The 5 most undeserving players to win NBA championships

Honorable mention – Mengke Bateer, the first Chinese player to win a championship (Spurs, 2003)The one common thing that every NBA champion will tell you in the post-win interview is “This was a team effort and everybody did their bit. We couldn’t have done it without each other.” But what they’re really thinking is “I wish that #@%& gets traded in the next 30 seconds because he didn’t do #@%&!”.Universal truth - team wins are quite often the efforts of a strong core of players rather than every single member of the roster. The number of fifth wheels in the best basketball league in the world might surprise you, but there are more than a few who have some bling on their fingers just by virtue of being in the right place at the right time.With that, we dive into this collection of the seven guys whose luck would even make leprechauns jealous. They are the opposite of those poor souls from the “Final Destination” movies. 

#1 Darko Milicic - 2004, Detroit Pistons

Darko Milicic

The youngest foreign player in the league, circa 2003, was the second overall pick in that year’s Draft, after, wait for it, LeBron James! Meaning he chosen was ahead of Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and Carmelo Anthony!! 

At 7’0” tall, 125 Kgs, the Pistons’ front office must have been counting their chickens when they handed the young Serb the #31 jersey. And they hatched, just not from the basket they were hoping from.

Milicic averaged 6 PPG, 0.9 APG and 4.2 RPG which the Pistons withstood and parlayed Joe Dumars’ alchemy and their impregnable defense into their first NBA title since 1990, sweeping the mighty Lakers 4-1 in the Finals.

Milicic attempted to jump start his career by wading into pro-kickboxing, but that was rapidly scuttled as he lost his first (and only) match to a much smaller, much better fighter.