Any first year player in '18-'19 that won't make the All-Rookie team should take heart. Not all the best players have their greatness apparent from the beginning, and some miss out on accolades altogether in their rookie season. Here are the 18 greatest that weren't considered great enough to be All-Rookie.
Editor's note: this list does not include any players whose rookie season was before the NBA All-Rookie team selections were instituted in '62-'63 (e.g., Bill Russell, Oscar Robertson, Bob Cousy), or any players whose rookie season was in the ABA (e.g., Moses Malone, Julius Erving, George Gervin)
18) Chris Mullin, Warriors, '85-'86
Drafted seventh overall by the Warriors in 1985 to immediately contribute in the back court with Sleepy Floyd, Mullin managed to take over the starting shooting guard position from Terry Teagle just one month into his rookie season. But Mullin lasted only 30 games as a starter before a heel injury cost him significant time post All-Star break. His comeback was stunted by weight gain that in retrospect has been attributed to the alcoholism that he eventually admitted was hampering his early pro career. Even though he ultimately averaged 14 points per game, even a fully healthy Mullin would have had a hard time cracking a stacked All-Rookie team that included Patrick Ewing, Xavier McDaniel, and Joe Dumars.
17) Bill Walton, Trail Blazers, '74-'75
As is usually the case with mentioning Bill Walton in any historical context, you can correctly infer that his inclusion on this list is based on injury woes. After a superstar career at UCLA, he was being hailed as Portland's salvation when the Blazers drafted him first overall in 1974. Already laboring from complications from a broken back suffered in college, he also had bone spurs in his foot cut his rookie NBA season short. Through his first 16 games before the foot injury, he was averaging 16.8 points and 12.6 rebounds per game, and leading the league in blocks. Portland's doctors supposedly tried to convince Walton to take some painkilling pills and injections to stay out on the court, but he refused, and after limping through several games in mid-November shut down for almost two months. After an initially tentative comeback, Walton seemed to peaking again in late January when foot pain resurfaced and he ended his season for good on February 18th, having appeared in just 35 games. Seattle's Tom Burleson was the center selection on the All-Rookie team.
16) Chauncey Billups, Celtics/Raptors, '97-'98
Tim Duncan and Keith Van Horn were slam dunk (no pun intended) picks at the top of the 1997 Draft, but the choice at #3 for the Celtics was a difficult one. Mired in a long slump that was set off by the 1993 death of Reggie Lewis, Boston's top brass had their eyes on high school phenom Tracy McGrady, while coach Rick Pitino was adamant about reuniting with his former college star Ron Mercer. They ultimately went with Billups, who had declared early from Colorado, but selected fellow guard Mercer two picks later (McGrady dropped to Toronto at #9). Billups was solid but overlooked early in his rookie year, as he was rotated in the starting back court with Mercer and Dee Brown by the notoriously finicky Pitino. Mercer was obviously the guard of the future in Pitino's eyes, so Billups was traded to the Raptors that February for Kenny Anderson. His numbers down the stretch with Toronto were similarly decent as they were with Boston, but he couldn't crack the All-Rookie team over Mercer, Cleveland's Brevin Knight, or Denver's Bobby Jackson. 12 years later Mercer's brief and unspectacular career was over while Billups was a seven-time All-Star and Finals MVP.
15) Shawn Kemp, SuperSonics, '89-'90
Seattle made headlines in 1989 when they drafted Kemp, making him the first player in 14 years to enter the NBA without college basketball experience. He was slated to play at Kentucky but never suited up for the Wildcats after being declared academically ineligible for his freshman year, then getting kicked off the team for allegedly stealing jewelry from the coach's son. At the age of 19, Kemp was easily the league's youngest player when he debuted for the Sonics, contributing just three points and three rebounds off the bench in their season opener against the expansion Timberwolves. He did show occasional flashes of brilliance, including 18 points and nine rebounds versus the Bullets in just his seventh game. But with Xavier McDaniel and Derrick McKey entrenched at the forward positions, Kemp found limited playing time many nights, and actually went scoreless in 11 games. The All-Rookie team was quirky for '89-'90, with no forwards on the first team, but four on the second team: Glen Rice, Blue Edwards, Sean Elliott, and Stacey King. In addition to not including Kemp, it also lacked the top two overall picks, Pervis Ellison and Danny Ferry.
14) Ben Wallace, Bullets, '96-'97
13) Dennis Rodman, Pistons, '86-'87
It was a minor miracle that Rodman or Wallace even made it to the NBA in the first place. Raised in poverty to a single mom of (by some accounts) 28 kids, Rodman couldn't even make the high school basketball team and was working as an airport janitor when he finally got a chance as a community college walk-on. After failing out of Cooke County College, he transferred to Southeastern Oklahoma State, an NAIA school, where he somehow got grades good enough to qualify, by who knows what means. His performance at the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament was good enough to catch the eye of the Pistons, who drafted him in the second round in 1986. It was a safe project pick for Detroit, who already had Adrian Dantley, Rick Mahorn, and Sidney Green at the forward positions, so Rodman logged just 15 minutes per game in his rookie campaign and got no consideration when the All-Rookie team was announced.
Wallace's childhood was a similar story to Rodman's, having been raised in a large family (11 kids) in a small Alabama town. Though he was All-State in high school, he went un-recruited and after four years playing for a junior college and a Division II school, he also went un-drafted. Signed by the Bullets during the preseason in 1996, Wallace joined the league 10 years after Rodman with just as little fanfare, and averaged only 5.8 minutes in 30 total games. It would take four years and two team changes before he finally settled into a consistent role with the Pistons. Wallace and Rodman would eventually win the Defensive Player of the Year award a combined six times and Rodman is now a Hall of Famer with Wallace likely to eventually join him.
12) Kevin Johnson, Cavaliers/Suns, '87-'88
There's plenty of bad luck littered throughout Cavaliers history, and plenty of questionable decisions, and meeting at the intersection is drafting Johnson in 1987. Cleveland already had a young potential All-Star at point guard in Mark Price, but opted to use the seventh overall pick on Johnson, instead of drafting for need at forward by selecting Derrick McKey or Horace Grant. Perhaps inspired by the arguably insulting decision, Price came out strong in '87-'88, leaving Johnson languishing on the bench. At the trade deadline, Cleveland shipped their rookie off to the Suns, in a deal that actually worked out pretty well as it returned Larry Nance. Johnson was solid down the stretch in Phoenix, averaging 12.6 points and 8.7 assists per game, but it was too little too late for All-Rookie inclusion. The designated All-Rookie point guard spot went to New York's Mark Jackson (the league expanded from one All-Rookie team to two the next season).
11) Sidney Moncrief, Bucks, '79-'80
A shooting guard who didn't always look to score first, and a floor general who consistently led winning teams but never on the biggest stage, Moncrief has always been a difficult player to pare down into a simple legacy. This started with his rookie season, when despite being the fifth overall pick, Moncrief averaged just 20.2 minutes per game off the bench for a contending Bucks team. He took over the starting job from Brian Winters in '80-'81, but his stats and reputation didn't explode until '81-'82, when he was named to his first All-NBA team, All-Defense team and All-Star Game. Due to strong play from some front court rookies like Larry Bird, Calvin Natt, and Bill Cartwright, the only guard on the '79-'80 All-Rookie team was the 6'9" Magic Johnson, with Moncrief and fellow future stars Vinnie Johnson and Jim Paxson getting frozen out.
