Jud Buechler may be the greatest overachiever on this list. The man managed to carve a twelve year career out of his skill-set after being a second round pick by the Seattle SuperSonics. He was immediately traded to the New Jersey Nets, and in exchange the Nets promised not to draft Dennis Scott or Gary Payton. The Nets ended up drafting Derrick Coleman. But then the Sonics got two conditional second round picks from the Orlando Magic in exchange for not drafting Dennis Scott, so the Sonics really ended up the big winners on this one.
Anyway, let's get back to Buechler, the forward out of Arizona, who was actually part of a fairly stacked second round in that draft as it also included Antonio Davis, Cedric Ceballos, and future teammate, Toni Kukoc. But Buechler managed to stay under the radar as a bench player during the first half of his career, playing for the Nets, Spurs, and Warriors. His best statistical season was in 1992-93 when he set career highs with 6.2 points, 2.8 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 0.7 steals, and 0.3 blocks per game.
Before the 1994-95 season, he signed on with the Jordan-less Chicago Bulls to keep up his bench contributions for a new team. Of course, there was a surprise coming in 1995 when Jordan rejoined the team. Although they did not win a title that first year, Jordan's return would bring the Bulls championships the following three years, and Buechler was a man along for the ride.
During the Bulls second threepeat, Buechler filled his responsibility of backup wing player. He took up minutes during the regular season without anything flashy stats wise, but that didn't mean he didn't have an impact as the man used his Volleyball skills to POSTERIZE FOOLS.
Watch out, Jim McIlvaine, AIR BUECHLER IS COMING THROUGH.
During the playoffs, Buechler filled his same role. They found minutes for him in nearly every game, and he played competently. His playoff high was seven points, so htere isn't a ton to write about in regards to his contributions. But there is one thing that he did continually improve in, and that is his number of trillions, a game where a player logs minutes but does put up anything else in the box score. He had one trillion during 96, two trillions during 97, and an amazing seven different trillion games in 1998.
And that is where we get to Buechler's most important contribution to the National Basketball Association, Buechler retired as the all time leader in trillions, logging in 55 games with minutes played, but nothing else. I think it's fitting that Buechler's most memorable contribution was his lack of contribution.
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