BigFatCoward Posted September 8, 2022 Share Posted September 8, 2022 36 minutes ago, ljkeane said: If you take rugby league and rugby union, two sports which are about as close as it's possible to be while still being different sports, there are a lot of players who were excellent at one and failed to successfully transition to the other. It's not as easy as it might seem just looking at someone's basic attributes in one sport and assuming it translates to another. Taking the example of LeBron I'd say it's likely he could have been at least a professional level rugby player in one of the lower skilled positions (second row, blindside flanker, wing or crashball centre depending on how fast he is) if he really wanted to. Full contact sports at the higher level does require a certain level of disregard for your own physical wellbeing which not everybody has and we really don't know that about him unless he actually tried it. I doubt Lomu could have played basketball at a particularly high level. His hands weren't anything special. Even the best Rugby Union players don't necessarily make the best 7 a side players. Same with football, I was far better at 5 a side than 11 a side. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Which Tyler Posted September 8, 2022 Share Posted September 8, 2022 1 hour ago, ljkeane said: If you take rugby league and rugby union, two sports which are about as close as it's possible to be while still being different sports, there are a lot of players who were excellent at one and failed to successfully transition to the other. It's not as easy as it might seem just looking at someone's basic attributes in one sport and assuming it translates to another. I was going to take exactly the same example - and add in 7s. There are plenty of greats in 7s, 13s and 15s, who have failed to translate across to one of the others. Some who have, of course, but it's typically way harder than most of them expect it to be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denvek Posted September 8, 2022 Share Posted September 8, 2022 It’s not really possible to compare greats in one sort with those in another simply because of how different each sport is, but for me Bradman stands out because his stats not only eclipse all his contemporaries but in 74 years since his retirement no one else has come anywhere near (the next best after his 99.94 is 61.87, and there’s only four more above 60) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbunting Posted September 8, 2022 Share Posted September 8, 2022 Man this one fires me up for some reason. HOW can anyone say LeBron has great hand eye coordination as it relates to baseball and use basketball passing as the reason why? In what world do those skills match? Hitting a ball is about timing, focus on the ball all the way in, picking up on rotation, release points etc. I could see LeBron as a tight end in the NFL due to his hands, size and body, but baseball? There is no legitimate basis to say he could. Just because Michael Jordan some what did it doesn't mean anything about anyone else. Jordan played ball in high school and received scholarship offers to play, LeBron didn't even play. Dave Winfield would be a better comparison. He was drafted to the MLB, NBA, ABA and the NFL...despite never playing college football, was more of a gimmick pick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DireWolfSpirit Posted September 8, 2022 Share Posted September 8, 2022 FloJo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Selig Posted September 8, 2022 Share Posted September 8, 2022 I think the NBA greats with the best chance to greats in other sports are probably players like Curry and Nash who have out of this world handeye coordination, balance and agility. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFatCoward Posted September 9, 2022 Share Posted September 9, 2022 7 hours ago, David Selig said: I think the NBA greats with the best chance to greats in other sports are probably players like Curry and Nash who have out of this world handeye coordination, balance and agility. And are more 'normal' sized. If being freaky massive was useful in other sports then those sports would have people of that size playing them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Chatywin et al. Posted September 9, 2022 Share Posted September 9, 2022 7 hours ago, BigFatCoward said: And are more 'normal' sized. If being freaky massive was useful in other sports then those sports would have people of that size playing them. Normal size is less desirable. Basketball players are getting taller all the time while gymnasts are getting smaller. The all-around average athlete is a dying breed. 16 hours ago, dbunting said: Man this one fires me up for some reason. HOW can anyone say LeBron has great hand eye coordination as it relates to baseball and use basketball passing as the reason why? In what world do those skills match? Hitting a ball is about timing, focus on the ball all the way in, picking up on rotation, release points etc. I could see LeBron as a tight end in the NFL due to his hands, size and body, but baseball? There is no legitimate basis to say he could. Just because Michael Jordan some what did it doesn't mean anything about anyone else. Jordan played ball in high school and received scholarship offers to play, LeBron didn't even play. LeBron's hand eye coordination blows Jordan out of the water if we're going for sports hot takes. And he's a lot stronger while not giving up much when it comes to speed and quickness. I don't think there's a comparable athlete to LeBron right now because he's the ultimate "can we make the perfect player in a lab" candidate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted September 9, 2022 Author Share Posted September 9, 2022 4 hours ago, Tywin et al. said: The all-around average athlete is a dying breed. The most popular sport in the world deals almost entirely