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Appearing in the NBA Playoffs seems like an afterthought when analyzing the careers of any star player in the NBA. While winning the championship might be a feat that evades a superstar for the entirety of his career, making the NBA Playoffs isn't usually seen as a prohibited destiny to some. However, never making the postseason has happened before and it is currently happening to some great players in the league.
If this list had been made before the 2020-21 NBA season, the Phoenix Suns' Devin Booker would've arguably been at the top. However, a year in which the Suns reached the NBA Finals made a difference for Booker's career (he had gone five seasons without entering the postseason).
Not making the NBA Playoffs for an entire career is a sentence that yells mediocrity, but that isn't the case. Some players simply ran into troubled franchises, injuries or other circumstances that simply did not allow them to reach the first step towards an NBA title.
In this article, we will have a look at the top 5 players in NBA history who never made it to the NBA Playoffs and active players who have also been unable to do so so far.
Without further ado, let us start.
#5 Clark Kellogg
Clark Kellogg's NBA career looked like one that would be talked about for many years to come after a solid rookie campaign with the Indiana Pacers in the 1982-83 season.
The Pacers had drafted Kellogg eighth overall in 1982, and he delivered 20.1 points and 10.6 rebounds per game as a rookie. Terry Cummings took the Rookie of the Year award in that season, but Kellogg finished second ahead of James Worthy.
The power forward gave Indiana two more solid seasons in 1983-84 and 1984-85, playing roughly every regular-season game and putting up 18 points and nine rebounds per match.
However, knee issues started to bother him in the 1985-86 season, in which he only played 19 games. Then, Kellogg played just four games before retiring at the end of the 1986-87 season.
He appeared in 260 NBA games before retiring, and posted averages of 18.9 points and 9.5 rebounds per game in his career. However, injuries kept him away from the court and also away from postseason action.
#4 Geoff Petrie
Geoff Petrie was definitely a great guard during the early 1970s, and he was probably destined for good success in the league. He managed to achieve some accolades though, as Petrie won the Rookie of the Year award at the end of the 1970-71 NBA season, tied with Hall-of-Famer Dave Cowens.
He was also an All-Star in his rookie year, and made it back to the ASG in his fourth NBA season.
However, Petrie could not add much to his resume, as knee injuries hindered his playing career and put an end to it. Petrie played in 446 NBA games with the Portland Trail Blazers before being traded in 1976 to the Atlanta Hawks.
He did not play a single minute for Atlanta after multiple knee surgeries kept him off the court. Petrie retired as a 27-year-old without a postseason appearance, while the Blazers went on to win the title in their first year without him.
#3 Tom Van Arsdale
No player has appeared in as many NBA games without making the NBA Playoffs as Tom Van Arsdale, with 929 regular-season appearances.
Van Arsdale played in the NBA from 1965 to 1977, and he played for five different teams. He earned three All-Star selections in his career, the most by a player who never appeared in the postseason.
Moreover, Van Arsdale scored 14,232 career points, which is also a record for an NBA athlete who never reached the playoffs with his team. The wing player averaged 15 points and four rebounds per game in his NBA career, and averaged over 20 points per game a couple of times in his career.
#2 Brandon Ingram
By this point in his NBA career, Brandon Ingram should've been in the NBA Playoffs at least twice. The first one should've come in the 2018-19 season, when he had LeBron James as a teammate in the LA Lakers' organization, and last year, when the New Orleans Pelicans had one of the most promising young rosters in the league.
It simply shows that there are no guarantees in the NBA, as injuries got in the way of the 2018-19 LA Lakers and bad defense hindered last year's Pelicans. Ingram could be off this list after the upcoming season, but nothing is certain.
Ingram has been in the NBA for five full seasons, with the LA Lakers and New Orleans Pelicans, and he's been named to one All-Star Game and won a Most Improved Player award.
In his career (313 games), Ingram averages 17.8 points and five rebounds per game with 46/36/75 shooting splits.
#1 Zach LaVine
Zach LaVine would not like to be first on such a list, but he might be off this one after the 2021-22 NBA season, especially seeing the construction of the Chicago Bulls heading into the upcoming campaign.
LaVine will be playing in his eighth NBA season next year, and he is already 20th among players who have appeared in most regular-season games without playing in the postseason.
He had no hope of entering the NBA Playoffs during his first three seasons with the Minnesota Timberwolves, while his Chicago Bulls were two games away from entering last year's Play-In tournament for a chance at entering the first round of the NBA Playoffs.
With LaVine already earning an All-Star spot and becoming one of the best and most efficient scorers in the league, it might be a matter of time before the Bulls make the postseason with LaVine and Nikola Vucevic as the core and DeMar DeRozan and Lonzo Ball alongside them.
Also read: 3 reasons why Zion Williamson probably won't win an NBA title with the New Orleans Pelicans
