Michael Bryson recently for the Kings. Kevin Ratzsch or something like that was also garbage for the Kings in 11-12

Cheikh Yaya Dia... not the worst by any means but I just wanted to say his name.

Devin Williams is certainly not showing us much and Marcus Thornton was pretty ineffective last season.

I remember thinking George Banks for the Wildcats was pretty useless back around 1996 or whenever it was

Scott Christopherson
/thread

My first instinct whenever this comes up is to mention A.D. Smith

Acie Earl. Could have been a great player but was a fat, lazy heap

Steve Blake lol Wayne Womak

Jim Havrilla (The Gorilla) for Hobart Devils. Spectacularly broke a backboard in a pre season game but that was about his last highlight!

Showron Glover.

Corey Reader was a bench warmer for the Kings who attempted to forge a career overseas under the old adage of "you can't teach height."
Didn't he come back and try to score a gig a few years back with Perth. He had 10 thumbs and was bad at basketball, which isn't helpful when you are trying to earn a living from said sport.
Worst import was that fatty Bryan Carver for the Kings. He had a decent college career, but got on the plane in the US at 180 pounds and got off at Kingsford Smith weighing 330.

George Banks was a player! In about 1996 or 1995 (I think) the wildcats picked him up for 4 weeks to cover an injury- can't remember exact details. He also played for Canberra and played well, certainly not a dud.
Duds- Wildcats had a 3pt shooter from Stanford who was pretty much useless around 2001, I remember Rick Grace saying he was as no better than bench warming locals after he was cut.
Adelaide had a left handed white guy in 1990, Tom Schafer? I remember thinking they got nothing from him really.

Jahii Carson,Jonny Flynn from recent memory

Both were well below expectations, but I wouldn't have them as candidates for the worst of all time. Same with Thornton.

Ratzsch was horribly underrated.

Gerald Zimmerman

Corey Reader is an Aussie.
George Banks was a role player at the cats but was a beast with Canberra so I wouldn't rate him a dud.
I'd say Maybe Kenne Young at the kings, drew Barry was ordinary and possibly David Robinson from 36ers. Jim havrilla was crap also.
There were many ordinary imports. Meaning recruiting over the years has overall stayed the same. Lol

David Robinson averaged 18 and 9 at 56% FFS

No one has mentioned Sheldon Quales, I think that's his name. Played with the bullets in late 90s - easily the shittest. Was a left handed PF, who could do nothing.

Others which spring to mind:

That guy who played with the kings first season back, was rubbish and was sacked after a few months, forgot his name. Was a SF who could do nothing.

Nate Green- with the cannons. Rubbish point guard

Jerome Beasley - close to being average but never took off

Been so many shit imports

@Watto Flynn wasn't even "bad" he just wasn't great and I wouldn't put Carson . with some of the other players on here. It's not like those guys were total garbage.

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.

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?

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

Kevin Ratzsch now runs a 'god and basketball' camp

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

"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.

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

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.

Anonymous,

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

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

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

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

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

Brisbane - CJ Black

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%.

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

Paris McCurdy averaged 12.7 ppg with the 36ers.

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.

Good call Zodiac remembering Sunday Adebeyo! He was probably the worst cats import i can remember. Would warm the bench in that star studded side back then and didnt do too much when he came on. Ricky grace once said Sunday brings the pain!

Going back further circa 1992 Jeff Allen? A worthy candidate?

1990.

@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. :)

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

"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.