00:00He has this talent for making the extraordinary seem straightforward.
00:04Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the top 10 players who
00:08ended up playing in teams that they'd clearly outgrown.
00:11He thought he was going to have some administrative or managerial role, and what they really
00:15wanted him for was almost a carnival character.
00:18I mean, he was a drawing card.
00:19That's all he was.
00:21Number 10, Joe Thomas, Cleveland Browns.
00:24In 11 seasons in the NFL, Joe Thomas made 10 Pro Bowls, six first-team All-Pro selections,
00:29and two second-team All-Pro selections.
00:31Oh, man, you know, Joe Thomas, every year he's been, you know, the number one left tackle
00:36in the league.
00:36I think Joe Thomas is, you know, the best tackle in the game right now.
00:39The best.
00:40Hands down, the best.
00:41By the time he retired, he was regarded as one of the greatest offensive linemen in NFL
00:44history.
00:45But here's the catch.
00:46He spent all of that time with a Cleveland Browns team that never once made the playoffs
00:50during his playing career.
00:51He's always been the Pro Bowl because he's that dominant of a player.
00:54Thomas was a consistent bright spot in a consistently disappointing team, and the fact that he never
00:58made a single postseason appearance in all that time is truly shocking.
01:02I'm not sure why I was so emotional about a 1-15 or a 1-14 record at that moment, but
01:08it just felt like we were doing all the right things and we weren't getting that payoff.
01:13Number 9, Antonio Di Natale, Udinese.
01:16There's something to be said for the loyalty of Antonio Di Natale.
01:19In a sport where money is becoming more and more of a prevalent factor, Di Natale chose
01:27to spend the majority of his career at Udinese, a middling Serie A team.
01:31During his 385-game stint with the team, he scored a whopping 191 goals and even managed
01:36to score 11 for the Italian national team during an especially strong period for them.
01:41But despite the lucrative offers and opportunities that came his way, Di Natale spent the last
01:4512 years of his playing career at Udinese, showing individual brilliance but never finding
01:50it with his team as a cohesive unit.
01:56Number 8, Kevin Love, Minnesota Timberwolves.
01:59One great player usually isn't enough to drive a low-level team to the playoffs in the NBA.
02:04Kevin Love throws it down!
02:07That's the power of love!
02:09That was a lesson that Kevin Love had to learn the hard way during his time at the Minnesota
02:12Timberwolves.
02:13Don't get us wrong, Love himself was a beast during this period, posting the type of stats
02:17that made him one of the best forwards in the entire league.
02:20Love for three, knocks it down!
02:23A huge triple for Kevin Love to tie it up!
02:26Prior to his run of success with the LeBron-led Cavaliers, Love was basically carrying this
02:30franchise on their stat sheet, and he never did manage to get them into a playoff spot.
02:34The sad part?
02:35He probably could have been contending for championships under different circumstances.
02:38Got it!
02:39Oh my, oh my, oh my!
02:43This crowd is stunned!
02:46Number 7, Ernie Banks, Chicago Cubs.
02:48Ernie Banks had a folky enthusiasm that made him one of the most cheerful and likable stars
02:53of his era.
02:53The hot and cold Cubs move into Milwaukee, featuring Ernie Banks, who succeeded Henry Aaron
02:58as the National League's most valuable player.
03:00But here's the issue, his beloved Cubs were struggling through a real tough patch during
03:04the 19 seasons he spent with them.
03:06By the time he retired, Banks had earned the right to call himself one of the greatest
03:09players of all time.
03:11Yay!
03:12Woo!
03:13Ernie did it!
03:15Number 499!
03:18But he never once got to show those skills in the postseason.
03:21A truly great ambassador for the sport, a generational athlete, and a guy who was doomed to spend
03:26his career with a team that was going nowhere.
03:27Long after I'm not here, I'll still be here.
03:34Number 6, Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels.
03:37We could have quite easily gone for Shohei Otani with this pick, but Mike Trout is the
03:41real standout for this list.
03:433-1 to Trout.
03:44High fly ball deep to left and that ball's gonna go.
03:48Mike Trout hits it out.
03:50We could sit here and talk about his insane accomplishments or how he's been regarded as
03:54the single best player in baseball for large portions of his career.
03:57And that is driven out to left center.
04:00Forget about this one.
04:02Drive home safely.
04:051-0 walk off.
04:13One swing of the bat ends it.
04:15But despite sticking it out with the Los Angeles Angels after signing an insane 12-year, $426 million
04:21contract, his individual success has not been replicated by the team as a whole.
04:25Just one playoff appearance since 2011, which they lost, has left many people wondering whether
04:30this all-time great is actually only being allowed to use a fraction of his greatness.
04:34That one, a three-run home run for Trout.
04:38What a game he has had so far.
