10 Greatest Athletes of All Time

Off Topic
221

[quote]NorCal916 wrote:

[quote]DBCooper wrote:

[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:

[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
Basketball players as a whole are the best athletes. There no better combination of speed, quickness, agility, strength, hand-eye coordination, leaping ability, dexterity and stamina. It’s the only sport college standouts can’t make itin the pros and transition to other sports with great success. Pro football is riddled with 'em.[/quote]
[/quote]
Really? Do you know how many first-round draft picks never even MAKE it to the big leagues, let alone do anything significant there?

There are plenty of athletes in many other sports that exhibit better speed than basketball players. I think what basketball does is it DISPLAYS more athletic ability than most sports, but it doesn’t mean that any of the things they do is better than any other athlete. For the most part, baseball players, football players, soccer players and rugby players are faster than basketball players. There’s about a billion sports with stronger athletes, including football, rugby, gymnastics, Olympic lifting, perhaps bobsledding, etc.

Superior quickness and eye-hand coordination can be seen in the highest levels of table tennis. Tennis players are generally far quicker than basketball players. Leaping ability is trumped by gymnasts, long jumpers, high jumpers and maybe even a lot of volleyball players. Dexterity is seen at a higher level by gymnasts and virtually any competitor in the snowboarding or skateboarding halfpipe. The stamina of tennis players, soccer players, most runners regardless of distance, triathletes, cyclists, etc.

There isn’t one thing that you can see on a basketball court that cannot be seen at a higher level in another sport, aside from the actual act of playing basketball. Like I mentioned above, all of those other sports feature whatever the criteria listed previously is, and at a higher level. Basketball is simply the sport where a lot of it is required all at once. They are the athletic jack-of-all-trades and masters of none.[/quote]

It’s a combination of physical attributes that makes NBA players the top of the food chain. Look at power forwards or point guards. These guys could have played:

  1. football
  2. boxing
  3. soccer
  4. baseball
  5. track
  6. cycling
  7. Rugby

etc etc. etc.

They would only have to develop the SKILL through practice.

Do you know what type of shape you have to be in to play basketball? I played in high school, and can tell you it’s no joke.[/quote]

lets look at this football players who did different sports at the highest level.

  1. Boxing: Ed ‘too tall’ Jones
  2. Baseball: Jim Thorpe, Bo Jackson, Deion Sanders
  3. Track(olympics): Bob Hayes, Willie Gault, Jim Thorpe
  4. Cycling: No point
    5: Rugby: Kinda Redundant
    6: Soccer: Chad Johnson (didn’t do to well)
    7: Hershal Walker: Didn’t he do bobsledding, Is a pro mma fighter at like 50 or some shit
    Elite Skilled Position Football Players can (not could) hold their own.
222

Jim Brown: lacrosse

223

Good point about Hershal Walker doing pro mma at 50!

Unreal.

224

[quote]DBCooper wrote:

[quote]Eazy wrote:

[quote]DBCooper wrote:

[quote]NorCal916 wrote:

[quote]DBCooper wrote:

[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:

[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
Basketball players as a whole are the best athletes. There no better combination of speed, quickness, agility, strength, hand-eye coordination, leaping ability, dexterity and stamina. It’s the only sport college standouts can’t make itin the pros and transition to other sports with great success. Pro football is riddled with 'em.[/quote]
[/quote]
Really? Do you know how many first-round draft picks never even MAKE it to the big leagues, let alone do anything significant there?

There are plenty of athletes in many other sports that exhibit better speed than basketball players. I think what basketball does is it DISPLAYS more athletic ability than most sports, but it doesn’t mean that any of the things they do is better than any other athlete. For the most part, baseball players, football players, soccer players and rugby players are faster than basketball players. There’s about a billion sports with stronger athletes, including football, rugby, gymnastics, Olympic lifting, perhaps bobsledding, etc.

Superior quickness and eye-hand coordination can be seen in the highest levels of table tennis. Tennis players are generally far quicker than basketball players. Leaping ability is trumped by gymnasts, long jumpers, high jumpers and maybe even a lot of volleyball players. Dexterity is seen at a higher level by gymnasts and virtually any competitor in the snowboarding or skateboarding halfpipe. The stamina of tennis players, soccer players, most runners regardless of distance, triathletes, cyclists, etc.

There isn’t one thing that you can see on a basketball court that cannot be seen at a higher level in another sport, aside from the actual act of playing basketball. Like I mentioned above, all of those other sports feature whatever the criteria listed previously is, and at a higher level. Basketball is simply the sport where a lot of it is required all at once. They are the athletic jack-of-all-trades and masters of none.[/quote]

It’s a combination of physical attributes that makes NBA players the top of the food chain. Look at power forwards or point guards. These guys could have played:

  1. football
  2. boxing
  3. soccer
  4. baseball
  5. track
  6. cycling
  7. Rugby

etc etc. etc.

They would only have to develop the SKILL through practice.

Do you know what type of shape you have to be in to play basketball? I played in high school, and can tell you it’s no joke.[/quote]
They MIGHT have been able to play those sports. Michael Jordan’s baseball career seriously undermines your argument, but whatever. He didn’t have a lot of time to practice skill.

[/quote]

He wasn’t the failure that people made it out to be, he did play a stint with scottsdale where i believe he hit .252 or so against a lot of top prospects. You should watch the 30 for 30 “Jordan rides the bus” for a better perspective on just how difficult what he did was. After that season with the Barons he showed signs of improvement.

