In the 2001 NBA Draft, the Washington Wizards drafted the Kwame Brown as the first overall pick. Since Kwame Brown went straight from high school to the NBA, many basketball fans had never heard of him. The Wizards took a gamble that clearly didn’t pay off.

Brown almost played college basketball. He signed a letter of intent to play for the University of Florida, but reneged on his letter and entered the 2001 NBA Draft instead. Big mistake. During the off-season before the 2001 season started, the Wizards wanted to add to their roster that included gun-toting Gilbert Arenas. The Wizards thought Brown would make a big impact, and so did Michael Jordan, who was the team’s president. After Kwame Brown failed to live up to his potential, Jordan became irate with him and regularly bad mouthed him. Getting degraded by the NBA’s greatest player after playing in the league for only a year is a sign of bad things to come.

In defense of Kwame Brown’s play, he had a lot of pressure on him when he was drafted in 2001. Brown was the first high school player to be drafted as the number one overall pick in any draft in the history of the NBA, and he had the added pressure of playing with and for Michael Jordan who is well known for being difficult to deal with.

The time Brown spent in Washington was a joke. In his four years with the Wizards, he averaged 4.5, 7.4, 10.9 and 7.0 points per game. However, Kwame Brown didn’t stay in Washington for long. After suspending Brown for a “Chinese Food Mishap” involving a tummy ache and a missed team practice he was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, a team Brown played bad on too.

- John A. Roberts

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Tags | Basketball, Kwame Brown, Los Angeles Lakers, NBA, Washington Wizards