Nothing to show for it? Paris Hilton, Delta Goodrem, Anna Kournikova, that Miami girl he was engaged to... I think he's made the most of his talents.

Good point .

Billo, the heading reads "Sporting Disappointments". He may be able to score well when it comes to women, but not in his sport. Philippousis is a huge disappointment to tennis.

I dunno, he's a former world top 10 player, no Australian basketball player has ever been in the best 10 players in the world. Runner up at the US Open, winning the decisive rubber in the 2003 Davis Cup, I wouldn't say he's been a huge disappointment on the court.

Sure, he may have had the potential to go further, but injuries and a crazy father haven't helped his cause. Lleyton's overacheivement has made him look average by comparison but I think he's acheived a lot in his career.

EC, you haven't mentioned Larry Abney in this thread, are you feeling well? ;)

"no Australian basketball player has ever been in the best 10 players in the world" - billo

Ummm, how about Lauren Jackson and Penny Taylor?

MOSES Lauren Jackson & Penny Taylor are not in the top ten of basketballers in the world.

how do you think they would match up vs:

Kobe
LeBron
Wade
Dirk
Nash
Duncan
Parker
Manu
Shaq
Yao...

Right now they could probably beat Wade, Yao and Shaq!

Not Yao.

Don't bring Yao into this.

I don't think you can call Poo a 'sulky piece of excrement'.

Anyone who has helped Australia win the ultimate team title deserves more respect than that.

I would have gone more with 'sulky, unstable, erratic and extremely volatile...'

XY
How would he compare with "You"
What is your bigest sporting achievement??

Just wondering Billo - what about when Andrew Gaze was amoungst the top players Internationally (Olympics and WC's) i'd say that you could argue on that benchmark Gaze was top 10 in the late 80's and early 90's...

I think the poo definitely underachieved when younger and probably did not understand or have the work ethic to capitilise on his prodigious talent.

the poo did finish runner up in both the US Open 98 and Wimbledon 03 after everybody wrote him off.
Also won 10 ATP tour titles and cashed in many million$ .
You judge the degree of failure then.

He played a massive part in Australias 2 Davis cup victories firstly defeating Cedric Pioline in front of a raucous crowd in Nice , France and then again in 03 with a injured shoulder fought on to take the fifth set 6-0 against Juan carlos-ferroro.

I reckon he is ok , he speaks well , seems to have his heart in the right place just maybe didn't make the most of it in his prime .

Moses, I thought someone might come back with that argument (actually, more specifically, I thought EC might come back with that argument!!) Nutwork pretty much summed up my retort.

Johnny, I also thought about whether Gaze would ever have been in the world's top 10 and concluded he probably wouldn't have been. Late 80's and early 90's was when the NBA was at it's peak, surely you couldn't put him ahead of any of the original Dream Team? Around that time Kukoc was also making his mark in Europe along with Sabonis and co. Close but no dice.

Sorry Tank, I missed which bit you disagreed with...

just because someone is talented they don't deserve respect. Smeone needs to be hard working and dedicated for mine and the turd/ poo/crap whatever his name is does not have those attributes.


So he has more sporting achievements than me, he was also born with a hell of a lot more talent than me but failed to use it.

He may have those accomplishments but could have had more if he was't so sulky and lazy. An enormous u;nderachiever.

"he was also born with a hell of a lot more talent than me but failed to use it."

So you were born to give up?? know one could accuse you of being an underachiever because you were born with no talent??

where did you get "so you were born to give up" from that post?

I didn't say I was born with no talent, I said he was born with a lot more.

Please read the post properly before you reply.

how was he born with more talent??

Is there some measurement @ birth that im not aware of??

what you've never heard that people are naturally talented at something?A common phrase used.

I don't believe there is an actual mesurement for it but there isn't an actual measurement for a lot of things..

never mind champ, im guessing your not a "the glass is half full" kind of guy!

You make your own luck, the poo had a crack, did alright, got some good coin and even better phillys!

At least he didnt sit back and say the other guys were just born with more talent!

you assume a lot.

Why do you assume I'm male and why do you assume that I am a pessimist? Just because I say someone is lazy and could have achieved more it doesn't mean I am pessimistic, maybe I am realistic...

why do you assume the Poo was born with more talent than you?

good point. I have heard it so often from experts in the field so I guess they are better qualified than me to judge that he has potential. It is far better to listen to people who are knowledgable in a particular area and then form an opinion based on that.

Just incase anyone is wondering....I'm on Lloyd's side.

Serrenity now.....Insanity Later.

There is no doubt that people are born with natural abilities in specific areas - it is how you apply this that makes the difference. The Poo had huge talent as a tennis player ( which he did not fully capitalize on ) and some talent as a chick magnet ( which he did fully capitalize on ) .

What about Anna Kournakova - this is an interesting contrast as she was a so-so tennis player but made huge mileage out of her looks. So you could say she made the most of her "natural assets" and Poo did not .

The point here is that Poo did not make the most of his sporting assets - others with far less talent have done far better simply through hard work ( Leyton for example ) .

More and more , natural talent is not enough to get you there - you have to work your butt of as well.

Any others who failed to live up to expectation ?

Sam Bowie

Isaac, if it makes you happy, no I don't like Larry Abney very much but I do sympathise with him with what he is going through at the moment.

Centre Court, you must mean that he scored around 8-10 on his APGAR test where you may have only scored around 3-4.

quite right jockey club. Oh yeah and spewin VC fan isn't on my side cos his posts are always enlightened snippets of information... I know I must be wrong if he doesn't agree with me!!

Nice list of various sport flops

http://www.answers.com/topic/list-of-sports-flops