Most players just have to hang around a few seasons to make their playoffs debut, but these players never reached the NBA promised land.
21) Aaron James (came closest: '77-'78 with Jazz)
A long range bomber who was born and raised in the Crescent City, attended nearby Grambling State, and was the first ever draft pick of the Jazz in 1974, James was arguably the second most popular player in New Orleans Jazz history after Pete Maravich. The two stars teamed up as the wings for New Orleans for several seasons, thrilling fans with their spectacular fast breaks. James' deep jumpers would be punctuated by Jazz announcer Hot Rod Hundley's famed exclamation "A.J. from the parking lot!" But that exciting style on the court didn't translate into many wins and the Jazz didn't reach the playoffs in any of their five seasons in New Orleans. The most disappointing of those years was '77-'78, when New Orleans was in playoff position in late January before Maravich went down with a season-ending knee injury. They promptly lost their next eight games, and finished just two games out of playoff position in the final standings. Disillusioned by the Jazz's impending move to Utah in 1979, James stepped away from the NBA to play abroad, first in Italy, and eventually in the Philippines. It took the Jazz five years in Salt Lake City to finally reach the first playoffs in franchise history in 1984. By then, James had walked away completely from the game he loved, though he eventually returned to Grambling in 1989 as head coach, and was inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in 2012.
20) Ledell Eackles (came closest: '97-'98 with Wizards)
How does a guy last an entire decade in the NBA, average 20+ minutes per game, and manage to never step foot on the court for a playoff game? Well, for starters, Eackles spent only seven of those 10 years in the league, skipping out in '92-'93 and '93-'94 to play in the CBA, then again in '96-'97 to suit up in Israel. An athletic shooting guard with a powerful dunk, he was taken by Washington in the second round in 1988, and in his rookie season the Bullets missed the playoffs by just two games, their first absence in six years. Over Eackles' first four seasons the team regressed every year under coach Wes Unseld, and things didn't improve much in '95-'96 under Jim Lynam. In Eackles' final season, '97-'98, he returned to the now Washington Wizards for a third time, once again coming cruelly close to the playoffs, missing out by just one game.
19) Geoff Huston (came closest: '79-'80 with Knicks)
Most of his career was spent with some of the worst NBA teams of the '80s, including an '81-'82 Cavs team that lost 67 games and cycled through four head coaches, but Huston came as close as anyone on this list to tasting the postseason in his rookie year. He was drafted by the Knicks in the third round in 1979, and joined a young up-and-coming roster that also included Micheal Ray Richardson and Bill Cartwright. New York was in playoff position with about a week left to go in the season, but dropped five of their final six games to miss out on a postseason spot to the Bullets in a tiebreaker. Huston played only limited minutes as a backup point guard that season, but would average as much as 12.2 points and 7.6 assists per game in later seasons with some terrible Cleveland teams mired in the infamous Ted Stepien era. Adding insult to injury, Huston was waived by the Cavs early in the '84-'85 season, which ended with the team making the playoffs for the first time in seven years. His later years were spent with a bad Warriors team and an even worse Clippers team that dropped 70 games in '86-'87. Though Huston never got to participate in the postseason for Cleveland, he does hold the franchise record for most assists in a game, with 27. He also holds the NBA record for most career assists without a playoff appearance, with 2,509.
18) Don MacLean (came closest: '97-'98 with Nets)
Another casualty of the awfulness of the '90s Bullets, MacLean won the NBA Most Improved Player in '93-'94 as the team was limping to its fifth consecutive 50-loss season. A sharp-shooting, oversized small forward, MacLean averaged 18.2 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 2.1 assists per game in that '93-'94 season, which would all turn out to be easily career highs. His struggles with injuries started the next year, when he missed 43 games due to knee tendinitis. All told, MacLean would play just 182 games in his final seven NBA seasons, none of which were a postseason affair. Drafted by the Pistons in 1992, he was traded that day to the Clippers, which would turn out to be the first of eight trades in his career, as the notoriously hot-headed MacLean wore out his welcome quickly with the Bullets, 76ers, Nets, SuperSonics, Magic, Rockets, Suns, Heat, and Raptors. Despite never playing in the postseason himself, MacLean actually did play for three different teams that made it into the playoffs. The first was the '97-'98 Nets, for whom MacLean suited up in nine games, including the regular season finale, but was left off the playoff roster in favor of Michael Cage. Essentially the same scenario happened to MacLean with the Suns in '99-'00, and with the Heat in '00-'01, a season during which he missed time due to a steroid suspension.
17) Elfrid Payton (came closest: '15-'16 with Magic)
Starring for Louisiana-Lafayette, a mid-major school in the Sun Belt, Payton made just one NCAA Tournament appearance in his three years of college, a first round loss to Creighton as a #14 seed in 2014. His pro career has been left even more wanting in terms of postseason play, as Payton's five NBA seasons have all ended at or near the bottom of the standings. Drafted by the "Process" 76ers in the 2014 lottery, he was immediately traded for Dario Saric to a Magic team that was coming off back-to-back seasons with 59 or more losses. He was 1st-Team All-Rookie and finished in the top 10 in the NBA in total assists in '14-'15, but things didn't improve much for the franchise in his time there. Payton spent three-and-a-half seasons in Orlando, playing for three different coaches, and peaking at 35 wins in '15-'16, which good for 11th place in the East, nine games out of playoff position. His early individual success has been tempered lately by injuries, and though he's looked solid in his limited time in '18-'19, he's missed the majority of the Pelicans' games this season, as the team limps towards the bottom of the West standings, mired by Anthony Davis' trade demands. Meanwhile, his former teammates in Orlando just secured their first playoff spot in seven years.
