Basketball Legends Who Didn't Materialize: King Kelly Coleman and Other Missed Shots

The small town of Wayland, Ky., where I grew up, isn't very populous or very well known for that matter. The biggest claim to fame for Wayland is the home of Kentucky basketball legend King Kelly Coleman. Kelly Coleman was the most dominating player to ever step onto Kentucky hardwood and was awarded the first Kentucky Mr. Basketball award. He holds several high school records, but was also an alcoholic, even as a teenager.

Despite any problems the King had, he was still highly sought after by college teams at the time. Wayland was a coal camp owned by a West Virginia coal company, and Coleman had decided on WVU as the college of his choice, even taking gifts from alumni. When Adolph Rupp who had previously called Coleman "The greatest high school player that ever lived - " found out he wasn't considering UK, he exposed the infractions and ruined Coleman's shot at stardom. While Coleman did eventually attend college on a basketball scholarship and play some pro ball, his best days were behind him and we will never know how he would have stood up against the all-time greats. Let's take a look at three other players who were projected to be great but lost their way.

Harold Miner

Miner was a standout at USC leading the team to a #2 seed in the 1992 NCAA tournament. He was later drafted 12^th overall by the Miami Heat, and was given the nickname "Baby Jordan" by the sports media. He won the NBA slam dunk contest twice, in 1993 and in 1995, but his professional career was otherwise unremarkable. After three seasons of riding the bench, Miner's career was over before it ever materialized. Labeling him as the next Michael Jordan could have been the worst thing that ever happened to his career.

Darko Milicic

The 2003 NBA draft had some of the best talent ever. Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James were considered two of the hottest prospects to ever enter their names into the draft. While analysts and coaches at the time made a good case for why the Pistons would draft Milicic first, I wasn't buying their reasoning then and looking back now it is one of the biggest wastes of a draft pick in history. Milicic has enjoyed eight lackluster seasons since that infamous draft, and even became the youngest player to ever win an NBA championship (eat your heart out LeBron). The Pistons could be partly to blame, as he received limited playing time for the entirety of his early career.

Christian Laettner

While I dislike Laettner as much as anyone else in my area, my placement of him on this list has less to do with the upset of Kentucky in the final four and more to do with one of his greatest achievements. While Christian Laettner had a remarkable college hoops career, he was placed in better company than any player can ever hope when he was selected for the 1992 U.S. Olympic "Dream Team." Every single player on that team was an NBA legend, except Laettner. He did alright in his rookie year in the NBA, but got worse every year he was removed from Duke. Never achieving the success you had before you started your career is terrible, but at least he got to play in the big leagues for 13 seasons.

Additional Sources-
"King Kelly Coleman: Kentucky's Greatest Basketball Legend", Gary P. West, Acclaim Press (Oct. 1, 2005)