10) Alex English, Bucks, '76-'77
9) Robert Parish, Warriors, '76-'77
8) Dennis Johnson, SuperSonics, '76-'77
Lots of talent hit the NBA in 1976, and only some of it came from the draft. The recent merger with the ABA arguably may have diluted the talent base somewhat by adding four new franchises, but did bring with it an influx of established stars like Julius Erving, Moses Malone, George McGinnis, and David Thompson. Though those players didn't qualify as rookies, there was still plenty of competition for the All-Rookie slots, starting at the top with first overall pick John Lucas and #2 pick Scott May. But of the four future Hall of Famers that were drafted in 1976, only one, Adrian Dantley, made the All-Rookie team. Of the three remaining legends, Parish was the highest pick, #8 overall, and had decent stats in his rookie year for Golden State, at least comparable to fellow center Mitch Kupchak, who was voted onto the All-Rookie team ahead of him. Meanwhile, Johnson found little traction in the Seattle rotation, as coach Bill Russell was unimpressed with his attitude, while English was almost recognizable in his rookie season with Milwaukee. The understated future scoring champ had chosen to stay close to home at South Carolina University, and after receiving minimal national attention fell to the second round of the 1976 Draft. The Bucks had a crowded veteran back court with Quinn Buckner, Brian Winters, and Fred Carter, leaving just 10.8 minutes per game for English. He eventually fled as a free agent to Indiana and had a breakout season in '78-'79, about the same time that Johnson and Parish also started establishing themselves as stars.
7) Tiny Archibald, Royals, '70-'71
He was just a couple years away from being the NBA's scoring champion and third in MVP voting in the '72-'73 season, but Archibald was merely a blip on the league's radar screen in his rookie campaign. Not that his stats weren't impressive, averaging 16.0 points and 5.5 assists per game for a lousy Royals team, but he came into the season lightly regarded, having fallen to the draft's second round out of UTEP. Fellow pint-sized point guard Calvin Murphy, despite compiling lesser stats for an also lousy Rockets team, was an instant media darling and popular with his peers, and received the 1st-Team All-Rookie designation in a crowded back court with Pete Maravich and Rookie of the Year Geoff Petrie. More than any other player on this list, Archibald arguably suffered the most from having only a 1st-Team All-Rookie team in his era, and playing in the pre-internet, pre-League Pass days when stars could go basically unnoticed if their franchise was amongst the league's worst.
6) Tracy McGrady, Raptors, '97-'98
When Kevin Garnett joined the NBA straight from high school in 1996, it unleashed a flood of prep stars attempting to make the same leap. But for every instant star like Garnett or Kobe Bryant, there was a Korleone Young or Leon Smith that quickly flamed out of the pro ranks due to immaturity and/or lack of physical readiness. It was hard to tell early on which way things were going to go for McGrady, who seemed overwhelmed in his rookie season but also undeniably talented. Despite the Raptors being the league's worst team at the time (they lost 66 games), McGrady was used inconsistently in his rookie year, sometimes logging starter's minutes but sometimes playing less than 10 minutes total and barely seeing the ball. After coach Darrell Walker was fired in late March, his interim replacement Butch Carter decided to go for broke, inserting McGrady into the starting lineup. He responded well, averaging 9.8 points and 7.3 rebounds in those 15 games, even though the team lost in 14 of them. Though this set the stage for things to come for McGrady, it was hardly enough to get him consideration on an All-Rookie team that featured Cedric Henderson, Derek Anderson, Ron Mercer, Keith Van Horn, and Tim Thomas.
5) Clyde Drexler, Trail Blazers, '83-'84
Having been an acolyte of Phi Slamma Jamma in Houston, Drexler's incredible athleticism and dunking ability were already well-known by the time he entered the 1983 Draft. Questions were still abound about his court IQ and shooting after his disappointing performance in the 1983 NCAA Championship Game loss to N.C. State, and expectations were tempered somewhat when he fell to the #14 pick of the draft. Though Drexler played in all 82 games his rookie year for Portland, it was only in a limited capacity in coach Jack Ramsey's complicated system. It didn't help that the Blazers already had an All-Star shooting guard in Jim Paxson, and Drexler's 7.7 points per game weren't enough to beat out Chicago's Quintin Dailey for an All-Rookie team spot. Poor Clyde. Even when Michael Jordan wasn't in the league yet he was getting overshadowed by Bulls shooting guards.