A long range bomber who was born and raised in the Crescent City, attended nearby Grambling State, and was the first ever draft pick of the Jazz in 1974, James was arguably the second most popular player in New Orleans Jazz history after Pete Maravich. The two stars teamed up as the wings for New Orleans for several seasons, thrilling fans with their spectacular fast breaks. James' deep jumpers would be punctuated by Jazz announcer Hot Rod Hundley's famed exclamation "A.J. from the parking lot!" But that exciting style on the court didn't translate into many wins and the Jazz didn't reach the playoffs in any of their five seasons in New Orleans. The most disappointing of those years was '77-'78, when New Orleans was in playoff position in late January before Maravich went down with a season-ending knee injury. They promptly lost their next eight games, and finished just two games out of playoff position in the final standings. Disillusioned by the Jazz's impending move to Utah in 1979, James stepped away from the NBA to play abroad, first in Italy, and eventually in the Philippines. It took the Jazz five years in Salt Lake City to finally reach the first playoffs in franchise history in 1984. By then, James had walked away completely from the game he loved, though he eventually returned to Grambling in 1989 as head coach, and was inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in 2012.
20) Ledell Eackles (came closest: '97-'98 with Wizards)
How does a guy last an entire decade in the NBA, average 20+ minutes per game, and manage to never step foot on the court for a playoff game? Well, for starters, Eackles spent only seven of those 10 years in the league, skipping out in '92-'93 and '93-'94 to play in the CBA, then again in '96-'97 to suit up in Israel. An athletic shooting guard with a powerful dunk, he was taken by Washington in the second round in 1988, and in his rookie season the Bullets missed the playoffs by just two games, their first absence in six years. Over Eackles' first four seasons the team regressed every year under coach Wes Unseld, and things didn't improve much in '95-'96 under Jim Lynam. In Eackles' final season, '97-'98, he returned to the now Washington Wizards for a third time, once again coming cruelly close to the playoffs, missing out by just one game.
19) Geoff Huston (came closest: '79-'80 with Knicks)
Most of his career was spent with some of the worst NBA teams of the '80s, including an '81-'82 Cavs team that lost 67 games and cycled through four head coaches, but Huston came as close as anyone on this list to tasting the postseason in his rookie year. He was drafted by the Knicks in the third round in 1979, and joined a young up-and-coming roster that also included Micheal Ray Richardson and Bill Cartwright. New York was in playoff position with about a week left to go in the season, but dropped five of their final six games to miss out on a postseason spot to the Bullets in a tiebreaker. Huston played only limited minutes as a backup point guard that season, but would average as much as 12.2 points and 7.6 assists per game in later seasons with some terrible Cleveland teams mired in the infamous Ted Stepien era. Adding insult to injury, Huston was waived by the Cavs early in the '84-'85 season, which ended with the team making the playoffs for the first time in seven years. His later years were spent with a bad Warriors team and an even worse Clippers team that dropped 70 games in '86-'87. Though Huston never got to participate in the postseason for Cleveland, he does hold the franchise record for most assists in a game, with 27. He also holds the NBA record for most career assists without a playoff appearance, with 2,509.
18) Don MacLean (came closest: '97-'98 with Nets)
Another casualty of the awfulness of the '90s Bullets, MacLean won the NBA Most Improved Player in '93-'94 as the team was limping to its fifth consecutive 50-loss season. A sharp-shooting, oversized small forward, MacLean averaged 18.2 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 2.1 assists per game in that '93-'94 season, which would all turn out to be easily career highs. His struggles with injuries started the next year, when he missed 43 games due to knee tendinitis. All told, MacLean would play just 182 games in his final seven NBA seasons, none of which were a postseason affair. Drafted by the Pistons in 1992, he was traded that day to the Clippers, which would turn out to be the first of eight trades in his career, as the notoriously hot-headed MacLean wore out his welcome quickly with the Bullets, 76ers, Nets, SuperSonics, Magic, Rockets, Suns, Heat, and Raptors. Despite never playing in the postseason himself, MacLean actually did play for three different teams that made it into the playoffs. The first was the '97-'98 Nets, for whom MacLean suited up in nine games, including the regular season finale, but was left off the playoff roster in favor of Michael Cage. Essentially the same scenario happened to MacLean with the Suns in '99-'00, and with the Heat in '00-'01, a season during which he missed time due to a steroid suspension.
17) Elfrid Payton (came closest: '15-'16 with Magic)
Starring for Louisiana-Lafayette, a mid-major school in the Sun Belt, Payton made just one NCAA Tournament appearance in his three years of college, a first round loss to Creighton as a #14 seed in 2014. His pro career has been left even more wanting in terms of postseason play, as Payton's five NBA seasons have all ended at or near the bottom of the standings. Drafted by the "Process" 76ers in the 2014 lottery, he was immediately traded for Dario Saric to a Magic team that was coming off back-to-back seasons with 59 or more losses. He was 1st-Team All-Rookie and finished in the top 10 in the NBA in total assists in '14-'15, but things didn't improve much for the franchise in his time there. Payton spent three-and-a-half seasons in Orlando, playing for three different coaches, and peaking at 35 wins in '15-'16, which good for 11th place in the East, nine games out of playoff position. His early individual success has been tempered lately by injuries, and though he's looked solid in his limited time in '18-'19, he's missed the majority of the Pelicans' games this season, as the team limps towards the bottom of the West standings, mired by Anthony Davis' trade demands. Meanwhile, his former teammates in Orlando just secured their first playoff spot in seven years.
16) Popeye Jones (came closest: '02-'03 with Mavericks)
Some role players just seem to always make their team better, and though they're never a star, they can lay claim to numerous postseason runs and possibly even titles. We won't call Jones the opposite of that, because it wouldn't be fair to him, but for the first nine years of his career he never played on a team that was any good or showing any signs of improvement. Selected in the recesses of the 1992 Draft out of Murray State, he probably could have made an instant impact on a contender with his paint scoring and rebounding, but instead spent his first three seasons mired in Dallas. Jones averaged double-doubles in consecutive seasons in '94-'95 and '95-'96 as the Mavericks' starting power forward, but the team was far removed from playoff contention both times. He would later play for the '97-'98 Raptors team that lost 66 games and the '00-'01 Wizards team that lost 63, plus brief stints with mediocre teams in Denver and Boston. After re-signing with the Mavericks for the '02-'03 season, Jones appeared in 26 regular season games but was left off the postseason roster as the team reached the Conference Finals. His son, Seth, was the fourth overall pick in the 2013 NHL Draft, and is now participating in his fourth Stanley Cup playoffs in six years in the league.
