Hoops

Worst Ever NBL Import Players

"English and Lett were bad, as those numbers show. Jo Jo was such a disappointment, he has some good games but he seemed so lost against good opposition when I watched him."

The problem with Jo Jo was that he was not what Adelaide needed. We had lost Andrew Svaldenis after the 1994 GF loss which pretty much left Willie Simmons, Brett Wheeler and Mark Davis as the team's only big (200+ cm) men who would play regular minutes. But after Mike McKay took a charge and fell on Willie Simmons' leg which did Willie's ACL, Adelaide needed another big man, a centre, yet strangely Mike Dunlap went and recruited another (young - English was only 25) guard.

That basically meant that Adelaide's front court was Wheels, Davis and Chris Blakemore....and that was it for the season (occasionally Rose or McKay would play SF). We actually did well to make the Semi's IMO.

Jo Jo wasn't bad, he averaged 14.8 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.7 assists in 21 games, he just wasn't what Adelaide needed especially as they already had Robert Rose, Brett Maher, Mike McKay and Scott Ninnis as their guards.

Nate Driggers

Played a handful of games for the Giants in the 1997 season as a replacement import for D-Mac. Averaged less than 5ppg. I believe he replaced Darnell 'D-Hos' Hoskins who scored something like 44 points in a half against, I believe, the Kings.

Rashad Phillips was leading the league in Ass with over 8 per game when Fisher sacked him for not abiding by his tough structured play. He was a player that needed the freedom to wheel and deal and he showed us what he was capable of.

Ontario Lett was a player I really liked at the time but the refs absolutely caned him for every thing he did. I remember in the preseason comp overseas he was the all star 5 starting C and averaged over 30ppg in that series for the cats.

Reed Rawlings was a good player and was averaging around 14ppg when after like 3 games he was let go as James Harver was exactly the same type of player and fan favourite so it was the wrong time for him.

AD Smith and Ryan Mendez are my picks as they were just plain bad and looked like social C grade players. They were just bad.

Damon Flint - North Melbourne Giants - in the year that Darryl McDonald missed after his knee injury in the Mark Davis testimonial All-Star game.

Most of those guys listed weren't duds, and definitely aren't worthy of being named in a thread of worst NBL imports ever.
I think people just like a trip down memory lane.

People who name Terrance Ferguson as a dud import aren't really seeing things in context. He is basically a development player taking an import spot. I don't think he should be in this conversation.

Most of those guys listed weren't duds, and definitely aren't worthy of being named in a thread of worst NBL imports ever.
I think people just like a trip down memory lane.

The following year, Brooks traveled to Australia to play for the Perth Wildcats in the National Basketball League. He had a successful tenure with the Wildcats – he appeared in 34 games and averaged 15.7 points, 5.7 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 2.0 steals per game.[5] His steals average was the second highest in the league.[5] Brooks shot 49% from the field and 40% from three-point range.

Sounds like he wasn't a dud?

Really. Darryl brooks was picked up coz someone saw him playing pick up Bball?

Zheng Wu wasn't very good.

The other thing about Matt Nover, he starred along side Shaq and Penny on Blue chips.

The Kings during that era must have gone through a whole roster full of imports. It was a revolving door with imports coming and going before we knew their names.

Ontario Lett was so bad due to the fact he was replacing, arguably the best wildcats player to never win a ship.

Other sub par imports during the "lets get an import to fill a role" era.

Reed Rawlings
Sunday Adebayo
Joe Ship
Gerald something
Darryn or Darryl something
Rashad Phillips

It's wonder what the wildcats were paying these guys and what website they were using to find them.

It was like an era when internet speed was poor and they settled for crappy TS rips of movies instead of going the HD route.

Matt Nover for the Kings in 1998
wow
the Kings sign the Indiana star that played under legend coach Bob Knight...... last 7 games, lucky he did avg more points than game just 7.7pts a game,
Was aweful, I remember the hype around him

But the best part was he replaced a guy that didn't even leave the gym that year he was so bad Kenny Payne.

Boi the Kings knew how to pick them

Matt Nover for the Kings in 1998
wow
the Kings sign the Indiana star that played under legend coach Bob Knight...... last 7 games, lucky he did avg more points than game just 7.7pts a game,
Was aweful, I remember the hype around him

But the best part was he replaced a guy that didn't even leave the gym that year he was so bad Kenny Payne.

Boi the Kings knew how to pick them

Mike English played one game for the Blaze, registered something like 6 turnovers at sub 10% shooting then was released.

Thalo Green was a champ though.

Forget the numbers, the guy was like a poor man's NBL version of Larry Bird. A cult hero who endeared himself to many. And the expectations weren't high with him, so him playing the role he did was fine

Have to agree on Mursepp. Came over on Ansteys recommendation, with a impressive resume and really struggled. I believe he was not 100% fit though.

English and Lett were bad, as those numbers show. Jo Jo was such a disappointment, he has some good games but he seemed so lost against good opposition when I watched him.

Ontario Lett is another one people commonly misremember.

14.2 ppg, 6.7 rpg at 53%

Jo Jo English is another.

16 ppg at 43%, 34% 3pts

AD Smith was genuinely bad though.

@AussiePride LOL! I remembered Havrilla the Gorilla, he was pretty good in his first game but then disappeared for subsequent games.



For old times' sake. :)

1990.

Yep, McCurdy was bad. Jarvis Lang and AJ Winder are two others that weren't great, but nowhere near the Ontario Lett/AD Smith level.

Paris McCurdy averaged 12.7 ppg with the 36ers.

Paris McCurdy. Still remember him playing premier league at old forestville stadium and him talking shit to Billy Fikes in his first game. Billy dunked on him so many times that night McCurdy should have bought a plane ticket home the next day. He couldn't even get double figures in premier league let alone Nbl.

George Banks belongs nowhere near this thread. He'd be the runaway mvp playing in the league today.

Todd Fuller was underwhelming but not too bad. Martin Muursep could be worth a mention especially with the big wraps Anstey had put on him

^^ auto correct
His name is Khari Jaxon

A lot of very average players have been mentioned.
BUT... none of them come close to 2001 Bullets import Kharki Jaxon.
Jaxon is one of the worst players I've ever seen play in the NBL, let alone an import. He had the worst hands I've ever seen... he literally had problems catching the basketball and when he did, he had no idea what to do with it. He was awful!!!

http://andthefoul.net/NBLwiki/index.php?Khari%20Jaxon

Glover and Catron were on the same team, 2011-12.

Terrance Ferguson. He has had zero impact on Adelaide's winning ways. All hype, no substance.

I totally agree with FSTOS with Showron Glover being the worst import.As a hawks supporter for over 30yrs i can't remember them having a worse import,maybe Jovian Catron i think was his name from about 5yrs ago.Nah Showron Glover was the worse ever 100%.

Brisbane - CJ Black

What about worst imports on a team by team basis?

Adelaide - Christopherson (the all-time worst winner IMO)

Perth - AD Smith, Ryan Mendez, Joe Shipp, Sunday Adebayo

Cairns - Nnanna Egwu

Sydney - Drew Barry, Stephen Jackson ;)

Illawarra - Showron Glover, Malcolm Grant

Melbourne - Thalo Green, Devin Williams

New Zealand - Pierre Wooten, Awvee Storey

I think this should be restricted to those imports with at least 2 NBL seasons, rather than "one and done" or even "one game" and done.

here is my nomination


Mike Champion huge minutes - little output
http://english.worldhoopstats.com/stats/nbl-au/michael-champion-1.html

Mustapha Farrakhan was pretty pointless. He apparently got some NBA time afterwards so who the hell knows what's going on in the world!

Dmitry mccamey, the year the taipans locked Jamar into a two year contract and presumably had to hunt around the back of the sofa to find some change to pay for a second import

Anonymous,

Like Hendo said I think that was that Marcus Camby guy who just defended everything Marty Clarke & Mark Radford ad nauseum.

Bryce Cotton right now. Just look at his stats. 0 games played, 0 ppg, 0 assists.

Tyndale copped it too much imports like Mike Chappell, Cortez Groves, Craig Winder, Eddie Shannon, Ron Howard, CJ Massingale, Jarrid Frye, Daequon Montreal, Kenyon McNeail, Ebi Ere, Terrance Ferguson and of course Christopherson were all worse imports for the 36ers.

Nate Green was good at Indiana State, had a slow start in the NBL (like a lot of players in their 1st pro gig) and then was put out for the season by Jason Smith.

He ended up having a decent career in the top league in Italy.

Possibly Hendo, I just remember someone made multiple posts about how he was actually good but Adelaide's system didn't suit him LMAO.

Jeff Brown, Scott Christopherson and Ebi Ere last season, who shouldve been cut for the 36ers. But for every star there has been some woeful names come threw the NBL, so this thread could go one for years! Marcus Timmons was another dud... by the time he got to Adelaide.

Just for Adelaide:

Mark Tyndale
Paris McCurdy
Jeff Brown
Scott Christopherson

Tom Schafer wasn't a dud, he averaged 15 ppg on 50% shooting and 10 rpg. He just wasn't what the team needed that year, we needed a guard.

"At the time there was some dope on here arguing that Scott Christopherson was good."

Was that dope Marcus Camby? I felt like that guy just purposefully played contrarian during that period.

Kenny Young . " I like dunking better than sex".

Kevin Ratzsch now runs a 'god and basketball' camp

Is it fair to say with the global networks and communication the days of recruiting total duds are over? No longer have that guy who you were told was 6'10 then stepped off the plane at 6'4 etc.

It's like cotton gets signed and then everyone is on YouTube and draft express and feel like they know his game

At the time there was some dope on here arguing that Scott Christopherson was good.

In his 14 games with the Sixers Scott Christopherson averaged 2.9 ppg shot 28% from the field and 27% on 3pts.

Why bother mentioning anyone else?

David Robinson lasted one season and couldn't guard a garbage can.

Moving along
Dewey Michael's wasn't great,
I think at north Melbourne there was a chucky white that was sacked pretty quickly and wasn't much chop and maybe add john Jackson at the cats. Meh all the players I put had not reached my expectations. Maybe because they were so long ago, imports were supposed to be the two best players in scoring and rebounding.