Poll: Which athlete wasted the most talent?

Nobody mentioned Michael Ray Richardson?

Damn

 

A definite talent. Studdered like a motherfucker but gave great quotes such as, "the ship be sinkin!"

 

David Thompson had a great first six years with Denver, then fell off a cliff his seventh and was out of the NBA before he was 30. If he hadn't played in the cocaine era (Terry Pluto's "Loose Balls" tells a good story on how other players hooked Thompson, a "follower," on coke), Thompson would be remembered as better than Jordan. The 1976 ABA slam dunk contest basically was a matchup between Dr. J and Thompson, who might not have originated the 360 dunk, but who became most associated with it.

Good calls, too, on Duane Thomas and Jimmy Carson. Enormous talents who were also smart people, in some ways too smart (in a cynical way) to be pro athletes. At least they had a few decent seasons, unlike Joe Barry Carroll, aka Joe Barely Cares.

Also, for you skateboarding types, I'll add Christian Hosoi.

 

JBC is the ONLY ATHLETE that I covered who had his own "houseboy."

 

Josh Hamilton

 

Charles Rogers. Weed made him dumber than ever.

 

You ... cannot ... be ... serious.

If you're going to argue Jeff George's numbers versus Glenn Robinson as an all-time bust, then lets post Robinson's numbers for posterity.

Robinson had 14,232 career points and averaged 20.7 points per game over his career in a low-scoring era.

Did Robinson turn into a soft, eventually one-dimensional jump shooter? Unquestionably. Is he disappointing based on where he was drafted? Believe me, I'm a Bucks fan, and hell yes he was.

But Robinson is a lot closer to the NBA version George than you'd care to admit. And Robinson was never quite the divisive character George was, particularly in George's Indy days.

That dog don't hunt at all, JW.

 

Some folks would tell you that the kid the D-Rays signed, the youngster from the Bayou, should be on the list. But it's hard to say with him.

I think there are a lot of great athletes who never even gained widespread notoriety because they bombed so early in their lives. I went to high school with a kid who was all-area in three sports for three years. He was signed by the Mariners as a shortstop, passed on that and signed with the a Big Ten school as a wide receiver. He left school before ever playing a game and then went the JUCO route hoping to make his name as a basketball player. He was an incredible specimen, but he wasn't made for basketball, nor was he made for school. The kid was dumb as a brick. He was academically ineligible for most of the team's games. When he did play, he was so far out of sync that he was just a body off the bench.

The last time I saw him, he delivered my mattress. I don't think I'll ever meet a more athletically talented furniture delivery guy. Had he signed with Seattle, he would have earned more than $100,000, which is probably more than he earned in five years after leaving junior college. The saddest part is that he just didn't have a lot of role models. His uncle was a gym rat who won bodybuilding awards. But his uncle is now in prison after hiring someone, who turned out to be an undercover cop, to kill his ex-wife.

 

Marcus Dupree.

 

Are you talking about Toe Nash?

 

He didn't exactly waste his talent, but did few have ever fallen further faster than Shawn Kemp. He was unbelievable in the early-mid 90's, but he got old, fat and slow amazingly quickly.

 

Give the kid a break. He got injured. How is that a waste of talent?