Some role players just seem to always make their team better, and though they're never a star, they can lay claim to numerous postseason runs and possibly even titles. We won't call Jones the opposite of that, because it wouldn't be fair to him, but for the first nine years of his career he never played on a team that was any good or showing any signs of improvement. Selected in the recesses of the 1992 Draft out of Murray State, he probably could have made an instant impact on a contender with his paint scoring and rebounding, but instead spent his first three seasons mired in Dallas. Jones averaged double-doubles in consecutive seasons in '94-'95 and '95-'96 as the Mavericks' starting power forward, but the team was far removed from playoff contention both times. He would later play for the '97-'98 Raptors team that lost 66 games and the '00-'01 Wizards team that lost 63, plus brief stints with mediocre teams in Denver and Boston. After re-signing with the Mavericks for the '02-'03 season, Jones appeared in 26 regular season games but was left off the postseason roster as the team reached the Conference Finals. His son, Seth, was the fourth overall pick in the 2013 NHL Draft, and is now participating in his fourth Stanley Cup playoffs in six years in the league.
15) Ryan Gomes (came closest: '11-'12 with Clippers)
The Celtics have reached the playoffs in 14 of the last 17 seasons, and Gomes was somehow there for two of the seasons they missed it. He was drafted by Boston in the second round in 2005 and wasn't even a guarantee to make the roster, but wound up starting 33 games at power forward in his rookie year due to various injuries. He was named 1st-Team All-Rookie and played even better in '06-'07, starting for most of the season as the Celtics purposefully tanked. But Gomes was shipped off to Minnesota that summer as part of the Kevin Garnett trade, and spent his three best seasons with a Timberwolves team reeling from the loss of their star player. Gomes averaged a respectable 12.3 points and 5.1 rebounds per game between '07-'08 and '09-'10, but his talent and output paled in comparison to Garnett, and the Wolves lost 60, 58, and 67 games in those three years. He signed a gracious deal with the Clippers in 2010, but quickly fell out of favor in coach Vinny Del Negro's rotation and was left off the playoff roster entirely when the team reached the postseason in 2012.
14) Nikola Jokic (came closest: '17-'18 with Nuggets)
His time here will be ever so brief, as he joins this list for the first time this year and will leave just as quickly when the Nuggets first take the court in the 2019 postseason. A second round pick in 2014, the "Joker" spent one more season playing professionally in his native Serbia before earning 1st-Team All-Rookie honors for the Nuggets in '15-'16. His game and his stats have improved every year since, culminating in an '18-'19 season where he made his first All-Star appearance, averaged 20+ points and 10+ rebounds per game for the first time, and a playoff debut is imminent, as the Nuggets currently hold the #2 seed in the West, as of this writing. He will become the eighth native Serbian to appear in the NBA playoffs, continuing a tradition that began with Vlade Divac in 1990.
13) Bryant Reeves (came closest: '00-'01 with Grizzlies)
Drafted sixth overall in 1995 after a star turn at Oklahoma State, Reeves was the starting center in the first six seasons of Grizzlies franchise history. In those six years he averaged a solid 12.5 points and 6.9 rebounds per game. But the team finished in last place in the Western Conference five times, finally improving to second-to-last in his final season, '00-'01. It certainly wasn't any fault of Reeves in his first three seasons, when he peaked at 16.3 points per game in '97-'98 and looked the part of a franchise cornerstone. The rest of the roster was mostly middling, filled out by cheap, aging talent like Blue Edwards, Pete Chilcutt, and Tony Massenburg. Then Reeves started to spend a little too much time in the trainer's room and at the buffet, and fans quickly turned against him and the $65 million contract Vancouver had lavished on him in 1998. He was still on the roster when the team moved to Memphis in '01-'02, but was forced to retire halfway through the season due to lingering back issues. The franchise finally had its first winning season and playoff appearance two years later.
The Celtics have reached the playoffs in 14 of the last 17 seasons, and Gomes was somehow there for two of the seasons they missed it. He was drafted by Boston in the second round in 2005 and wasn't even a guarantee to make the roster, but wound up starting 33 games at power forward in his rookie year due to various injuries. He was named 1st-Team All-Rookie and played even better in '06-'07, starting for most of the season as the Celtics purposefully tanked. But Gomes was shipped off to Minnesota that summer as part of the Kevin Garnett trade, and spent his three best seasons with a Timberwolves team reeling from the loss of their star player. Gomes averaged a respectable 12.3 points and 5.1 rebounds per game between '07-'08 and '09-'10, but his talent and output paled in comparison to Garnett, and the Wolves lost 60, 58, and 67 games in those three years. He signed a gracious deal with the Clippers in 2010, but quickly fell out of favor in coach Vinny Del Negro's rotation and was left off the playoff roster entirely when the team reached the postseason in 2012.
14) Nikola Jokic (came closest: '17-'18 with Nuggets)
His time here will be ever so brief, as he joins this list for the first time this year and will leave just as quickly when the Nuggets first take the court in the 2019 postseason. A second round pick in 2014, the "Joker" spent one more season playing professionally in his native Serbia before earning 1st-Team All-Rookie honors for the Nuggets in '15-'16. His game and his stats have improved every year since, culminating in an '18-'19 season where he made his first All-Star appearance, averaged 20+ points and 10+ rebounds per game for the first time, and a playoff debut is imminent, as the Nuggets currently hold the #2 seed in the West, as of this writing. He will become the eighth native Serbian to appear in the NBA playoffs, continuing a tradition that began with Vlade Divac in 1990.
13) Bryant Reeves (came closest: '00-'01 with Grizzlies)
Drafted sixth overall in 1995 after a star turn at Oklahoma State, Reeves was the starting center in the first six seasons of Grizzlies franchise history. In those six years he averaged a solid 12.5 points and 6.9 rebounds per game. But the team finished in last place in the Western Conference five times, finally improving to second-to-last in his final season, '00-'01. It certainly wasn't any fault of Reeves in his first three seasons, when he peaked at 16.3 points per game in '97-'98 and looked the part of a franchise cornerstone. The rest of the roster was mostly middling, filled out by cheap, aging talent like Blue Edwards, Pete Chilcutt, and Tony Massenburg. Then Reeves started to spend a little too much time in the trainer's room and at the buffet, and fans quickly turned against him and the $65 million contract Vancouver had lavished on him in 1998. He was still on the roster when the team moved to Memphis in '01-'02, but was forced to retire halfway through the season due to lingering back issues. The franchise finally had its first winning season and playoff appearance two years later.
12) Darius Miles (came closest: '03-'04 with Trail Blazers)
He was the first high school player to be drafted as high as third overall, and the first to be named 1st-Team All-Rookie, which Miles accomplished with the Clippers in '00-'01. That turned out to be arguably the peak of his career as he pouted his way through short stints with the Clippers, Cavaliers, and Blazers before a knee injury basically ended things in 2006. As with many of his peers in the infamous, prep-to-pro-heavy draft class of 2000, Miles quickly gained a reputation as onerous and ungenerous, and had already been traded twice by age 22. After starting at small forward for Cleveland in '02-'03, he was cranky about his benching in '03-'04 in favor of a rookie LeBron James and dealt to Portland. The Blazers actually snapped a streak of 20 straight playoff appearances that season, losing their final four games to fall to 10th place in the Western Conference. Miles repeatedly clashed with coach Mo Cheeks and reportedly told the coach that the team could lose every single game for all he cared. Not exactly the attitude of a guy that was going to play on winning teams in his career, and it didn't help when Miles' shredded his knee late in the '05-'06 season, leading to surgery to forced him to miss two entire seasons. He signed with the Celtics for '08-'09, which seemed to ensure he would finally get to play in the postseason, but was cut right before the start of the regular season.
He was the first high school player to be drafted as high as third overall, and the first to be named 1st-Team All-Rookie, which Miles accomplished with the Clippers in '00-'01. That turned out to be arguably the peak of his career as he pouted his way through short stints with the Clippers, Cavaliers, and Blazers before a knee injury basically ended things in 2006. As with many of his peers in the infamous, prep-to-pro-heavy draft class of 2000, Miles quickly gained a reputation as onerous and ungenerous, and had already been traded twice by age 22. After starting at small forward for Cleveland in '02-'03, he was cranky about his benching in '03-'04 in favor of a rookie LeBron James and dealt to Portland. The Blazers actually snapped a streak of 20 straight playoff appearances that season, losing their final four games to fall to 10th place in the Western Conference. Miles repeatedly clashed with coach Mo Cheeks and reportedly told the coach that the team could lose every single game for all he cared. Not exactly the attitude of a guy that was going to play on winning teams in his career, and it didn't help when Miles' shredded his knee late in the '05-'06 season, leading to surgery to forced him to miss two entire seasons. He signed with the Celtics for '08-'09, which seemed to ensure he would finally get to play in the postseason, but was cut right before the start of the regular season.
11) Nikola Pekovic (came closest: '13-'14 with Timberwolves)
His NBA career was brief, lasting only 271 games over six seasons, and Pekovic never came even reasonably close to reaching the postseason. In his rookie season the Timberwolves lost 65+ games for the second straight year, and things got only nominally better from there. With a refined post game that he had developed playing professionally as a teenager in Serbia, Pekovic was contributing 16.3 points and 8.8 rebounds per game by his third NBA season. But he was also struggling with injuries, missing 20 games that season, and the Wolves didn't have much talent elsewhere on the roster beyond Kevin Love. Pekovic had a career high 17.5 points per game in '13-'14, but he missed most of the post-All-Star break games due to an ankle injury and Minnesota finished nine games out of the playoffs despite a 40-42 record, due to a crowded Western Conference. The big man played just 43 games over the next two seasons and the Wolves tumbled back down in the standings after trading Love to Cleveland. Though the NBA didn't afford Pekovic any postseason chances, he did find plenty of success with Panaththinaikos in Greece, winning the Greek League and EuroLeague titles in 2009.
10) Eddy Curry (came closest: '04-'05 with Bulls)
Probably the most tragic story on this list, Curry was drafted fourth overall by the Bulls in 2001 to turn the franchise around, and when the team had finally rebuilt and was heading to the postseason in '04-'05, he was sidelined with an irregular heartbeat. He was the leading scorer, at 16.1 points per game, for that '04-'05 Bulls that went on to lose a first round series to the Wizards without him. It seemed like a debutante season for Curry, who had suffered through serious growing pains after the Bulls snatched him straight out of high school, but it came to a crashing end in a late March game against the Grizzlies, when he complained to team trainers about chest pains. Concerned about his longterm health, the Bulls traded him that summer to the Knicks, a team in the midst of its own painful rebuild under president and coach Isiah Thomas. Despite leading the Knicks in scoring in '06-'07 with a career high 19.5 points per game, Curry showed up to camp in 2008 so out-of-shape that new coach Mike D'Antoni basically benched him for the season. He was traded to the Timberwolves as part of the Carmelo Anthony deal, bought out, signed with the Heat and, newly in decent shape again, played some down the stretch of the '11-'12 season but made no appearances in the playoffs (though he got a title ring for his efforts). He did eventually get to play in a basketball postseason, albeit in the Chinese Basketball Association, as Curry spent '12-'13 with the Zhejiang Golden Bulls before retiring.
