People are always accustomed to having good expectations for new things. The same is true for NBA fans, who after each annual draft, fans will always refer to him as "the next James", "the next Garnett", and even "the next O'Neal". As a result, the reality often fails to meet these beautiful expectations, and those parallel goods have become a huge "if" in history.
And the one I want to talk about today may have been forgotten by most fans because of his age, but he was also pinned on high hopes, a big forward who caused a huge sensation but quickly became unfamiliar - Derek Coleman.
In the 1990 draft, the 23-year-old Coleman forced Gary Payton to become the champion, but this pick was not surprising to everyone, after all, Coleman was the proud disciple of former NBA superstar Dave Binn, a star player at the University of Syracuse, and was once regarded as "the next Malone" and "the next Barkley".
Coleman is really talented, and in just one season he got this evaluation from Sports Illustrated: "He will be the best big forward." In the first season, Coleman averaged double-doubles per game, was elected the best rookie, and played surprisingly well against superstars such as Malone and Barkley.
In the next few seasons, Coleman continued to improve under Dave's encouragement, scoring the All-Star for three consecutive seasons of 20+10, loved by the league and fans, and the most impressive thing was that he clipped O'Neal, and after the partition, he bit his finger and humiliated the "Baby Shark". Coleman also became the only player O'Neal to admit that his career had ever clipped him.
Rookie season into the All-Star, in the face of other superstars are not behind, naturally there will be many fans like him, but there are a few fans are not optimistic about him, the reason is because of his personality. He was arrested by the police for a fight while in college. Sure enough, after becoming famous, Coleman lived to be what a few fans thought, and he fell.
Averaging 20+10 per game was only maintained until 1995, the fifth grade was still a player's growth period, but Coleman came to the end of the peak, self-righteous began to degenerate, addicted to alcohol.
In 1995, he had a verbal altercation with the police on the street and was arrested; in 1999, he got drunk in a nightclub and beat up with people and urinated on the street; not long after, he drove drunk again, and the high-speed drag racing resulted in a car accident, and his teammate Reikasnel was seriously injured, almost lost his life, and almost missed a season.
And the continuous scandals off the court, coupled with Coleman's lax training attitude, in exchange for going around many teams are not able to stand firm, even if they later meet teammates like Iverson in the 76ers, Coleman can't stand up to the wall.
In 2004, the injured Coleman scrawled out of the Pistons, so it seems that Coleman's career was a failure, but still earned $90 million, most of which came from the first five years of his career. Not long after retiring, Coleman spent nearly $100 million on almost every dollar, but then under the influence of Dave Bin, he started a business in Detroit, and it is said that there is a slight improvement.
Coleman, who was once regarded as the next Carl Malone, "mixed" to the point where even Malone himself regretted: "If Coleman can train like me, he will become the number one striker in history." ”
Barkley also said of Coleman: "No one dares to despise Coleman's talent, but his personality and life vices ruin him." ”
What a pity! Coleman had the body of a superstar, but no superstar brain, and became the biggest "if" in NBA history. (Zheng Xiaojun)