Ranking the Top 5 Draft Picks From 2001 For Each Sport
Focus On Sport. Getty Images.It has always seemed to me that the NBA draft is the one that gets it right most often. It's the sport where one player can make the most impact. Also, the college game will give you a better idea of how a guy will perform in the pros compared to a high school baseball game in some small town. I wanted to put that theory to the test so I picked a random year and will rank the top 5 picks by each sport and see which one comes out on top.
A few notes:
-I'm starting with 2001. I actually forgot this was the Kwame Brown draft. I'll do other years in the future but the NBA drew the short straw here for sure.
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-I didn't include hockey. I'm not well versed enough to talk about the sport in comparison to the other sports I do care more about. If you want to play along, the top 5 picks in the NHL that year were:
1. Iyla Kovalchuk
2. Jason Spezza
3. Alexander Svitov
4. Stephen Weiss
5. Stanislav Chistov
I've only heard of two of those guys and I have no idea if Kovalchuk is better or worse than Spezza.
-The top player from each pick will get three points, second place will get one point and third place won't get any. The sport with the most points after five rounds wins.
Nathaniel S. Butler. Getty Images.#1 Pick
MLB: Joe Mauer, Minnesota Twins
NFL: Michael Vick, Atlanta Falcons
NBA: Kwame Brown, Washington Wizards
This immediately becomes a peak vs. longevity debate. Mauer and Vick couldn't have more different careers yet be difficult to say whether one is better than the other.
Mauer had a quiet and underrated career. He won three batting titles over his fifteen year career and was the 2009 AL MVP. A borderline HOFer, while he did finish with over 2000 hits, the last few years of his career he was an underperforming first baseman who could only really hit for contact. He also got hurt a lot.
Vick was the most exciting player in the NFL for a couple years and did get his team to the NFC Championship Game (Mauer never won a playoff round in four tries). But that peak wasn't long enough for me and even at his best was a flawed player. He only cracked 3500 combined passing and rushing yards once and this was at a time when eight different QB's in the league had more passing yards alone. Vick was only 27 when he was suspended and eventually sent to prison. But he had also just missed the playoffs with a 7-9 season. He was a thrilling player to watch but was he great? I'm going to pick Mauer.
Kwame Brown was one of the biggest busts in NBA draft history. He did play 12 years in the league and made almost $64 million dollars (!!!!!!) but he was never good and a big reason why Michael Jordan's comeback with the Wizards was such a disappointment. Jordan the team president did Jordan the player no favors by drafting Kwame.
1. MLB: 3 points
2. NFL: 1 point
3. NBA: 0 points
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#2 Pick
MLB: Mark Prior, Chicago Cubs
NFL: Leonard Davis, Arizona Cardinals
NBA: Tyson Chandler, Los Angeles Clippers (traded to Chicago Bulls)
If you're not going to have a Hall of Fame career, something like Tyson Chandler's is the next best thing. He worked hard on some bad Bulls teams and made himself one of the better rebounders in the league. Then he wins a title with the Mavericks and eventually gets named to an All-Star game and named Defensive Player of the Year. Chandler would up playing 19 seasons and is 34th all-time in rebounds.
Mark Prior was the best player on this list but he's in the second place slot. He just didn't play long enough before getting hurt. His 2003 season was dominant and he was the biggest reason the Cubs made the NLCS but he literally started to break down the very next season. He wouldn't pitch in another game in MLB after turning 26.
Leonard Davis had an 11 year career with mostly the Cardinals and Cowboys and did make three Pro Bowls. An offensive lineman, he seemed to play better in Dallas than he did in Arizona but he signed a massive deal to go to Dallas and at one time, was the highest paid player in the NFL.
1. NBA: 3 points (3 points total)
2. MLB: 1 point (4 points total)
3. NFL: 0 points (1 point total)
Stephen Dunn. Getty Images.#3 Pick
MLB: Dewon Brazleton, Tampa Bay Devil Rays
NFL: Gerard Warren, Cleveland Browns
NBA: Pau Gasol, Atlanta Hawks (traded to Memphis Grizzlies)
This is easy. Pau Gasol is best player taken by any NBA (or MLB) team in the first round in 2001 and it's not close. He won two titles with the Lakers serving as a great counterbalance to Kobe Bryant. He also made six All-Star teams, was Rookie of the Year and was one of the best players in Memphis Grizzlies history.
