Worst Celtics Draft Blunders of All Time

Pierce wants a trade, no veterans want to come to Boston, and there is an 22-year-old skinny Asian dude that plays against 17-year-olds wowing the scouts. It is a virtual guarantee that draft night will be a disaster. In fact, I don't see how it could possibly go well for the Celtics. So, with that in mind, let's look at the worst draft blunders in our franchise's storied history. That way, we'll know right away where this latest one will land!

16. Wayne Kreklow, 3rd round pick in 1979 NBA Draft.
Kreklow played a grand total of 100 minutes in the NBA. Who did they pass on? The Reverend Al Green, who was taken 11 picks later. If the Celtics had taken that soul legend, they wouldn't have to pay jokers like Chris Brown to lip-sych about sipping champagne after games. They also passed on Bill Laimbeer... just saying...

15. Celtics draft Darren Tillis, Tony Guy, Perry Moss in 1982.
There aren't many Red Auerbach goofs on this list, but this is one. The Celtics' first three picks in the draft didn't add up to much, and yet Mark "The Werewolf" Eaton was taken in the fourth round. The man averaged 1.3points and 2 rebounds a game at UCLA! How could Red have botched this one?!?

14. Charles Bradley, 23rd pick in the 1981 draft.

Why take Charles Bradley when there's a perfectly good Frank Brickowski available? COME ON.

13. Eric Montross, 9th pick in 1994.
I have a hard time being too tough on Montross. Yes, the Celtics probably should have taken Eddie Jones, who went tenth. I know people talk about skipping Jalen Rose, but Rose wasn't really that great of a pro until his second team. Anyway, when you consider the fact that the C's already had Dee Brown, Kevin Gamble, Xavier McDaniel, and a pre-ADD meds Rick Fox, they had their shooting guard position settled as far as I am concerned. What more could you ask for?!?!? That's a killer lineup!! As for center, as depressing as it is now, Robert Parish was playing the 5 spot and he was roughly 73 years old at that point. The Celtics were faced with the possibility of playing Matt Wenstom extended minutes in 1994-95. They needed a big guy. Most people would have done the same thing.

Plus, Montross delivered easily a top-five funniest Celtics moment of all time when he bodyslammed Shaq Diesel before the pregame introductions. Plus, there was this classic sequence- Montross goes to the line, airballs free throw. Acie Earl gets ball, goes up for dunk, realizes mid-jump that it was the first free throw, winds up spazzing out and missing the dunk. Ref gathers ball, delivers to Montross. Montross airballs second free throw. Speaking of Acie...

12. Acie Earl, 19th pick in the 1993 NBA Draft

The early warning sign was the name "Acie". The second warning sign was that he was shaped like a pear and had looked like he had his hair cut by a blind dude with a weedwacker. The third warning sign was that he had hands as supple as cinderblocks. However, the Celtics were desperate for a big man (which is why they didn't even look at Sam Cassell or crazy-ass Nick Van Exel). In retrospect, they should have taken Gheorghe Muresan and tried to cash in on the runaway success of "My Giant".

11. Jon Barry, 21st pick in the 1993 draft.Not a bad pick, you say? YEAH RIGHT. Here is the list of players the Celtics could have taken that would have been roughly 8,000% more hilarious. Oliver Miller, Latrell Sprewell, Matt Geiger AND Popeye "Bat Boy" Jones were taken after Jon Barry. However, in fairness, Barry was traded for Alaa Adbelnaby, so he does get some bonus points for that.

10. Ron Mercer, sixth pick, 1997
Mercer wound up being a pretty good player, but TMac is a Hall of Famer. Future rule of thumb: if the guy you're thinking about drafting has a tattoo that looks like a temporary tattoo you could buy at the grocery store for a quarter, take a pass.

9. Michael Smith, 13th pick in the 1989 draft.

The list of players taken after this BYU product is staggering. Tim Hardaway, Shawn Kemp, Dana Barros, BJ Armstrong, Blue Edwards, and VLADE DIVAC for crying out loud. The fact that the Celts picked up the superior chain smoking European, Dino Radja, in the second round does soften the blow, but the fact that the Celtics could have had a Yugoslavian and Croatian on the same team is painful to think about now.

8. Jerome Moiso, 11th pick in 2000.
This would be much higher on the list if the top end of this draft wasn't such a complete disaster altogether. Look at the players taken before Moiso:

1.	New Jersey Nets	Kenyon Martin	University of Cincinnati
2.	Vancouver Grizzlies	Stromile Swift	Louisiana State University
3.	Los Angeles Clippers	Darius Miles
4.	Chicago Bulls	Marcus Fizer	Iowa State University
5.	Orlando Magic	Mike Miller	University of Florida
6.	Atlanta Hawks	DerMarr Johnson	University of Cincinnati
7.	Cleveland Cavaliers	Chris Mihm	University of Texas at Austin
8.	Chicago Bulls	Jamal Crawford	University of Michigan
9.	Milwaukee Bucks	Joel Przybilla	University of Minnesota
10.	Los Angeles Clippers	Keyon Dooling	University of Missouri

Yamma hamma. When the three lanky white dudes are the best players taken in the top 10, it's a crappy, crappy draft. However, here is a list of good players that the Celtics passed up for Moiso: Desmond Mason, MoPete, Speedy Claxton, frikkin' Michael Redd and worst of all, Khalid El-Amin!!! Whenever someone tells you, "He's got freakish leaping ability, but his overall skills are raw and he lacks intensity," think of this draft.

