Many may have forgotten, but Ralph Sampson was briefly a Washington Bullet.
While most will remember Ralph Sampson as the dominant big man on the Houston Rockets who gave the Show Time Lakers a run for their money, he ended his career as an injury prone center who couldn’t do much on the floor.
Ahead of his final season, he was waived by the Sacramento Kings. He would then be claimed off of waivers by the Washington Bullets, but since he was claimed off waivers, his giant contract was covered by the Kings. He was the highest paid player on the Kings that season.
That last fact is the only reason he isn’t higher on the list because he was in Washington all season and played 10 games. In those 10 games, the Hall of Fame center averaged 2.2 points and 3 rebounds in over 10 minutes per game. He just kind of took up a roster spot for a few months, something that the Bullets could have done with a player who could actually produce quality minutes at the time.
He would be waived in January of 1992 after making it clear that he could no longer play at the NBA level. He would go on to play in other leagues, but never made it back to play in the NBA. An unfortunate ending to one of the biggest what if stories in NBA history.