By Dimitris Minarentzis/ info@eurohoops.net
Andrea Bargnani returns to Europe after ten years in the NBA, with Laboral Kutxa making the surprise by bringing a player from the best championship in the world, which took so many of “our own” from the Euroleague this year.
The Italian center-forward was a No1 draft pick in 2006 by the Raptors, though without justifying this pick in his career in the NBA. Because when you select the No1 you often expect the sky and the stars, but this turns out to be panacea for some teams and their selections.
However, it’s still a badge of honor, one that signifies a career for every player who carries his draft selection like a rock or a feather, depending on who he is. Every year we wait for the pick, every year the teams devise plans on the No1 pick.
But which No1 picks of the NBA draft, aside from Bargnani, have played in Europe? Is the journey to our side of the Atlantic so frequent?
The answer is no, since not even 10% of the 70 first picks in the history of the NBA since 1947 have played in Europe and some of those that made that decision, did so for just a handful of games. But this story makes absolute sense. We could even say that… many came to Europe to play exclusively in the championships of Spain or Italy (mostly this). Besides, most did so in the 80s and the early 90s, when the “doors” were slowly starting to open on both basketball sides and we could never have seen first draft pick players any sooner here in Europe, in the 70s or earlier, since the Americans might not have even… known how basketball is played in these parts.
Six No1 picks – seven with Bargnani (he played in Europe, was selected with the No1 pick and now he returns) – have ventured out, with only two of them playing for an entire season and three playing for just a few games. We think, though, that the best are the ones who played here the most…
We’re talking about Joe Barry Carroll and Mychal Thompson (Klay’s father) who played for entire seasons in Italy, while Michael Olowokandi, Ralph Sampson, and Kent Benson came for only a few games before departing. And of course, there’s the greatest of them all, Alen Iverson. Let’s take a look at what they did in Europe in order of appearance…
Joe Barry Carroll (1984-85)
Joe Barry Carroll (1958, 2.16m.) was selected with the No1 pick by the Golden State Warriors in the 1980 draft, the best player – in terms of numbers – that came to Europe after such a draft pick. In fact, he was the first who decided to do this. Ralph Sampson however, (his background follows further down) was the best among the players of this list.
He immediately established himself in the NBA with excellent numbers for three years (24 points in the third season), but in the 1985-86 season he decided to play in Italy and specifically in the historic Simac (Olimpia) Milano!
How did this happen? Carroll assigned an agent named Howard Slusher to negotiate his new contract. This manager was ruthless and wouldn’t even exclude the possibility of losing a year if they didn’t get the contract they deserved.
The Warriors didn’t make their best player an offer but Carroll didn’t want to “get fat”, as he put it. So he signed with Olimpia, one of the best teams in Europe at the time, perhaps the best. In Italy, of course, Carroll was devastating. With 24,9 points and 11,1 rebounds on average, Simac won the Italian championship as well as the Korac Cup (1984-85) against the major competitors at that time, Varese (they knocked Aris out in the semifinal) who they defeated 91-78!
Carroll returned to the NBA to play for the Warriors again, but also with the Rockets, the Nets, the Nuggets, and the Suns, closing out his illustrious career in 1991 with 17,7 points, 7,7 rebounds and 1,6 blocks on average. He was the No1 pick with the best stats in the NBA who also played in Europe…
Kent Benson (1988-89)
Kent Benson is – obviously – the least known among the players that, from the No1 pick, came to play in Europe. Selected by the Bucks in the draft of 1977, the white center graduated from Bobby Knight’s infamous Indiana with almost 17,5 points to his name. Not to be unfair, he had built a great name for himself in the NCAA, but wasn’t able to justify it in the NBA.
For eleven years in the NBA he failed to meet the expectations of the highest draft pick. He played in the Bucks, the Pistons, the Jazz, and the Cavaliers, completing his career with 9,1 points and 5,7 rebounds.
As it turned out, he became known more for getting punched by Kareem (!) in his first game as he had done some damage to the Lakers center’s private parts with an elbow, than anything else. It was a shocking moment, as you’ll see in the video that we host. Jabbar in fact broke his hand and was out of the action for two months! Unbelievable…
At the end of his career in the US, Benson signed a contract with Cantu in the 1988-89 season, where he played in eight games with an average of 12,2 points.
That season, in fact, Vismara Cantu reached the double final of the Korac Cup, but Partizan won the trophy with an total score of 177-171.
