Dan O’Brien won the gold medal at the 1996 Olympics, set the world record at the decathlon shortly after missing the 1992 Olympics, and thrice was World Champion. By all standards, that’s a distinguished career.
Alexandre Daigle is the standard by which all NHL draft busts are measured. He’s infamous for saying before the draft that “no one remembers who was picked second.” The second overall pick in his draft year? Chris Pronger, a winner of the Norris trophy as the NHL’s best defenceman and an Olympic gold medallist in ice hockey.
The 1994 NHL draft will go down in history as one of the thinnest draft years ever. The first round is littered with busts. Though later on, there was some steals to be found. Daniel Alfredsson in the 6th round, Steve Sullivan in the 9th round.
Awful, awful draft.
Perhaps Sidd Finch belongs on this list. 
I mean, at least Clint Hartung existed.
Rick Ankiel? I don’t know what kind of hype he got before hitting the majors, but man, that kid choked on an epic scale.
I saw him play here in Memphis for our AAA team while he was on his way down. It was bizarre; I went and watched him in the bullpen before the game, and he was throwing laserbeams at 90, 95 mph, looking like he could drive nails with them. But then in the actual game he couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn. He gave up four runs on balls and wild pitches, and finally got pulled after getting only two outs into the game.
It was pretty heartbreaking, actually.
For the MLb it’s a 2 horse race between Nuke LaLoosh and the dad from Field of Dreams.
We’ve come this far without mentioning Maurice Clarett?
Kellen Winslow is also up there.
Clarett might have flamed out too early to be a historic disappointment. He had a very good freshman year, then proceeded to blow it by being kicked off the team and trying to enter the draft. By the time he finally got to the pros, nobody expected anything from him - he’d proved he wasn’t up for it mentally, and his pre-draft workouts stunk. He might deserve some kind of honorable mention.
Hell, Pronger won a Hart Trophy as league MVP.
Daigle was the guy I opened this thread to talk about. He has the worst career plus-minus of any player in NHL history, IIRC.
You could make a case for Ankiel, but like Fidrych, I don’t consider players who’ve had a very good year to be as disappointing as those drafted high or bought for a lot of money (in the case of foriegn baseball talent) and flaming out bad. Both Fidrych and Ankiel were solid before they faded.
And Winslow was unfortunately to break his leg in a game after looking pretty good, and then furthering his injuries in a motorcycles accident.
Not a bust through poor performance, but disappointing in his own way.
I might throw Andy Roddick on the pile.
Anyone remember Von “The Next Ted Williams” Hayes? The Phillies traded 5 guys for him (including the incredible Julio Franco and all star Manny Trillo) back in the 1980s. Von couldn’t hit like Esther Williams, let alone Ted.
If I remember correctly he hurt his arm breaking up a fight at his cousin’s house. I don’t think he was doing all that well in the minors before that incident anyway. At least not well enough to merit a million dollar contract.
Ed Jovanoski? Oleg Tverdovsky? Ryan Smyth? Jeff Friesen? Mattias Ohlund? Ethan Moreau?
That’s not so bad for the first round, I think.
How about the 1999 draft? That was a bad year. Patrik Stephan #1 overall. Pavel Brendl and Tim Connolly in the top 5. The only players in the first round worth a first rounder with the Sedin twins(and that was doubtful prior to this season), Barret Jackman(who seems to be perputually injured), Nick Boyton and Martin Havlat(the absolute steal of the draft at 26th overallO.
He’s getting there- but he did get to be #1 in the world for a while, and won the 2003 U.S. Open. He got overhyped too soon, and there was no way he was going to stay on top with such an incomplete game, but he hasn’t been terrible by any stretch. He’s still top five in the world and won five titles last year.
Now, Anna “let’s hype the hell out of her because she has a pretty face, oh shit she can’t win a singles tournament and quits by age 22” Kournikova - she’s another story. Successful in doubles, but like I said, she never won a singles tournament and rarely reached a final. Mark Philippoussis is more disappointing than Roddick. He could crush every single shot and served almost as hard as Roddick does (he was the previous record holder), but he had bad luck with injuries. He won a few titles, but never took home a major.
Sort of like Michelle “she ALMOST qualified this time” Wie.
She’s qualified for a few. But it’s getting to be time ESPN stopped paying attention to that, at least until she either makes a cut or wins an LPGA tournament.
Hayes had a number of pretty good years, actually. He wasn’t Ted Williams, but he was a better than average major leaguer.
I went to college with Ralph Sampson. We took it for granted that he’d electrify the NBA, but it just never happened.
I’m getting google ads for Eli Manning ads on this page. Honestly, I think that it’s a bit early to be so low on him, google. 