10 biggest North Carolina basketball NBA Draft busts of all time

North Carolina basketball NBA Draft bust No. 1: Joseph Forte (2001: Round 1 Pick 21)

After starring at DeMatha High School in Maryland, one of the best basketball schools in the nation, Forte made his way to North Carolina back in 1999, where he’d play a season each under Bill Guthridge and Matt Doherty.

One of the top recruits in the nation, he was a talented shooting guard who got right to work at North Carolina, averaging more than 16 points a game and winning ACC Rookie of the Year honors. The next season, Forte was a First Team All-American, ACC Player of the Year, and averaged 20.9 points and 6.1 rebounds a game in a phenomenal sophomore campaign.

Forte moved on after just two seasons and was drafted with pick 21 by the Boston Celtics a few months later. He had been a fantastic scorer at the collegiate level but his game simply didn’t translate into the NBA, where he was playing more at the point.

His entire NBA career consisted of scoring just 30 points in 25 games over the next two seasons, spending that second season with the Seattle Supersonics. He failed to find a spot in the league in the following seasons, spending much of his later years playing overseas.

Tony Parker and Gilbert Arenas both went off the board less than ten picks later; Forte was a total mistake for the Celtics, who had numerous better options back in 2001. Forte had single games at North Carolina where he outscored his NBA output and it was an atrocious turn of events for both him and the Celtics.

He wasn’t exactly a top-level draft pick, so it doesn’t sting as much as if he was a lottery pick, but Forte was certainly one of the bigger draft busts in recent memory with how quickly everything just stopped for him.

We’ve considered the ten biggest draft busts from North Carolina in NBA Draft history, but do we agree with the players we’ve selected and the order we’ve placed them? The NBA Draft is just a few months away and we’ll just have to see if another North Carolina player becomes a bust in the months or years to come.