5 NBA Players Who Didn't Live Up To Their Hype

Every high draft pick in sports comes in with a lot of hype. Basketball is no exception. Players like LeBron James, Michael Jordan, and more recently the likes of Kyrie Irving and Karl-Anthony Towns, have been drafted and have all lived up to the big expectations set for them by fans & analysts. This year alone saw loads of hype built up for the #2 pick Lonzo Ball, even if a lot of that hype was built up by the human embodiment of the Cocoa Puffs bird that is his father. While it's impossible to tell if Ball Brother #1 lives up to those standards, it's not impossible that he won't, and if he doesn't, he wouldn't be the first. That being said, here are 5 players that didn't live up to their hype.

Jimmer Fredette

Jimmer Fredette was pretty much unstoppable in his last year at Brigham Young University. In his senior year, he led the nation in scoring with 28.9 points per game, helped BYU win over 30 games that year and led them to a #3 seed in the NCAA Tournament that year. Fredette became somewhat of a household name at the time, to the point where many considered Fredette one of the best scorers in the world. With all the hype surrounding him, there were high hopes for him when he was drafted with the 10th pick in the 2011 NBA Draft by the Milwaukee Bucks. He was then traded to the Sacramento Kings in a three-team trade and...nothing.
Fredette never adjusted to his new role in the NBA. Unlike at BYU where he was the only great scorer, the Kings had players that could put up a respectable amount of points in DeMarcus Cousins, Marcus Thornton, and Tyreke Evans. It also didn't help that he really only put the "point" in point guard. Fredette was never much of a playmaker even in college, never averaging more than 5 assists a game in any of his four seasons at BYU and it was more of the same in the NBA. On top of that, the Kings managed to snag one of the biggest draft steals in NBA history with Isaiah Thomas at #60 that same year. In their rookie seasons, Thomas outperformed Fredette in just about every category, including scoring & shooting percentage. Suddenly, the guy Kevin Durant called the best scorer in the world was just another role player.
After two and a half uneventful years in Sacramento, the Kings bought out Fredette's contract in the middle of the 2013-14 season. After that, Fredette bounced around four different teams in three years along with a stint in the D-League before he left the NBA altogether. It's not all grim for Fredette though. Since leaving the NBA, he joined the Chinese Basketball Association and quickly took the league by storm, leading the CBA in points per game and winning the CBA International MVP in his first season with the Shanghai Sharks. Whether he finds his way back to the NBA after his run as a Chinese basketball legend is something we'll just have to wait and look out for. But for now, his run in the NBA didn't nearly live up to what everyone expected.

Yi Jianlian

Speaking of China, how about Yi Jianlian. In the Land of the Rising Sun, Yi saw a lot of success playing in the Chinese Basketball Association as part of the incredibly named Guangdong Southern Tigers, winning three CBA championships and winning the CBA Finals MVP in 2006. Along the way, Yi put up great numbers, including 24.9 points per game and 11.5 points per game in his final season in the CBA while being dubbed the next Yao Ming. After 5 seasons with the Southern Tigers, Yi announced that he would enter the 2007 NBA draft after initially announcing he would enter last year's draft, only to withdraw.

In the 2007 draft, the Milwaukee Bucks drafted the (depending on who you ask) 19-year-old from China with the #6 pick. Despite initial hesitation to sign with the Bucks and his representatives requesting he be traded to a team with a "large Chinese presence," Yi officially signed with the Bucks. In his debut season, Yi put up 8.6 points per game along with 5.2 rebounds per game before his season ended after a knee injury. However, fans were treated to a dream match-up during the season, as Yi faced off against the man he was set to take the torch from; Yao Ming. While Yi and the Bucks fell to Yao's Rockets 104-88. During the game, Yi recorded 19 and 9 rebounds and after the game received high praise from both Yao and Tracy McGrady. When two All-Stars are giving someone praise, you'd think that would mean they're set for big things.

After his rookie season, Yi was traded with Bobby Simmons to the New Jersey Nets for Richard Jefferson. Yi started the season hot, averaging 10.5 points and 6.2 rebounds per game through his first 37 games. Yi also greatly improved from three point range, going from 29% the previous year to 39%. However, another injury took him out of the lineup and when he returned, he struggled to return to form, with his stats dropping to 8.6 points per game, 5.3 rebounds per game, 38% from the field and 34% from the three. The next season was more of the same; strong play to start the season, only for an injury to cut it short. That season, he was averaging a career best 12 points per game and 7.2 rebounds per game on 40% shooting.

Yi would spend about two more, uneventful years in the NBA, averaging 4.7 points and 3.2 rebounds. After an unsuccessful comeback attempt with the Los Angeles Lakers, Yi returned to China and the Guangdong Southern Tigers. There, he resumed his dominant status as one of the CBA's top players, winning the CBA Domestic MVP award a record four times while also leading the Southern Tigers to another CBA Championship. In all honesty, Yi's lack of success in the NBA could be chalked up a lot to bad luck. Every time he started to succeed, an injury took him down a notch. Whether or not he ever returns to the NBA is, like Jimmer Fredette, something we'll have to wait and look out for. But until then, he definitely didn't achieve the success that Yao Ming did in the NBA.

