Seattle Sportsnet

Stephon Marbury (pictured left) seems to hate life these days. The part-time New York Knick has yet to play a single minute of basketball this season, yet still remains on the bench each game in street clothes. He’s not injured, and has more pure talent than most of his teammates. Starbury has even been offered the chance to play, which he politely refused.

Steph isn’t playing because Steph doesn’t want to play. He feels slighted by the organization and wants to move on to another team. The only problem is no other team wants Marbury’s services. Burdened with a bad attitude and a hefty contract, the one-time point guard is the equivalent of a tumor in anyone’s locker room. Partly to blame for the team’s recent misfortunes, Marbury is the only Knick to have been with the club throughout the entirety of their five-year demise.

Marbury is the perfect example of the fiscal irresponsibility of NBA teams over the past decade. During an era in which spending across America has increased every year prior to this one, NBA owners were reaching deep into their pockets to obtain any and every asset they possibly could to help win ballgames. The New York Knicks are perhaps the biggest culprits of all.

In addition to the Marbury flub, Knicks owner James Dolan also opted to shell out a four-year, $25-million deal to black hole Jerome James (pictured right); a four-year, $33-million deal to ill-advised shooter Quentin Richardson; a five-year, $43-million deal to me-first point guard Jamal Crawford; and a five-year, $52-million deal to the obese Eddy Curry. The Knicks also took on the contracts of such players as forwards Zach Randolph (five years, $73-million) and Malik Rose (seven years, $42-million), and guard Steve Francis (three years, $53-million). In absorbing such foolishly lucrative pacts, the Knicks are perhaps the only team to be severely crippled by bad decision-making. By contrast, most teams have been able to withstand one or two contractual miscues, while the players, instead, have been most likely to experience negative repercussions.

So how, exactly, have NBA teams been able to escape major setbacks when doling out such ridiculous contracts? Because of the league-imposed salary cap (which, by comparison, is not nearly as confining as the very stringent NFL salary cap), the term “expiring contract” has become the phrase du jour of the NBA, seemingly popping up in every single trade. Teams wishing to build towards the future no longer acquire draft picks or up-and-comers. Instead, they look to obtain veteran players with contracts set to expire in a short amount of time. In collecting such players, teams can free up an abundance of salary cap space all at once and use the extra money to pursue more attractive free agents in the offseason. Currently, a major push to clear cap space is being made for the summer of 2010, when a loaded free agent class will hit the market and draw interest from every club.

Because of the “expiring contract” phenomenon, the players themselves are now more than ever being viewed as financial assets. Rather than commit to younger players who can make an impact on the floor now, ownership and management are more apt to take on the short-term vet who will help increase the bottom line a year from now and thus set up the organization for future successes. Talented veteran players who haven’t lived up to their big contracts are only counted on to bring financial relief to a team rather than a championship. That’s why guys like Marbury, for all his inherent ability, will find it difficult to land another job in the NBA after so miserably failing to perform over the past three years.

To elaborate on this idea we can examine some of the other irrationally contracted NBA players. Knicks center Jerome James, whose contract won’t expire until 2011 when he turns 36 years of age, will be hard-pressed to land a new deal after appearing in just two games last season and carving out his own personal seat on the bench since signing in 2006. Eddy Curry, laden with heart and weight problems during his tenure, will witness his contract run out in the summer of 2010. At age 28, he, like James, will have a tough time finding work at that point. The big-contract era has priced out many players before this as well. Just ask the likes of Latrell Sprewell (pictured left) and Jim McIlvaine, among others.

Essentially, the Stephon Marburys, Jerome Jameses, and Eddy Currys of the world are victims of their own greed. They’ve priced themselves out of their own line of work by failing to live up to the monetary incentives presented to them. General managers and owners are partly to blame for paying athletes much more than they’re truly worth, but the desire and motivation to improve and give 100% at all times is likely lost on some of the players who are already guaranteed a contract regardless of performance. The current state of the NBA continues to favor teams, no matter how much they dish out to undeserving players. Owners will undoubtedly continue writing checks their players can’t cash, and players, in turn, will keep on handicapping themselves with an inability to live up to the incentives.

The first five on our list of the Top 11 Seattle draft busts can be found here, while numbers 6-2 are located here. To recap, the first ten individuals on our list are as follows: 11, Robert Swift/Johan Petro/Mouhamed Sene; 10, Ryan Christianson; 9, Sherell Ford; 8, Rick Mirer; 7, Patrick Lennon; 6, Roger Salkeld; 5, Scottie Pippen; 4, Rich King; 3, Brian Bosworth; 2, Ryan Anderson. And now, our number one Seattle draft bust of the past 25 years: Dan McGwire.

