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Bo knows and the Greatest of All Time

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by JayFarrar, Feb 9, 2014.

  1. JayFarrar

    JayFarrar Well-Known Member

    The question is, on Bo Jackson at least, was he a once a generation athlete or a once in a lifetime athlete?

    Since he graduated from high school, America has added nearly 100 million people and only he and Deion Sanders, who I think doesn't get enough credit as an athlete, have played two sports at the same time. Even though, as I recall, a couple more guys played football, then gave it up to play baseball.

    So does the line go Thorpe to Bo to no one?
     
  2. Guy_Incognito

    Guy_Incognito Well-Known Member

    I can't imagine putting James with Bryant as opposed to Jordan. In that group (though not in many others), Kobe is a clear last.
     
  3. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    Jim Brown would have to be close to the top of the list of GOAT athletes.

    I worked with an old-timer who swore Russell and Chamberlain were better than Jordan. Was he right, or was he just another old-timer claiming that the older guys were better than the current crop? I don't know...

    As far as marketing goes, there are too many different guys out there for any to make the impact that Jordan did. Jordan had more than his share of baggage, but people looked the other way moreso than they likely would today.
     
  4. MisterCreosote

    MisterCreosote Well-Known Member

    Not to go all RickStain on you, but the number of teams LeBron has played for has no bearing on how good he is. I've said this before, but LeBron is the perfect combination of Jordan and Magic, and can do everything either of them could do, depending on what mood he's in.

    Kobe shed his reputation as a locker-room cancer more than a decade ago. The Lakers were close to as dominant with Kobe as the top guy as they were with Shaq. And, let's not pretend Jordan wasn't also an egomaniacal asshole.

    Plus, anyone would get temperamental dealing with a bitch like Dwight Howard. ;D
     
  5. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    At least in the discussion, Jordan (sorry, Rick, Jordan's team!) being 6-0 in the finals will always keep him ahead of LeBron. This is true not just because LeBron had the task of taking a shit team like the Cavs to slaughter against the Spurs, but because LeBron has had some straight-out choke jobs in the playoffs (the game vs. Boston after he found out Delonte West was banging his mom, the entire series against Dallas).

    He has become a different player since then, but there was too much trouble earlier in his career for him to ever scale the Jordan mountain.

    For some unknown reason I was watching Inside the NBA last week, and for some even more unknown reason they were reliving the '93 Finals with Barkley. Jordan averaged 41 ppg that series.
     
  6. Sea Bass

    Sea Bass Well-Known Member

    On the topic of the Bo Jackson 30 for 30, I thought it was one of the most disappointing in the series. At least compared to how much I thought I would enjoy it. I think it featured a chime in from every ESPN personality from 1987 on, and for some inexplicable reason had Chuck Klosterman appear at least once every 19 seconds.
     
  7. 93Devil

    93Devil Well-Known Member

    I liked the Auburn stuff and the high school stuff a lot.
     
  8. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    As much as I like Klosterman, I didn't know why he was trotted out like he was the be all, end all Bo Jackson expert, but overall, I really liked the 30 for 30.

    It wasn't as distracting as a 30-something doing a first-person narration about a Mississippi team from the 1960s, but I digress... :D
     
  9. Liut

    Liut Well-Known Member

    Agree on both counts, especially in regard to Thompson's dumb fedora prop.
     
  10. 3_Octave_Fart

    3_Octave_Fart Well-Known Member

    Bo's implied PED use has been the elephant in the room for 20 years.
    Fart is no doctor but not many athletes go down with necrosis of a major joint.
     
  11. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    Bo is, I believe, the only athlete in the entire PED saga to sue someone for libel regarding such accusations.

    Dozens, perhaps hundreds, have threatened to sue. But only Bo went through with it.
     
  12. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    Exactly, and I completely respect the hell out of Bo following through with what so many have threatened to do.
     
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