9) Brandon Knight (came closest: '14-'15 with Suns)
It's been six seasons and counting for Knight without a playoff appearance, and due to an untimely trade, he'll assuredly mark a seventh in 2019. Though winning hasn't come easy for him in the NBA, it certainly did at the amateur levels. While playing for Pine Crest High School in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, Knight led his team to four straight state title games, winning back-to-back in 2008 and 2009. He spent just one season at Kentucky but made it count, leading the Wildcats to the Final Four in 2011 while being named the Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Tournament East Region. He was drafted eighth overall by the Pistons, who had recently seen a streak of eighth straight playoff appearances snapped. They finished well out of postseason contention in Knight's two seasons there, and then traded Knight (along with Khris Middleton) to the Bucks for Brandon Jennings. Just as Milwaukee was building a playoff contender in '14-'15 around a young Giannis Antetokounmpo, Knight was traded away to the lowly Suns. He spent three years in Phoenix, occasionally flashing signs of a potential future All-Star but mostly struggling with injuries. After missing the entire '18-'19 season due to an ACL tear, he looked poised to finally make a playoff appearance with the Rockets in '18-'19, but Houston traded him away to the cellar dwelling Cavs in February, in exchange for Iman Shumpert.
8) John Brisker (came closest: '75-'76 with SuperSonics)
This is arguably the most improbable entry on this list, as Brisker not only missed the postseason in his three NBA seasons, but also in his three ABA seasons, where a postseason berth awaited eight out of a possible 11 teams. Unwanted by the NBA after he failed out of college at Toledo, he signed with the Pittsburgh Pipers of the ABA and was already the team's leading scorer as a rookie. In his second and third ABA seasons, Brisker averaged an incredible 29.2 points and 9.5 rebounds per game, but Pittsburgh management was stingy and the team suffered in the standings as a result. With two ABA All-Star appearances under his belt, plus a 2nd-Team All-ABA designation in '70-'71 when he nearly won the scoring title, finishing second behind Dan Issel, Brisker parlayed his ABA success into a contract with the Sonics in 1972. Still a relatively new franchise at the time, Seattle was struggling to compete and it didn't help when the freewheeling Brisker butted heads with the conservative coach Bill Russell. Though the Sonics finally made their playoff debut in '75-'76, Russell left Brisker off the postseason roster, and management, concerned with his status as an instigator, waived him that summer. Two years later, Brisker boarded a flight to Uganda and was never heard from again. It's been long rumored that he took a position within the regime of oppressive dictator and noted basketball fan Idi Amin.
7) Bob Rule ('69-'70 with SuperSonics)
The original Sonics in '67-'68 were hardly a group of world beaters, but they were certainly tough, likable and memorable. The centerpiece was Rule, an undersized center who just seemed to play big, setting the mold for guys like Dave Cowens and Ben Wallace. Rule was 1st-Team All-Rookie while averaging an impressive 18.1 points and 9.5 rebounds per game, and upped those numbers to 24.6 points and 10.3 rebounds per game by his third season, when he was named to his first All-Star Game. But Seattle struggled to add useful pieces around Rule and veteran point guard (and player-coach) Lenny Wilkens. They came close to the playoffs in '69-'70, despite a losing record, and things looked promising early in '70-'71 before Rule tore his Achilles tendon. It cost him the remainder of that season and really the rest of his career, as he never fully recovered and made only minimal contributions over his final four seasons on losing teams in Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Milwaukee. He retired in 1975, and one year later the Sonics finally made their first playoff appearance in franchise history.
His NBA career was brief, lasting only 271 games over six seasons, and Pekovic never came even reasonably close to reaching the postseason. In his rookie season the Timberwolves lost 65+ games for the second straight year, and things got only nominally better from there. With a refined post game that he had developed playing professionally as a teenager in Serbia, Pekovic was contributing 16.3 points and 8.8 rebounds per game by his third NBA season. But he was also struggling with injuries, missing 20 games that season, and the Wolves didn't have much talent elsewhere on the roster beyond Kevin Love. Pekovic had a career high 17.5 points per game in '13-'14, but he missed most of the post-All-Star break games due to an ankle injury and Minnesota finished nine games out of the playoffs despite a 40-42 record, due to a crowded Western Conference. The big man played just 43 games over the next two seasons and the Wolves tumbled back down in the standings after trading Love to Cleveland. Though the NBA didn't afford Pekovic any postseason chances, he did find plenty of success with Panaththinaikos in Greece, winning the Greek League and EuroLeague titles in 2009.
10) Eddy Curry (came closest: '04-'05 with Bulls)
Probably the most tragic story on this list, Curry was drafted fourth overall by the Bulls in 2001 to turn the franchise around, and when the team had finally rebuilt and was heading to the postseason in '04-'05, he was sidelined with an irregular heartbeat. He was the leading scorer, at 16.1 points per game, for that '04-'05 Bulls that went on to lose a first round series to the Wizards without him. It seemed like a debutante season for Curry, who had suffered through serious growing pains after the Bulls snatched him straight out of high school, but it came to a crashing end in a late March game against the Grizzlies, when he complained to team trainers about chest pains. Concerned about his longterm health, the Bulls traded him that summer to the Knicks, a team in the midst of its own painful rebuild under president and coach Isiah Thomas. Despite leading the Knicks in scoring in '06-'07 with a career high 19.5 points per game, Curry showed up to camp in 2008 so out-of-shape that new coach Mike D'Antoni basically benched him for the season. He was traded to the Timberwolves as part of the Carmelo Anthony deal, bought out, signed with the Heat and, newly in decent shape again, played some down the stretch of the '11-'12 season but made no appearances in the playoffs (though he got a title ring for his efforts). He did eventually get to play in a basketball postseason, albeit in the Chinese Basketball Association, as Curry spent '12-'13 with the Zhejiang Golden Bulls before retiring.