04:42On the long list of NFL players who've been let down by substandard franchises, Calvin Johnson
04:48basically had his potential squandered by the Detroit Lions.
04:51Into the end zone, the pass is caught for the touchdown, Calvin Johnson.
04:57Two playoff appearances in nine seasons is just not the type of return that any elite
05:01player should put up with.
05:02And for the aptly named Megatron, his drive to compete slowly whittled away until he eventually
05:07retired from the sport at the young age of 30.
05:09Johnson is there for the touchdown.
05:15Number three on the day for Calvin Johnson.
05:18Johnson was, in some ways, the perfect wide receiver.
05:21Tall, fast, powerful, and great with his hands.
05:23It's a real shame that he never fully got to show us what he was capable of.
05:26He goes up, he makes the catch, are you kidding me?
05:30Oh, Megatron, you did it again.
05:33Number four, Elton Brand.
05:34Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Clippers.
05:37Timing's everything in the world of sports, and for Elton Brand, joining up at the Chicago
05:40Bulls directly after the Michael Jordan era was a real shame.
05:43Leading all rookies in score, rebounding in blocked shots.
05:46He's everything the Bulls had hoped for.
05:49They were a franchise who were struggling for momentum and identity, even though Brand
05:53himself was at times spectacular.
05:55He spent two impressive seasons with the struggling Bulls before getting traded to the LA Clippers.
06:00Elton Brand is 24-10, 26-10 rebounds.
06:04He gets great extension on that jump shot.
06:06But once again, this was another franchise who were being sorely mismanaged.
06:10Instead of competing for top honors in the playoffs, Brand was a standout member of a pretty
06:14mid-level pair of teams.
06:15Still got it.
06:17I'm Brand finishing up a long and outstanding career.
06:22Number three, Matt Letizier, Southampton.
06:25Matt Letizier well and truly came out of nowhere in the late 80s and into the 90s, boasting the
06:30stylish approach to the beautiful game that made him a huge hit with the fans.
06:33And now Letizier.
06:35Oh, it's another stunning goal from Matthew Letizier.
06:38He spent his entire career with Southampton, a middling team who were never too far from
06:43a relegation battle.
06:44Letizier went for goal.
06:46Fantastic goal.
06:49And that is worth the admission for your loan.
06:52Called the most gifted English player of his generation, Letizier was a technical master
06:56who never truly showed it on the biggest possible stages.
06:59Sure, the fact that he was a one-club man was admirable, but staying at Southampton ensured
07:03that he would never be a contender for any major titles in the game.
07:06And scoring a terrific goal, even by his elevated standards, that is something special.
07:14Number two, Barry Sanders, Detroit Lions.
07:16Barry Sanders was a truly electric player in his prime.
07:19One of the most impressive running backs to ever do it.
07:21Hand off Barry, skirts to the left side, breaks a tackle, and he will take it in, touchdown!
07:27But despite his clear world-class talent, he stuck with a very mediocre Detroit Lions team
07:32for far too long.
07:33The lack of quality support really started to show in his output.
07:36In other words, Sanders was carrying this franchise on his back for pretty much his whole career.
07:40Barry, spin three, touchdown Lions!
07:43Wow!
07:44But when he retired suddenly at the age of just 31, it came as a major shock to the sporting
07:48world.
07:48His career was legendary, and the Lions retired his number 20 jersey in 2004.
07:53Unfortunately, we can't help but wonder just how great he could have been under a different
07:57team's banner.
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08:20Number one, Babe Ruth, Boston Braves.
08:22Time has a way of catching up to even the greatest of players.
08:25No athlete in baseball commanded the same level of respect and awe as Babe Ruth did in
08:30his prime.
08:30The Bambino is still the game's greatest showman.
08:33However, by the time he left the New York Yankees, he was a shadow of his former self.
08:37But nothing could have prepared him for just how bad his next team would be.
08:41And I appreciate being with the Boston Club, and I'm going to do all I can to bring them
08:44what you want.
08:45Thank you, sir.
08:45And I'm going to like the Boston Club.
08:47I met the fellas a few minutes ago, and they all seem to be lovely chaps.
08:50Joining the Boston Braves turned out to be the final nail in his career's coffin.
08:54The year was 1935, Babe's last in the pro ranks.
08:57The Braves would compile an abysmal record of 38 to 115, one of the worst in MLB history.
09:03It makes you wonder just how much even a peak Babe Ruth could really help them.
09:07Ruth always harbored the hope that by signing on with Boston, the Braves, as a player, this
09:14could mean a transition to becoming a manager.
09:17But what truly great player do you think stood out in a pretty subpar team?
09:20Let us know in the comments.
09:22Love?
09:22Oh, what a shot by Kevin Love!
09:25A thing of beauty!
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