The most unlikely one-time NBA All-Stars

Bill Bradley is a Hall of Famer who won two championships as a pro. Thus, you may be surprised to learn he appeared in only one All-Star Game. During the 1972-73 season, Bradley notched 16.1 PPG, the highest average of his career. He went 2-of-5 from the field and scored four points in his one All-Star contest. 

When many think of Bill Cartwright , they may remember him as the big man who won a trio of rings while playing alongside Michael Jordan with the Chicago Bulls. At the start of his career, though, he was an All-Star as a rookie with the New York Knicks. Cartwright was also First-Team All-Rookie that year when he averaged 21.7 PPG and 8.9 REB, both career bests. Cartwright never again featured in an All-Star campaign after his debut year, but those three titles likely made up for it. 

Long before he was an NBA head coach, Doc Rivers  was a serviceable guard for a handful of teams. During the 1987-88 season, however, he was an All-Star with the Atlanta Hawks. Rivers averaged 14.2 PPG and 9.3 AST that year, and he scored nine points in the 1988  ASG . After his playing career, Rivers guided the Boston Celtics to a title as a coach in 2008. 

For the majority of his NBA playing days, Jeff Hornacek  was a reliable three-point specialist and a player who became a beloved member of the Utah Jazz. As it pertains to his career resume, though, his best season occurred in 1991-92 while he featured for the Phoenix Suns. That  year, Hornacek led the Suns in scoring (20.1 PPG) and shot nearly 44 percent from beyond the arc. Perhaps this is how he became an "NBA Jam" legend. 

Throughout the 1990s, Mookie Blaylock was one of the Association’s best defenders. From 1993 through 1999, he was named to six different All-Defensive squads. He also twice led the league in steals per game. Blaylock earned his only All-Star nod in 1994 when he averaged 13.8 PPG, 9.7 AST and 2.6 STL. Per Gene Stout of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the band Pearl Jam was originally named Mookie Blaylock in honor of the NBA star. 

Like Bill Cartwright, guard B.J. Armstrong  won three championships as a member of those Chicago Bulls teams that included the likes of Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. After MJ took his hiatus from the sport to embark upon a baseball career, Armstrong tallied a career-high 14.8 PPG, and his play earned him a spot on the 1994 East All-Star team. His offensive production declined after that campaign, though, but he was awarded the opportunity to retire as a member of the Bulls in 2000. 

Those who grew up watching Horace Grant  play basketball likely remember him as the forward who wore prescription goggles and who started for Chicago Bulls teams that won championships. Like the previously mentioned B.J. Armstrong, Grant particularly flourished following Michael Jordan’s first retirement, and he received an All-Star spot during the 1993-94 campaign when he set career marks in scoring (15.1 PPG) and rebounding (11.0 REB). In total, Grant won four rings — three with the Bulls (1991-1993) and a fourth with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2001.

Guard Dana Barros averaged more than 10 points per game just four times over the course of his 14-year NBA career. One of those instances came in 1995 when he averaged 20 a night for the 76ers. Barros was named an All-Star for the first and only time in his career that season.

Largely employed by NBA teams to grab rebounds, former 76ers, Cavaliers, Warriors and Bucks power forward Tyrone Hill somehow made it into the 1995 All-Star game. Hill was having a solid season, averaging 13.8 points and 10.9 rebounds, but playing on a Cavaliers team with limited talent may have skewed his numbers. Still, with Michael Jordan off playing baseball, Hill made his first and only All-Star team.

A career journeyman center, Chris Gatling was an All-Star with the Mavs in 1997 when he averaged 19 points per game. Gatling would never come close to matching that scoring output again in his career.

Maybe you were a Duke homer during the 1990s, or perhaps you were somebody who hated Christian Laettner. Either way, you may not remember that he played well enough to make the 1997 Eastern Conference All-Star Team as a member of the Atlanta Hawks. The 1992 Dream Team player averaged 18.1 PPG during his All-Star season, and he played 24 minutes in the '97 edition of the ASG. He never enjoyed the success in the NBA he had at the collegiate level, though, as a handful of franchises traded him during his career. 

Truth be told, former Lakers, Nuggets and Mavericks guard Nick Van Exel had the talent to be a multiple-time All-Star, but for whatever reason, “Nick the Quick” could never quite put it all together. Van Exel did make one All-Star team, in 1998 with the Lakers, despite the fact he averaged only 13.8 points per game.

We’ll never know how good former Indiana Pacers center  Rik Smits could have been in the NBA. As Pablo S. Torre once wrote for Sports Illustrated, the Dunking Dutchman wore such tight shoes as a teenager that he experienced nerve damage in his feet. Despite that setback, Smits found success with the Indiana Pacers from 1988 through 2000, and he was a one-time All-Star, in 1998. That same year he earned his second and final Player of the Week Award. 

From 1990 through the spring of 1996, Jayson Williams never averaged over 9.0 PPG across any season. He didn’t truly sniff being a starter over that period. By January 1998, however, Williams was a key figure for the New Jersey Nets, and the one-time Player of the Week made his only All-Star appearance that February. He came off the bench and scored four points in a contest the East won by double digits. 

Center Theo Ratliff was a fantastic shot-blocker, as he led the NBA in blocked shots three different seasons. Other than that, Ratliff wasn’t particularly skilled anywhere else on the court, but in 2001 he was named an All-Star with the 76ers.

In April 2019, former Los Angeles Lakers, Charlotte Hornets and Sacramento Kings center  Vlade Divac was selected for the Hall of Fame. While he was one of the greatest European players to feature in the Association during the first 50 years of its existence, he was never the best big man in the game, and the 7-footer who became known as “Floppy Divac” for his theatrical reactions to contact was only a one-time All-Star. He made that appearance in 2001 representing the Sacramento Kings, who retired his number following his playing days. 

