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The List: Five worst decisions in sports history
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Posted by: min0 lee
The List: Five worst decisions in sports history | FanNation
The List: Five worst decisions in sports history
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Posted by: Josh Zembik04:55 PM ET 12.22 SHARE
Sam Bowie was great in college. In the NBA? Not so much.
Manny Millan/SI
Not that a lot of you saw it, but by now you've almost certainly read about 46-year old Evander Holyfield dancing circles around the 7-foot Nicolay Valuev Saturday in Zurich. By almost anyone's scoring, Holyfield won the fight, outmoving and outpunching the WBA champion, who spent most of the fight planted in the center of the ring. Still, when the judges' scores were announced, Valuev held on to his belt by a majority decision.
Whether it's a judges' decision, the offseason or the middle of a game, the hot stove league or the Olympics, sports are about decisions. Do you bunt or hit-and-run? Do you actually kick the field goal or go for the fake? The overwhelming majority of these decisions go unnoticed (things like the slight infield shift that pays off), but sometimes they go wrong: colossally, awe-inspiringly wrong. Here's our list of the top five worst decisions in sports history:
1. Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan: Yes, you can justify taking Hakeem Olajuwon with the first overall pick of the 1984 draft. The Hall of Famer led the Rockets to two championships and is the only player in the top 10 in NBA history in blocks, rebounds, points and steals. What you can't justify, though, is taking Bowie over Jordan, as the Blazers did one pick later. Not a good decision.
2. Park Si-Hun over Roy Jones, Jr. at the 1988 Olympics: Jones, Jr. absolutely overwhelmed Park Si-Hun in the 156-pound gold medal match in Soeul. The South Korean took a standing eight count in the second round, and landed just 32 punches to Jones' 86, yet still won gold, three votes to two. Four months later, those three judges were banned for two years. Despite the loss, Jones was voted the best stylistic boxer at the Olympic Games.
3. "The Trade": As legend has it, Jimmy Johnson conceived the idea of trading Herschel Walker during a morning jog. In a deal involving 18 players and draft picks, the Cowboys sent their star running back to the Vikings, who viewed him as the missing piece in their Super Bowl puzzle. While the picks Dallas received turned into Emmitt Smith, Darren Woodson and the cornerstone of their own three Super Bowl wins, Walker never had a 1,000-yard season for the Vikings and never won a playoff game in Minnesota.
4. Everything the Red Sox did from 1918-2004: We could do a top five list just based on the Red Sox of yore, but we're going to throw those Boston Dark Ages all under one umbrella. So here we go. For starters, they sold Babe Ruth to finance a musical; they left Bill Buckner (non-functioning knees and all) at first base when they had a defensive replacement ready in Game 6 of the '86 Series; and they traded Jeff Bagwell for Larry Andersen. Oh, and you've also got Grady Little leaving Pedro in for the eighth inning of the '03 ALCS when he was running on fumes.
5. Babe Ruth caught stealing to end the World Series: To get away from personnel moves (and the Red Sox) for a moment, we go back to Babe Ruth. Although he looks fleet of foot in choppy old newsreels, Ruth was only successful on 50 percent of his stolen base attempts for his career. That makes it all the stranger that, trailing by one run in the bottom of the ninth of Game 7 of the 1926 World Series, Ruth took off for second base. Ruth said he thought no one would expect him to steal, but the Cardinals seemed ready enough. To this day, the 1926 World Series is the only Fall Classic to end with a runner caught stealing.
What other awful decisions stand out as all-timers? Let us know below...
Posted by: soxmuscle
First thing that came to my head was Grady Little in '03.
Posted by: min0 lee
The Mets trading Seaver, get him back and then only to lose him again in the compensation draft to the Chicago White Sox
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