. These are the 15 Biggest Draft Busts of the Last 10 Years.
Greg Oden
Anthony Bennett
Jimmer Fredette
Adam Morrison
Marvin Williams
Joe Alexander
Hasheem Thabeet
Drafted: 2nd Overall, 2009
Team(s): Grizzles, Rockets, Trail Blazers, Thunder, Spurs
Thabeet's career highlights include getting picked second overall, making the D-League All-Defensive Third Team, and this:
Andrea Bargnani
Drafted: 1st Overall, 2009
Team(s): Raptors, Knicks
The Raptors invested a lot of time trying to make Bargnani into a legitimate scoring threat. For a short time, it looked like it worked; Bargnani was the team's leading scorer during its 22-60, 2010-11 season. But his numbers eventually started declining as he kept missing a significant amount of games the following seasons. Nearly every facet of being a Knick has been a struggle in recent years, and Bargnani has been no different: