Best Player To Not Make It To The NBA

[Mandich]

A'ight, so I've done a little searchin on this topic, and here are my suggestions. Comment, or put in new

Name-Most Notable thing about the player/ reason why he didn't play in the NBA

Ronnie Fields-was doubted the next MJ/Neck Injury
Ronnie Fields Documentary Part 1
Ronnie Fields Documentary Part 2
Fields Dunk Over A Guy On A Putback. He Jumped Over Him
Interesting Things About Him about Him

-His Former High-School Team-Mates and coaches said he could touch the top of the square square with his elbow.
-Kevin Garnett was his high school team-mate. He said Ronnie was better than him

Demetriues "The Hook" Mitchell-Better than J-Kidd/Crime Trouble
Some of his dunks
Interesting things about him

-NBA players that played with him say he could do a 360 over a car
-Jason Kidd said he was better than him
-He was known by his dunks, but he was a heck of a player too.

Oscar Schmidt-Averaged 40ppg In Several Olympics/Never Played
*No Highlights of him*

Interesting things about him

-Is said that he was the best shooter ever
-Was Better than Barkley when Brazil played against the original dream team
-Was Drafted but never played in the NBA cause he never signed a contract

Earl "The Goat" Manigault-The Best By Abdul-Jabbar/Crime Trouble
His Highlights

-Went against Dr.J and embarrassed him
-Kareem said he was the best he ever played against
-The Original Street Legend

Joe Hammond-Best Handles/turned his NBA offer down
Street Legend Part 1
Street Legend Part 2

-Could make 100 shots in a row
-Played in Laker Tryouts and dominated

Len Bias-Best College player?/Cocaine Overdose
Highlights
Bias Vs. Jordan

-Was drafted 2nd overall in the 1986 draft by the Celtics
-Cocaine overdose less than 48 hours after the draft
-Was Compared to Jordan, a bigger, better version by many

Raymond Lewis-Perfect Shooter/never played
The Raymond Lewis Story

-Scored 56 in Pro Summer league against Cooper
-Jerry Tarkanian said he was the best player he ever saw

[Alejandrov011]

Wow, pretty interesting topic

Oscar Schmidt is a Brazilian who led the league in scoring at the age of 42 (yes, 42!), and second was Leandro Barbosa.

Oscar was a scoring machine, I saw him sometimes in television

[Clueminati017]

If I'm not mistaken... Joe "The Destroyer" Hammond the playground legend who played at Rucker Park. He turned down certain teams because they wouldn't let him play his style of play. That's pretty much of LaVon "Pee-Wee" Kirkland, and Earl "The Pearl" Monroe but he played in the league.

Earl "The Goat" Manigault had a drug addiction until he kicked his habbit, and he was a monster which he had tremendous jumping ability where he can dunk the ball twice. Congrats to Don Cheddle on portraying him on the movie "Rebound: The Earl Manigault Story".

Len Bias was a sad story. He never done blow before until he got drafted, and on draft night he tried it and overdosed. They said he could've been the dominated version of Larry Bird on attacking the basket, and it's pretty much the hope Boston wanted to compliment Reggie Lewis playing style.

[Mandich]

Yes Len was a sad story, so much talent man...same with The Goat...but I of all of them i have most respect to Fields and Hook Mitchell.

[Doobie]

I saw the movie "rebound' about the goat. Great movie but a sad story. I remember Kareem was known by another name, I think it was Lou Alycondor or something like that.

[Clueminati017]

I saw the movie "rebound' about the goat. Great movie but a sad story. I remember Kareem was known by another name, I think it was Lou Alycondor or something like that.

Goat played against Lew Alcindor, "The Kangaroo Kid" Billy Cunningham, and that was a great movie. Which in fact I have to watch that YouTube.

[Andrew]

Some very interesting (and in Len Bias' case, very sad) stories but I also think the whole "What If?" gives them a certain mystique. There have been so many players who should have succeeded in the NBA but didn't for one reason or another, so I don't think we can put too much store in what-ifs and if-onlys. SLAM Magazine has done a fair amount of features on old streetballers with the suggestion that if not for this or that, we'd be talking about them instead of Michael Jordan etc but I think it's easy to get carried away with that. That's not to doubt their talent but sometimes the most talented people in all fields crash and burn.

The Len Bias/Michael Jordan is a great example of that. I want to tread carefully here because it's a really sad story and I don't want to seem disrespectful but I think you've definitely got that mystique there, the player who if not for his tragic and untimely death, could have been even better than the player widely considered to be one of the best players of all-time if not the best player of all-time and the player at the forefront of the era he played in. I also think it's fair the note that the comparison was being made in 1986, long before Michael Jordan became the Michael Jordan who was touted as a candidate for the greatest of all-time, it was back when he was considered a very good young player but not someone who could turn a franchise around (Rod Thorn even said as much after he drafted him).

In the end, we can only argue it to a stalemate and I suppose that's why we fall back on the what-ifs, because you can't prove it one way or the other; having never played a minute in the NBA, those players never succeeded in the league but they never failed either. That doubt exists because their success elsewhere doesn't necessarily equate or translate to over a decade of success, as most of the greats enjoyed.

I don't have any other specific names to add to the list but you could probably throw in some Harlem Globetrotters players from back in the day.