Who is your biggest sports-related one hit wonder?
Gotta be Jeremy Lin. No disrespect to the rest of his career but he will always be defined by Linsanity.
Other fan bases probably see Spike this way. He is much more of a one hit wonder than DiVincenzo who was a first round pick and looks like he will stick in the NBA. It was definitely overstated how "out of nowhere" that performance was. Yes he didn't start, but he was on NBA draft radars.
I think Donte will be a fine basketball player, he was top 150 out of high school and had a great combine but that national championship game unfortunately for Michigan fans could very well be the greatest game/moment of his career. He was a good player, who didn't even start for most of that championship season and overshadowed 2 potential lottery picks to score 31 points (his career high)
April 23rd, 2020 at 10:01 AM ^
Eric Ball. Remember him? Played against him in HS. He went to Ypsi then on to UCLA. Had four TD's in a Rosebowl then never heard about him again.
April 23rd, 2020 at 10:18 AM ^
Didn't rack up a ton of stats, but he did have a 7 year NFL career.
April 23rd, 2020 at 10:35 AM ^
Lin was my first thought, too. Built a nice journeyman career, but for two weeks he was the biggest name in sports.
Peyton Hillis.
chris shelton
April 23rd, 2020 at 11:02 AM ^
My first thought, too. His stats over this 46 game stretch was impressive. Extrapolates to a .364BA/32HR/116RBI 162 game season:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/gl.fcgi?id=sheltch01&t=b&year=2005#28-73-sum:batting_gamelogs
Clicked on this thread to try and find this name. Didn't have to look very far.
Joe Burrow
April 23rd, 2020 at 10:44 AM ^
Watching draft stuff this morning, my new hot take that I am making a record of here now:
Jalen Hurts will have a better NFL career than Tua or Burrow
April 23rd, 2020 at 11:15 AM ^
I don't think it's super hot if Hurts gets in the right system. I think Burrow will be an average NFL starter. Not great, what he did this past season is replicable in the NFL and with his skillset. Tua would be similar to me - middle of the pack starter.
Hurts has more upside if he gets with a creative OC and strong running game. Hurts can be a poor man's Lamar Jackson in the right system.
April 23rd, 2020 at 11:21 AM ^
They have Hurts as 7th QB off the board... Talking about Burrow and Tua like they are the best prospects since Andrew Luck.
April 23rd, 2020 at 11:34 AM ^
Also, whoever takes Jordan Love in the top 10 is going to be what we look back and laugh at in this draft.
Todd McShay is a worse QB evaluator than anyone I've ever seen. Projecting Love before Herbert will go down as the top of his worst QB projections along with Nate Stanley and Mitch Leidner being top 5 QBs in their draft classes... When they weren't even top 5 QBs in the B10 their senior years.
April 23rd, 2020 at 12:39 PM ^
Pretty sure he had Clayton Thorson as a 1st rd pick at one point
He has a weird obsession with B10 West QBs. Brandon Peters will be projected a 1st rounder in October next year.
April 23rd, 2020 at 12:43 PM ^
I think this is generally a terrible QB draft. Burrow and Tua are worthy of first round picks if you don't have a starting QB. I wouldn't draft anyone else higher than the 3rd round.
Herbert, Love, and Eason are just strong armed lunks who aren't very good passers.
Hurts is a really good athlete, not as good of a passer as Lamar Jackson in the dual-threat category. His ceiling is probably RG3.
Fromm - no. That's it. That's the analysis.
I'm saying this as an Oklahoma fan that watches as much Sooners as Wolverines games.
I like Hurts, but I just can't see him having much of an impact in the NFL.
He's a great guy, great intangabiles, good runner, and consistently makes easy throws. But he was never asked to make NFL throws at Oklahoma. His decision making was VERY bad at times, and he's not that great beyond the first read. Most of his production came from defenses having to spend so much focus on CeeDee Lamb (he's going to be legit), Kennedy Brooks (will be selected next year), and the threat of him running.
Speaking of his running ability, he's not a Lamar Jackson type runner who blows by people with speed and athleticism. He's very much an instinctual power runner, which can be an asset in the NFL, but I question just how sustainable and effective it will be against NFL athletes.
I think a great comp for Hurts is a smaller, more accurate Tim Tebow. I think he's going to end up a better backup in the NFL, and best case becomes a starter for a tanking team. Thats an asset in the NFL, but not a game changing selection.
Samkon gado, the bird and his one season were epic
An ENT doc, too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samkon_Gado
Super Joe Charboneau.
Buster Douglas
April 23rd, 2020 at 11:04 AM ^
Literally 1 hit!
Darko.
April 23rd, 2020 at 10:04 AM ^
quite possibly the worst draft pick at the worst possible time. Carmelo or DWade would've provided an excellent defensive team with an elite scorer...They could've turned 1 title and 2 finals trips into maybe 2 titles and 3/4 trips. Lebron wouldn't have gone to Miami without DWade either...so it could've changed quite a bit.
April 23rd, 2020 at 10:10 AM ^
It’s such a hindsight is 20/20 pick though. Everybody and their brother would have taken Darko at 2. If Lebron wouldn’t have been in that draft, he would have went 1st. Plus, I don’t think Carmelo would have taken the backseat to Tayshaun and would we have won the title?
April 23rd, 2020 at 10:19 AM ^
I remember at the time, people thought it was a stretch cause Melo & Wade were both can't miss prospects. Even at the time, there was no doubt that both of those guys were better players than Prince, but Dumars just liked him. Darko was a stretch 4/5 who wasn't very strong nor was he a good defender even in Europe.
