10 biggest North Carolina basketball NBA Draft busts of all time

North Carolina basketball NBA Draft bust No.9: Tom LaGarde (1977: Round 1 Pick 9)

A talented big man from Detroit, LaGarde made his way to Chapel Hill way back in 1973, arriving on campus exactly fifty years ago. He was a contributor his first two seasons but really blossomed into a star by the end of his college days. He won a Gold Medal in the 1976 Olympics and averaged at least 14 points and 7 rebounds a game in each of his final two collegiate seasons, blossoming into one of college basketball’s best bigs.

A 6’10 center with plenty of talent, LaGarde was off to the NBA as the Denver Nuggets’ 8th pick in 1977. He only spent a single season with the Nuggets but did win an NBA championship in his second season with the Seattle Supersonics.

While LaGarde had a very nice fourth season with the Mavericks, averaging 13.7 points and 8.1 rebounds per season, he’d soon suffer an injury that really limited his basketball career. LaGarde spent parts of just six seasons in the NBA before he was out of basketball entirely.

The UNC standout wasn’t necessarily a bad player, LaGarde just had bad luck with injuries and never really lived up to his billing. All-Star guards Rickey Green and Norm Nixon were taken later in that same draft, but it’s hard to say the Nuggets missed too much with this pick. The issue was that he barely played in Denver, scoring barely 300 points in that lone season with the Nuggets.