OT: who was the best athlete
- Thread starter Fk_Pitt
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And baseball too. You bring up a good point.
Reminds me of HS athletes from smaller classifications, who receive post season awards ahead of kids from the larger classifications, due to the stats they put up are against opponents who have to pull unathletic kids out of a school hallway, or kids who only play other sports just to fill a roster.
Irrelevant. @wbrpanther said Groat was a better basketball player than Sanders was a football player. That is absolutely absurd. Groat played a whopping 26 games in the NBA. Sanders is in the NFL HOF.
Deion was way more than fast, dude wasn't a big hitter but he was one of the best cover corners to play the game.
I saw Bo play in spring training during the "Bo Knows" era, we sat on the first base line and he ran out base hits with the same intensity he ran on the football field.
I saw Bo play in spring training during the "Bo Knows" era, we sat on the first base line and he ran out base hits with the same intensity he ran on the football field.
I thought for sure you’d vote for the old white guy.
Different era though right? I don’t think there was any money in the NBA and therefore no incentive?
Groat's jersey is hanging in the rafters at Cameron, the first Duke player to be so honored. Groat only played 26 games in the NBA because he was forced to choose baseball or basketball by the Pirates management. So maybe not so absurd.
Sure, Sanders is in the college and pro HOF for football and he's widely considered the best cover corner in NFL history, but don't forget, he didn't go until the 5th pick of the NFL draft. Groat was the 3rd pick of the NBA draft. And his number was retired by Duke. So he was better at hoops I guess...?
What does draft status had to do with anything?
I'm wondering if any of you saw Deion play during his era. He directly contributed to the Super Bowl wins in SF and Dallas.
I haven't seen a winner as exciting and electrifying as Sanders since.
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Sanders went 5th in a draft that had 4 Hall of Famers drafted in the top 5! The Steelers had the 7th pick and took Tim Worley. Groat was picked 3rd by the Fort Wayne Pistons in a time when the NBA was more about territorial picks and barely a league.
Top 5 in the 1989 NFL Draft.
1. Dallas - Troy Aikman
2. Green Bay - Tony Mandrich
3. Detroit - Barry Sanders
4. Kansas City - Derrick Thomas
5. Atlanta - Deion Sanders
If we're talking athlete, I would add Herschel Walker to the discussion in the more modern era. Or at least for guys I've seen.
7
But he would take Bo and Dion to school on the court would he not?
Three major sports (we'll keep it a three since you insisted on bringing race into the discussion)...Groat is better than both of them in 2 of the three...
but, what the hell, lets make it racial why don't we?
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Catching a ball isn't in a QBs job description. Tackling is very much in a DBs. Therefore....Stupid postAnd Tom Brady can’t catch. So what?
How is Great the most accomplished by far? Deion was better in his first sport, football than Groat was in his first, baseball.
And in their second sport, Deon was better
Still not as stupid as saying that Groat was better at hoops than Sanders was at football.
It's not making it about race. It's about competition.
When is the Dick Groat 30 for 30? Asking for a friend.
Tom Brady never had the makings of a varsity athlete.And Tom Brady can’t catch. So what?
This is a good call. He has even been on the Olympic bobsled team recently as i recall?
As I recall (I wasn't born yet, so I'm talking in a historical sense), Groat's stint in the NBA got interrupted by a military obligation moreso than baseball.
A territorial pick for the Fort Wayne Pistons would have been a player from Duke? Yes, the NBA had such things as territorial draft picks back then, but even then there were franchises closer to Durham, North Carolina than Fort Wayne.
Yes Groat wasn’t a territorial pick, the point I was making was that you can’t compare a 1950’s NBA Draft with a 1989 NFL Draft. Apparently the post I was replying to was a joke, hard to tell what’s a joke and what isn’t on this board just the other day people were seriously calling for the Steelers to hire an announcer as head coach.
He said that to all the girl cousins. It was a tremendous blow to my self esteem.
Dick Groat didn't control who he played against or played with. I don't think anyone can postulate if he would've been worse or maybe better with more black athletes playing against him and with him.
There were only 11 NBA teams when he got drafted, and there were less college teams too. Groat never had a 3 point line. It's hard to compare eras. Training, practice, coaching, were all different.
You don't lead the NCAAs in scoring and assists if you aren't an outstanding player. Groat was a better Basketball player than Baseball. You can't diminish Groat's accomplishments in basketball, and I don't think there's anyway you can compare him to Sanders.
Obviously you can if you really really really diminish Sanders’ accomplishments in football.
Basically the ONLY thing I know about lacrosse is . . . that Jim Brown is considered as one of the all-time greats in that sport as well as in football.
Brown was also a standout on Syracuse's basketball team. I have also read that Brown was a "national college boxing champion", but that would have to be unofficial. Some colleges and universities offer boxing as a club sport, and there was a time that boxing was an officially-recognized NCAA sport, but due to a number of deaths, the NCAA had discontinued that recognition by the time Brown got to Syracuse.
Likely none, but he would have faced a few, and maybe even had some teammates, at Swissvale High School.
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