But i mean the dude up and left the game he dominated to pick up an entirely different sport he hadn’t played since a kid, in a years time did you expect him to be Ken Griffey Jr??
[/quote]
Top prospects? Where’d you get that from? Wikipedia or some other bullshit site you had to go to look for things to support your argument with? The guy was in the Arizona Fall League. That may be for SOME top prospects, but it’s filled mostly with guys who were dogshit the year prior and need more work or players who were drafted and signed late, so they didn’t get a lot of work in the minors. Most of the players who are in a fall league were also drafted the same year, so he was basically playing against guys with about as much professional experience as him.

I didn’t expect him to be Ken Griffey, Jr., but I did expect him to look like a halfway decent athlete when he swung the bat. I haven’t played in several years and when I DID play I was a pitcher, but I have a better swing than he does. If basketball players are automatically the best athletes out there I would at least expect them to look athletic when they swing a bat, especially since

most people on here don’t even consider baseball very hard to play at all.[/quote]

Wait a minute. Minor league players are still “professional” PlAyers, since it’s their full-time job and the get paid to do it. These guys who play in the minors are still former scholarship players and high school studs. Even though they are not in The Big Show, most of them are solid ball players.

225

And it’s pretty universal that the hardest thing in sports to do is to hit a baseball.

226

[quote]Brett620 wrote:
Jim Brown: lacrosse[/quote]

forgot that one.

227

[quote]Brett620 wrote:
And it’s pretty universal that the hardest thing in sports to do is to hit a baseball. [/quote]

I personally think this is bullshit. I can tell you with absolute certainty that I’d have a better chance of hitting a 90 MPH fastball than I would throwing one.

228

[quote]jjackkrash wrote:

[quote]Brett620 wrote:
And it’s pretty universal that the hardest thing in sports to do is to hit a baseball. [/quote]

I personally think this is bullshit. I can tell you with absolute certainty that I’d have a better chance of hitting a 90 MPH fastball than I would throwing one. [/quote]

That’s not a proper comparison. Then I could say ok, make it a home run. It’s not about the speed, it’s about the TASK.

Here are examples:

  1. Throwing a strike
  2. Hitting a golf ball or sinking a putt
  3. Heading a soccer ball
  4. Bowling a strike
  5. Dunking a basketball
  6. Kicking a field goal
  7. Throwing a discus, javelin or shot put
  8. Clearing the bar on the pole vault

You get the hint.

You can make the gymnastics argument here. Like the uneven bars, pommel horse or the rings.

229

[quote]Brett620 wrote:

[quote]jjackkrash wrote:

[quote]Brett620 wrote:
And it’s pretty universal that the hardest thing in sports to do is to hit a baseball. [/quote]

I personally think this is bullshit. I can tell you with absolute certainty that I’d have a better chance of hitting a 90 MPH fastball than I would throwing one. [/quote]

That’s not a proper comparison. Then I could say ok, make it a home run. It’s not about the speed, it’s about the TASK.

Here are examples:

  1. Throwing a strike
  2. Hitting a golf ball or sinking a putt
  3. Heading a soccer ball
  4. Bowling a strike
  5. Dunking a basketball
  6. Kicking a field goal
  7. Throwing a discus, javelin or shot put
  8. Clearing the bar on the pole vault

You get the hint.

You can make the gymnastics argument here. Like the uneven bars, pommel horse or the rings. [/quote]

I’ll go with riding a bull.

230

[quote]jjackkrash wrote:

[quote]Brett620 wrote:

[quote]jjackkrash wrote:

[quote]Brett620 wrote:
And it’s pretty universal that the hardest thing in sports to do is to hit a baseball. [/quote]

I personally think this is bullshit. I can tell you with absolute certainty that I’d have a better chance of hitting a 90 MPH fastball than I would throwing one. [/quote]

That’s not a proper comparison. Then I could say ok, make it a home run. It’s not about the speed, it’s about the TASK.

Here are examples:

  1. Throwing a strike
  2. Hitting a golf ball or sinking a putt
  3. Heading a soccer ball
  4. Bowling a strike
  5. Dunking a basketball
  6. Kicking a field goal
  7. Throwing a discus, javelin or shot put
  8. Clearing the bar on the pole vault

You get the hint.

You can make the gymnastics argument here. Like the uneven bars, pommel horse or the rings. [/quote]

I’ll go with riding a bull.
[/quote]

Yeah… you might be right

231

[quote]Brett620 wrote:

[quote]jjackkrash wrote:

[quote]Brett620 wrote:
And it’s pretty universal that the hardest thing in sports to do is to hit a baseball. [/quote]

I personally think this is bullshit. I can tell you with absolute certainty that I’d have a better chance of hitting a 90 MPH fastball than I would throwing one. [/quote]

That’s not a proper comparison. Then I could say ok, make it a home run. It’s not about the speed, it’s about the TASK.

Here are examples:

  1. Throwing a strike
  2. Hitting a golf ball or sinking a putt
  3. Heading a soccer ball
  4. Bowling a strike
  5. Dunking a basketball
  6. Kicking a field goal
  7. Throwing a discus, javelin or shot put
  8. Clearing the bar on the pole vault

You get the hint.

You can make the gymnastics argument here. Like the uneven bars, pommel horse or the rings. [/quote]

  1. Clearing the bar in the pole vault was crazy hard for me to accomplish esp for the first time. After doing it once it does get easier though for that height.