Mychal Thompson (1991-92)
Mychal Thompson is now known as Klay Thomspon’s dad, but when he was playing in the NBA he had helped the Showtime Lakers win the 1987 and 1988 championships! In fact, he was the first foreign player (from the Bahamas) in the history of the NBA who was selected with the No1 draft pick, specifically in 1978 by the Blazers.
Along with Jabbar, Worthy, and of course Magic, the Lakers had four No1 picks on their team at the time! So he’s definitely the best – in terms of titles – player who has played in Europe as a No1 pick, even though his averages (13,8 points) in the NBA were not the highest.
Thompson played in the Blazers for many years (1978-1986), and a season with the Spurs (1986-87) before going to the Lakers, and at the end of his career with the renowned team, he decided to move to Europe at the age of 36. Specifically, he signed with the Italian champions (1991), the Caserta team that had made the surprise in snatching the title away from Olimpia without a home advantage.
Despite his impressive stats (16,4 points and 10,1 rebounds in 32 games), Caserta could not reach the finals in Italy again, while in Europe they were knocked out early in the group stages.
Ralph Sampson (1991-92)
In the same season as Mychal Thompson, the celebrated Ralph Sampson came to Europe but just for a few games. A phenomenon in college (Virginia) where he was voted player of the year in the NCAA three times, the towering center (2,26m.) was selected by the Rockets with the No1 of the NBA draft in 1983 and immediately made an impression with an average of 21 points, 11,1 rebounds and 2,4 blocks. For this reason, he was voted rookie of the year (1984).
The Rockets sunk however and this gave them the chance to acquire the No1 pick once again, selecting Hakeem Olajuwon. Sampson was moved to the power forward position and this is how the famous ‘twin towers’ were created!
It took Houston two years to reach the NBA finals – specifically in 1986 – with the duo of tall men dominating. Their opponents were the Celtics, who managed to win the title in 4-2 wins, containing Sampson who usually had foul trouble against McHale or Parish and Bird.
Injury problems had already started to appear and with time he lost his place in the Rockets, who traded him. The average of 20 points gradually dropped down to 15 and after the Rockets (with the Warriors, the Kings, and the Bullets) he couldn’t… move because of knee and back problems.
Actually, in 1991-92 he opened the season in Washington with 2,2 points! At some point that same year, Malaga made an offer and Sampson made the decision to move to Europe. He was the first – until now with Bargnani – among the No1 picks who chose Spain as their European destination.
Sampson played in 8 games of the ACB with 7 points and 6,8 rebounds, without of course being able to achieve anything special with the Andalusian team (who sunk at 14th place), where the onetime star tried but didn’t manage to revive his career but who did enter the Hall of Fame of the NBA and the NCAA in 2012 and 2011 respectively…
Michael Olowokandi (1998-99)
Michael Olowokandi closes the circle of these five players who, from the No1 draft pick, found themselves in Europe. The Nigerian center was selected by the Clippers in the summer of 1998 and his is a special case compared with the previous four. Olowokandi didn’t manage to play in the NBA before coming to Europe for Kinder Bologna, since he stumbled upon the lock out of 1998 and for a few months there was no action in the NBA.
So he launched his professional career in Italy, unripe and unprepared to face the European reality and the advanced basketball of that era. In Italy he only played in three games with an average of 4,7 points (!), while in Europe, Kinder might’ve reached the final in Munich against Zalgiris but not with any help by Olowokandi who had left to play with the Clippers in the meantime.
We can recall a game in Pale with PAOK, where the home team had prevailed 71-57 with Walter “the Truth” Berry scoring 23 points and Greek center Giannis Giannoulis dunking on Olowokandi’s… face, the former scoring 14 points without avoiding defeat with his team.
Allen Iverson
The greatest player who played in Europe and was also a number 1 NBA draft pick. After finishing his NBA career Iverson signed a two year deal with Turkish club Besiktas in 2010.
Iverson would play not only in the Turkish league, but also in the Eurocup, the second most important continental competition behind Euroleague, and he remains the biggest name who wore the basketball jersey of the club. The official announcement was made on the 29th of October 2010 in a press conference which was held in New York and of course the news about Iverson playing overseas made global headlines.
However, things didn’t go as planned by both sides. Iverson was not bad on the court, but he couldn’t take the team on his shoulders as many expected. He made his debut for Besiktaş on November 16, 2010, in a Eurocup 91-94 loss to Serbian club Hemofarm. Iverson scored 15 points in 23 minutes.
He returned to the States on January 2011 because he was injured. He had a calf surgery and after just ten games with Besiktas, he did not play professional basketball after that.