Five athletes you wish were active today and in their prime

Are you saying Wilt would not use today's training?

What about Dr. J? Would he be OK in Today's NBA? He's just 10-12 years in front of Wilt.

 

Starman was likely going for hyperbole, but D-3 basketball is not very good. My brother played at that level and I had the opportunity, but ran track instead. We were average high school players at best.

 

Of course not. That training didn't exist in 1967. Dr. J was my favorite player in the '70s and the best player of his era but the game has produced lots of better players since then -- Jordan, Bryant, Magic, etc. The games and the players evolve.

 

Kaline
Greenberg
Gehringer
Trammell
Cochrane

Miggy could stay at 3B. Prince and Greenberg could share 1B/DH duties. They'd probably sweep the ALCS easily but hopefully wouldn't go ice-cold waiting for the NLCS to finally end

 

You put a 12 year old Wilt into a middle school today and he is one of the top two or three players in the NBA in 12 years.

 

Admittedly subjective, but....

Michael Jordan

Wayne Gretzky

Joe Montana

Johnny Unitas

Jack Nicklaus

Damn, this list could be 30-40 deep for me.

 

ARod

 

Nice

 

I was just coming to sports-fan consciousness as Mantle's career was dragging through its decline phase.

The NBA was hardly ever on teevee in the 1960s so Wilt's legendary early and mid-career feats (and the Russell Celtics, in fact) seemed like legend passed down from some sacred tablets. Ditto for Ali in his pre-exile prime and Johnny U in his early-career gunslinger days.



It certainly would have been amazing to see Jackie Robinson in his 3rd-6th seasons in the majors, after Rickey took the handcuffs off and turned him loose.

 

Goose Tatum.
Satchel Paige.
Bob Uecker.
Jim Bouton.
Don Meredith.

 

Rod Carew
Frank Robinson
Josh Gibson
Marion Motley
Bobby Orr

 

Ditto