Who is the Greatest Athlete Whose Career Was Ruined Due to Injury?

[zamboniracer]

@Sigmagirl

Haven’t seen a mention of Herb Score yet.

RealityChuck mentioned Herby in post #3.

[enomaj]

@Laughing_Lagomorph

We used to call it “Kill the Carrier”.

Rumble Fumble here.

[Kent_Clark]

Ernie Davis – Two-time All-American, Heisman Trophy winner, number-one draft pick, diagnosed with leukemia and died never having played professional football.

I can’t believe no one has mentioned Roberto Clemente. Granted, 17 seasons is a long career in baseball, but Clemente wasn’t finished yet.

[Boozahol_Squid_P.I]

@Lochdale

I’d go with George Best. Just an incredible talent. Perhaps the single most talent football player of all time. He had pace, skill and was tough as nails. Great in the air for a man of his size and could spread the ball around the pitch with ease. He was also a very strong tackler.

He was hacked to bits in England and was never really protected the way he should have been. Basically was out of top-flight football at 26. The injuries was mostly niggly and often self-inflicted to his choinic alcoholism. Still, on his day he was Bo Jackson and Marco Van Basten rolled into one.

And here I was thinking Besty’s career wasn’t marred by injuries, but just by the misfortune of being born on the wrong side of the Irish Sea…

[Sigmagirl]

@zamboniracer

RealityChuck mentioned Herby in post #3.

Sorry, didn’t see it. Carry on.

[villa]

I’d think Gordon Banks deserves a mention. Had he continued, he quite possibly could have been thought of as the best goalie of all time. As it is, he lost more than a few years (and wasn’t showing any signs of slowing down). He was 35 when injured, which would have meant another world cup. And he had already made the greatest save of all time.

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

@jimmmy

Grant Hill. Just a tragedy but I am glad he got paid for his first 6 seasons. He likely would have been a reasonable Hall of Famer & certainly was one of the 5 best NBA players ~1994-2000

This Magic fan would like to point out that Hill most certainly got paid from 2001-2007 as well. NBA contracts are guaranteed regardless of injury.

Frankly, it seems like a miracle that we made the playoffs even once with a max-salary player riding the pine for 4/5ths of every season.

@WormTheRed

And what about Ayrton Senna dying in the San Marino F1. He still had quite a few years on top left in him.

If we’re counting “death” as an injury, Senna is absolutely at the top of the list. He was only 34 when he died, and he was as quick as ever. I’d guess he had another 6 years in him (plus, of course, a couple of years of driving Indycars or Le Mans prototypes or something after that).

[Snickers]

I guess I wouldn’t call him “the greatest athlete,” but I was certainly a huge fan: Bobby Hurley. I think that without that car wreck, he woulda had a better NBA career than he had.

[Hamlet]

While Bo Jackson is a good choice, he never rushed for more than 1,000 yards a season, never led the league in rushing, and made only one pro bowl. He surely was a special athlete and amazing to look at, but greatest ever? Nah.

I’m shocked no one has mentioned Gale Sayers.

1965 - Rookie of the Year, second in yardage behind the great Jim Brown. Pro Bowl. #1 All Purpose Yards.
1966 - Led NFL in rushing, all purpose yards, made Pro Bowl.
1967 - Playing for a crappy team, he still managed #3 in rushing, and still #1 in all purpose yards. Pro Bowl.
1968 - leading league in rushing with an astounding 6.2 ypc. … .injures knee after 8 games.
1969 - Tries comeback. Leads league in rushing AGAIN.
1970 - Another knee injury ends his career.

A Rookie of the Year start, followed by making every pro bowl except his injury ending years. Three time Pro Bowl MVP. He even made the NFL Hall of Fame (youngest ever), despite only having 3 1/2 years.

Gale Sayers edges out Bo Jackson.

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

He made the Hall of Fame on the first ballot. I don’t think he qualifies as “ruined”.

[Munch]

@Hamlet

I’m shocked no one has mentioned Gale Sayers.

I’m shocked you didn’t read the OP, where he was mentioned prominently, or post #56.

[ElvisL1ves]

Bobby Orr (erm, excuse me, “Bawby Oahh”) is already taken, so the backup Boston choice is Tony Conigliaro.

[Hamlet]

@Munch

I’m shocked you didn’t read the OP, where he was mentioned prominently, or post #56.

I’m shocked that sometimes I’m an idiot.

[sub]Actually, I’m not shocked in the least[/sub]

[Shagnasty]

@minlokwat

Well that game already exists and goes by the monniker of Smear the Queer, a recess sporting endeavor when I was a lad of tender years. The rules were charmingly simple: you got a football and ran around until you were group tackled then got up, heaved the ball in any which direction and whoever caught it would then run around until subsequently brought down and this you would do as time permitted.

Ahhh… my misspent youth.

In that case, I would like to nominate myself for this thread. I got hurt pretty badly in a game of Smear the Queer in 7th grade and my illustrious career was certainly cut short because of it. That sport is a testament to the thinking skills of young males. You fight hard to get the ball just so that a large group of other guys can try hard to hurt you. Sounds good…at least at the time.

[Andrew_21]

Salvador Sanchez deserves consideration. He was a featherweight champion who defended his title nine times; his career record was 44-1-1. Had he not died at 23, he might have been an all-time great.

[Death_of_Rats]

@spoke-

Two words: Herschel. Walker.

It’s a shame he spent his early career in the USFL. He is underappreciated because of it. But since that was a self-inflicted injury, I don’t think it’s what the OP’s looking for.

Now now, he didn’t trade himself to Minnesota.

…
or did you mean the other one?

[Ronald_C.Semone]

Tony Conigliaro

[Dusty_Rose]

I’m not sure if he qualifies as the “Greatest Athlete,” but he was certainly a stellar player whose career was cut short: Vladimir Konstantinov from the Detroit Red Wings.

[ZipperJJ]

I’ll third Herb Score. Check out this stuff from his Wikipedia article:

A left-hander, Score struck out 245 batters in his rookie year, a rookie record that stood until 1984, when it was topped by Dwight Gooden (Score, Gooden, Grover Cleveland Alexander, Don Sutton, Gary Nolan, Kerry Wood, Mark Langston and Hideo Nomo were actually the only eight rookie pitchers to top 200 strikeouts in the 20th century). In 1956, Score improved on his rookie campaign, going 20–9 with a 2.53 ERA and 263 strikeouts, while reducing the number of walks from 154 to 129, and allowed only 5.85 hits/9 innings, which would stand as a franchise record until it was broken by Luis Tiant’s 5.30 in 1968.
…
In the book “The Greatest Team Of All Time” (Bob Adams, Inc, publisher. 1994), Mickey Mantle picked Herb Score as the toughest American League left-handed pitcher he faced (before the injury). Yogi Berra picked Herb for his “Greatest Team Of All Time”.
…
In 1981, Lawrence Ritter and Donald Honig included him in their book The 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time. They explained what they called “the Smoky Joe Wood Syndrome,” where a player of truly exceptional talent but a career curtailed by injury should still, in spite of not having had career statistics that would quantitatively rank him with the all-time greats, be included on their list of the 100 greatest players. In the book’s introduction, they used this as their reason why Score, with 55 career wins, was on their list, while Early Wynn, who won 300 games, all in the post-1920 Live Ball Era, was not.

[footballisplayedwithyourfeet]

Another vote for Marco Van Basten, a guy who was essentialy kicked out of the game by Italian defenders aiming for the ankles.