Sebastian Telfair

Now, this one might not be as high-profile as some of the other players on this list, mostly because Sebastian Telfair's career was largely forgettable and he was a late lottery pick and not a top five pick or anything. However, a lot of people might not remember this, but Sebastian Telfair was considered one of the top prospects in the country in high school. As a high schooler, Telfair was a standout at Abraham Lincoln High School and was listed in the top ten high school players in the nation and as the #2 point guard in the nation, along with being a five-star recruit. Telfair had even graced the cover of SLAM magazine with another highly touted high school player.

You might have heard of that guy.

Telfair had initially committed to attending the University of Louisville, but something in his personal life made him change his mind quickly. You see, Telfair grew up in the projects in Brooklyn, New York. Part of the documentary about him Through the Fire focused on Telfair having to decide between going to college or jumping right to the NBA, allowing him to get his family out of the projects. While he had initially chosen to go to Louisville, that all changed when a shooting had occurred in the apartment where he & his family lived. That led to him changing his mind and making the jump right to the NBA to get his family out of the dangerous situation.

Telfair was selected with the #13 pick in the 2004 draft by the Portland Trail Blazers. In his rookie season, he began playing behind veteran point guard Damon Stoudemire before being promoted to the starting line-up in February of 2005. He finished the year averaging 6.8 points per game on 39% shooting and only 3.3 assists per game. His second season saw improvement in the scoring department, but only a .3 increase in assists per game and was still considered below average as a starting point guard. He ended up losing his starting job after suffering a thumb injury and was replaced by Steve Blake, who was a better playmaker and recorded fewer turnovers than Telfair. Despite healing up, Telfair remained the backup point guard on the worst team in the NBA at the time.

Telfair was traded after two seasons with Portland to the Boston Celtics, where he continued to play mediocre basketball on a bad shooting percentage of 37% and only 2.8 assists per game. To make matters worse for Telfair, he ended up being charged with felony possession of a weapon in 2007, which he pled guilty to and received three years probation, along with a three game suspension from the NBA. Telfair would spend the next 8 years of his NBA career bouncing between 6 different teams, including joining LeBron James on the Cavaliers for only 4 games, showing everyone the good and bad outcomes of going right from high school to the NBA. Telfair has most recently found himself in more legal trouble, as he was arrested in June 2017 for handgun & controlled substance charges during a traffic stop, with a search of his vehicle finding that he had three firearms, a semiautomatic rifle, a ballistic vest, and bags of marijuana.

While no one can say for sure, maybe spending a year or two at Louisville and learning under Rick Pitino could have helped Telfair improve his game in the long run. And while he made the jump straight to the NBA with good & noble intentions, it likely hurt his playing career in the long haul. And he certainly didn't rule the world like SLAM magazine said he would.

OJ Mayo

OJ Mayo made a high school's varsity team when he was in the 7th grade. That's how good he was. OJ Mayo, the man with the most delicious name in basketball history (sorry Allen Crabbe, not a fan of seafood), was a force to be reckoned with in high school, even before he was actually in high school. As a 7th grader, Mayo put up 23.1 for Rose Hill Christian High School's varsity team and he just kept getting better as he got older. When he actually got to high school, he ended up moving to Ohio and enrolled at North College Hill High School, where he continued to dominate, averaging a near double-double in his junior year with 29 points and nine rebounds per game. For his senior year, he transferred to Huntington High School in West Virginia and led the state in scoring with 28.4. By this point, Mayo had already gained a significant amount of attention, even being dubbed the next LeBron James by Dime magazine.

Mayo went on attend USC, who had scouted him through totally legit scouting methods that were 100% legit & proper. There, he averaged 20.7 points per game on 44% shooting and helped the Trojans land #6 seed in the NCAA Tournament, but were upset in the first round by the #11 seed Kansas State Wildcats. That would be Mayo's only season as a collegiate athlete, as he entered the NBA Draft and was selected #3 overall by the Minnesota Timberwolves, one pick ahead of Russell Westbrook. He was then traded that same night to the Memphis Grizzlies in a trade that sent Kevin Love to Minnesota.

Mayo's NBA career started out promising. In his rookie season, Mayo recorded 18.5 points per game on 50% shooting percentage, quickly becoming Memphis' second scoring option behind Rudy Gay. Mayo ended up making the All-Rookie First Team and compared to the other players selected in the top 6 (Derrick Rose, Michael Beasley, Russell Westbrook, Kevin Love, and Danillo Gallinari), Mayo outscored all of them, even Rose who won the Rookie of the Year. However, this successful rookie season would be his best season. Unlike the majority of players who tend to improve as they get into their prime, Mayo seemed to get worse every year he played. By his third season, Mayo had gone from making half his shots every game to barely shooting over 40% and dropped from 18.5 points per game to only 11.3 points per game. And on top of that, declining stats were only part of his problems.

