Best basketball players who never made the NBA

The Boston Celtics won three championships in the 1980s with Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, and Robert Parish leading the way. Somehow, they could have been even better. Reggie Lewis died at age 27 from a cardiac death only a year after being named to the All-Star team, and another tragic death struck the Celtics just three years later.

Despite winning the championship in 1986, the Celtics owned the second overall pick because of a previous trade involving Gerald Henderson. With that pick, Boston added Len Bias, a freak athlete who was often compared to Michael Jordan, the greatest player in NBA history.

Bias was supposed to be the next big thing, but he died just two days after the NBA Draft from cardiac arrhythmia induced by a cocaine overdose. Drug abuse was a common issue in the NBA in the ’80s, but Bias had allegedly never experimented with cocaine before he used it in celebration for Celtics drafting him.

Because of his 6-foot-8 frame and impressive leaping ability, Bias could have extended the Celtics dynasty by another decade or so. Instead, NBA fans and the friends/family of Bias were left with one of the most tragic stories in sports history.

Hank Gathers

Just after the basketball world suffered the death of a college basketball legend, another all-time great collegiate player died. This time, it was Hank Gathers who left the world far too early. Gathers started his career at USC, but he transferred to Loyola Marymount after one season.

Gather made the First Team All-West Coast Conference three times, and he became the second NCAA Division I player ever to lead the nation in both rebounding and points in the same season. Gathers was the WCC Tournament MVP in 1988 and 1989, and he was well on his to being a top draft pick in 1990.

Before he could finish his final WCC Tournament, though, Gathers collapsed on the floor in what was the second time he did so during his senior season.

Gathers suffered from a heart condition that ultimately cost him his life before he had a chance to make a name for himself in the NBA. He was 6-foot-7 and 210 pounds of pure muscle, and he even had a case of being the first overall draft pick before his sudden passing.

Oscar Schmidt

The entire sports world was watching when LeBron James passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the NBA’s all-time scoring list. Abdul-Jabbar led the NBA in points for a long time, as he finished his career with 44,149 total points. James is now up to 51,170 and counting.

However, many fans didn’t realize that after passing Abdul-Jabbar, James still had one player who he trailed in professional scoring.

That is because Oscar Schmidt scored 49,737 total points while playing in Brazil and Italy. Schmidt never saw a shot he didn’t like, and he could score from all over the floor. Because of this, Schmidt is often considered the best FIBA player ever and the best player who never played in the NBA.

However, he also didn’t do a lot of winning, so some fans have criticized him for a losing style of play. Regardless, Schmidt has six gold medals, two silver medals, and four bronze medals for his play in the FIBA World Cup, the FIBA AmeriCup, the Pan American Games, and the FIBA South American Championship.

His resume includes 10 Brazilian Championship scoring titles, seven Italian League scoring titles, and a career that spanned from the early ’70s to the early 2000s. Schmidt is still the top scorer in Olympic Games history, and although he was drafted by the New Jersey Nets, he never came stateside because he made more money overseas.

It is unclear if Schmidt’s play style would have translated to the NBA game, but he certainly dominated on two other continents outside of where the NBA plays.

Earl Manigault

G.O.A.T is an acronym used to describe the “greatest of all time.” Goat just so happened to be Earl Manigault’s nickname. He was that impressive in his non-NBA basketball career. New York is often considered the Mecca of basketball, and streetball is a lifestyle in the city. Manigault ran the blacktop and was an elite high school player.

Manigault had 24-point and 11-rebound averages in high school and had a 57-point game. The 6-foot-1 guard apparently had unmatched bounce, evidenced by the stories about his game that seem like legend.

For example, rumors suggested that Manigault could dunk, then grab the ball with his left hand out of the rim, switch it to his right hand, and dunk again – all in one jump. He could also allegedly touch the top of the backboard.

However, Manigault was regularly in trouble and struggled with drug issues. He enrolled at Johnson C. Smith University, but he only lasted one semester in college. Even though Manigault didn’t make it to the upper levels of basketball, everybody he faced knew how great he was. Abdul-Jabbar even went as far as to say that he was the best player that he ever faced.

Benji Wilson

Basketball junkies will recognize Neal F. Simeon Vocational High School’s basketball team from Derrick Rose’s time with the program. The NBA MVP wasn’t the first star who shined at the Chicago-based high school, though. That honor belongs to Benji Wilson.

A 6-foot-8 do-it-all hooper, Wilson was the No. 1 player in the nation for the class of 1985. He was so talented that he was compared to Magic Johnson with a jump shot.

