25 NBA Players Who Wasted the Most Talent

[Andrew]

Well as I said about Bias in the first post, it's a case where you can say it's a tremendous waste of life due to one fateful decision and unfortunate turn of events and beyond that you could perhaps say his talents went to waste as his untimely passing meant he never played in the NBA (as far as him being an NBA player for the sake of the list, well, he was drafted and was going to join the Celtics, so you could say he had made the NBA at that point). But it's a very different scenario to other players on the list.

Eliminating some of the players on that list who didn't exactly fail to live up to their potential and expectations, most of the players on the list make sense but in different ways and interpretations of the notion that they wasted their talents. As such, grouping them together and ranking them as they have done makes the list inconsistent. There's probably at least a couple of different lists in there rolled into one.

[Kenny]

Since it seems to be a list of cautionary tales, I'm surprised Chris Herren didn't make it on there. He was probably never going to be an All-Star, but he could have been a useful rotation player even to this day if he didn't develop a heroin addiction.

[_Steve_]

Herren should have been on that list instead of Steve Francis, considering the circumstances of how both have ended their Nba careers.

[benji]

Define "talent" first.

[_Steve_]

Touché!

[puddnheadwilson]

What about harold minor, Jonathon Bender, Stromile Swift, Patrick O'Bryant, Russell Cross, Melvin Turpin, Lancaster Gordon, Lawrence Moten, and last but not least Nikoloz Tskitishvili

I would say that Fizer was a bust if it were not for who drafted him. I think he was picked way too high!

[NovU]

Define "talent" first.

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[Andrew]

What about harold minor, Jonathon Bender, Stromile Swift, Patrick O'Bryant, Russell Cross, Melvin Turpin, Lancaster Gordon, Lawrence Moten, and last but not least Nikoloz Tskitishvili

I would say that Fizer was a bust if it were not for who drafted him. I think he was picked way too high!

It's not a list of busts, it's a list of players who one way or another wasted their talent.

[jettdaking!]

how bout Yao and his injuries? or Magic Johnson and his AIDS?

[Kenny]

I think you're kind of missing the point; the list is supposed to represent players who squandered their gifts. Magic Johnson is one of the all-time great players and Yao Ming's career came to an end because of injuries.

[NovU]

By the term "Most Talent", the first thing that comes to my mind is the player's ceiling.

For the case of Yao and Magic(even JR), I think there are enough evidence to assume/measure their level of greatness and maximum talent they could have reached. However, players like Jay Williams, we didn't even get to see even a glimpse of their true potential despite the hype.

I also acknowledge that the topic itself is quite subjective so I can't really fault anyone's list.

[Murat]

What did Steve Francis do?

wasted his 2 years at new york then gone away

[Stress Fracture]

Why is it Jay Williams is on the list? His career prematurely ended.

[_Steve_]

What did Steve Francis do?

wasted his 2 years at new york then gone away

'Cmon! He had two bad years. Even players like The Dream had thoses years in his career. Francis just sucked after his injury/ injuires. He never fully recoverd. But that is something different to putting out a gun and shot a mother of 4 children, getting addicted to heroin, taking an overdose of cocaine and die because of a heart attack, becoming fatter than the michelin guy etc. ... Francis, Yao and T-Mac just had tough luck at staying healthy.

[Andrew]

Why is it Jay Williams is on the list? His career prematurely ended.

Because the writer was kind of all over the place with his criteria.

[Cr0ss0v3rK1ng]

I agree with not classifying Terrence Williams yet, he was only a sophmore last season so he still has time. Also AI didn't really waste his talent he is one of the best scorers of all time arguably and Arenas still has time to recover, this list isn't exactly right.

[puddnheadwilson]

What about harold minor, Jonathon Bender, Stromile Swift, Patrick O'Bryant, Russell Cross, Melvin Turpin, Lancaster Gordon, Lawrence Moten, and last but not least Nikoloz Tskitishvili

I would say that Fizer was a bust if it were not for who drafted him. I think he was picked way too high!

It's not a list of busts, it's a list of players who one way or another wasted their talent.

O'Bryant was drafted 9th and had "issues".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_O%27Bryant

Don Nelson had critical words for him: "I told him if he goes down to the D-League and isn't a dominant player, there should be red flags all over the place, and he should be the first to notice. He's not only not dominating, he's not playing very well. He's a long-term project. I really liked him the first week of training camp, but I assumed there would be great progress. [...] He hasn't gotten better one bit."

In September, 2010, O'Bryant signed a contract with Fujian Xunxing of the Chinese Basketball Association, but he was later released because of poor performances in pre-season, as well as a reported lack of effort in practice.

Melvin Turpin would not lose weight or he would have had a decent career. He committed suicide.

[Andrew]

Again, that doesn't mean he wasted his talents. It just means his talents were overestimated when he was drafted.

[NovU]

Why is it Jay Williams is on the list? His career prematurely ended.

I don't see why not Jay Williams should NOT be on the list. The guy had upsides for sure. Being only 21 years old and he was destined to have a solid career imo. One could argue that he definitely wasted his career and talents from a motorcycle accident.

Besides Andrew's point, there are players who could have had longer career like Magic but I wouldn't say they completely wasted their talent since they have perhaps played up to(or close to) their full potential which also is somewhat of "utilized/maximized their talents pretty well" case.

[Andrew]

I suppose so. I'm still inclined to rank him lower than players who actively wasted their talents, so to speak, through being lazy/unmotivated or prolonged substance abuse. With Williams, it was one accident doing something that a lot of people do without suffering any ill-effects, despite the obvious risk. Williams was unfortunate, one fateful decision put an end to his career. Coleman threw away what could've been a much better career because he didn't care to give it his all, Washburn threw it away because he couldn't stay away from drugs.

Micheal Ray Richardson is another one you could possibly include on that list.

[puddnheadwilson]

how about Roy Tarpley and Richard Dumas? Both were decent players until they got caught.

[Andrew]

You could possibly include Tarpley, I'm not sure I'd put Dumas on this particular list. It is supposed to be the players that wasted the most talent, after all.

[puddnheadwilson]

Dumas averaged 15+ a game his rookie season before getting caught (again) and entering rehab.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... sri02.html

Here is an interesting article about him

http://www.hardwoodparoxysm.com/2011/08 ... mas-92-93/

[Andrew]

I wouldn't say averaging 15 points per game in his rookie year is proof that he was destined to be one of the greats or was one of the most talented players to wash out of the league.

[puddnheadwilson]

Check out the article. He may have been even better than I thought!