Sports Stars Who Had to Wait Their Turn
Let's be honest here—people are super impatient.
Whether that means waiting to hear back from buddies about where to watch the game or checking to see how many people liked a picture from the front row, we all want everything right now.
Unfortunately, though, it doesn't always work that way—especially in sports.
Waiting for a title is excruciating for fans, but waiting for a chance to play for athletes has to be just as difficult.
Since some players have had to do just that, here are the ones who didn't let their forced patience get them down.
James Harden
1 of 12
I know, it's kind of tough to label a third overall pick as a guy who had to wait his turn, but the James Harden that fans have seen since 2012 when he got traded to the Houston Rockets isn't the same one we saw his first three seasons.
Being a part of a team in Oklahoma City that included other budding young stars like Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook seemed to be a perfect scenario, but Harden was sort of the odd man out, starting just seven games as a member of the Thunder in those first three years.
Since heading to Houston, though, Harden has become the man, earning two straight All-Star nods and becoming one of the most prolific scorers in the NBA.
Colin Kaepernick
2 of 12
A second-round pick in 2011, the San Francisco 49ers were in the position of keeping former incumbent starter Alex Smith at the helm instead of allowing the exciting Colin Kaepernick to see the field.
Attempting just five passes in his first year, it wasn't until his second season in 2012 that the Niners were forced to really decide which signal-caller was going to start going forward.
Going 5-2 after taking over for an injured Smith that season, Kaep led the team to a Super Bowl berth—losing to the Baltimore Ravens—and the Niners shipped Smith off to the Kansas City Chiefs prior to the 2013 season.
It may not have been much of a wait, but Kaepernick did hold the clipboard for a hot second before getting the chance to be the dual-threat star he is now.
Philip Rivers
3 of 12
Taken with the fourth overall pick in the 2004 NFL draft, Philip Rivers may have been compared to Eli Manning and Ben Roethlisberger—who were the other first-round quarterbacks taken that year—but he wasn't given the starting nod in his first year like those two were.
That position was actually held down by some guy named Drew Brees, who was playing for the San Diego Chargers back then and struggling to find his way.
Attempting just 30 passes in his first two years once Brees broke out, it wasn't until 2006 that Rivers took over the starter's role.
All he did was go 14-2 and make the Pro Bowl—yet failed to win a playoff game.
Since then, both Rivers and Brees have been two of the best passers in the league, with Rivers earning a reputation for being one of the feistiest around.
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
Goran Dragic
4 of 12
One of the last picks in the 2008 draft, current Phoenix Suns star Goran Dragic was always a decent role player, but he was never given the opportunity to show his full arsenal of skills.
That all changed last year, though, as Dragic became a 20-point scorer and, most notably, the biggest All-Star snub of the season.
Paying his dues in his first four seasons, the Slovenian guard has suddenly become the reason why Phoenix Suns fans can be optimistic for next season.
Corey Kluber
5 of 12
Being a Cleveland sports fan, the story of Indians ace Corey Kluber is one that has piqued my interest this season.
A former fourth-round pick, Kluber was pretty much a toss-in guy during a trade from the San Diego Padres to the Indians back in 2010, with scouts generally regarding him as nothing more than a possible back end of the rotation kind of guy.
Boy, were they wrong.
A late bloomer—he's currently 28 years old—Kluber showed promise in 2013 by winning 11 games and posting a 3.85 ERA before breaking out this season by tying for the AL lead in wins with 18, going 9-3 with a 1.73 ERA since the All-Star break and arguably becoming the favorite to win the AL Cy Young Award.
Carson Palmer
6 of 12
While current Arizona Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer did win the Heisman Trophy in his final year at Southern California and became the first overall pick in the 2003 draft, he still wasn't handed the reins to the Cincinnati Bengals from the beginning.
That job belonged to Jon Kitna, who held down the position for the entire 2003 season, with Palmer not even getting any live snaps during mop-up duty.
