Brooklyn Nets: 15 best draft picks of all-time (updated through 2018-19)
By Phil Watson
Calvin Natt. 14. player. 147. . SF. New Jersey Nets (1st round, 8th overall, 1979 NBA Draft)
Calvin Natt had earned All-America honors as a senior at off-the-beaten-path Northeast Louisiana, averaging 24.4 points and 10.9 rebounds a game and gaining the attention of NBA scouts along the way.
The New Jersey Nets still had Bernard King, but once King was dealt to the Utah Jazz in October 1979, the door opened for the Nets’ eighth-overall pick in Natt.
Natt immediately took on a huge role for New Jersey, averaging 19.7 points and 9.7 rebounds in 38.6 minutes per game in 53 games before he was abruptly traded to the Portland Trail Blazers in February 1980 for a package that included former All-Star Maurice Lucas and a pair of future first-round picks.
Not a bad return for a player who had been in the NBA all of four months.
But while Lucas would only remain with New Jersey for the rest of 1979-80 and the 1980-81 season, Natt settled in as a rugged contributor in Portland.
He also gained his only All-Star nod in 1985 after being traded to the Denver Nuggets, but his career went off the rails on opening night in 1986 when he ruptured his Achilles.
Natt hung on another three seasons, limited to just 65 games due to deteriorating knees coupled with his burst never quite returning after the Achilles tear.
After retirement in 1990, Natt became an ordained minister and later owned a funeral home in Denver.