Last week the Top 7 took a look at the most obvious #1 draft picks and made a huge omission—Shaq.  Shaq should have been in the top three--he even had an Outside the Lines about his immediate impact before Outside the Lineses began covering A-Rod crossing the street.  Another overlooked entry was the Dave Chappelle Racial Draft as Tiger Woods was an obvious #1 pick there. 

But you can’t have the best without the worst, and this week the Top 7 look at the worst #1 picks.  Many years, there is no clear-cut #1 draft pick, so it’s possible to end up with a bust like these poor teams.

7. Kijana Carter, 1995 NFL
One of the more underrated arguments is the 1994 Penn State football team going undefeated, having Carter and Kerry Collins, and not even getting consideration for the national title as it was handed to Nebraska.  However much he deserved the national title and however much he dominated college, Kijana was not a good pro football player.

6. Tim Couch, 1999 NFL
Couch tried to make a comeback this year with Jacksonville and it did not work out.  It’s doubtful that he will get another chance.  If you ever were forced to take him in fantasy, that is a good thing.  Speaking of fantasy…

5. Your Personal Fantasy Story
Everyone has a story about a head-shaking #1 pick that someone made in one of his/her fantasy drafts, so just fill that in here for #5.  In today’s age of so much information that every draft with “informed” people becomes almost the same, it may not be as rampant, but back in the days of one magazine with two-month old information, it sure was.  My personal story was a fantasy NBA draft where a guy drafted Tim Legler #1.  Not to take anything away from Legler and his dominating NBA Live ’97 skills, but he is no #1.  We discontinued the fantasy NBA league afterwards.

4. Michael Olowokandi, 1998 NBA
Of course, coming with being a #1 pick overall in any draft comes amazingly high expectations.  Averaging 10 points and 8 rebounds in 335 career games is actually decent NBA production, but not when you are supposed become a dominating center.  Being drafted by the Clippers never really helps matters either.

3. Paul Pfeiffer, Kevin Arnold’s PE basketball team
Doing his best to protest the injustice that is having captains in PE basketball, Kevin becomes one and selects Paul with his first pick.  Paul, though he would become a star later, is atrocious at basketball, and Kevin is nearly laughed out of class.  He then picks the rest of the bad players and they have one of the worst teams ever assembled in any sport at any level.  It’s a good thing that Wonder Years re-runs are back.

2. Pervis Ellison, 1989 NBA
In the 1995 playoffs, as the Celtics hung with the heavily favored Orlando Magic, Ellison had a good first quarter.  In classic Bill Walton fashion, he opines that “this may be the finest game of Pervis Ellison’s career,” which remains one of the greatest backhanded compliments of all-time, and definitely the best for a #1 overall pick.

1.Brien Taylor, 1991 MLB
It’s a perfect storm:  (Left-handed pitcher plus New York Yankee hype) to the power of (incredibly out-of-this-world baseball card rookie inflation) times (zero career professional innings pitched) equals worst #1 pick of all-time.

The Top7 list is written by Jason Major.  He drafted Fred Barnett #1 overall at his first fantasy football draft.  Email him at jason@joesportsfan.com

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