April 23rd, 2020 at 10:28 AM ^
Very true. If Dumars had gone with Carmelo - at that time tied with Darko as the consensus second pick - would the Pistons had acquired Rasheed?
That said, I'm not sure how Dumars missed on Wade, a guy who possessed so many of the attributes of what made the Bad Boy Pistons so great. No excuses after Michael Jordan: if "desire to win" isn't one of your top three factors in evaluating a player, then you probably shouldn't be in charge of drafting.
April 23rd, 2020 at 11:50 AM ^
They don't win a title with Melo (who hasn't won a title, period). They almost certainly don't get Sheed if they have Melo, and they definitely don't get Sheed if they have Bosh instead.
Wade, in retrospect, would have been the right pick. But he wasn't a sure thing in the top 5 compared to others, and it would have been a bizarre choice given that the Pistons had just solidified the 2 spot by acquiring Rip Hamilton, who played at an all-star level and was well-suited to Larry Brown's coaching style. Speaking of which, can you imagine Carmelo Anthony playing for Larry Brown? How would that not go poorly?
People who think that the Pistons would win more titles with Melo are... not thinking things through very thoroughly.
The Ringer had a very good write-up on the draft and its various different potential scenarios, and I thought it was pretty accurate. They did project multiple titles for the Pistons if they had drafted Wade, and at least one (I'm a bit vague and not going to look it back up here) for Bosh, none for Melo.
I will check that Ringer article out; thanks for the tip. Agreed as to Melo; that would have gotten ugly. As for Wade, I see your point about Hamilton, but the 80's Pistons had three excellent guards, and Hamilton could play small forward.
Honestly, this is mostly just me imagining how flat-out nasty the 2000's Pistons would have been with Wade.
April 23rd, 2020 at 10:28 AM ^
If interested, earlier this week Bill Simmons and Chad Ford did a "Redraftables" podcast for the 2003 draft (podcast is available under the "Book of Basketball 2.0" podcast series that Bill does) , and Ford had some interesting info about the Pistons pick that I hadn't read before. It sounds like there was more stuff going on behind the scenes than the general public didn't know at the time regarding Carmelo being out-of-shape and that was turning some GMs off. Ford believes if Detroit didn't take Darko then they likely would've take Bosch. Plenty of more interesting tidbits he drops in it, but that's just a couple.
Edit: audio link if interested: https://www.theringer.com/2020/4/21/21230136/2003-redraftables-lebron-arrives-darko-vs-melo-wade-the-sleeper
April 23rd, 2020 at 11:10 AM ^
That was a great listen. The biggest "what if" around the draft pick isn't who would the pistons have taken if they didn't take Darko, but would they have traded for Rasheed?
If they had drafted Anthony or Bosh - they would have had a decent PF (for sure an upgrade from Darko) at the present time. With the PF of the future already on the roster, do they make the Rasheed trade? And, if they don't make the Rasheed trade do they win 04'?
In short, did drafting Darko actually swing the pendulum to win the 04' Finals?
April 23rd, 2020 at 11:21 AM ^
Definitely would be interesting - I guess I would say the general consensus is perhaps it would've hindered the Pistons chances of winning the 2004 finals , but it would've naturally helped them in the long-run and perhaps won more titles if they hadn't drafted Darko.
I'd take 1 Guaranteed Championship over 3-4 potential championships any day. Carmelo changes the dynamics of a team whose success is mostly due to their team dynamic.
Never even thought abt not getting 'Sheed. Then I'm definitely happy it happened like it did.
correction: 1 guaranSHEED championship
April 23rd, 2020 at 10:38 AM ^
What was his one hit? Just getting drafted?
April 23rd, 2020 at 11:19 AM ^
Ha, perhaps his (in?)famous "great" workout he had in which Dumars and the Pistons players stopped their practice for the 2003 Eastern Conference Finals to watch Darko and fell in love with him.
Detroit Tigers' 5-week slugger Chris Shelton.
Big Red.
Jeff Francouer is the answer for me. Guy swung at everything and when he connected it went really far. Eventually pitchers stopped throwing him fastballs and his average/power numbers dropped. He was a good outfielder tho, could throw the ball a quarter mile over them mountains
April 23rd, 2020 at 10:58 AM ^
He did have a .260 average over 12 MLB seasons. Not too bad
April 24th, 2020 at 12:54 AM ^
You oughta check out SB nations video on him
April 23rd, 2020 at 10:10 AM ^
Brandon Bosch was up there too!
April 23rd, 2020 at 10:25 AM ^
Shelton's month-long Babe Ruth impression is what I instantly thought of when I saw this post. I'm not even a Tigs fan, but extrapolating his XBH pace and wondering how long he could sustain it after each game was a lot of fun.
Bill Buckner - that one play overshadows a 2700 hit possible HoF career.
April 23rd, 2020 at 10:27 AM ^
This is a good call - in reverse! Buckner would be remembered quite well on his merits, but that one gaff will haunt his legacy forever and overshadows everything else he ever did.
April 23rd, 2020 at 10:50 AM ^
plus it enabled a pretty hilarious Curb Your Enthusiasm episode...
Brady Hoke 2011
April 23rd, 2020 at 10:38 AM ^
This hurts.
LOL. Ouch, but very accurate.
While we're on it, how about your namesake?
Jim Henson had a long and prolific career.