Every once in a while in the NBA there’s an exceptional player who comes along, totally sets the league on fire (or at least creates a spark) only to end up having something derail his career.
Whether it be an injury, an attitude or just a combination of bad decisions, some players end up more likely to burn out rather than flame on for a long, fulfilling career.
Recently, there are quite a few obvious examples of these kinds of players, Eddy Curry being one of the more recent.
Curry spent the early part of his career with Chicago and New York where he was offensively brilliant and at the very least a tall dude on defense. Various roadblocks (and cheeseburgers) came along, completely ending any hope for him to become a perennial All-Star.
He’s just a small nibble of the big meal that is the collection of disappointing NBA players. The past decade has been ripe with guys who should have traveled through the league and done much better than they ultimately ended up doing.
10. Shaquille O’Neal
It kind of goes against logic to think that Shaq was a disappointing player over the past decade. He had a career that undoubtedly landed him in the company of the five best centers of all time.
From what we saw of Shaq at his height, combined with the way he played the game year after year, however, it seems like it should have been no argument that Shaq was the greatest center ever to play the game.
The big man simply knew how to play basketball on both ends of the court, and he did so in dominant fashion. All this is exemplified by his 2000 playoff run, when he put up 30 points and 15 boards over the course of 23 games. He was unmatched, and undeniably, the best center in the league.
The only problem is that it seems Shaq realized that. He didn’t have to make himself better in the offseason. Hell, he didn’t even have to stay in shape.
Around 2003, Shaq continually showed up to training camp overweight, worked himself into shape during the season and rarely broke out his dominant side.
He peaked in that 2000 season, but instead of a plateau he turned and steadily declined, especially obvious when he went from 27 to 21 points per game in 2004.
You can call it selfish, but really, it was just Shaq.
9. Rasheed Wallace
Like Shaq, there was a long period of Rasheed Wallace’s career when he would just not play up to what everyone knew what he could do.
Wallace could hit a three, and that’s one of the things he fell in love with over his career. His long-distance game spread the floor, but his post game should have been the backbreaker for his opponents.
Rasheed spent his career falling in love with three-pointers. When he went to the post, he could throw his strength around and do whatever he wanted. Unfortunately, his post game didn’t show up nearly as much as his long jumpers.
As a young dude, ‘Sheed never averaged more than a three per game. A big contract came in 1999; then, like a light switch went on, he started shooting two or three long balls per game in 2001, peaking at a ridiculous 5.4 in 2006.