9) Brandon Knight (came closest: '14-'15 with Suns)
It's been six seasons and counting for Knight without a playoff appearance, and due to an untimely trade, he'll assuredly mark a seventh in 2019. Though winning hasn't come easy for him in the NBA, it certainly did at the amateur levels. While playing for Pine Crest High School in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, Knight led his team to four straight state title games, winning back-to-back in 2008 and 2009. He spent just one season at Kentucky but made it count, leading the Wildcats to the Final Four in 2011 while being named the Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Tournament East Region. He was drafted eighth overall by the Pistons, who had recently seen a streak of eighth straight playoff appearances snapped. They finished well out of postseason contention in Knight's two seasons there, and then traded Knight (along with Khris Middleton) to the Bucks for Brandon Jennings. Just as Milwaukee was building a playoff contender in '14-'15 around a young Giannis Antetokounmpo, Knight was traded away to the lowly Suns. He spent three years in Phoenix, occasionally flashing signs of a potential future All-Star but mostly struggling with injuries. After missing the entire '18-'19 season due to an ACL tear, he looked poised to finally make a playoff appearance with the Rockets in '18-'19, but Houston traded him away to the cellar dwelling Cavs in February, in exchange for Iman Shumpert.
8) John Brisker (came closest: '75-'76 with SuperSonics)
This is arguably the most improbable entry on this list, as Brisker not only missed the postseason in his three NBA seasons, but also in his three ABA seasons, where a postseason berth awaited eight out of a possible 11 teams. Unwanted by the NBA after he failed out of college at Toledo, he signed with the Pittsburgh Pipers of the ABA and was already the team's leading scorer as a rookie. In his second and third ABA seasons, Brisker averaged an incredible 29.2 points and 9.5 rebounds per game, but Pittsburgh management was stingy and the team suffered in the standings as a result. With two ABA All-Star appearances under his belt, plus a 2nd-Team All-ABA designation in '70-'71 when he nearly won the scoring title, finishing second behind Dan Issel, Brisker parlayed his ABA success into a contract with the Sonics in 1972. Still a relatively new franchise at the time, Seattle was struggling to compete and it didn't help when the freewheeling Brisker butted heads with the conservative coach Bill Russell. Though the Sonics finally made their playoff debut in '75-'76, Russell left Brisker off the postseason roster, and management, concerned with his status as an instigator, waived him that summer. Two years later, Brisker boarded a flight to Uganda and was never heard from again. It's been long rumored that he took a position within the regime of oppressive dictator and noted basketball fan Idi Amin.
7) Bob Rule ('69-'70 with SuperSonics)
The original Sonics in '67-'68 were hardly a group of world beaters, but they were certainly tough, likable and memorable. The centerpiece was Rule, an undersized center who just seemed to play big, setting the mold for guys like Dave Cowens and Ben Wallace. Rule was 1st-Team All-Rookie while averaging an impressive 18.1 points and 9.5 rebounds per game, and upped those numbers to 24.6 points and 10.3 rebounds per game by his third season, when he was named to his first All-Star Game. But Seattle struggled to add useful pieces around Rule and veteran point guard (and player-coach) Lenny Wilkens. They came close to the playoffs in '69-'70, despite a losing record, and things looked promising early in '70-'71 before Rule tore his Achilles tendon. It cost him the remainder of that season and really the rest of his career, as he never fully recovered and made only minimal contributions over his final four seasons on losing teams in Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Milwaukee. He retired in 1975, and one year later the Sonics finally made their first playoff appearance in franchise history.
6) Clark Kellogg (came closest: '85-'86 with Pacers)
In a story eerily similar to Bob Rule's, Kellogg was a star in his first three seasons with the moribund Pacers, but suffered a debilitating injury just as the team's fortunes were starting to change. Considered a potential franchise savior when Indiana drafted him in the first round in 1982, Kellogg was a basketball prodigy from Cleveland who rewrote the Ohio high school record books and was Big 10 Player of the Year while at Ohio State. He finished second in Rookie of the Year voting in '82-'83 (behind Terry Cummings) and averaged 19.3 points and 9.7 rebounds per game over his first three seasons. But the franchise was an absolute mess, with an owner threatening to sell to California investors. That deal never came to fruition (he wound up selling instead to the Indiana-based businessman Herb Simon, who still owns the team to this day) but the product on the court didn't improve, as the Pacers lost 62 games in '82-'83, 56 in '83-'84, and 60 in '84-'85. There was reason for optimism in '85-'86, as Kellogg, fresh off signing a huge endorsement deal with Converse, was the anchor of a solid, young base along with Vern Fleming, Herb Williams, and a rookie Wayman Tisdale. But Kellogg's season lasted just 19 games as two major knee injuries kept him sidelined. He attempted to make a comeback in '85-'86, but could only play in a handful of contests before being forced to retire, watching from the bench as the Pacers finally reached the playoffs in 1987, the first of 16 appearances in a 19-year stretch.
5) Otto Moore (came closest: '70-'71 with Pistons)
As much as fans complain now that the NBA would be fairer if the top 16 teams made the playoffs regardless of conference, things were even worse in the early '70s. In '70-'71 the Pistons, led by Dave Bing and Bob Lanier and featuring Moore as a backup center, finished 45-37 but missed the postseason. That's because back then only two teams from each division would reach the playoffs, and Detroit had the misfortune of playing in the toughest division. Moore was traded that offseason to Phoenix only to have the exact same thing happen to him in '71-'72, as the Suns won 49 games but fell well short of a playoff berth. Those would turn out to be the only two winning seasons of his nine-year career, as the rest of his time was spent with cellar dwellers in Detroit, Houston, Kansas City, and New Orleans. Though he played at a Division II school, Pan American College, Moore was such a revelation in his NCAA days that he was drafted sixth overall by the Pistons in 1968. But he spent most of his time in Detroit coming off the bench, first behind veteran Walt Bellamy and later behind rookie sensation Bob Lanier. He did manage to average some decent stats, including a double-double in the '69-'70 and '72-'73 seasons, and finished in the top 10 in the NBA in blocks in '75-'76. His 5,575 career rebounds is the all-time record for players without a playoff appearance.
