Pele in the basketball circle? The four players he is optimistic about are basically parallel imports, and one of them has faded out of the NBA!

As one of the football kings, Pele had a very great playing career. It is precisely because of his presence that Brazilian football has become the number one player in the world. However, what is a bit embarrassing is that after he retired, he was most famous for being the "crow's mouth", because as long as the players he was optimistic about, they basically failed to perform satisfactorily, and even directly became parallel imports. In the basketball world, there seems to be a famous player who has the taste of becoming Pele. He is the "Wolf King" Kevin Garnett. After retiring, he often accepted interviews with the media, but the result was that all the players he was optimistic about failed to perform as expected. Let's take a look at the most representative players among them and see how they performed!

Thon Maker

Career statistics: 4.6 points, 2.8 rebounds and 0.6 assists

First of all, let's talk about the most famous one, that is Thorn Maker. When he entered the NBA, Garnett was very optimistic about the young man from South Sudan. He not only believed that he could surpass his own achievements, but also win the MVP. The result? Although Maker has a height of 2.13 meters, a weight of 100 kilograms, a wingspan of 2.21 meters, and good athletic talent, he cannot make good use of it and has never been able to fulfill his talent.

And his golf IQ is also very low. He only played 5 seasons in the NBA before being completely eliminated, averaging only 4.6 points, 2.8 rebounds and 0.6 assists per game. What is even more unexpected is that even when he later joined the CBA's Fujian team, he did not have a dominant performance. In his most outstanding season, his statistics were only 16.8 points, 10.2 rebounds and 1.6 assists. Now only 28 years old, he can only seek jobs in major leagues around the world. I am afraid there will be no chance of returning to the NBA in the future.

LaMelo Ball

Career statistics: 21 points, 6 rebounds, 7.4 assists and 1.5 steals

Let's talk about the "three-goal" LaMelo Ball. Although he has been in the NBA for 5 years and has been selected for the All-Star lineup and received a maximum salary extension from the Hornets, compared to Garnett's prediction that year, his overall development is very average. After he entered the NBA, Garnett once asserted that he could become an MVP within five years, but now it seems that Ball has nothing to offer except his gorgeous style of play.

So far in his career, he has averaged 21 points, 6 rebounds, 7.4 assists and 1.5 steals per game. Behind the fact that the Hornets' record continues to decline, they have gradually become a big fish in the Eastern Conference from a playoff team at the beginning. At the same time, he was frequently affected by injuries, and his attendance rate was very unsatisfactory. He even led the Eastern Conference All-Star voting last season, but was ultimately eliminated from the All-Star team. To make matters worse, some reporters revealed that if Ball still fails to perform satisfactorily next season, he is likely to be traded away. This is far from Garnett's prediction.

Jordan Poole

Career statistics: 16.9 points, 2.7 rebounds and 3.8 assists

There was also Poole, the former "Prince" of the Warriors, who was once a player Garnett favored. In Garnett's view, Poole can not only take over the future of the Warriors, but also become a James Harden-level player. The result? After helping the team win the championship, he and Draymond Green had internal strife. Although he delivered 20.4 points, 2.7 rebounds and 4.5 assists in the 22-23 season, he was sent to the Wizards by the team.

In his two seasons with the Wizards, he failed to seize the opportunity. Even though he recovered last season, his data once again reached 20.5 points, 3 rebounds and 4.5 assists. However, at the age of 26, he cannot be compared with Harden back then. In this year's offseason, he was sent to the Pelicans. With Zion Williamson, Dejounte Murray, Trey Murphy III and others, he basically lost the qualification to become the core of the team, so he failed to perform as expected.

Bronny James

Career statistics: 2.3 points, 0.7 rebounds and 0.8 assists

Finally, let’s talk about LeBron James’ son Bronny James. When he entered the NBA last year, he received mixed reviews. Many media and fans believe that he basically had no performance at all during his one season at the University of Southern California and was not qualified to enter the NBA. His being selected by the Lakers was largely due to James' intervention. But in the eyes of famous players such as Garnett and Gilbert Arenas, he has the ability to enter the NBA and can become a Jrue Holiday-level player in the future.

However, Brownie only had 27 appearances last season, averaging only 2.3 points, 0.7 rebounds and 0.8 assists per game. In addition, in the preseason not long ago, he still seemed to have no progress at all. He made many low-level mistakes and found it difficult to adapt to NBA confrontation. So it seems that it will be quite difficult for Brownie to squeeze into the team's rotation in the future. And once he fails to perform convincingly enough, he may even lose the opportunity to continue playing in the NBA after this contract ends. This is probably something that many people did not expect.