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Kelly Slater is the greaest living athlete on the planet!!!!!!

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F

fisher

Well-Known Member
Nov 16, 2008
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Federer has only been winning big tournaments since 2003. By 2003 Slater had already been dominating the sport for 13 years. By 2003 Slater had gone into a 3 year retirement from competition. He re-emerged in 2005 to win four more world titles......so far. To give you some perspective Slater won his first world title in 1992. Prior to going pro in 1990 Slater was as dominant or more dominant of his sport in the ameture ranks than Tiger Woods was as an ameture.
 

xamilo

Right Curving Driver....
Supporting Member
Dec 22, 2007
2,924
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in 1985 Kasparov won the world championship. Around year 2000, only Fisher had ever brought any competence to him, so technology had to find a way to cope up with him, so Deep Blue was invented, a machine to play with the human in 1997. No man could beat him, they had to invent a robot for doing so!

Does that make him the best athlete ever? No, it jut makes him the best chess player in the world. Some sports have shorter time periods than others. I'm sure you can still be a Curling Champ by 60, so if you start at 20 you can have 40 years of dominance. Would that make him the best athlete ever? I doubt it.
For a surfer, being able to "play" for 15 yeas isn't something amazing. To be on top for 15 years its amazing, but staying on top two years in a row in the PGA is much more difficult than 10 years on surfing. I admire much more what Tiger has done, even though you know I couldn't like him less as a person. Or Michael Jordan, who redefined what basketball is about.

What makes these sportsmen more important? The fact that basketball and golf are universal sports, having competitors all over the world, having professional leagues all over. Stalers achievements might be awesome in the surfing world, but they happen and exist only in the world of avid surfers who follow the sport closely. But even my Mom knows who Tiger is

If I tell you the World Badmington Champ has kept his crown for over 15 years, would you say he is the best athlete ever? Think about it, it shows a complete dominance in his spot for the longest time possible!!!! Why isn't this important? Because no one knows about badminton except geek asians or SUXs. SO even though its one of the most played spots in a country which holds half the population in the world, and surely as more players in asia than surf does around the world, it is still something which is not universal, so you can't count someone as "the best ever in EVERY spot" when the sport is not even known all around the world. For example, do you think Staler's achievement is more important than Donald Bradman's? Bradman was the best Cricketer ever and still holds the best batman's average and the best test career and there is no one even close to ever be able to match him But its Cricket mate, something only ex-british colonies know it even exists.

I know very few people here know anything about soccer (except for the Brits and Aussies maybe), but I'm sure ten years from now I would have to say Lionel Messi, Argentinean player to play for Barcelona should be considered the best athlete ever, since he is been by far the best young player the world has ever seen and will only keep growing and growing in his game. You just wait and see ;D

Thankfully, Soccer is the most played sport in the entire world, so he can classify as "all-around athlete" following my explanation above hehehehe
 

N.V.M.

now...a cartoon
Sep 27, 2008
1,972
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Gordie Howe played NHL hockey in five different decades. he was one of the meanest,toughest SOB's ever to play too. off the ice, totally different person.
 

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