Former No. 2 Overall Pick Heads To China

He was the No. 2 overall pick by the Memphis Grizzlies in the 2009 NBA Draft, but hasn't played a game in the league since 2014. Hasheem Thabeet is now heading to China to resume his basketball career.

Former No. 2 overall pick Hasheem Thabeet is expected to play in China for the 2022-23 season, his agent Jerry Dianis told @HoopsHype. Thabeet has offers from multiple teams, including the Jilin Northeast Tigers and Fujian Xunxing Sturgeons.

— Michael Scotto (@MikeAScotto) August 12, 2022

Michael Scotto of HoopsHype reports that Thabeet has offers from "multiple teams" in China. 

Thabeet is certainly one of the NBA's biggest busts. As the No. 2 overall pick, and playing a very minimal role in parts of just five seasons, the 7'3" UConn product from Tanzania never found his footing in the best league in the world. 

Making matters worse, the Grizzlies left the likes of Steph Curry, James Harden, DeMar DeRozan and Jrue Holiday on the board when they chose Thabeet at No. 2 (Blake Griffin went No. 1, incidentally). 

His last game in the NBA was at the age of 27 in 2014. Since then, he's played in Japan, Taiwan and China. He's had some sniffs from NBA teams, with workouts for various clubs, and several stints in the G League since then as well. 

But he'll head back to China for this season, and now, at the age of 35, we can surely assume that his NBA dream is dead. 

Photo: Paulou, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons