If you’re in the NBA, you’re not a bad basketball player. In fact, you’re statistically elite by just about any tangible measurement. Out of the countless millions who have ever played the game, only 491 guys could say they were in the Association at the start of this season. You don’t have to be a math genius to figure out how tough it is to make it there.
That said, every year's group has a bell curve in talent, and somebody’s got to be at the bottom end of that curve. Even within the most elite groups, some are better than others. For example: Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and Stephen Curry are some of the richest guys in the world. But on the one-percent spectrum, they’re peasants compared to guys like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Bill Gates. Does that mean they aren’t rich though? Of course not.
The same goes for bad NBA players: They’re the worst of the best.
Some of the guys on this list are guys you’ve probably never heard of. Others are guys who were once great but are now on the back end of their careers. And others were stupidly given big contracts by overpaying teams (usually the Lakers) and thus draw scorn from fans for not living up to the big bucks when they play.
Most lists only focus on the best: the best players, the best teams, the best sneakers, etc. This one is a little bit different, and probably offers some of the people on here the only chance they’ve had to be on any sort of list in quite some time. So without further ado, here are the 13 worst players in the NBA right now. As Stephen A. Smith might say, these guys are “bona-fide scrubs.”
Just remember, though: They’re still great basketball players. Like, the best in the world.