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#1
11-21-2006, 06:57 PM
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What athletes have actually lived up to hype?
Stories of busts in professional sports are a dime a dozen. But how many athletes have had huge expectations put on them and actually delivered when they made it to the big leagues? Obviously example #1 would be LeBron, predicted to be the best player in the NBA while he was still in high school, and if he's not currently the best player in the NBA, he's certainly on anyone's top 5 list.
What are some other examples? Obviously I'm not talking about someone like Albert Pujols, who seemed to come out of nowhere and become a hitting god. I'm talking about players who, when before they were pros, were thrown into the hype machine and actually delivered once they got into the professional leagues. Basically I'm looking for players who a) were almost unanimously labeled by everyone as 'can't miss' going into the pros, and b) actually lived up to all the hype. Examples I'd be thinking of would be Lebron, Shaq, Griffey, A-Rod. Bad examples would be Mike Piazza (not hyped at all), or maybe Mark Prior (hyped as 'can't miss', but his career has been too spotty to claim to have lived up to that). 
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#5
11-21-2006, 07:05 PM
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Re: What athletes have actually lived up to hype?
Tiger Woods is an even better example than Peyton and James.
Tiger Woods has lived up to every hype ever made, which is pretty incredible considering how much he was hyped. Before he even turned pro, people were talking about Nicklaus's record. Although he hasn't broken the record yet, I think it's fair to say that his accomplishments so far (50+ PGA wins, 12 majors) have lived up to what he was supposed to be.
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#6
11-21-2006, 07:06 PM
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Re: What athletes have actually lived up to hype?
[ QUOTE ]
I don't really follow football, but was he really touted as 'the next great quarterback' coming out of college? [/ QUOTE ] I believe he was called (by some) the best QB prospect in the history of the NFL draft. Of course, Ryan Leaf was pretty high up there also.
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#7
11-21-2006, 07:08 PM
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Re: What athletes have actually lived up to hype?
[ QUOTE ]
Not a lot of people on these boards care about hockey, but Sidney Crosby is a prime example. [/ QUOTE ] I was too young at the time. But based on his record in the juniors, I'd imagine that Gretzky had a ton of hype coming into the NHL.
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#8
11-21-2006, 07:09 PM
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Re: What athletes have actually lived up to hype?
Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemiuex
Gretzky might be the bext example of them all. He's the consensus #1 player of all time, and was considered a prodigy from the age of 4 or whatever all the way until he hit the NHL.
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#9
11-21-2006, 07:10 PM
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Re: What athletes have actually lived up to hype?
[ QUOTE ]
I don't really follow football, but was he really touted as 'the next great quarterback' coming out of college? [/ QUOTE ] He was touted such coming out of High School. LBJ is an obvious choice, same with Tiger.
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