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Saddest waste of talent

if you want to talk about careers cut prematurely short, well, then:

Sandy Koufax. Ted Williams (imagine what he would have done had he not gone into the army!). Grant Hill. Brett Lindros. Pelle Lindbergh. Drazen Petrovich. Bo Jackson. Roberto Clemente. Thurmon Munson.
 
cherokee parks. mr. everything out of of cali. in high school. now-nba scrub. of course i'm just a little biased. he did go to dook. does anyone remember chuck long from iowa? he makes the list. heath shuler for sure.renaldo neamiah should've remained a trackstar,not a footbal player.if T.O. continues to act like a jackass,he'll go to the top of the list. tony mandarich from michigan st. any heisman winner it seems.
 
BG5150 said:
if you want to talk about careers cut prematurely short, well, then:

Sandy Koufax. Ted Williams (imagine what he would have done had he not gone into the army!). Grant Hill. Brett Lindros. Pelle Lindbergh. Drazen Petrovich. Bo Jackson. Roberto Clemente. Thurmon Munson.
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Clemente, wow, how was he not mentioned yet.
 
How about Lawrence Phillips?

That kid had some mad skills. Too bad he pissed it away. Got arrested again yesterday for domestic battery.
 
jmh80 said:
How about Lawrence Phillips?

That kid had some mad skills. Too bad he pissed it away. Got arrested again yesterday for domestic battery.
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Yeah bro I can't believe he's turned out this way. He also sold his Big 12 championship ring for $20 outside of Vegas so he can put gas in his car. Sad to hear he still beats up women. I'll always remember him for being the man who missed the block on Aenas Williams that cost Steve Young his career.
 
jmh80 said:
How about Lawrence Phillips?

That kid had some mad skills. Too bad he pissed it away. Got arrested again yesterday for domestic battery.
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And ran into three teenagers after a pick up football game. Beating people up is apparently all he's good for anymore.
 
nfl

kerry collins- quit panthers in 1998 and told dom capers "his heart wasn't in it"- great qb skill-wise, just prone to mental breakdowns

derek ross- played w/ this guy in h.s. and i am friends w/ his brother- any ohio state fans out there? he is on ohio state wall of fame- drafted 3rd round by cowboys in 2002- 6 picks, on nfl all-rookie team, next year gets hurt and gets in arguments w/ parcells, gets sent to 3 different teams after, gets arrested for trafficking 25 lbs. of weed on sat.

tim biakabatuka- heck of a nice guy, BUT wasa 1st round draft pick, never gained more than 600 yards in a season

jason peter- another 1st round pick, was hurt constantly and never did **** in the nfl

these are just off the top of my head
 
lifted said:
Boxing- Lennox Lewis...he retired WAY too early.
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Really? I disagree. I think he's one of the few champions that had the pride to retire at the right time. I mean the man was 39 years old. He could have easily came back for money, but just like Marciano he cared more about his legacy. If he would have rematched Vitali, he imo would have lost. Now, if you want to talk about a colossal waste of talent that would have to be Andrew Golota. He had everything it took to be a great heavyweight champ. He had power, strength, head movement, speed. He had all the elements to be possibly one of the greatest heavyweights of the last 20 years. Yet, because he was mentally unstable he got DQ'd in the Bowe Fights (after beating him easily), and quit against Grant and Tyson. He still provided us with many entertaining moments though.
 
There was a dude drafted 3rd overall by the celtics and died that night of a crack overdose. I cant remember his name.


Edit- Len Bias was his name.
 
anabolicrhino said:
Derrick Coleman- no big man had more skills and no player ever cared less:sad:
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I think Stanley Roberts(the guy that made Shaq sit on the bench at LSU) qualifies as the most talented big man who pissed everything away
 
...or maybe Roy Tarpley(North Carolina's best after Jordan and Worthy),but that was drugs( ncaa all-american / nba all-crack )
 
Another one is Ben Grieve former rookie of the year with the Oakland A's the was great for 1 year, got traded and was never heard from again.
 
Iron Warrior said:
Another one is Ben Grieve former rookie of the year with the Oakland A's the was great for 1 year, got traded and was never heard from again.
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I think a ROY list could be an entirely new thread.
 
Yeah, what ever happened to Tim Salmon or Travis Lee, a couple of ROY that come to mind, but never did much.
 
natedogg said:
Yeah, what ever happened to Tim Salmon or Travis Lee, a couple of ROY that come to mind, but never did much.
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Tim Salmon had a decent career w/ almost 300 HR and 1000 RBI, but Travis Lee is a good one. How about Todd Hollandsworth or Raul Mondesi.
 
Grmlock said:
Tim Salmon had a decent career w/ almost 300 HR and 1000 RBI, but Travis Lee is a good one. How about Todd Hollandsworth or Raul Mondesi.
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Really, never heard much from the guy (Salmon). Mondesi had a decent career with the Dodgers, but he needs to give it up now. Hollandsworth is a good one. Travis Lee wasn't a ROY, but he was supposed to be the next big home run hitter (22 in his rookie year). He's been on 3 different teams in the past 3 years. Here's a little write up during his first year in the league (1998).