Anthony Mason won Sixth Man of the Year honors for the 1994-95 season, and he was named to All-NBA and All-Defensive teams for the 1996-97 season. However, the forward didn’t receive an invitation to the All-Star Game until he started for the East in 2001 . He was the only player on his team to not score a point in a contest that was taken over by Allen Iverson during an epic and historic fourth quarter  comeback. 

Three years into Wally Szczerbiak ’s career, the Minnesota Timberwolves looked wise for selecting him with the sixth pick of the 1999 NBA Draft. Szczerbiak was First-Team All-Rookie in 2000, and he was chosen for the  2002 Western Conference All-Star squad during what became his best season as a pro. Averaging 18.7 PPG and 4.8 REB proved to be his 82-game ceiling, but he managed to earn minutes in the league through the 2008-09 season. He went into broadcasting after his retirement. 

Former Hornets center Jamaal Magloire was always a serviceable big man but never one of the 12 best players in his conference. Still, in 2004 Magloire was named an All-Star as he averaged a double-double for the only time in his career.

A key member of the 2006 Dallas Mavericks that went to the NBA Finals, forward Josh Howard is best remembered for calling an unnecessary timeout that cost the Mavs Game 5 of the series. Howard was also an All-Star in 2007, behind his 18.9 points per game scoring average.

The fifth overall pick of the 2005 NBA Draft, point guard Devin Harris has had a decent NBA career but has largely been a disappointment given where he was selected. Still, Harris was an All-Star with the Nets in 2009, when he averaged a career-best 21.3 points per game.

Mo Williams has always been a reliable NBA point guard, but an All-Star? Well, he was in 2009 with the Cavs. Williams was selected to represent the East by the coaches behind 17.8 points and 4.1 assists per game.

For much of the 2010s, Andre Iguodala  was a lot like Major League Baseball. Both were there when you needed them in the springtime. Iggy won NBA Finals MVP in 2015 when the Golden State Warriors defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the lockdown defender earned three rings with the Dubs. He represented the Philadelphia 76ers, not the Warriors, for his lone All-Star appearance in  2012, and he scored 12 points in a game the East dropped to the West, 152-149.

Jrue Holiday  is the type of guard who could never be the main piece for a championship team but who would’ve been a fine third option in a so-called “big three.” He simply never received that kind of opportunity. In January 2013, Holiday became the youngest player (at the time) in the history of the Philadelphia 76ers to earn a spot on an All-Star team, per  NBA.com. While his playoff appearances haven’t gone to his liking as of 2020, he was named NBA All-Defensive in 2018 and 2019. We’ll see if he receives a chance to play for a contender at the start of the decade. 

Forward Tyson Chandler never received the necessary amount of All-Star votes or an invite to play for a squad through the first 11 years of his NBA career. That changed in 2013, though, when the one-time Defensive Player of the Year was chosen to represent the New York Knicks and come off the bench for the East. He averaged a double-double for that campaign, finishing the year with 10.4 PPG and 10.7 REB. When Chandler retires, he’ll have one All-NBA and three All-Defensive appearances attached to his legacy. 

Similarly to Jeff Hornacek, one more so thinks “sharpshooter” than “All-Star” upon seeing the name Kyle Korver. He was a veteran in the middle of his 12th season and was leading the NBA in three-point shooting when he was chosen  to replace Dwyane Wade on the Eastern Conference team in 2015. Korver finished the year with the league's highest shooting percentage from beyond the arc for the third time, and he achieved that feat again in 2017. He  tallied 21 points in his only All-Star appearance. 

By the start of the 2016-17 season, DeAndre Jordan  was an unlikely All-Star beginning his ninth year in the league and featuring for a Los Angeles Clippers team that had no chance of advancing past the Golden State Warriors in the playoffs. One of the best rebounders of his generation received the only All-Star nod of his career for the  2017 Game that the West won 192-182. Barring a significant injury setback, Jordan is on pace to finish in the top 40 in total career rebounds.  

Forward Gordon Hayward is an example of somebody who is an unlikely one-time All-Star because so many believed he’d be a perennial participant in such games by February 2017. Unfortunately, Hayward suffered a horrific and gruesome leg fracture while playing for the Boston Celtics in October of that year, and he failed to return to his best form from that time through the winter of 2020. Hayward turns 30 before the end of the 2019-20 campaign. The chance for him to become a two-time All-Star may have already passed him by. 

Much like Gordon Hayward, Kristaps Porzingis was a sure-thing, multitime All-Star by the start of 2018 . In February of that year, he suffered a torn ACL, and he eventually orchestrated a trade from the New York Knicks to the Dallas Mavericks in January 2019 while he was still recovering. His Dallas tenure didn’t start until that October, and he wasn’t chosen for the 2020 version of the Game. Assuming he continues to play alongside Luka Doncic beyond the fall of 2020, we expect "Lordzingis" will remove himself from the list of unlikely one-time All-Stars sooner rather than later. 

Orlando Magic forward  Nikola Vucevic picked a great time to post his first and only All-Star-worthy season from the fall of 2018 through January 2019, as his play earned him a new contract worth $100 million. After he averaged 20.8 PPG and 12.0 REB during the best campaign of his career, his numbers dipped a bit the following year, and being a box-score filler for a lower-tier playoff team wasn’t enough to grant him a second straight All-Star invite. If the Magic can ship him to a contender, his production could fall to the point that his name won’t be mentioned in All-Star conversations moving forward.