Poll: Which athlete wasted the most talent?

Doc Gooden and it's not even close. He should have been the greatest pitcher of his generation. A generation that included Roger Clemens and Greg Maddux. The guy had unbelievable stuff when he came up.

Strawberry was very, very good but I don't think he would have been as dominant as an everyday player as Gooden would have been as a pitcher.

Some would say that Tyson didn't waste his talent. He reached the pinnacle of his sport and was already on his way down before he went to prison.

 

Aaron Pryor

Bryan Fogerty

 

Oh man, the best names would be the ones the vast majority here has never heard of.
Those high school kids who had superstar written all over them and never developed.
Or ended up in prison or dead or both.

 

Given the drug prerequisite, how about David Thompson?

 

As someone who covered those Mets teams with Doc and Straw, it's easy to say that they wasted their talents. Some may even put Darryl Dawkins in the category of those who wasted their talents. Let's face it, these guys became as good as they wanted to become. It's easy to say coulda, woulda and shoulda. Way too easy.

 

Cecil Collins belongs on that list. Guy could have won the Heisman.
Ralph Sampson pissed away an amazing amount of talent -- but I think it was more a case of him not really caring.
What about Lloyd Daniels? Was he really as good as all the hype around him?

 

Ellis, good point. I'll also add that DT was before my time, though.

And Armchair, Tyson did reach the pinnacle, but he could've been the best heavyweight of all-time. Instead he bent over for Buster Douglas, and it was all downhill.

Boots, Gooden had a couple great seasons but he should've been great for 15 years, barring injury.

 

Ummm ... it was more of a case of several knee injuries limiting Sampson to about 170 games in the final six seasons of his career. He averaged more than 20 points and 10 rebounds per game his first four seasons.

 

OK, my bad. Apologies to Ralph Sampson.

 

Oh, no apologies necessary. Sampson is a convicted felon and child-support dodger.

 

But he's a nice guy and his son is a helluva prospect in the Atlanta area.

 

Darryl Dawkins. No way a guy 6'11/250 pounds and that damn agile in the late 70s and early 80s should've had career averages of 12 points and six boards per game.