Unfortunately, Wilson was shot a day before his senior season started. The promising young star died the next day, and a potentially incredible basketball talent and personality was taken from the world. Wilson had offers from Illinois, DePaul, and Indiana.

Sergio Llull

Real Madrid is arguably the best basketball team outside of the NBA. Sergio Llull has a case as the best player in Real Madrid’s history. The Denver Nuggets drafted Llull, and they eventually traded his draft rights to the Houston Rockets. The Rockets desperately wanted Llull to come to the NBA, but he instead racked up the awards in his home country of Spain.

Llull won three EuroLeague championships and a EuroLeague MVP. He also won nine medals in FIBA/Olympic play. Had Llull wanted to come to the NBA, there would have been a spot waiting for him. Instead, he became an overseas legend for Real Madrid. Llull is now 37 years old and still captaining the same team.

Jon Scheyer

Jon Scheyer is the head basketball coach at Duke. He was a pretty great player for the Blue Devils, too. Before his coaching days, Scheyer was the best player on the team that won the 2010 national championship. Scheyer, who was a marksman from deep, averaged a team-high 18.2 points per game that season.

Before becoming one of the best Duke players ever, Scheyer also had a memorable high school career. Known as the Jewish Jordan, Scheyer scored 3,043 points to become the fourth-highest-scoring player from Illinois ever. He is also in the Top 10 in Illinois’ history in assists and steals.

Scheyer went undrafted in 2010, but had it not been for an eye injury, he likely would have made the big leagues. Scheyer hit a game-winner in his first Summer League game with the Miami Heat, but he was poked in the eye by Joe Ingles the very next game. The injury resulted in Scheyer settling for a brief overseas career before he quickly took on the coaching journey.

Roger Brown

Before the merger in 1976, the ABA competed neck-and-neck with the NBA. Roger Brown was one of the stars of the ABA and one of the few players who didn’t join the NBA once the two leagues combined. Brown never made it to the NBA because he was banned by the league as well as by the NCAA.

Brown was associated with Jack Molinas, a gambler associated with point shaving. However, Brown never was accused of fixing games, let alone convicted of a crime, which makes his basketball story a true tragedy. Brown committed to play for Dayton before the ban, and his collegiate career would have started in 1960.

Brown didn’t sign with the ABA until 1967, which took away some of his prime. Still, he dominated from 1967 to 1975 with the Indiana Pacers, Memphis Sound, and Utah Stars. Brown won three ABA championships and was All-ABA First Team in 1971.

He even made four All-Star appearances in the league while playing at the same time as future NBA stars such as Rick Barry, Billy Cunningham, Julius Erving, George Gervin, Artis Gilmore, Moses Malone, Dan Issel, Spencer Haywood, David Thompson, and many more.

Brown is a Naismith Hall of Famer for his career that never took place in the NBA, which is quite an impressive feat. He was certainly one of the best players in the history of arguably the second-most important basketball league ever.

Dejan Bodiroga

If Schmidt isn’t considered the greatest non-NBA international player ever, then Dejan Bodiroga probably is. While Bodiroga didn’t score as frequently as Schmidt, he did rack up more hardware when it came to winning. Bodiroga has two World Cup titles and three Eurobasket titles to his name.

The 6-foot-9 forward won MVPs in Spain and Greece, but despite owning his draft rights, the Sacramento Kings never showed much desire to give him an NBA contract. Bodiroga had a slow and unorthodox game, and while European players like Nikola Jokic and Luka Doncic have shown that can work in the NBA, the league was more about athleticism during Bodiroga’s time.

Nikos Galis

Nikos Galis was supposed to be NBA bound. He was born in New Jersey, and he dominated the collegiate scene at Seton Hall. The guard averaged 27.5 points per game as a senior. That mark only trailed Lawrence Butler and Larry Bird. Like Bird, the Celtics drafted Galis. However, Galis hurt is ankle during training camp and never played in a regular-season NBA game.

Rather than trying to make an NBA comeback, Galis instead opted to play in Greece, where he became one of the best players in international basketball history. With a ball-dominant style, Galis won the Eurobasket scoring title four times and the EuroLeague scoring title five times.

Galis did more than just score, too, as he was also an elite playmaker who led those respective leagues in assists on multiple occasions. Galis ended his career with six MVP trophies. Red Auerbach said that his biggest mistake ever was not keeping Galis in a Celtics uniform.