Biggest underachievers in Europe?

[pohani komarac]

I was watching youtube and I found some Josip Sesar video clips. That got me a thinking who are bigest underchivers in europ?

Well we had lot undercahivers in Croatia like Markota, Sundov, Bagaric even Ukic and Tomas could be called that but nobady stands out like Sesar, nicknamed lost son of Croatian basketball. He had all talent in world from skills, shooting touch, athleticisam to natrual feal. Remebering him some kids today coled big time prospects in Europe looked funny compared to him, but talent isn't evreything.... He never had is character and work ethic, not to mention that he was kicked almost out of all teams that he played. So today instaed of being veteran in NBA he is without of club while last year he played fo Zrinjski in B&H league.

This is him from Zagreb days when he was about 20 (Kukoc voice in background )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TL8KJeo5hBM&feature=related

This is when he was about 23, 24 from Cibona days

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7D95_YfE-UQ

[qiangdade]

I was watching youtube and I found some Josip Sesar video clips. That got me a thinking who are bigest underchivers in europ?

Well we had lot underchivers in Croatia like Markota, Sundov, Bagaric even Ukic and Tomas could be called that but nobady stands out like Sesar, nicknamed lost son of Croatian nasketball. He had all talent in world from skills, shooting touch, athleticisam to natrual feal. Remebering him some kids today coled big time prospects in europ looked funny compared to him, but talent isn't evreything.... He never had is character and work ethic, not to mention that he was kicked almost out of all teams that he played. So today insted of being veteran in NBA he is without of club while last year he played fo Zrinjski in B&H league.

This is him from Zagreb days when he was about 20 (Kukoc voice in background )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TL8KJeo5hBM&feature=related

This is when he was about 23, 24 from Cibona days
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7D95_YfE-UQ

for the record this forum software underlines spelling mistakes. It is "underachiever" and "Europe".

[pohani komarac]

for the record this forum software underlines spelling mistakes. It is "underachiever" and "Europe".

Sorry my English isn't perfect

[Pistol Pete]

From Lithuania it's definitely Martynas Andriuškevičius. Was supposed to be a top NBA pick, but turned out to be a major flop Instead of working hard on his skills and getting playing time, he decided to go to the NBA the first chance he got and from there his career went downhill.

[elaj]

Gregor Belina from Slovenia. 196cm, 1975. He was scouted by Cibona and he played in Cibona's fameous 1991 in youth team together with Rimac, Skelin, Grgat, Mulaomerović and others but he also practiced with first team as a 17 years old kid with great Dražen Petrović. After the war he moved back to Slovenia where he signed with Olimpija where he had a fight with coach Sagadin.

Now, in interview he said that he ruined his career with that fight. He was stuburn and wanted to play much more than he did (18 years old) so he was benched as a result of the fight... then moved to minor clubs and disappeared.

I heard he never had great work ethics (also headcase), but extremely talented all around player, unbelievably athletic for a white guy, great scorer, defender... everybody predicted him a great international career...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tc_mRNxWCm0

That's him two (?) years ago (notice the age and athletzicm), he still plays basketball or did play last season somewhere in Denmark.

http://forums.interbasket.net/f7/jun...lly-made-4815/ <- here is a similar topic!

[penzias]

From Lithuania it's definitely Martynas Andriuškevičius. Was supposed to be a top NBA pick, but turned out to be a major flop Instead of working hard on his skills and getting playing time, he decided to go to the NBA the first chance he got and from there his career went downhill.

That's not what i call underachiever, Andriuskevicius was just vastly overrated as a youngster.
An underachiever could be Fotsis, despite all the titles his teams have won.
He had the physical and talent to have been one of the top european stars (meaning the likes of Gasol, Nowitzky, Stojakovic, kirilenko...) of the last decade and ended up just as a secondary player in PAO, Real Madrid and Greece NT.

[CG]

That's not what i call underachiever, Andriuskevicius was just vastly overrated as a youngster.
An underachiever could be Fotsis, despite all the titles his teams have won.
He had the physical and talent to have been one of the top european stars (meaning the likes of Gasol, Nowitzky, Stojakovic, kirilenko...) of the last decade and ended up just as a secondary player in PAO, Real Madrid and Greece NT.

For Fotsis i agree.Some years ago when he was younger,for many experts (not from the forum ) was better than Kirilenko with great potencial.
I mean the guy is good player but surely never become what they thought about him.

[jugoplastika]

Josip Sesar definitely.

Jesus Christ, he was hell of a player.

(I was thinking about opening/dedicating a thread to him 15 days ago)

[Victorious]

From the Greek league Diamantopoulos comes to mind. He was on that young Greek team with Papaloukas. Only Diamantopoulos was a lot, lot better.

Tapoutos could also be another one. Don't forget Rentzias.

[penzias]

In Spain i don't remember any significant lately. Fran Vazquez a couple years ago could have been in discussion but he seems having found his path again. Others like Raul Lopez were killed by injuries so i don't think the thread applyes to them.
Looking to the recent past probably Jose Antonio Montero is the biggest underachiever, he had a fine carreer but nothing close to what was expected when he started playing for Joventut. Ferran Martinez might also been called underachiever, at 17-18 he was one of the 3-4 best players of his generation in Europe.

[Straight forward]

In Lithuania:

Kestutis Šeštokas. He was one of the most promising Lithuanian players when he was 18 years old. Flashy start of the career was the best he had.

Kestutis Marčiulionis. He was the same level prospect as Jasikevičius. At least media and him self represented that way. Finally he was thrown out from pretty weak at that time Žalgiris and ended up in some lower level clubs.

[raph]

for france, one name comes to mind, moiso. Even though he explained that he does not like bball that much. Still, what a waste of talent & athtleticism, he shoudda been the star of french ballers.

[mamatode]

In Bulgaria almost every player is underachieved. Our junior national teams have been really amazing as I've heard that one guy Boyko Mladenov have overpowered Pau Gasol in a junior euro championship.Now this Boyko Mladenov is a bench warmer for a average team even for the Bulgarian standarts. In the same Euro junior championship we had a guard called Hadjisotirov who owned Tony Parker. Again now Tony Parker is in the NBA and Hadjisotirov is... a basketball commentator for the national tv.Vasko Eftimov is maybe the hardest case being in the North Carolina squad and having great talent now he is nothing but an experienced player with some good vision of the game.And it's not only basketball, in every sport we have huge prospects who are expected to be superstars in their fields in the future and fail to become ones.