Thread: Biggest waste of talent in sports?

Mike Tyson without a doubt, he routinely throws away his career and life. I don't know if you can throw Ki-Jana Carter and Andy Katzenmoyer in there, they didn't waste their talent they just had horrible injuries. It's hard to come back from a torn ACL and a broken neck, they just had bad luck. I think Glenn Robinson could get added to this list, Ryan Leaf as well.

there isnt much of a career to throw away, his career ended when his jail sentence begun !

Tyson definately. With real discipline he could have been unstoppable for as long as he wanted.

Originally Posted by BigBallaGA

there isnt much of a career to throw away, his career ended when his jail sentence begun !

agreed.

Originally Posted by Sean0621

I don't know if you can throw Ki-Jana Carter and Andy Katzenmoyer in there, they didn't waste their talent they just had horrible injuries. It's hard to come back from a torn ACL and a broken neck, they just had bad luck.

I agree with that Sean. I would classify them as 'busts' thru no fault of their own. A classic example would be Archie Manning. A stunningly great QB who played all (or at least most) of his career with the pathetic New Orleans Saints. If he had played for Dallas or Oakland in those days, he would be in the Hall of Fame today. He was a bust, but thru no fault of his own.

Originally Posted by JerseyDevil

I agree with that Sean. I would classify them as 'busts' thru no fault of their own. A classic example would be Archie Manning. A stunningly great QB who played all (or at least most) of his career with the pathetic New Orleans Saints. If he had played for Dallas or Oakland in those days, he would be in the Hall of Fame today. He was a bust, but thru no fault of his own.

That's more a squandering of talent by a team. Like Barry Sanders the greatest running back of his time maybe all-time and the Lions still could barely keep themselves above .500 half the time. I believe I watched him rush for over 200 yards in a game a couple times and they still got blown out. There's many examples of this, like how about Tony Gwynn, who retired in the .330's in batting average, and the Padres never had a winning season while they had him. You see that going on all the time, great players on horrible teams. I guess there's a difference between a great athlete and a great leader though. Dan Marino broke all the QB records and never won a Super Bowl, he is statistically the best QB ever to play the game, too bad he couldn't win though. He was a great athlete, but probably not in the same caliber of leadership as Joe Montana.

Len Bias. Drugs destroyed an awesome talent.

Ryan Leaf was another one.

I gotta vote for Jeff George on this one.

Originally Posted by JerseyDevil

Ryan Leaf was another one.

Just noticed he was already mentioned...

How about Andre Ware, or Ron Dayne?

Eric Lindros

I vote on Lindros as well. I couldn't put Tyson in there because at least he dominated for years before he bit it, so he wasn't a total bust.

What about Kwame Brown ?

Add Ricky Williams to the list....

Originally Posted by JerseyDevil

Who gets your vote as the biggest waste of talent, or who was the worst 'bust' in athletics?

This reminds of that LA Dodgers pitchter in the 1980s that tested positive for drugs 6 times or so. What was his name? He said it cost him about 7 millin dollars or so.....

Welch? Steve Welch?

Ray Carruth gets the vote for the dumbest decision ever made.

From NFL to 20 years in prison.

This dude f*cked up, man.....loser.