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Brilliant one day, baffling the next... Join us as we count down our picks for the most inconsistent yet supremely talented athletes! These stars had all the skills to dominate their sports, but attitude problems, lack of discipline, or off-field issues kept them from reaching their full potential. Which mercurial athlete did you find most frustrating to watch?
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00:00You can just feel a little bit of tension starting to come from the other end as well as Kyrgios.
00:05Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the top 10 athletes who were clearly capable of great things,
00:10but just couldn't seem to find real consistency in their careers.
00:13Like I say, I might have played three years, but that three years is going to cover a lifetime and more.
00:19Number 10. Paul Pogba.
00:20Paul Pogba was the perfect footballing athlete. Tall, quick, and extremely technical with the ball at his feet.
00:25With his rare combination of creativity, physicality, and technical finesse, footballers don't come much more gifted than Paul Pogba.
00:33Perhaps he still is, but after meandering through inconsistent form during what could have been his prime years, people began to lose faith.
00:39Pogba is a joy to watch at his best, and he has an absolute cannon in his right foot.
00:43It's going to drop for Pogba. Wow! What a hit! Phenomenal! Paul Pogba, that's what he's all about!
00:52However, his attitude has always been a point of contention, and productive spells at Juventus and Manchester United were always overshadowed by other factors.
01:00An 18-month doping ban cost him his Juve contract, and though he still has time to rebuild himself, he remains one of football's greatest what-ifs.
01:08I am not a cheater. I'm someone that loves my sport. I love the game. And I would never, ever, I don't like to cheat. I like to win fairly. And people know that. And you see it.
01:23Number 9. Lamar Odom
01:24Lamar Odom came into the NBA with all of the ingredients he needed to become something truly outstanding.
01:29Good job by Lamar Odom. He took it away from Shaq, literally, with a slap of the ball. Not Odom being defensed by Rice. Changes direction. Goes around Rice. Underneath. Score!
01:38Sometimes he succeeded in this regard, but he also had a knack for underperforming and leaving us all frustrated.
01:43When he was in the zone, he could do it all. Scoring, rebounding, playmaking. He was a truly fantastic forward who could set the court on fire.
01:49Five points off the bench for Odom. Odom jump shot.
01:53Plus, he was a dependable big-game player at the best of times. But fans began to get annoyed with Odom's inconsistency and how he was liable to check out from time to time.
02:01Off-court personal issues didn't help matters. Though he was a two-time NBA champion, he wasn't quite as dependable as he should have been.
02:07You know, I'm not here to rattle feathers or anything like that. I'm just here to play basketball.
02:12Number 8. BJ Penn
02:13There might not be a more talented MMA fighter in history than BJ Penn, but he also managed to find himself in one ugly decline.
02:19Penn was first a prodigy on the Brazilian jiu-jitsu circuit, who picked up insanely good boxing skills upon switching to MMA.
02:25Then he went on to win championships at lightweight and welterweight in the UFC.
02:29But just as he was right in the thick of the goat debate, problems surfaced.
02:32His lackadaisical approach to training left him with some real problems later on.
02:36Penn's motivation to work was becoming an issue.
02:39Things got so bad that he left the sport after breaking the UFC's record for the most consecutive losses with seven straight defeats.
02:45Number 7. Dwight Howard
02:46Dwight Howard at his peak? As dominant as can be.
02:49A generationally gifted center who is as athletic as they come.
02:52All the youth.
02:53Howard at the buzzer!
02:59Dwight Howard climbs through the roof to put the magic up.
03:05But for as much as he looked like a world beater on one night, he could come out the next looking totally off.
03:10Don't get us wrong, he's an NBA champion and an eight-time All-Star. That's still impressive.
03:14That was all Dwight Howard starting on the defensive end.
03:17But it was hard to watch Howard and not feel like he could have been something greater if he had a stronger level of focus.
03:22It's hard to get out there 80, 90, or even 100 or more times in a season to maintain your intensity.
03:27But that's what the truly great ones can do. Or at least they could do it better than Dwight Howard.
03:31Blocked by Howard.
03:32Oh my goodness.
03:33He sent that out of here like it was a wiffle ball. Wow.
03:36Number 6. Adrian Broner
03:38Adrian Broner might just be the prime example of a mercurial boxer that we've seen since the turn of the century.
03:43I know I'm blessed with the God-given talent and every day I go in that gym, I work so hard.
03:49When he burst onto the scene, he seemed to have it all. Astounding technical and physical skills along with charisma and star potential.
03:54But here's the thing. You're going to be judged by how you perform under the brightest possible lights and Broner was undeniably inconsistent at that top level.
04:01Do you ever foresee a day where you might lose a fight?
04:04I work too hard, man. I can't have that.
04:07He had some big moments and huge wins, but you could never count on him to be fully dialed in every single time he made that ring lock.
04:13Losses to the likes of Marcos Mayonga, Sean Porter, and even an aging Manny Pacquiao made it clear that Broner was far from a safe bet.
