Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey believes that Royce White is the "worst first-round draft pick" ever and he is the one who made the selection to begin with back in 2012.
According to ESPN, Morey crowned his own pick as the worst first-rounder in history after he drafted White with the 16th overall pick in the 2012 NBA Draft--White has yet to appear in an NBA game due to his complications with anxiety.
"I take some sort of pride in that you could argue that Royce White is the worst first-round pick ever," Morey said in an interview with Rockets blog ClutchFans.net.
White, who stands at 6-foot-8 has struggled with an anxiety disorder that makes it hard for him to take the court for one game, let alone a full NBA season, and while many could sympathize with the former first-round pick, it is hard for Morey to not think that he wasted a draft pick and a chance to make his team better.
"He's the only one that never played a minute in the NBA that wasn't just a foreign guy staying in Europe," Morey said via ESPN. "It just shows we swing for the fence."
While White was a bust, it didn't damage the team too much as they had three first-round picks in 2012 and drafted Jeremy Lamb with the 12th pick, and then selected Terrence Jones with the 18th pick.
Lamb now plays with the Oklahoma City Thunder after being dealt in exchanged for James Harden, while Jones remains on the team and averages 11.8 points per game for the Rockets this season.
White was suspended by the Rockets in January of 2013 after he refused to accept an assignment to the NBA Developmental League. White has been critical of Houston on Twitter in the past, saying the team downplays the severity of his condition. The team eventually traded him to the Philadelphia 76ers over the summer.
White didn't make the 76ers team after averaging five points in five preseason games, and it remains to be seen if the "worst first-round pick" in NBA history will ever take the court for an NBA regular-season game.
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