"Made jump to majors after just one season in the minors ... Finished 3rd in NL Rookie of the Year balloting behind Kerry Wood and Todd Helton ... Led NL rookies in walks (67); finished 2nd in HR (22), on-base % (.346) and total bases (241); 3rd in runs (71), hits (151), multi-hit games (40) and slugging % (.429) ... Had 1st major league hit March 31 vs. COL's Darryl Kile - 1st in Diamondbacks history ... Hit 1st ML HR in same game (Kile) in 6th - 1st HR, RBI and run in Diamondbacks history ... Hit 2 HR twice, June 13 vs. STL and June 26 vs. SEA ... Had 5 RBI twice, June 13 vs. STL and Sept. 14 vs. SF ... Strained left groin during rundown July 24 at LA ... On DL July 25-Aug. 8 ... His 3 errors were 2nd-lowest total among NL 1st basemen, behind only J.T. Snow."

Pretty good for a rookie.
 
All of the above are definitely good candidates.

For a good list of "sad waste of talent" for football you can simply look back on the Bengal's first round picks for '90's and early '00's
 
natedogg said:
Barry Sanders gave up way too soon. Imagine if he hadn't retired. I would almost guarantee he would have passed, no obliterated Walter Payton's rushing record and Emmitt Smith would be sitting in a distant 2nd place. One of the most exciting players I have ever watched play the game.
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I think Barry could have finished his career with atleast 18000 rushing yards alone. Never really recall him having a major injury.

I would say that Penny Hardaway never lived up to his potential either. I mean when you have one of the greatest players in his prime at the time, state that are you the closest to him as in playing style and talent and you may not even make to the hall of fame is just a tragedy.

And don't even get me on most overhyped players. Can anyone say Micheal Vick, David Carr, Harold Minor and others?
 
He was exciting but, if it was fourth and one and you really needed a yard. Would Barry be the first choice? Give me Walter or Emmit any day!
 
anabolicrhino said:
He was exciting but, if it was fourth and one and you really needed a yard. Would Barry be the first choice? Give me Walter or Emmit any day!
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I'd like Jim Brown in that situation. Good point on Barry Sanders because as good as he was going foreward, he still had the most carries for a loss in NFL history. This doesn't make him a bad player at all but just not someone I'd feel 100% comfortable with on 4th & 1
 
az2u said:
Sterling Sharpe
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actually i agree

his stats for his final 3 years:
108rec 1461 13.5 13TDs
112rec 1274 11.4 11TDs
94rec 1119 11.9 18TDs

*keep in mind 100balls is a lot, Michael Irvin caught 100 only once. Andre Rison never. Jerry Rice only 4. Art Monk only once. Cris Carter only 2 times. Tim Brown only once. Herman Moore 3, surprisingly.
 
Sterling Sharpe

One of my all time favorite players. Sterling Sharpe one of the first anabolic receivers. He had a combination of power and speed that had never been seen before at the wide out position. His end arounds were like a power sweep, DB's always got up a little slower after trying to tackle him. He was devastating blocker with soft hands to boot. It was sad that his injury coinsided with Brett Favre and the Packers rise to championship form. He was doing the Terrell Owens show ten years ago, only at a higher level of both playing and talking on the field. I also preferred him to Michael Irvin on ESPN countdown. Nobody ever looked better wearing a bright mustard colored suit.
 
anabolicrhino said:
It was sad that his injury coinsided with Brett Favre and the Packers rise to championship form. He was doing the Terrell Owens show ten years ago, only at a higher level of both playing and talking on the field. I also preferred him to Michael Irvin on ESPN countdown. Nobody ever looked better wearing a bright mustard colored suit.
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Great points, I heard that bogus crap theory too that his injury made Favre and the Packers better because they were forced to spread the ball around. There's no way a team becomes better by losing a great player, it was all a coincidence like you stated.
 
Grmlock said:
By this I mean players that had several standout years or seemingly endless potential but injuries derailed their careers not drugs/alcohol, etc
NFL-Gale Sayers, Terrell Davis
NHL-Mario Lemieux(the worst of all), Mike Bossy, Eric Lindros
MLB-Ken Griifey, Jr., but nothing else comes to mind...
NBA-Jayson Williams, Jason Williams(Duke standout), Bobby Hurley

The saddest story is without a doubt Mario Lemieux;the guy was BETTER than Gretzky, but between cancer,back problems,etc he just didnt have thesame impact as 99
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Almost every Duke BBall player...

Danny Ferry, Chris Laetner, Bobby Hurley, Grant Hill...Its actaully quite surprising that such a powerhouse college pogram has never produced a true superstar the way others did..(ie NC, UCLA, Georgetown) Grant Hill is the closest and hes been pretty plagued by injuries.
 
Iron Warrior said:
Great points, I heard that bogus crap theory too that his injury made Favre and the Packers better because they were forced to spread the ball around. There's no way a team becomes better by losing a great player, it was all a coincidence like you stated.
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No coinicidence, just that the other players pick up there game to pick up the slack IMO.
 
I'll have to agree on Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway - could've been much better if he didn't get injured several times. He was the first to start the "tall point guard" stream.
 
There was this kid that graduated from the same school that I graduated from but he graduated 4 years after i did, his name was Ray Williams. The kid had amazing football talent, then got sent to jail for murder, the kid was just simply amazing, pure talent... what a waste of pure talent and he could have gone anywhere for college until he got into trouble w/ the law... this happened 2 years ago I believe, he was Mr. Football of Ohio.
 
Id like to say dan marino and ray borque, not becasue they threw it away, but bc borque spent the majority of his career on piss poor teams and marino never won a championship.

And also I think the largest wastes of talent never make it to the pros or even college.
 
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