Quote:
Originally Posted by shelby
It takes a lot more than just physical ability to be a great athlete. ASU had a basketball player who was 6'8'' with a 50'" vertical (he won a dunk contest at 11' 9"), but he was a headcase and just a lousy player. Tiger has the focus of MJ and other greats, but I have a hard time calling any golfer the greatest athlete ever. I would go with MJ.
As for athletic ability I would say Bo Jackson. He could run over people, make them miss, or outrun them all, sometimes on the same play. And he batted .300 too, if I remember right. What a shame.
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Bo Jackson has always been overrated as a baseball player. He played only 8 seasons, averaging less than 300 At bats per seaon (about half a full time player). His career batting average was only .250, which is somewhat respectable, but his career On Base Percentage was only .309, which is not that good, about what you expect from an average bench player. He had some power, but still only averaged 33 HR for each 162 games played. Good, but nothing incredible by any means.
And there is little from his football career that really stands out. He averaged 850 yds and 4 TDs per season rushing for the 4 years he played, and only added about 90 yds/yr receiving.
Bo was a good player for a short time in both baseball and football, but had no longevity in either sport, and never even had a single year in either sport where he was close to the best player in his sport. I really don't think he did anything to deserve being mentioned as one of the greatest athletes ever.
Deion Sanders on the other hand, was considered the best, or among the best at his position in the NFL for many years. He was an 8 time pro-bowler compared to once for Bo. He was a decent baseball player, comparable in ability to Bo. I could possible entertain some arguments for Deion as on of the great athletes, since he was at least one of the best players in one sport while being pretty good at another. But Bo just doesn't measure up.
Again, go back and look up what Babe Zaharias did as far as multiple sport dominance ...