The rookies I remember having immense hype, the kind where the draft is considered a sweepstakes for who will get them:
Shaquille O’Neal (1992) Tim Duncan (1997) LeBron James (2003) Zion Williamson (2019) Victor Wembanyama (2023)
Three out of four have had top 10-15 all time careers. I hope Zion gets it together to have at least a Hall of Fame career.
Who am I forgetting / who was there before 1992?
It doesn’t matter what you are forgetting, you cherry picked 4 players, completely disregarding all of the #1 picks that don’t fit your goal.
Almost every #1 pick has immense rookie hype.
Most of them are hyped, yes…but you’d be remiss to act like John Wall, Kyrie Irving, KAT, and Victor Wembanyama got the same levels of hype just because all of them were #1 picks.
Yeah true but Zion AD Andrea barngiani even d rose were seen as potential all time guys, plus all the other guys like Greg oden kwame and Michael olawakndi who were pretty hyped as well
Lol no one said that about Bargnani. It was a incredibly weak draft with no clear cut #1 (looks even worse now)
Anthony Bennett for example didn’t have the same hype as Wiggins, AD or wemby