Writing the last post about cross-hybrid combinations got me thinking about what athletes from certain sports would be absolutely sick crossing over into other sports. I remember watching an NBA game from early last season where the Cavs were playing the Spurs and Lebron James had about 5 And 1 buckets in the FIRST HALF! He was getting into the lane taking huge hits and still finishing layups and dunks as if he hadn't been touched. Light bulb flashed in my head, hmmm this guy is pretty strong. Takes hits and keeps going, runs as fast up and down the court as ANYONE in the league and oh by the way clocks in at 6'8" Two-Fifty! He debuted on SNL for the season-opener (which could be a-whole-nother post about why athletes should NOT try and do comedy) and let's just say standing on stage next to the cast it looked like he had eaten Fred Armisen. He's a big dude.
And so I am here making a push for Bron Bron to think about pursuing a multiple sports career, a la Bo Jackson. OK bad example, that whole broken hip thing didn't work out very well, so for arguments sake, let's just assume injury is not a factor. Can you name one NFL team that would not sign him right now if he came to their camp? Hellz no. He would INSTANTLY be the best receiver in the game (yes better than moss and T.O.) and with minimal work could be the best power-back as well. Can you imagine a cornerback trying to tackle him coming full speed down the field? He better try and go for the legs, oh but wait Lebron can jump literally 4 feet in the air so good luck with that.
Outside of the obvious over-lapping of seasons and possible injury implication issues; this would be a no-brainer from a business perspective. I am no math guy but two salaries are better than one no? And can you think of a better ad campaign than "Bo knows..."? I would even go so far as to issue David Stern and Roger Goodell a Call-to-Action that they need to make this deal happen. Help me help you. I am saying it publicly here that I want to see Lebron on an NFL team.
Or at the very least can we get a sports reality show where we have top professional athletes from different sports competing against other professional athletes in a slew of various sports (essentially intramurals for pros). If they can get Clyde Drexler on dancing with the stars, I think we can get him in a little friendly high diving competition. We could call the show The Ultimate Competitor. Or maybe just simply Superjock.
Who doesn't want to see Tiger try and hit a 90mph fastball? Is his talent limited to hitting non-moving objects? Which skill is harder to perfect? I know for damn sure that a lot of baseball players can shoot scratch golf but can many golfers hit a baseball? Questions like this one would be answered with this show and it would make for some good television. Who's with me? What other athletes would you like to see playing another sport? What other names can you think of for this new Survivor: Sportsman Edition?
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Superjock
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2 comments:
This is an underappreciated article. No comments so far. I have decided to write first. There is no doubt that Lebron is a wonderful talent and I am sure would have skills to be able to play in other sports. However, I don't think he should. Very few great athletes have successfully reached stardom in a second pro sport. Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders played at the major league level and played well. However, Bo cut short a superstar career with a major injury.
In basketball, Michael Jordan left Chicago to devote himself full time to baseball and could not make it to the major leagues. There have been some examples of pro basketball players getting to the top level in other sports, but I can't think of any that were really successful. Danny Ainge eventually gave up the baseball dream.
Lebron will be one of the best basketball players ever. I think that is good enough.
I thought that David Ortiz made a pretty menacing badminton player, although Urlacher was clearly bringing the team down.
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