I asked a very provocative Daily Question on Twitter and Facebook – and it really stirred up some emotion and created lots of passionate dialogue (which was the goal)!
The question was “which professional sport has the best overall athletes?” While everyone has the right to interpret and define that however they choose, I think some folks strayed from the real meaning of the question. The question was not “which sport is hardest” or “which sport is toughest.”
While those are excellent questions in their own right, they weren’t what I was looking for. There is no arguing how physically demanding boxing, wrestling, MMA, and Australian Rules Football are… but that doesn’t mean they have the best athletes (apples and oranges). That’s not to say they don’t… but to make a legitimate argument for those sports you have to provide more evidence than how grueling the sport is or how intense the training is.
Along those lines, the question was not “which players from one sport would be the best at other sports?” When judging solely on athleticism, skill should not be a factor. Larry Bird was obviously a very skilled basketball player. He may have also been very skilled at other sports. But that doesn’t mean he had great athleticism (which most experts agree, he didn’t). So referencing a competition where athletes play each other in other sports is irrelevant (fascinating for sure, but irrelevant to the question posed). Again, it's apples and oranges.
I define one’s overall athleticism as the total score they would achieve if they performed a standardized battery of tests that measures every component involved in athletic performance:
· Speed
· Agility
· Quickness
· Strength
· Power
· Reaction
· Coordination
· Flexibility
· Endurance
I realize that is a cursory list, but you get the idea. I intentionally left off intelligence and tactical skills. Those characteristics are paramount to success in any sport, but not what I am looking to measure with this question (per the Larry Bird reference). For the record, that is my personal definition of athleticism.
To answer this question accurately, you must compare the entire sport as a whole, not just the best athlete in that particular sport. If you say “track and field has the best athletes”… you can’t just look at Usain Bolt. You have to look at the shot putters, 1500 meter runners, and pole volters too. After all, they are all a part of the Olympic Track Team! Thus every athlete would have to do every test… and then compile an average of the scores.
The same applies for every sport in the discussion. You can just test running backs, wide receivers, and cornerbacks; you have to test lineman and punters too!
While Usain Bolt is unbelievably fast, flexible, and powerful, we can only speculate how agile he is (can he decelerate and change directions?) or how much endurance he has (what would his mile time be?) or how good his hand/eye coordination is. Would poor scores in those specific tests drop his overall score below someone like Adrian Peterson? Or LeBron James? Or Alexander Ovechkin?
But that is only part of the overall debate. Remember, we aren’t looking for the best individual athlete; we are looking at every sport as a whole. So even if Usain’s score was still one of the top overall scores, would lower scores from other track and field participants drop them below basketball? Or football? Or soccer? That is the real question!
I will be the first to admit I am a tad biased based on what I do for a living, but in my opinion, NBA players would score the highest across the board.
That doesn’t imply that I don’t think players in the NFL or NHL or MLS aren’t great athletes… they are! I just believe, from top to bottom, with every component of athleticism tested, players in the NBA would rank the highest.
If you have a question you would like for me to post as a future Daily Question, please email me at Alan@StrongerTeam.com. Keep in mind, I am not looking for trivia questions, but rather thought provoking, opinion based questions related to basketball and/or strength & conditioning.
Alan Stein
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