7. Ben Pepper, 27th pick, 2nd round, 1997
No, I don't think that the Celtics should have taken Nate Erdmann or Roberto Duenas instead. Nothing symbolizes the futility of the mid-90's quite like the name "Ben Pepper". He was a 7 foot Australian dude who the Celtics picked with the third-to-last pick in the draft after missing out on another 7-footer, Tim Duncan in the lottery. Instead of the greatest power forward in history, the Celtics picked up some honkey from down under that nobody, and I do mean nobody, including those covering the draft, had ever heard of. He was never signed by the Celtics. In fact, the only interaction the team had with Pepper after they drafted him was when Pepper hand-delivered a note directly from the basketball gods, which read: "F*ck you, Boston. You're cursed from hereon to infinity. love, the gods"

6. Kris Klack, 26th pick, 2nd round, 1999
Klack was the fourth-to-last player taken this draft. He never made an NBA roster. No big deal, second rounders rarely do well. Wait a second... two picks later.... you guessed it- Manu Ginobili.

5. Len Bias, 2nd overall pick in the 1986 draft.
Refined all-around game? Check. Incredible athleticism? Check. Illustrious collegiate career? Check. High probability he will stuff his face to the brim with a highly dangerous narcotic on draft night? Check. Bias was living in DC in the 80's... there were probably Senators dealing coke out of the back of their cars back then. Everyone knew that. The Celtics brass should have known better and kept him the f*ck out of that hellhole as soon as he was their employee. In fact, item 1 on his contract should have been, "Never go back to DC. You take the Bullets games off." That's what I would have done if I were in charge... who am I kidding? If I was in charge of the Celtics I would have been ordering 10,000 anchovy pizzas to be delivered to Bill Lambieer's house and while running around Los Angeles putting flaming bags of poop on Lakers' doorsteps.

4. Kedrick Brown, 11th pick, 2001
Anyone who complains about Gerald Green not having basketball IQ has probably blocked all memories of Kedrick Brown as a coping mechanism. Well, let me remind you. I'm pretty sure that he had a 75 inch vertical, but from what I can remember he didn't know how to hold a basketball and jump at the same time. I would list the players that were taken after him, but I'm still depressed from writing that Len Bias part. In fact, I should have done the most depressing part first, because I am losing steam here... oh screw it, RadVlad, Richard Jefferson, Troy Murphy, Zach Randolph, Gerald Wallace, Jamaal Tinsley, Tony Parker and Gilbert Arenas. Instead, the Celtics took a guy with explosive athletic ability that finished his career without a highlight, even in summer league. OUCH.

3. Joe Forte, 21st pick, 2001
The only pick from 2001 worse than Kedrick Brown (and Kirk Haston) was Joe Forte. Forte was a malcontent who behaved as though he had a schitzophrenic sociopath woman going through menopause. He punched people in pickup games, stormed out of practice when faced with a zone defense (may be true), flipped out on people seemingly at random, and flat-out refused to play point guard when he made the pros even though he was too small to play shooting guard. Well, he kept his promise, going 1-for-12 from the field in his Celtics career and was last seen speeding into the sunset wearing his trademark Scoobie-Doo jersey smoking weed laced with PCP and a couple loaded guns under the driver's seat.

2. THE TELFAIR TRADE, 2006
People will invariably accuse I*Heart*Celtics of simply choosing the latest injustice, but look at the facts. The Celtics had a legitimate steal on their hands in the seventh pick with Randy Foye. He could turn out to be the best player from a pretty good draft. The Celtics traded him away for the worst team in the league's THIRD STRING POINT GUARD- an undersized, overhyped, overdressed, self-indulgent wuss with a penchant for hiding loaded guns in odd locations. This is, by far, the most the Celtics have EVER been ripped off on draft day. Montross? They desperately needed a big man. Forte? They could gamble a little with three first round picks. Len Bias? Nobody saw that coming. You can sort of understand and reason through the logic behind what happened... but the Foye-for-Telfair trade would be like the T-Wolves drafting Jeff Green seventh and then trading him to the Celtics for Scalabrine.

1. Fill in the blank. This spot is reserved for whatever the Celtics do on Thursday night. This will be one for the record books. Think about it- have you heard a trade rumor that makes sense? Is there a potential bust that Danny Ainge hasn't heaped praise on? Did you hear him talking about Spencer Hawes?!? How about trading the #5 pick and the best young low post scorer in the league for a washed-up career loser Skeletor with the most outrageous contract in professional basketball... AND he HATES your city, AND can opt out in a year?!? How about drafting the Chinese dude who has been padding his mediocre stats against high school juniors when he's a college senior? There is no way this will end well, and after the dust clears all we'll be left with is a trade demand from the Truth. You heard it here first- the draft in 2007 will be one for the record books.

*UPDATE* While Celtics fans around the world (and by world I mean greater worcester area) battle anxiety attacks and sleepless nights worrying how Boston will screw up another season, I *Heart* Celtics has gotten exclusive footage of a recurring (wet) dream Danny Ainge has enjoyed every night as he sleeps soundly: