Washington Wizards: 15 greatest draft steals in franchise history
By John Buhler
- Six seasons w/Bullets (1966-72)
- All-Star w/Bullets (1971-72)
- All-Rookie First Team (1966-67)
- 480 career games w/Bullets
- 16.7 points, 6.2 rebounds, 2.2 assists per game w/Bullets
Jack Marin was drafted with the No. 5 overall pick in the 1966 NBA Draft out of Duke University by Baltimore. He had been a consensus All-American with the Blue Devils and a two-time All-ACC player while in Durham. Baltimore was expecting big things out of the small forward in the late 1960s.
Marin spent his first six of 11 NBA seasons playing for the team that drafted him in Baltimore. As a rookie in 1966-67, he made the All-Rookie First Team, as he averaged 9.6 points, 4.2 rebounds and 1.0 assists per game in a rotational role for the Bullets. That would be the last time he averaged under 10.0 points per game until his last season in the league in 1976-77 while with the Chicago Bulls.
After that promising rookie season out of Duke, Marin became a go-to scorer for the Bullets, seemingly increasing his scoring averages up until his last year with the team. In that final year with Baltimore, Marin averaged 22.3 points per game, as he led the league in free-throw percentage with 89.4. He would make his first of two career NBA All-Star Games that winter.
However, outside of a deep run in 1970-71, playoff success largely evaded the Bullets while Marin was on the team. He was traded to the Houston Rockets in 1972 for power forward Elvin Hayes. Hayes would for an unbelievable frontcourt tandem with Wes Unseld, as the Bullets became one of the best teams in the NBA in the 1970s, winning a championship in 1978.
Marin made the All-Star Game a second time in Houston in 1973, but wasn’t long for the Space City hoops team. He was traded to the then-Buffalo Braves in 1974 and then to the Bulls in 1975, where he would close out his 11-year NBA career.
Overall, Marin averaged 16.7 points, 6.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game in six years with Baltimore. Though not a Basketball Hall of Famer like the guy he was traded for in Hayes, Marin was totally worth the No. 5 overall pick the Bullets used on his back in 1966 out of Duke. In a way, Marin is somewhat responsible for the only NBA title in Washington history, even though he never played in the nation’s capital.