Before he was in the NBA or even in college, Mayo frequently found himself in trouble. In his senior year, Mayo allegedly shoved a referee to the ground after being ejected from a game, and while video of the incident supported claims that the referee had overreacted to the contact, Mayo was still suspended for three games. He was then cited for a misdemeanor simple possession of marijuana after he & three friends were pulled over, only for the charges to be dropped when one of his friends claimed responsibility for the drugs. That kind of trouble continued for Mayo in the NBA when he got into a fight with teammate Tony Allen on a flight back from Los Angeles in 2011. He then ended up getting suspended for 10 games after testing positive for steroids, which he actually tried to blame on him drinking an energy drink he bought at a gas station. I'm not kidding.

After playing his last season in Memphis as the sixth man, something Mayo said hurt his value as a player, he signed with the Dallas Mavericks, where he had pretty successful season averaging 15.3 points per game on 45% shooting. Despite that success, he declined the player option on his contract and signed with the Milwaukee Bucks for three years. There he returned to his third season form, averaging 10.7 points per game on 41% in his three-year stint as a Buck. 

Mayo's final season in Milwaukee ended early after fractured his ankle, with his last game being a game where recorded more fouls than points against the Chicago Bulls. Little did anyone know that that would be the last game he would play for a long, long time, as in the 2016 offseason, Mayo was dismissed from the NBA for violating the league's Anti-Drug Program, effectively suspending him from the NBA for two years. That's not something the NBA does often. You don't get suspended for two years because you smoked weed. You get that kind of suspension when you test positive for things like cocaine or heroin. Mayo will be able to apply for reinstatement in 2018. Whether a team is willing to give him another chance is another question.

OJ Mayo's short career in the NBA (so far) was far from the worst a big-hype prospect has had. At times, he showed he could put up good numbers in the NBA and be a second or even first scoring option for a team. However, his personal demons really seemed to get in the way of his success, along with not being able to play consistently. His career is not over, however, as he has recently stated that he wants to return when his suspension is over and has been getting back into playing shape. Many people, myself included, are hoping that he can make a return and possibly reach those huge expectations set for him. But until then, his career up until now definitely did not show he was the next LeBron James.

Kwame Brown

Imagine this. It's 2001, and Michael Jordan is making his first ever 1st round pick as the President of Basketball Operations for the Washington Wizards. And not even just that, this was the #1 pick in the NBA Draft. Michael Jordan could literally have chosen anyone he wanted...and he chose Kwame Brown, a standout at Glynn Academy making the jump straight from high school to the NBA. If Michael Jordan thought he was good enough to take with the #1 pick, then he must be something special...right?

In his rookie season, Brown only played in 57 games and barely averaged 14 minutes per game, along with 4.5 points and 3.5 rebounds. His rookie season was so poor that not only did he not make the All Rookie First Team, he didn't even make the All Rookie Second Team, getting beat out by the likes of Željko Rebrača, a player that you definitely haven't heard of until now. When compared to the five players drafted right after him (Tyson Chandler, Pau Gasol, Eddy Curry, Jason Richardson, and Shane Battier), Brown had the lowest points per game, rebounds per game, and field goal percentage.

Brown showed improvement in his next three years on the Wizards, with his best season being the 2002-03 season, where he averaged a decent 10.7 point per game and 7.4 rebounds a game. However, he was still behind the likes of Gasol & Curry in terms of scoring and Chandler on the glass. By this point, the writing was on the wall; Kwame Brown was never going to be an NBA star. And unfortunately for Brown, one of the people who read that writing was Michael Jordan. Once the apple of the greatest of all time's eye, Brown & Jordan's relationship quickly turned sour. According to Michael Leahy's book "When Nothing Else Matters", Jordan thought Brown was a cocky, disrespectful kid who didn't work hard enough to his liking. This led to the two playing a one-on-one game where Jordan humiliated the then 19-year old Brown, beating him decisively in front Brown's teammates before yelling "You better call me 'Daddy,' (expletive)." His toxic relationship with Jordan, along with his own coach Doug Collins criticizing him publicly for not getting into shape to play at the NBA level, pretty much signaled that Kwame's days were numbered in Washington.

Brown ended up getting traded after four years as a Wizard to the Los Angeles Lakers in a move that sent future all-star Caron Butler to Washington. Brown continued to play below average and well below what should be expected of a #1 pick, averaging only 7.4 points per game and 6.7 rebounds per game in his two and a half seasons donning the purple & yellow. His performances were not well-received by Lakers fans, even getting him booed at times. He was traded again in 2008 to the Memphis Grizzlies as part of the deal that sent Pau Gasol to Los Angeles. This led to the highlight of Kwame Brown's career; Stephen A Smith explaining how great it was that the Lakers got rid of him. After that, Brown would bounce around the league between four different teams and ended his NBA on the Philidelphia 76ers in 2013, averaging under 2 points a game and 3.5 rebounds in 22 games. Michael Jordan thought Kwame Brown was going to become an elite in the NBA, but he couldn't have been further off. He was right about one thing though, Kwame Brown will go down in history...just as one of the biggest draft busts in NBA history.