From the always-great Kelly Dwyer’s list of the 10 worst lottery picks of the decade:
9) Kedrick Brown, Boston Celtics, taken 11th overall in 2001
He wasn’t exactly taken ahead of Jordan, Stockton, or Malone; but by my count, Brown was selected ahead of 15 players who started an NBA game last year. An athletic … something, who was working out of a junior college long enough to impress Chris Wallace and the C’s, Brown was an immediate washout.
This was also the infamous Joe Forte draft. In semi-defense of the Brown selection, there’s a theory that if you’ve got a bunch of first round picks—especially two clustered near the top—you can take a flier with one. (This is part of the reason the Celtics selected Larry Joe Bird with the 6th pick in the 1978 draft even though Bird was staying for another year at Indiana State; the team also had the 8th pick, which they used on Freeman Williams of Portland State—a player the Clippers eventually chose over Bird when the owners of the C’s and the Buffalo Braves traded teams).
The C’s had the 10th pick in 2001 and selected a proven college player in Joe Johnson.
And the Brown and Forte picks have been the exceptions in a run of very strong Celtic drafts this decade.
As you likely know by now, Kedrick Brown is still playing ball. He just signed with a Turkish team, per Jessica Camerato.
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I am sorry, but I dont think he is a bust at all!!! He has taken a while to come around, but he is slowly turning into a great rebounder and frustrates a lot of defenses. His scoring has taken longer to come around, but he fits very well on this team in his roll. There have been a lot of higher seeds that are MUCH worse.
Mr. Rolltide, are you confusing Brown with Kendrick Perkins, who is very much in line with your comments here? No, the problem with Boston drafts recently is we didn’t hang on to some of the best players with Joe Johnson and Chauncey Billups immediately coming to mind. Imagine how many titles we could have had with a line up of Pierce, Walker, Johnson and Billups in the early decade and with the other guys now. But then again, maybe ray Allen and KG would not be Celtics now. Still, in an alternate universe, the C’s might have won 5 championships in the decade and would be sharing props with the Pats as current dynasties.