With the Bengals preaching patience with their new star signal-caller, Kitna led the team to a respectable 8-8 record before giving way to Palmer in 2004, with the young gun struggling his first season as a starter before enjoying a fairly successful career in Cincy.
Steve Young
7 of 12
Acquired by the San Francisco 49ers in 1987 from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Steve Young went into a situation with the Niners that got awkward fairly quickly—seeing how the team had Joe Montana leading their offense to Super Bowls and such.
It wasn't until 1991 that Young finally took over the starting job from Joe Cool, which only happened because Montana had gotten injured.
Leading the team to a 14-2 record as the starter in 1992, the franchise saw they had something pretty great, and unloaded Montana the next year to the Kansas City Chiefs for Young to become the full-time guy without any controversy whatsoever.
It was a few years later that the lefty hoisted the Lombardi Trophy, getting a huge monkey off of his back and, eventually, earning his place in the Hall of Fame.
David Ortiz
8 of 12
Many of us know Boston Red Sox future Hall of Famer David Ortiz for all of his theatrics and clutch hits, but before heading to Beantown, Big Papi wasn't much of a difficult out.
Struggling to do much during his first five seasons in the bigs, Ortiz often battled minor injuries and inconsistency both at the plate and in the field—occasionally playing first base for the Minnesota Twins.
It wasn't until Papi joined the Red Sox that his career really flourished, earning his first 30-plus homer season his first year in Boston and taking off from there.
In fact, he has hit at least 30 round-trippers in all but four seasons in his 12 years with the Sox—on top of all those postseason memories.
Aaron Rodgers
9 of 12
Most sports fans are aware of the slide that current Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers experienced during the 2005 NFL draft.
With analysts assuming Rodgers would eventually end up going in the top 10, the signal-caller slid all the way down to the Packers, who took him 24th overall—even though they already had the legendary Brett Favre as their incumbent starter.
While most players want to be the top pick in the draft, Rodgers' slide actually worked out beautifully for him, as he wasn't rushed to start for a bad team, sitting behind Favre for three full seasons before taking over for him for good in 2008.
Seeing how Rodgers won a Super Bowl in his second season as a starter in 2010 and the league MVP the following year, along with getting a huge deal from the Pack in 2013, I'd say all the waiting was well worth it for him.
Kurt Warner
10 of 12
One of the more well-known stories, Kurt Warner's journey to NFL starter is one that is pretty remarkable.
Not getting his first start until the age of 28, Warner went from a meaningless backup and getting cut to the Arena League, NFL Europe and, yes, even a stock man at a grocery store.
But once he took over control of the St. Louis Rams offense in 1999, Warner never looked back, leading The Greatest Show on Turf to a Super Bowl win and earning two league MVPs in 1999 and 2001.
He is a borderline Hall of Famer, so the wait seems to have been worth it.
Guilder Rodriguez
11 of 12Want to know what makes sports the greatest drama on TV? Because there are stories like Guilder Rodriguez's.
Following a minor league career that spanned 13 seasons and nearly 1,100 games, Rodriguez finally got his opportunity in the bigs a few weeks ago—at the age of 31—getting 14 plate appearances for the Texas Rangers.
In one of the best sights of the MLB season, the utility man got his first-ever major league hit and even collected an RBI during the seven games he played for Texas at the end of the season.
Who knows if he'll stay in the majors going forward, but the fact that he got there at the age he did is pretty cool.
Tom Brady
12 of 12
Much like the aforementioned Kurt Warner, current New England Patriots signal-caller Tom Brady's story to NFL starter is pretty well-known.
Not only waiting to hear his name called during the draft—he was a sixth-rounder and the 199th guy taken overall in 2000—Brady then rode the pine behind former Patriot Drew Bledsoe for his first year-plus.
Taking over in Week 3 after a serious injury took out Bledsoe, Brady rolled the Pats to a Super Bowl upset in that same season, and would do so again in two of the next three seasons, becoming arguably the best quarterback of his generation and earning himself a bust in Canton one day.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
