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AP Male Athlete of the Year

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Inky_Wretch, Dec 21, 2011.

  1. Inky_Wretch

    Inky_Wretch Well-Known Member

    No shock here.

    RT @AP_NFL: #Packers QB Aaron Rodgers is AP Male Athlete of Year, then Verlander, Djokovic, Cam, Stewart - http://t.co/ELw9CfJx
     
  2. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    You mean it wasn't Dwyane Wade?
     
  3. Nowitzki not even in the top five? That's a joke.
     
  4. KYSportsWriter

    KYSportsWriter Well-Known Member

    Compared to the previous two years, he didn't have that great a year last season.
     
  5. Beaker

    Beaker Active Member

    Hmm, no such love for Kemba Walker either...
     
  6. X-Hack

    X-Hack Well-Known Member

    How does Tim Thomas get no consideration? Conn Smythe, Vezina, Stanley Cup -- plus his personal story.
     
  7. Versatile

    Versatile Active Member

    I agree, and I don't even like hockey or Boston sports teams. I'd have probably gone Rodgers, Djokovic, Thomas, Verlander, Walker.
     
  8. NickMordo

    NickMordo Active Member

    For worst national championship game in eons?
     
  9. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    Yeah, how in the hell does Walker even enter this discussion?
     
  10. Beaker

    Beaker Active Member

    I'm not suggesting he should have won, but I think he merits consideration in the top five.

    National championship game aside, he carried what was essentially a bubble team at the start of the Big East Tourney to 11 straight wins basically on his back. No one could have expected that from that team.

    I'm not sure how in the hell he could not be at least in the top 5-10 discussion.
     
  11. I would have voted for Djokovic. Amazing year.
     
  12. Versatile

    Versatile Active Member

    He didn't make a final after the U.S. Open. Yes, he had 10 wins including three majors. But Federer had 11 wins in 2004 and 2005, then 12 in 2006 and won three majors in 2004 and 2006. He never won AP athlete of the year (though part of that is because Lance Armstrong won four years in a row from 2002-05).

    Djokovic had a great season. Had he finished stronger, I would agree that he would have deserved it. But he struggled down the stretch, losing to Murray in the Cincinnati final, not even making the semifinals in Paris and being knocked out in the round robin in the ATP finals. I recognize that most of the voters probably had no idea Djokovic had finished weak, but I think the voters for the AP Male Athlete of the Year have made fairly clear that male tennis players are going to have a hard time being taken seriously. It's Grand Slam or nothing.

    Only two male tennis players have won: Don Budge (1936, 1937) and John McEnroe (1981). Both were Americans. Budge won the Grand Slam (in the amateur era) in 1937. McEnroe and Budge in 1937 won Wimbledon and the U.S. Open while not competing in the Australian and French opens. McEnroe won 10 total titles in an era in which he played significantly fewer tournaments.
     
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