4) Nate Williams (came closest: '77-'78 with Warriors)
Fundamentally sound and a scoring threat, Williams could have been an impact player on a contender but instead had the misfortune of spending his entire prime with arguably the two most dysfunctional franchises of the '70s, Kansas City and New Orleans. He was the league's first beneficiary of the "hardship rule" whereby college juniors could start joining the NBA in 1971, and was selected by Cincinnati in a supplemental draft. The Royals were a mess, on the cusp of moving to Kansas City, reeling from Oscar Robertson's departure, coached by an indifferent Bob Cousy, and centered around a ball-hogging Tiny Archibald. Just the Kings were rounding into a playoff contender in '74-'75, Williams was traded at the deadline to the Jazz, who were arguably the most mismanaged franchise of the '70s. Thus, Williams averaged 12.0 points per game over eight NBA seasons, but never reached the playoffs. He did come close late in his career with the Warriors, who missed out on a playoff spot in '77-'78 by virtue of a loss in their final regular season game.
3) Geoff Petrie (came closest: '74-'75 with Trail Blazers)
Our third and final installment (forming a trilogy with Bob Rule and Clark Kellogg) of a youthful superstar toiling away for several seasons on a young, struggling franchise before having his career waylaid by a major injury. For Petrie, the team was Portland, who made him their inaugural first round pick in 1970, and the injury was a shredded knee that ended his career in 1976 at the age of 28. A combo guard who could handle the rock and fire away shots from anywhere on the court, Petrie averaged 18+ points and four-plus assists per game in each of his six NBA seasons. He was named to two All-Star teams, Rookie of the Year, and finished in the top 10 in scoring three times, peaking at 24.9 points per game in '72-'73, good for seventh place. Also notable is that he was the first NBA player to exclusively wear Nike shoes, sporting the aptly named "Blazer" prototype (he was supposedly offered stock options as compensation, but opted to take a $40,000 payment instead of the stock, which would now be worth millions). The Blazers were never a legitimate threat in Petrie's six seasons there, though they did come within two games of a playoff spot in '74-'75, with a record of 38-44. With Petrie becoming redundant on the roster thanks to the emergence of Lionel Hollins, they traded him in 1976 for a position of need in power forward Maurice Lucas. Petrie would never actually play for the Hawks team that traded for him, as his severe knee injury was suffered during training camp and ended his career right then and there. One could argue he contributed to the Blazers title in '76-'77 as much as some of the guys on the actual roster, as his trade for Lucas was the final piece in their championship puzzle. Perhaps owing slightly to that, Petrie had his #45 retired by Portland in 1985.
2) Tom Van Arsdale (came closest: '67-'68 with Royals)
1) DeMarcus Cousins (came closest: '17-'18 with Pelicans)
Van Arsdale, who lasted 12 seasons in the NBA and was a three-time All-Star, holds the records for most games played without a playoff appearance (929) and most career points scored (14,232). For years he also held the distinction as greatest player on our list without a postseason game played, but, for just one season, he has ceded that to Cousins. Van Arsdale's twin brother, Dick, got to play in the playoffs four times in his career, including the 1976 NBA Finals with Phoenix. Tom wasn't so lucky, getting drafted in 1965 by the lowly Pistons, then bouncing around to similarly mediocre teams in Detroit, Cincinnati/Kansas City, Philadelphia, and Atlanta. It's hard to say which of his seasons had the most painful outcome. Candidates include '67-'68, when he was traded mid-season from the playoff-bound Pistons to a Royals team that missed out on the postseason by one game behind Detroit, '72-'73 when he played on a 76ers team that set the NBA record for ineptitude with 73 losses, or '76-'77 when he teamed up with his brother on a Suns team that was coming off a Finals appearance the year before but tumbled down the standings and missed the playoffs altogether with a 34-48 record. Cousins also had some poor experiences with the Royals franchise, which is now the Sacramento Kings. When they drafted him fourth overall in 2010, Sacramento was in the midst of a four-year playoff drought which has since extended to 13 and counting. After six-plus seasons with the Kings he was mercifully traded to the Pelicans, and would have made his playoff debut in '17-'18 if not for an Achilles tear suffered in January that cost him the remainder of the season. He has since signed with the two-time defending champion Warriors and has remained healthy enough to finally make his playoff debut in 2019, which will open up the door for Van Arsdale to return to the top spot on this list.
In a story eerily similar to Bob Rule's, Kellogg was a star in his first three seasons with the moribund Pacers, but suffered a debilitating injury just as the team's fortunes were starting to change. Considered a potential franchise savior when Indiana drafted him in the first round in 1982, Kellogg was a basketball prodigy from Cleveland who rewrote the Ohio high school record books and was Big 10 Player of the Year while at Ohio State. He finished second in Rookie of the Year voting in '82-'83 (behind Terry Cummings) and averaged 19.3 points and 9.7 rebounds per game over his first three seasons. But the franchise was an absolute mess, with an owner threatening to sell to California investors. That deal never came to fruition (he wound up selling instead to the Indiana-based businessman Herb Simon, who still owns the team to this day) but the product on the court didn't improve, as the Pacers lost 62 games in '82-'83, 56 in '83-'84, and 60 in '84-'85. There was reason for optimism in '85-'86, as Kellogg, fresh off signing a huge endorsement deal with Converse, was the anchor of a solid, young base along with Vern Fleming, Herb Williams, and a rookie Wayman Tisdale. But Kellogg's season lasted just 19 games as two major knee injuries kept him sidelined. He attempted to make a comeback in '85-'86, but could only play in a handful of contests before being forced to retire, watching from the bench as the Pacers finally reached the playoffs in 1987, the first of 16 appearances in a 19-year stretch.
