Who Is The Most Disappointing Bay Area Athlete Ever?

This was originally posted on Fanbase.

Ever since Barry Zito's recent failure of a start against the LA Dodgers, I started to think about Bay Area athletes who have brought the most disappointment.

With that horrid contract that pays him $18.5 million this year and one that ranks him 12th in all of baseball as far as total value, Barry Zito is a very disappointing player. In his two years as a Giants' pitcher, he has twenty one wins and thirty losses. The last time he had a sub 3.80 ERA was 2003.

I started to think about other disappointing Bay Area athletes.

I can think of three who played for the Golden State Warriors immediately.

Chris Webber was the golden child for one season, feuded with coach Don Nelson (does this sound familiar?), and then forced a trade. The golden child was gone. He was one of the most talented power forwards in the history of the NBA, had a very good career, but did it in another jersey.

Latrell Sprewell went from fan favorite to one of the most hated players in the history of Bay Area sports in all of six years. I guess that's what happens when you choke your coach. But at least Spree became an All-Pro with the team. He brought his lunch pail to work nearly every day, but it just didn't end very well.

Joe Smith was the number one draft pick in the same draft that also featured Kevin Garnett. Smith was actually a really good rookie, but by his second year, forgot what it was like to play defense, stopped rebounding and decided to become a jump shooter. By his third year, he was gone.

With the 49ers, one player immediately came to mind. Alex Smith was the first pick in the entire 2005 draft. It was a pick that Mike Nolan and the 49ers' brass couldn't whiff on. They didn't only swing and miss. They swung and missed so hard that they dug themselves into a hole. But Smith was a rookie. He hadn't played a down in the NFL and everything we expected about him was based on a college career and everything the 49ers were selling us about him.

I didn't think there was a player who I could despise as much on the field as much as I despised Chris Webber on the basketball court. He and Don Nelson were just as equally to blame for their selfishness, and they both destroyed what was an up and coming franchise.

Barry Zito hasn't done that. He was brought in because the Giants were trying to save face. They didn't want to be known as Barry Bonds' team anymore. They wanted to find a new identity. So a lot of this isn't even really Zito's fault. But what is his fault is that he's now one of the worst starting pitchers in the National League.

Who is most disappointing? Because of what it meant to me as a high school basketball fan, I'll still go with C-Webb. He was going to be one of the greatest athletes in the history of the Bay Area. Zito never had that responsibility. He just has to take the ball every five days and give the Giants a chance to win. But he didn't help destroy an entire franchise. That responsibility goes to Webber.