4) Steve Nash, Suns, '96-'97
He's become so ingrained in team history that it sounds crazy now but the Suns weren't sure what they had in Nash in his rookie season. Having not even taken up the sport of basketball until eighth grade, he was offered just one scholarship, at Santa Clara, but had a strong enough college career to be selected #15 by the Suns in 1996. The decision was mostly derided by Phoenix fans, who were hoping the team would draft a better-known commodity, not an obscure, defensively-challenged Canadian. He spent his rookie season as the third point guard on the depth chart, backing up Kevin Johnson and Sam Cassell first, then Jason Kidd after he was acquired via trade. Nash averaged just 3.3 points and 2.1 assists over 10.5 minutes per game, which were all easily career lows. Still stuck behind Johnson and Kidd in the rotation in '97-'98, Nash was traded to Dallas for front court help, but eventually returned to the Suns in 2004 to play the best years of his Hall of Fame career. The 1st-Team All-Rookie selection at point guard for '96-'97? None other than New Jersey's Stephon Marbury, who would eventually be traded to Phoenix in exchange for Kidd in 2001.
3) John Stockton, Jazz, '84-'85
It was only when the school became an NCAA Tournament mainstay and media darling in the late '90s that many people even realized Stockton had attended Gonzaga. He seemed to just have materialized as a man in his early 30s, wearing short shorts and a Utah Jazz jersey. But Stockton had followed his grandfather, also named John (who played basketball in college but went on to a successful pro career in football), to Gonzaga. The younger Stockton was unable to lead the Bulldogs to their first NCAA Tournament appearance, but did win the West Coast Conference Player of the Year award in 1984. Considered too slow and too small to be a sure bet as an NBA point guard, Stockton fell to the #16 pick in that year's draft. It actually took him three full seasons to overtake Rickey Green in Utah's starting lineup, a lot of time essentially lost for one of the 30 greatest players of all time. The 1984 rookie class was, of course, stacked, with Michael Jordan being the only guard making the All-Rookie team alongside Hakeem Olajuwon, Sam Perkins, and Charles Barkley.
2) Scottie Pippen, Bulls, '87-'88
Pippen's route to the NBA was a famously circuitous one. With a final growth spurt that didn't take place until his sophomore year of college, he barely even made his high school team, and was largely ignored at Central Arkansas. Like Dennis Rodman a year before, Pippen made a name for himself at the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament, to the point that he jumped from a borderline first round prospect to a sure lottery pick. The Sonics drafted him fifth overall, and the enamored Bulls immediately swung a deal, sending over Olden Polynice and a future first-round pick. It seems like a curious decision in retrospect, but Pippen was still an unknown quantity and Seattle decided to leverage the Bulls' overwhelming interest. He didn't start in his rookie year, coming off the bench behind the seven-footer Brad Sellers, whom the Bulls had taken #9 overall in 1986 and were trying to figure out what to do with him (they eventually traded him in 1989 to Seattle, getting back the first-round pick they had given away for Pippen, which they used on B.J. Armstrong). Pippen had 7.9 points and 3.8 rebounds per game and received no realistic consideration for the All-Rookie team over Derrick McKey or Armen Gilliam.
1) Dirk Nowitzki, Mavericks, '98-'99
Taken #8 overall and then traded on draft day from Milwaukee to Dallas, Nowitzki came into a league in many ways still just blindly navigating the waters of foreign talent evaluation. That 1998 draft also featured flame-outs from Britain (Michael Olowokandi, the first overall pick), Georgia (Vladimir Stepania), Serbia (Mirsad Turkcan) and Croatia (Bruno Sundov), and the concept of young, foreign-born players immediately contributing was still years away. Skinny and gangly, despite already possessing some experience in Germany's top pro league, Nowitzki was further hampered by the NBA's lockout delaying his rookie season until February. He scored just two points on 0-of-5 shooting in his debut against Seattle, but then scored a combined 31 points and 21 rebounds in his next two contests. Things would be up-and-down like that for most of the year, with Dirk showing flashes of his future brilliance upon being inserted back into the starting lineup late in the season, including 29 points on 10-of-16 shooting in one game against Phoenix. Regardless, he finished the season with just 8.2 points per game, and the forward spots on the All-Rookie teams went to a solid list of players: Paul Pierce, Vince Carter, Matt Harpring, and Antawn Jamison.