5) Otto Moore (came closest: '70-'71 with Pistons)
As much as fans complain now that the NBA would be fairer if the top 16 teams made the playoffs regardless of conference, things were even worse in the early '70s. In '70-'71 the Pistons, led by Dave Bing and Bob Lanier and featuring Moore as a backup center, finished 45-37 but missed the postseason. That's because back then only two teams from each division would reach the playoffs, and Detroit had the misfortune of playing in the toughest division. Moore was traded that offseason to Phoenix only to have the exact same thing happen to him in '71-'72, as the Suns won 49 games but fell well short of a playoff berth. Those would turn out to be the only two winning seasons of his nine-year career, as the rest of his time was spent with cellar dwellers in Detroit, Houston, Kansas City, and New Orleans. Though he played at a Division II school, Pan American College, Moore was such a revelation in his NCAA days that he was drafted sixth overall by the Pistons in 1968. But he spent most of his time in Detroit coming off the bench, first behind veteran Walt Bellamy and later behind rookie sensation Bob Lanier. He did manage to average some decent stats, including a double-double in the '69-'70 and '72-'73 seasons, and finished in the top 10 in the NBA in blocks in '75-'76. His 5,575 career rebounds is the all-time record for players without a playoff appearance.
4) Nate Williams (came closest: '77-'78 with Warriors)
Fundamentally sound and a scoring threat, Williams could have been an impact player on a contender but instead had the misfortune of spending his entire prime with arguably the two most dysfunctional franchises of the '70s, Kansas City and New Orleans. He was the league's first beneficiary of the "hardship rule" whereby college juniors could start joining the NBA in 1971, and was selected by Cincinnati in a supplemental draft. The Royals were a mess, on the cusp of moving to Kansas City, reeling from Oscar Robertson's departure, coached by an indifferent Bob Cousy, and centered around a ball-hogging Tiny Archibald. Just the Kings were rounding into a playoff contender in '74-'75, Williams was traded at the deadline to the Jazz, who were arguably the most mismanaged franchise of the '70s. Thus, Williams averaged 12.0 points per game over eight NBA seasons, but never reached the playoffs. He did come close late in his career with the Warriors, who missed out on a playoff spot in '77-'78 by virtue of a loss in their final regular season game.
3) Geoff Petrie (came closest: '74-'75 with Trail Blazers)
Our third and final installment (forming a trilogy with Bob Rule and Clark Kellogg) of a youthful superstar toiling away for several seasons on a young, struggling franchise before having his career waylaid by a major injury. For Petrie, the team was Portland, who made him their inaugural first round pick in 1970, and the injury was a shredded knee that ended his career in 1976 at the age of 28. A combo guard who could handle the rock and fire away shots from anywhere on the court, Petrie averaged 18+ points and four-plus assists per game in each of his six NBA seasons. He was named to two All-Star teams, Rookie of the Year, and finished in the top 10 in scoring three times, peaking at 24.9 points per game in '72-'73, good for seventh place. Also notable is that he was the first NBA player to exclusively wear Nike shoes, sporting the aptly named "Blazer" prototype (he was supposedly offered stock options as compensation, but opted to take a $40,000 payment instead of the stock, which would now be worth millions). The Blazers were never a legitimate threat in Petrie's six seasons there, though they did come within two games of a playoff spot in '74-'75, with a record of 38-44. With Petrie becoming redundant on the roster thanks to the emergence of Lionel Hollins, they traded him in 1976 for a position of need in power forward Maurice Lucas. Petrie would never actually play for the Hawks team that traded for him, as his severe knee injury was suffered during training camp and ended his career right then and there. One could argue he contributed to the Blazers title in '76-'77 as much as some of the guys on the actual roster, as his trade for Lucas was the final piece in their championship puzzle. Perhaps owing slightly to that, Petrie had his #45 retired by Portland in 1985.
2) Tom Van Arsdale (came closest: '67-'68 with Royals)
1) DeMarcus Cousins (came closest: '17-'18 with Pelicans)
Van Arsdale, who lasted 12 seasons in the NBA and was a three-time All-Star, holds the records for most games played without a playoff appearance (929) and most career points scored (14,232). For years he also held the distinction as greatest player on our list without a postseason game played, but, for just one season, he has ceded that to Cousins. Van Arsdale's twin brother, Dick, got to play in the playoffs four times in his career, including the 1976 NBA Finals with Phoenix. Tom wasn't so lucky, getting drafted in 1965 by the lowly Pistons, then bouncing around to similarly mediocre teams in Detroit, Cincinnati/Kansas City, Philadelphia, and Atlanta. It's hard to say which of his seasons had the most painful outcome. Candidates include '67-'68, when he was traded mid-season from the playoff-bound Pistons to a Royals team that missed out on the postseason by one game behind Detroit, '72-'73 when he played on a 76ers team that set the NBA record for ineptitude with 73 losses, or '76-'77 when he teamed up with his brother on a Suns team that was coming off a Finals appearance the year before but tumbled down the standings and missed the playoffs altogether with a 34-48 record. Cousins also had some poor experiences with the Royals franchise, which is now the Sacramento Kings. When they drafted him fourth overall in 2010, Sacramento was in the midst of a four-year playoff drought which has since extended to 13 and counting. After six-plus seasons with the Kings he was mercifully traded to the Pelicans, and would have made his playoff debut in '17-'18 if not for an Achilles tear suffered in January that cost him the remainder of the season. He has since signed with the two-time defending champion Warriors and has remained healthy enough to finally make his playoff debut in 2019, which will open up the door for Van Arsdale to return to the top spot on this list.