04:20We have a unanimous decision. All three in favor of the winner and still WDBA welterweight champion of the world, Manny Pacquiao!
04:38No. 5. Jamarcus Russell
04:40Jamarcus Russell was so good during his college career that he was selected first overall by the Oakland Raiders in the 2007 NFL Draft.
04:47The Oakland Raiders select quarterback Jamarcus Russell, LSU.
04:53Would this promising youngster become the standout quarterback that Oakland had been so desperately craving?
04:57Well, not exactly. He clearly had the talent but struggled to keep his head on straight.
05:01Oh, Russell, with all kinds of time, looking for the end zone! Touchdown!
05:05Simply put, Russell didn't have the mentality necessary to become a top-flight star.
05:10His dedication to his training was always in question, and issues with his weight and a persistent codeine habit threw him completely off course.
05:16After just three years in the NFL, the Raiders cut their losses and took a big financial hit just to get Russell off their books.
05:21No matter how things went for me, I still love the game of football.
05:26No. 4. Ryan Leaf
05:28No list of famous NFL draft busts would be complete without a special mention for Ryan Leaf.
05:32It's an age-old question in the NFL Draft. It was the finished product versus the upside.
05:38Ryan Leaf was seen as the guy who might climb farther.
05:42As a member of the 1998 draft that gave us Peyton Manning, Leaf was at the center of quite a lot of media scrutiny and hype.
05:48From that time onwards, the Ryan Leaf story was one of undeniable disappointment.
05:52This was a guy who was woefully immature and not ready for the spotlight, not ready for responsibility or leadership.
05:59Sure, we got to see glimpses of his skill and his readiness for the elite level, but problems related to work ethic and discipline caused him to unravel.
06:06Was it his attitude, his conditioning, immaturity, or all of the above?
06:09Well, he only managed to last four years in the NFL before it all came crashing down.
06:13I was ill-prepared for everything that came after playing in that Rose Bowl.
06:17There isn't a moment where I look at and I go, oh, I did that right.
06:21Number 3. Paul Gascoyne
06:23Paul Gascoyne was the most talented English footballer of his generation.
06:26Gascoyne, he's lost the boot, but he hasn't lost the ball.
06:30An incredible way to get his first goal in a Tottenham show.
06:34In fact, he remains one of the most gifted players the country has ever produced.
06:38But despite the performances that saw him clearly fulfilling all that promise, he also had his demons.
06:42When he was on, he was practically unstoppable.
06:44But a chaotic life outside of football left him with a very uneven career.
06:48He was just being used and abused.
06:52I didn't think that he had the stability to deal with it.
06:55Throughout his life, both during his prime and post-retirement, Gaza indulged a little
06:59too heavily in the luxuries that celebrity life brought him.
07:02Even though he could still let his genius shine in spots, he became more and more volatile
07:06and unpredictable before he eventually hung up his boots for good.
07:09Sometimes I still see me as the kid of 1990.
07:15I still feel inside of his acting playing the premiership.
07:182. Mario Balotelli
07:19Mario Balotelli was always going to be a star.
07:22Some players just have that special aura that makes them an unmissable attraction.
07:25Mario was a pretty unique guy.
07:29He was a real one-off.
07:31He was, contrary to popular belief, he was a bright guy who did some bizarre things.
07:37Very unpredictable.
07:39He just didn't know what he was going to do next.
07:41Very, very talented player.
07:42His immense physicality is mixed with some real elegance on that pitch.
07:45But if there has been one common problem throughout Mario Balotelli's career, it's his attitude.
07:50It's a third for Manchester City!
07:53It is Mario Balotelli!
07:54To say that Balotelli has a discipline problem would be putting it lightly.
07:58Sometimes he looks like the greatest striker on earth, but then he'll go and act like
08:01an unruly teenager, both on and off the field.
08:03He lives a pretty wild lifestyle and sometimes it seems like he couldn't care less what happens
08:07to the club he's playing for.
08:08For some managers, Balotelli is totally uncoachable.
08:11It's not the football world that will make me stop.
08:14I will stop when I was going to stop.
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08:31Number 1.
08:33Nick Kyrgios
08:34Nick Kyrgios is a truly mercurial player.
08:37Capable of incredible feats when he's in prime form, but also liable to self-destruct
08:41without warning.
08:42Every single time I play, he's doing some stupid s***.
08:46Every time.
08:47He's a powerful player with a real flair to his game, but he's unfortunately prone to
08:51emotional outbursts that end up throwing him off course.
08:53Nick Kyrgios continued with the umpire, so it's still unclear if Kyrgios actually heard
08:58what Johnson had to say.
09:01Whether he's arguing with officials or complaining about audience noise, it doesn't take much
09:05to set Kyrgios off.
09:06On his best day, he's a threat to anyone, but it's also pretty clear that he didn't
09:10reach his full potential due to the fact that he can be pretty erratic.
09:13Are you not entertained?
09:15Which notoriously inconsistent athlete would you have added to this list?
09:19Let us know in the comments below.
09:23Let us know in the comments below.
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