Career might have beens but for injuries

#1      

jmwillini

J
Tolono, IL
jmwillini
This came from references to Pete Maravich in the hoops recruiting thread.

Due to either advances in medicine or just better luck in avoiding injuries, who would you have liked to have seen have a full career?

Top of my head, (and yes I am old, so I am forgetting obvious examples, lol):

Baseball
Sandy Koufax
Tony Oliva
JR Richard
Bo Jackson


Football
Gale Sayers
Billy Sims
Joe Namath (Dude could run & scramble at Alabama pre-injury.)
Bo Jackson


Basketball
Pete Maravich
Grant Hill
Derrick Rose
Greg Oden/Sam Bowie/Yao Ming/Bill Walton
 
#5      
Battle89
Poster child right there
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#6      
the juiceman cometh
jmwillini said:
This came from references to Pete Maravich in the hoops recruiting thread.

Due to either advances in medicine or just better luck in avoiding injuries, who would you have liked to have seen have a full career?

Top of my head, (and yes I am old, so I am forgetting obvious examples, lol):

Baseball
Sandy Koufax
Tony Oliva
JR Richard
Bo Jackson


Football
Gale Sayers
Billy Sims
Joe Namath (Dude could run & scramble at Alabama pre-injury.)
Bo Jackson


Basketball
Pete Maravich
Grant Hill
Derrick Rose
Greg Oden/Sam Bowie/Yao Ming/Bill Walton
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When you see it in a list it's kinda wild how much some of these guys accomplished despite their injury problems. Koufax and Yao both played their last season at age 30 and yet had already put together Hall of Fame careers.
 
#7      
champaignchris
Basketball - Penny Hardaway.

Football - Terrell Davis, Priest Holmes - you could do a list of nothing but running backs.

Baseball -
Dwight Gooden - the question of whether the issue was the drugs or the injuries is kind of a chicken and egg thing,

Eric Davis - one of several elite OFs in the pre-steroid era who flamed out right about their 30th birthday.

Darryl Strawberry - see both of above.
 
#8      
WyattEarp
jmwillini said:
This came from references to Pete Maravich in the hoops recruiting thread.

Due to either advances in medicine or just better luck in avoiding injuries, who would you have liked to have seen have a full career?

Top of my head, (and yes I am old, so I am forgetting obvious examples, lol):

Baseball
Sandy Koufax
Tony Oliva
JR Richard
Bo Jackson


Football
Gale Sayers
Billy Sims
Joe Namath (Dude could run & scramble at Alabama pre-injury.)
Bo Jackson


Basketball
Pete Maravich
Grant Hill
Derrick Rose
Greg Oden/Sam Bowie/Yao Ming/Bill Walton
Click to expand...
That’s a darn good list!
 
#10      
champaignchris
Big one in hockey - Bobby Orr.

He retired in 1979 as the all-time leader in scoring for defensemen with 915. Still 11th on the list to this day.

He scored all but 45 of those points before his 27th birthday when knee injuries ruined the last three years of his career and forced his retirement before turning 31.

There’s an alternate universe where he’s healthy for another decade and it’s his record that Gretzky eventually beats and not Howe’s.
 
#12      
champaignchris
IlliniwekKDR said:
Kind of weird to say about a guy who hit over 600 HRs, but Ken Griffey Jr. He lost big chunks of about 4-5 seasons due to injury. Albert might still be chasing him if it wasn't for injuries.
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He’s another of those outfielders whose careers cratered right around their 30th birthday. But in KGJ’s case, he was so overwhelmingly good for that first decade of his career, he still gets mentioned as an all time great.

The crazy thing about Barry Bonds is that - assuming we accept the narrative that he started using steroids coming off injury in 1999 - he got over that 30-year old hump and was still legitimately putting up solid numbers into his mid-30s. If he’d never touched a needle and just tailed off naturally over the last 5-ish years of his career, retiring around 38, he’d still have been a no doubt first ballot HoFer, talked about in the same breath as Mays, Musial, etc.

Instead he had to subject us to almost a decade of the Barry Bonds Frankenstein freak show, permanently tainting his legacy and our memory of him.
 
#16      
ktal
GrayGhost77 said:
Illini Edition:

BBall - Brian Randle, Brian Carlwell, Austin Hutcherson, Andre Curbelo

Football - Bobby Roundtree, Mikey Dudek, Mike Epstein, Brandon Peters ( if not for him getting injured last year I think we go bowling),
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Good list. I want to include the WR (might have been a walkon), who caught two passes in his first game, both touchdowns, and got his knee broken on the second one. Eddie something, maybe? He tried coming back after a couple of years rehab, but didn't have the same game, I guess. Wasn't long ago.
 
#20      
champaignchris
RJK01 said:
Even though he is a HOF'er, Mickey Mantle missed quite a few games to injury.
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There’s also the “what if” Ted Williams and/or Bob Feller hadn’t missed 4+ seasons due to military duty. Feller would have had 1,000 more K’s, Williams 6-700 more hits.

Other guys certainly missed time (Musial, Greenberg, etc.), but Feller and Williams were the two that seemed most hard hit in terms of length of time occurring right in the think of their prime.
 
#21      
the juiceman cometh
Baseball wise the biggest "what if" may be Tony Conigliaro as @bluemountain mentioned. He is the 2nd youngest player to hit 100 HR. Debuts at 19, AL home run champ at 20, All-Star at 22, and during said all-star season gets hit in the face with a pitch that damages his retina, fractures his face and dislocates his jaw. Missed the entire next season and while he put together a couple good seasons after coming back was never the same and had to retire early due to permanent damage to his eyesight.
 
#23      
champaignchris
the juiceman cometh said:
Baseball wise the biggest "what if" may be Tony Conigliaro as @bluemountain mentioned. He is the 2nd youngest player to hit 100 HR. Debuts at 19, AL home run champ at 20, All-Star at 22, and during said all-star season gets hit in the face with a pitch that damages his retina, fractures his face and dislocates his jaw. Missed the entire next season and while he put together a couple good seasons after coming back was never the same and had to retire early due to permanent damage to his eyesight.
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I feel odd about “liking” this post. So I’ll just say “agree.”
 
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