Zion Williamson is about to make his NBA debut tomorrow night.
Whether he really makes it and how effective will he be remains to be seen, but I’m sure
everyone is excited for it, especially the basketball fans up there in New Orleans.
In the long history of the NBA there have been several cases where a player who is drafted
number 1 wasn’t available to play from the get go.
And today, we’re looking at those cases.
Hey guys.
PRPLPRNCH here and today I’ll tell you about Zion Williamson as well as other longest awaited
debuts of the NBA Drafts 1st picks.
Let’s start with a legend.
58 years ago, the Cincinnati Royals drafted Jerry Lucas with the first pick of the 1962
NBA Draft.
Lucas missed his first NBA season because of contract complications with the team’s
owner and a failed ABA team.
Lucas made his NBA debut more than a year later on October 16th, 1963 and recorded 23
points, 17 rebounds and 1 assist.
We of course know that Lucas is one of the greatest players in NBA history.
An NBA champion, 7x All-Star and a hall of famer.
We skip to the early 1970s.
In the 1971 NBA Draft the Cleveland Cavaliers selected Austin Carr with the 1st pick.
Carr’s first season in the NBA though was full with injuries.
During the 1971 preseason game Carr broke his foot and had to miss the first month of
the 1971/72 season.
In his first ever NBA game, Austin Carr collected 5 points and 3 rebounds in 9 minutes of playing
time.
Austin Carr had an injury riddled career, but did make 1 NBA All-Star team in 1974.
16 years later, the San Antonio Spurs drafted David Robinson with the 1st pick in the 1987
NBA Draft.
Spurs fans had to wait 2 full years since they saw David Robinson on the court though.
In this case it wasn’t because of an injury.
David Robinson just had to complete his naval service.
Boy was the wait warranted though.
In his first game in the NBA, David Robinson collected 23 points, 3 blocks, 1 steal, 1
assist and 17 rebounds in 34 minutes.
He had a very healthy season, won the rookie of the year award unanimously and led the
Spurs at the time to a greatest single season turnaround in NBA history.
After winning just 21 games in the season before, the Spurs with Robinson won 56 games
in Robinson’s first year.
Now that’s a rookie effect.
Robinson had a legendary career, becoming a 2x NBA champion, 10x NBA All-Star and a
Hall of famer.
One of the saddest stories in recent NBA History is that of Greg Oden’s.
The former Number 1 pick of the 2007 NBA draft was selected by the Portland Trail Blazers.
Before the season even started Oden had microfracture surgery on his right knee after which he had
to miss his whole rookie campaign.
He was supposedly healthy and ready for the 2008/09 season, but in his first game he played
just 12 minutes and 51 seconds recording 0 points, 1 block and 5 rebounds.
His first NBA game ended with a foot injury.
He returned 2 weeks later and had his healthiest season ever playing 61 games in total.
The injuries though never stopped and for his whole career Oden played in just 105 games.
11 years ago Blake Griffin was drafted with the first pick of the 2009 NBA Draft by the
Los Angeles Clippers and played for them in the Summer League where he also was named
the MVP, but on the final preseason game Griffin injured his kneecap as he landed after a dunk.
It was later confirmed that Griffin had a stress fracture in his left knee and would
miss the first two months of the season,
but after all the rest his knee was still not fine and on January 2010 he had a surgery
on his broken left kneecap which ended his rookie season.
Blake Griffin made his NBA debut a year later in the first game of the 2010/11 season in
a loss against Portland.
For his first ever NBA game, Griffin had 20 points, 14 rebounds, 4 assists and a steal
in 38 minutes and 36 seconds of playing time.
Similar thing happened to the first pick of the 2016 NBA Draft Ben Simmons as he had to
miss out his whole rookie year because of a foot injury.
Ben Simmons rolled his right ankle during the 2016 76ers final training camp scrimmage.
After that it was determined that Simmons could miss the first 3 months of his rookie
season,
but later in February he was ruled out for the whole 2016/17 season as his foot wasn’t
properly healed yet.
So Ben Simmons made his debut a year later and in his first NBA game he lost and collected
18 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals and 1 block in 34 minutes and 40 seconds of
playing time.
And since I started this video about Zion it just makes sense to end this list with
him.
The first pick of the 2019 NBA Draft will make his debut tomorrow.
So Zion played in the preseason, injured his knee and needed surgery.
He has missed his first potential 44 games which is not as bad as some other guys on
this list.
He probably won’t win the rookie of the year award anymore, just because we’re already
in the 2nd half of the season and Ja Morant has been doing some things.
Still, his presence on the court will be well received and we’re definitely expecting
some highlights.
So these are some of the notable first picks of the NBA draft to not play right away.
Which of these players had the best career and who of them never recovered?
Did I miss someone?
Please tell me that in the comment section.
What do you expect from Zion in his NBA debut?
Comment on that one as well.
As always, thank you very much for watching the video.
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Thank you very much for watching the video and thank to everyone who supports me.
This was PRPLPRNCH, and I’m out!