Rip City Project
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The 5 worst draft picks in Portland Trail Blazers history

By Joe Capraro

HOLLYWOOD - JULY 11: NBA players Greg Oden (L) and Kevin Durant pose for photos in the press room during the 2007 ESPY Awards at the Kodak Theatre on July 11, 2007 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
HOLLYWOOD - JULY 11: NBA players Greg Oden (L) and Kevin Durant pose for photos in the press room during the 2007 ESPY Awards at the Kodak Theatre on July 11, 2007 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images) /
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Portland Trail Blazers, Chauncey Billups, NBA lottery, Blazers draft, Wally Walker
LANDOVER, MD – CIRCA 1981: Wally Walker #42 of the Seattle Supersonics shoots over Greg Ballard #42 the Washington Bullets during an NBA basketball game circa 1981 at the Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland. Walker played for the Supersonics from 1977-82. (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images) /

Wally Walker was a good luck charm in his rookie season but never started a game for Portland.

Wally Walker averaged just 5.2 points and 1.6 rebounds in 9.5 minutes per game his rookie year, and mostly sat and watched Bill Walton and Maurice Lucas lead the Blazers to the 1977 NBA championship.

Walker was traded to Seattle early in his second season for two draft picks. With the No. 7 pick in the 1978 draft, the Blazers got Ron Brewer – one spot after Boston took Bird. The second pick, a 1979 second-rounder, yielded Philippine Basketball Association legend Andrew Fields.

It took Walker three more seasons to crack the Sonics starting lineup and he responded with less-than-overwhelming averages of 9.9 points and 4.4 rebounds per game before being sent to the doormat Houston Rockets for the last two years of his playing career.

Walker would go on to a successful stint as Sonics and Storm team President and Sonics General Manager from 1993 until 2005, but his career numbers are far short of what a fifth overall pick should deliver.

Each of the three players chosen next – Adrian Dantley, Quinn Buckner, and Robert Parish – played more than 10 seasons in the NBA and Parish alone played more than three times as many games in the league as did Walker.

But Walker is one of just 13 people in all of human history who have earned an NBA championship ring in Portland, so for a fourth-worst-ever, this still isn’t too terrible. But: