Biggest Waste of Talent in Sports History?

[mo42nyy]

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I guess Jordan would fall under "Waste of the biggest talent", not "biggest waste of talent."

But you gotta admit, for the best in the world at anything to just quit for 2 years is a huge waste of their talent. Physically, you've only got about 15 precious years to perform in that kind of arena.

And I don't consider Gooden/Strawberry as huge wastes of talent, either. They both had extremely solid careers and won rings. Ricky Williams is an enigma of colossal proportions.

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So Jordan taking 2 years out to play baseball and still being the best player ever is a waste of talent, but Gooden falls 90% short of what he could have been because he stuffed his career up his nose and thats not a waste?

[onlinebeginner]

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Len Bias.

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[Pudge714]

IRT Tony Mandarich cycling off roids doesn't equal wasting talent.
Barry Sanders and Jim Brown had very little of there prime left so people overrate what they would have done if they stayed.
Pacman could be a good answer in a couple years.

[jah7_fsu1]

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I read "Biggest Waste of Talent in Sports History" A guy who was the best player in his sport bar none WASTED 2yrs of his prime playing baseball this is EASILY the BIGGEST WASTE OF TALENT IN SPORTS HISTORY.

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I guess I don't consider Ali, Jordan, even Tyson really people who achieved a lot of success as wastes of talent just because they achieved a bit less than possible. Some guy who had all the talent in the world and blew it on drugs, or had an unfortuante injury or accident seems to fit the bill more in my opinion. I don't really consider Jordan/Ali etc not being able to achieve as much as they possibly could have as big wastes of talent really.

[TalkingDonkey]

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Mark Kerr seems like a good MMA choice.

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Kerr was once the most dominant fighter on the planet. I enter Kevin Randleman - unlimited athleticism and ability, but refused to ever crosstrain or learn anything about the fight game.

[SuperUberBob]

This seems to be turning into the biggest busts ever rather than anything else.

Though how about Carl Pavano? He had that one big season, got a fat contract and has been injured forever. Rich Harden is starting to slip as well.

[bugstud]

stanley roberts is such a great answer.

[Oski]

World War II

[Kintamayama]

Another vote for Roy Tarpley.

[dgratz]