Ranking the 5 biggest Texas basketball NBA Draft busts of all-time
Chris Mihm. . C. Chris Mihm 2. 24. player. No. 7 pick in 2000 NBA Draft. Chris Mihm. 2.
The 2000 NBA Draft class is commonly regarded as one of the worst in the history of the league. It produced just three All-Star selections, the fewest of any draft class in the NBA in the last three decades. And this draft class seems unlikely to produce any Hall-of-Famers when most of them become eligible.
One of the draft picks in this 2000 class that fell short of the expectations of him in the NBA is seven-footer Chris Mihm. The Bulls selected Mihm seventh overall in the 2000 NBA Draft after the big man was named a Consensus First-Team All-American at Texas during the 1999-00 season.
Chicago promptly flipped Mihm to the Cleveland Cavaliers for guard Jamal Crawford on draft night 2000. That was a move that wound up working better for Chicago than it did Cleveland, as Crawford developed into a timeless sixth-man in the NBA and a major contributor for the Bulls for multiple seasons.
Mihm, meanwhile, settled into a role as a backup center early in his NBA career with the Cavs. He was named to the All-Rookie Second-Team as a backup big man for the Cavs in 2000-01. But Mihm's impact was limited in his three and a half years in Cleveland after his rookie campaign.
He was traded to the Boston Celtics and then the Los Angeles Lakers in the two years following his departure from the Cavs in 2004.
With the Lakers, Mihm spent the back half of his NBA career coming off the bench and occasionally starting. He did win a title as a reserve big man with a Lakers team led by Hall-of-Fame shooting guard Kobe Bryant and All-Star big Pau Gasol in 2009.