Other Terminology
A draft bust occurs when a highly touted or highly selected draftee does not meet expectations. An example of a draft bust occurred with the San Diego Chargers in the 1998 NFL Draft. The Chargers selected promising quarterback Ryan Leaf with the second pick. However, Leaf only managed to play two years with the Chargers and started only 18 games (and winning only 4 games) for them before being released. Another example would be LaRue Martin, drafted 1st overall in the 1972 NBA Draft before Bob McAdoo and Julius Erving. McAdoo & Erving would go on to be elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and are both usually mentioned as all-time greats, whereas Martin only played 4 NBA seasons for career average of just over 5 points per game before retiring as arguably the biggest NBA draft bust ever. Kwame Brown of 2001 and Darko Miličić of 2003 are also known draft busts of the NBA.
Conversely, a lowly-drafted player going on to have a stellar career is a draft steal. Joe Montana, listed by Sports Illustrated as the third best player in history was drafted 82nd overall in 1979, the fourth quarterback to be chosen. Tom Brady, who has won three Super Bowls and appeared in two others, was selected in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL Draft, behind six quarterbacks, none of whom matched Brady's success; this fact was the subject of an ESPN documentary, The Brady 6, in 2011. In the NBA, John Stockton, the league's all-time leader in assists and steals, eventually became a steal with the 16th overall draft pick in 1984, and Manu Ginóbili, a key contributor to three San Antonio Spurs championships in the 2000s and centerpiece of Argentina's Olympic gold medal team in 2004, was the next-to-last pick in the 1999 draft.
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