in athletes of more-or-less average size. BigFatCoward and Mark Antony 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Which Tyler Posted September 9, 2022 Share Posted September 9, 2022 (edited) 7 hours ago, Tywin et al. said: Normal size is less desirable. Basketball players are getting taller all the time while gymnasts are getting smaller. The all-around average athlete is a dying breed. What about for sports that aren't Basketball? Even gymnastics only works if you forget the men exist. Where are all these physical monsters on the athletics track? the football pitch? rugby has a mix of both monsters and normal people (though they also all lie about being bigger than they are), plenty of normal sized tennis players, golf, hockey, cricket, swimming... Edited September 9, 2022 by Which Tyler Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baxus Posted September 9, 2022 Share Posted September 9, 2022 7 hours ago, Tywin et al. said: I don't think there's a comparable athlete to LeBron right now because he's the ultimate "can we make the perfect player in a lab" candidate. Depends on what sport you're making the athlete for, doesn't it? LeBron is big and strong and quick, but I doubt he'd ever make a world-class level swimmer, for example. Or a cyclist, or triathlete, or high-jumper, or rower or... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Horse Named Stranger Posted September 9, 2022 Share Posted September 9, 2022 Swimming is mean (competitively). Friend (R) of mine used to running (half-marathons and shizzle) and hit the gym regularly, before his doctor told him his knees disagreed with the stress and he should take it easier. Anyway, his best mate (M) and training partner (before children started to slow him down) and him also ventured into triathlon realms. Not sure how we ventured into that topic of conversation, but well, my friend was whining a bit: If I were to take a guess, I'd say M is posting better times. We are pretty level in two disciplines Lemme guess, swimming screws you over. Dude, swimming sucks! I already took classes to get better/work on my technique. It's absolutely frustrating, cycling and running, some days I am bit faster, on others he is a bit faster. But not really much of a difference. But as soon as we enter the water he just annihilates me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbunting Posted September 9, 2022 Share Posted September 9, 2022 10 hours ago, Tywin et al. said: LeBron's hand eye coordination blows Jordan out of the water if we're going for sports hot takes. And he's a lot stronger while not giving up much when it comes to speed and quickness. Quantify this statement. Hot take or not or not that's horrible! I'd equate defensive skills, more to hand eye coordination than anything else. Jordan, defensive player of the year once, 9 time all def first team. LeBron, no def player of the year and 5 time all def first team despite playing three more seasons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DMC Posted September 10, 2022 Share Posted September 10, 2022 19 hours ago, BigFatCoward said: And are more 'normal' sized. If being freaky massive was useful in other sports then those sports would have people of that size playing them. Kind of a bad time to make this argument here in the states considering Judge's season. Baseball hitters are in general getting bigger and stronger - albeit I remember meeting Jose Guillen at a party about two hours after he hit a game winner off Mo Rivera and was shocked we were the same size. Baseball pitchers have generally been bigger than average size of quite a while now - indeed if you're average size coming up as a pitcher scouts will have a tendency to write you off due to injury/durability concerns. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLastWolf Posted September 10, 2022 Share Posted September 10, 2022 (edited) Goalkies and Bowlers are overlooked often in their respective sports. Oliver Kahn and Muthiah Muralitharan are definitely GOATs, after all the only gk to get a WC Golden Ball and 800 test wickets (Warne far behind) are no mean feats Edited September 10, 2022 by TheLastWolf Khan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted September 10, 2022 Author Share Posted September 10, 2022 5 hours ago, DMC said: ind of a bad time to make this argument here in the states considering Judge's season. Baseball hitters are in general getting bigger and stronger One local sport being an outlier doesn't really derail the whole argument. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DMC Posted September 10, 2022 Share Posted September 10, 2022 1 minute ago, polishgenius said: One local sport being an outlier doesn't really derail the whole argument. People seem to love to mention how soccer is the most popular sport in the world. Well, both basketball and baseball are in the top 10 by any metric as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted September 10, 2022 Author Share Posted September 10, 2022 I mean, I'd never refer to basketball as a niche local sport. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFatCoward Posted September 10, 2022 Share Posted September 10, 2022 Looking at the top 10 participation sports, and the next few, there is pretty much no advantage/an actual disadvantage in any of them by being freaky big. It's such a weird argument to be making. Basketball, and height helps in volleyball but being built definitely doesn't. That's about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFatCoward Posted September 10, 2022 Share Posted September 10, 2022 34 minutes ago, DMC said: People seem to love to mention how soccer is the most popular sport in the world. Well, both basketball and baseball are in the top 10 by any metric as well. But football is about 700 times as big as both combined. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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