The NBA is famous for its lottery busts, as well. Sam Bowie was quickly out of basketball, but not before the Portland Trailblazers chose him over the great Michael Jordan in 1984.I was mildly surprised by that example because I vaguely recalled Sam Bowie as a fairly adequate big man for several years, so I looked up his career statistics on Basketball-Reference.com.
It turns out that Sam Bowie averaged a solid 7.5 rebounds and 10.9 points per game over a ten-year NBA career. Those statistics certainly do not rise to the level of a superstar like Michael Jordan, but they far exceed any reasonable person's definition of a "lottery bust." I would also contend that surviving the rigors of the NBA for ten years hardly qualifies as being "quickly out of basketball."
This is rhetorical excess at best, and shoddy journalism at worst. Mr. Hall's apparent ignorance led him to mistakenly disparage a solid if not spectacular player. Mr. Hall's basic premise—that number 1 draft selections do not always meet expectations—might be correct, but that does not in any way justify denigrating a decent player in such harsh terms.
Mr. Hall has never before come across as a mean-spirited person. In this case, however, he has clearly dropped the ball. Or perhaps he merely stepped out of bounds. Feel free to choose your own sports metaphor.
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