Poll: Which athlete wasted the most talent?

Glenn "Big Dog" Robinson.... Had as much talent as Larry Bird, but the Big Dog absolutely refused to move without the ball. Just pissed me smooth the F-off.. with the way he played. The game didn't begin until the ball touched Big Dog's hands.

And, Bubbler, my boy should be right there with Elway and Marino and Montana. He certainly had that kind of talent. But the man did throw for 27,000 yards in the league. He was rookie of the year. He threw 29-9 one year in Oaktown. Jeff George was not a bust.

 

Good call, he could have been one of the best defencemen of all time.

 

My first thought was Thomas 'Hollywood' Henderson.
But, Duane Thomas was fun to watch...for a time.

 

Not a total bust but someone who pissed away talent, for various reasons... Theo Fleury.

 

4) Rae Carruth - I was so convinced the Panthers had pulled a coup getting this guy so late in the first round in '96. Then he got scared, and took out someone for his actions. Sad.

3) Doc Gooden - That magical year ('84, I think), that hummin' fastball, the filthy curveball, then drugs and other crap. Ugh.

2) Len Bias - I wasn't even a teenager, and his death hit like a ton of bricks. And I wasn't even within a couple hundred miles of College Park. I was at a pretty good age to get a decent grip on what drug use could do to someone.

1) David Thompson - To hear all the old tales spun about the Atlantic Coast Conference, it was said that if Thompson hadn't messed up his pro career with drugs, Michael Jordan would have been "the next David Thompson." Given the hyperbole that always surrounds Jordan - particularly with non-media types and given where I'm front - that's pretty heady stuff.

 

In the hockey category, I agree with Huggy about Bryan Fogarty. He broke Bobby Orr's Ontario Hockey League goals and points records for defencemen, records that may never be broken. He scored 47 goals and 155 points in 60 games with Niagara Falls in 1988-89, followed by a 12-year pro career that saw him wear 20 different uniforms and score only 22 goals and 74 points in 156 NHL games.

Mats Sundin, who played with Bryan in Quebec, once said something to the effect of Bryan could skate faster and shoot the puck harder while he was drunk than the rest of the Nordiques could while they could sober. Unfortunately, he couldn't skate fast enough to outrun the bottle, and it cost him not only his career but also his life. RIP, Bryan.

I'd also like to throw in Jimmy Carson, the second youngest player ever to score 50 goals in one NHL season. He scored 141 goals in his first three years in the league and 134 in his next seven, after which he packed it in. I don't think he ever had problems with substance abuse -- he just didn't give a shit.

 

David Thompson, for those of us who saw him at NC State, was a talent. I will never forget when he was with the Denver Nuggets and cried after losing to Dr. J's New Jersey Nets. The Doc, who had a lot of braggadocio, asked the reporters "What is he crying for?"
Anyway, can you really say that he wasted his talent? He is in the Hall of Fame. He may have wasted money, but I'm not so sure about the talent part.

 

He might have been the greatest pitcher ever if not for all the crap. That, to me, constitutes a serious waste of talent.

 

I vote for Bias, first and foremost. An old cliche, but he could have been MJ beofre MJ was truly MJ.

Another NBA washout: Marvin Barnes could have been a force, if not for the coke.

Lawrence Phillips threw a lot of potential rushing titles away by being a complete fucking knucklehead.

 

Before I thought of Gooden, the name Brien Taylor popped into my head.

Here's a great story by Wayne Coffey, who caught up with Brien Taylor's family and some of his 'friends'. Sad.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/story/431725p-363842c.html

 

Good point. Moral of the story: Never bust your pitching hand in a barroom fight.

 

I learned that from "Bull Durham."