Drafted way too high, Gerard Warren still had a decent NFL career. A defensive tackle, he played 11 years in the NFL and was on the Patriots Super Bowl team that lost to the Giants in SB XLVI. This is an easy pick for second place.
In many ways, the poster child for why the Devil Rays were so bad for so long, Dewon Brazleton was a terrible selection. Tampa Bay was coming off a season where they realized free agent sluggers weren't going to get them out of last place. The 2001 team wound up losing 100 games and this was a very important draft pick for the franchise. Brazleton wound up going 8-23 with a 6.38 ERA in the major leagues and the Devil Rays wouldn't have a winning season for seven more years.
NBA: 3 points (6 points total)
NFL: 1 point (2 points total)
MLB: 0 points (4 points total)
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Tim Heitman. Getty Images.#4 Pick
MLB: Gavin Floyd, Philadelphia Phillies
NFL: Justin Smith, Cincinnati Bengals
NBA: Eddy Curry, Chicago Bulls
This is another easy selection for best pick. Justin Smith went from being a good player for the Bengals to a legitimately great one for the 49ers. A defensive end, Smith was a five time Pro Bowler who was a big reason the 49ers made it to Super Bowl XLVII.
There is value in being a dependable starting pitcher for a few years and Gavin Floyd did that for the White Sox from 2008-12. He averaged over 30 starts a season during that run and won 62 games in those five seasons. Outside of that time period, Floyd either struggled to adapt to major league hitters (early in his career) or battled elbow and other injuries (later in his career). But for those five years, he was a key starting pitcher for an organization that did make the playoffs in that stretch.
This was a huge draft for the Chicago Bulls. They gave up on Elton Brand after only two seasons and traded him to select Tyson Chandler 2nd overall and then with their own pick, they selected Eddy Curry. It didn't work out. Curry and and Chandler played four seasons together in Chicago and only made the playoffs once.The Bulls got bailed out by the Knicks overpaying to get Curry in a trade but then the Bulls fucked it up again but trading away the best piece of the deal (2nd pick overall in 2006 draft which became LaMarcus Aldridge).
I'm not going to defend drafting Eddy Curry or say that he was a good player. But, I feel Curry gets lumped in with Kwame Brown and Darko Milicic as these giant busts and that's not really fair. Curry did improve as a player with the Bulls and before it all went to shit, he had a very nice season with the Knicks in 2006-07. Having said that, he's still the 3rd pick here. But it's close.
NFL: 3 points (5 points total)
MLB: 1 point (5 points total)
NBA: 0 points (6 points total)
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#5 Pick
MLB: Mark Teixeira, Texas Rangers
NFL: LaDainian Tomlinson, San Diego Chargers
NBA: Jason Richardson, Golden State Warriors
The first time we have a Hall of Famer on this list, Tomlinson is the obvious first pick here. He's not the only HOFer selected in the first round though. Richard Seymour was taken with the next pick and Steve Hutchinson was in the first round as well. Gasol will be. Hall of Famer one day and I imagine Tony Parker (taken 28th!) will get in as well. Mauer is the only player from the MLB draft who has a chance.
Teixeira is getting screwed here. He had a fantastic career hitting over 400 home runs and was one of the best players on the last Yankee team to win a World Series. He's already off the Hall of Fame ballot after only getting 1.5% of the vote but that's due to a stacked ballot and only playing 14 seasons. He was a very good player.
This has been the best pick of this exercise. Richardson was a good scorer for a few years and even averaged over 21 points per game in three different seasons. He was the best part of some mediocre Warriors teams and scored almost 15,000 points in his career.
NFL: 3 points
MLB: 1 point
NBA: 0 points
FINAL TALLY
NFL: 8 points
MLB: 6 points
NBA: 6 points
This wound up being much closer than I would have expected. I also think this was an especially unfair year for the NBA. But the NFL deserves some props with this one. They did have the most consistently decent picks in the top five although the three HOFers from the draft were taken 5th, 6th and 17th.
The best pick of these five rounds is a tough call. I'll go with Pau Gasol but LaDainian Tomlinson is right there. There is no debate about who the worst player is though. Kwame Brown was a terrible number one pick but did provide some bench value to some teams for over a decade. Instead, it's Dewon Brazleton who stands alone.