Biggest Waste of Talent in Sports History?

[oe39]

len bias

[Colt McCoy]

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Lloyd Daniels (Swee'pea)

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Great answer.

[Cortz]

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I nominate Mike Tyson

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Eh, he was only the undisputed heavyweight champ for like three years. If you want to talk boxing champs that never lived up, look at Leon Spinks.

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How about Tommy Morrison? AIDS FTL

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tommy morrison was 1 of the most overrated in his time, if he wasnt white nobody would have known who he was...(for ex: if he was black hes just an average fighter)

[ChuckyB]

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Tony Ayala Jr

Cecil "The Diesel" Collins

Lawrence Phillips

-Marat Safin
-Pacman Jones is well on his way

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These are very good. I remember Sampras saying that Safin would be the best in the world for a long time.

[thedarknight]

Marat is not that MUCH of a waste, he did win 2 majors. Someone more fitting would be Marcelo Rios.

No one's mentioned Michelle Wie?

[nutshot2]

Looking over Gooden's career numbers, one thing struck me:

He pitched for 15-16 years, and his highest strikeout total was in his rookie season. This has to be extremely rare for a starter who's pitched for, say, 10 or 15 seasons in the bigs.

I'm not sure how to look up something like that, other than manually going through every player in baseball history...which at this point, I don't have time for.

Nowadays, this is almost impossible, since teams bring most hotshot rookies up midseason, start them in the pen and work their way into the rotation, or limit their innings early on.

Thoughts on how rare this might be, for a guy who's pitched >10 or 15 seasons in the bigs?

(Gooden's stats: http://www.baseball-reference.com/g/goodedw01.shtml)

[bernie]

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If you want to talk boxing champs that never lived up, look at Leon Spinks.

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Lived up to what? He's never been considered a great heavyweight. It's a joke he ever won the title.

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[TheNoodleMan]

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No one's mentioned Michelle Wie?

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While we are at it, lets include the Aggasi/Graf baby. Kid hasn't even won a match at Wimbledon.

[bernie]

If you're going to put Tyson in there I'd rather put Randy Moss, TO, Ricky Williams and Ryan Leaf in there.

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[Ralph Wiggum]

Wie's on her way, but really young. Safin also had immense talent, could've been great. She doesn't really belong in this list, but Serena Williams should own women's tennis like Roger owns men's. Reggie Lewis wasn't that talented.

Out of current NBA players, I'm going w/ Darko Milicic (still young), Kwame Brown & Darius Miles. All 3 of these guys have the talent to be perennial all-star studs.