Rashad McCants was the last pick in the lottery back in 2005, taken 14th overall by the Minnesota Timberwolves. He had what could be called a pretty much average NBA career: He played four seasons, one season averaging 14.9 points per game with a solid true shooting percentage of 55. He was a decent three point shooter.
But Minnesota unloaded him to Sacramento in the middle of his fourth season, and after his rookie deal expired he never hooked on with another team. He tried a couple comeback stints in the D-League, but NBA teams wouldn’t bite. He’s a volume scorer in a league moving away from that model, and he wasn’t seen as the easiest to deal with (he has had issues with North Carolina as well, saying they gave him fake classes to keep him eligible).
McCants told the Charlotte Observer there were other forces at play in why his career flamed out.“I’ve been told, numerous conversations and numerous sources, that I’ve been blackballed,” McCants said. “And it’s just the way the league is sometimes. When one person who is a higher-up, Hall of Famer, says don’t touch him, they won’t. And that’s just how it is...”
But McCants’ biggest regret was his highly-publicized relationship with reality TV star Khloe Kardashian late in his career, which he said gave people an opportunity to doubt his commitment to the NBA.
“Without that situation in play, I’m a $60-70 million player,” McCants said. “Easily.”
Did NBA teams see dating a Kardashian as a red flag? Can you blame them if they did? If you have James Harden talent they’re forgiving, but for an average player... not so much. That said, it was his game that was the ultimate issue.
Is McCants a $15 million a year player in today’s NBA? He thinks so.
If you want to see what he’s got left, he was the No. 1 pick in Ice Cube’s Big 3 League playing this summer.