1. Dan McGwire. I almost considered just leaving this piece blank. There’s not much to say about Dan McGwire, and chances are if you hear his name these days you either laugh or cringe or both. First of all, he’s Mark McGwire’s little brother, which used to be a joke until we found out that Mark was a cheater and steroid user. Without the ‘roids, Mark may only have been as talented as Dan, we’ll never know for sure. With the ‘roids, however, Mark was a beast-and-a-half, leading fans to wonder whether Dan should have gotten on the juice as well. It definitely couldn’t have hurt.

For those of you unfamiliar with the enigma that is Dan McGwire, let’s quickly recap his short-lived NFL career. McGwire, a product of the football machine that is San Diego State University, was the 16th overall pick by the Seahawks in the 1991 NFL Draft. A 6’5″ quarterback with a rocket arm, McGwire was labeled the future of the Hawks franchise despite the presence of surefire veteran Dave Krieg under center.

McGwire was expected to emerge as the starter in 1992 with the departure of Krieg, but underwhelmed and eventually sunk to third on the depth chart behind the infamous duo of Stan Gelbaugh and Kelly Stouffer. In his first two seasons, McGwire recorded four interceptions to zero touchdown passes. The Seahawks, sensing a disturbance in the force, selected yet another franchise quarterback in the 1993 draft, this time going after the can’t-miss Rick Mirer. Following the conclusion of the 1994 season, McGwire’s tenure was over in Seattle and he remained in the league for one more year with Miami before hanging it up in 1995.

Now I’d like to sum up McGwire’s career by paraphrasing an Old Spice commercial. Dan McGwire was two things: a bust, and a white guy with a jheri-curl mullet.

Former USC basketball player Nick Young deserves a lot of credit. He started a trend that no one in their right mind could have seen taking off. Two years ago, the Trojans star guard decided to grow a mohawk, or more appropriately a “faux-hawk.” Side note: A “faux-hawk,” for those not in the know, is like a mohawk in that longer hair is left to grow in the middle of one’s head, yet unlike a mohawk in that the hair on the sides is not completely shaven but is slightly shorter than the featured strip in the center of the scalp. Young’s faux-hawk was unique and unlike anything most basketball fans had ever seen before. The future NBA player endured good-natured taunts and abuse on the road, garnering national attention when he was labeled “Stegosaurus” by our very own University of Washington Dawg Pack. Needless to say, Young shed his cro-magnon coiff shortly thereafter.

The first five Seattle draft busts can be found here and they are: 11, Robert Swift/Johan Petro/Mouhamed Sene; 10, Ryan Christianson; 9, Sherell Ford; 8, Rick Mirer; 7, Patrick Lennon. Now, numbers 6-2. Enjoy.

6. Roger Salkeld. Roger Salkeld was the third overall pick of the 1989 Major League Baseball June amateur draft and chances are you don’t know his name. Which is just wrong, because when you’re the third overall pick of any draft, everyone should know your name. Michael Jordan, Carmelo Anthony, Roger Salkeld. What do they have in common? All third overall picks.

Salkeld was the prototype when it came to pitchers. He stood 6’5″, weighed 215 pounds, and could throw the ball fast. Mid-90′s fast, which is just good enough for any front office staff to overlook your flaws. Like the fact that Salkeld was coming straight out high school, a major red flag with any pitcher, no matter how talented. Statistics will tell you that a high percentage of high school pitchers who go straight to the pros eventually burn out due to arm injuries. Unfortunately for the Mariners, Salkeld was no exception.

5. Scottie Pippen. Pippen wasn’t a bust in the true sense of the word, but from a Seattle perspective, he might very well have been the biggest bust of all-time. The Sonics selected Pippen with the fifth pick in a loaded 1987 NBA draft that produced seven All-Stars (Pippen, David Robinson, Kevin Johnson, Horace Grant, Reggie Miller, Mark Jackson, and the late Reggie Lewis). They then immediately sent him to Chicago, committing one of the worst draft-day trades in history.

Pippen was obtained for a mere pittance by the Bulls, who sent the eighth overall pick in the form of center Olden Polynice to the Sonics. From ’87 to 1991, Polynice manned the middle for Seattle. In 1999, perhaps in a last-ditch attempt to justify trading Pippen in the first place, the Sonics brought back Olden for a second go-round and only further exemplified why the Pippen trade was flat-out horrible. Needless to say, Olden Polynice was ok, but definitely not anywhere near the list of the Top 50 NBA players of all time.