most overrated athletes - Page 14

LeBron is 25. Crosby is 22. The media hype on them is annoying and I agree that they're not (nor can be) game changing superstars, but I don't really have a problem with them on the court/ice. I hate the LeBron free agency talk and I hate how Crosby is protected on the ice...but individually, I have no problem with those guys. I've said it before about Crosby but he seems like a guy who comes in to work, is unassuming, and a pretty damn good hockey player. I'd also say the hype is evenly split between Crosby (Cherry etc.) and Ovechkin (Melrose etc.). Actually, hype can only help hockey (which we both love). It's great to have so many high draft picks turn out well in the past few years. For example, Kane's showing in the Olympics and the playoffs this year will hopefully lead to more focus on him next year. My point is that the NHL was in a bit of a rough spot and Ovechkin and Crosby at least brought some positive attention back to hockey. Now with each passing year and emerging talents (like Stamkos, Kane (both), etc.), hopefully, the NHL can build on that publicity. It was also encouraging to see the intensity of playoff hockey receive some mainstream attention. Also, IIRC, Jordan didn't win a championship until he was 27 or 28. Brodeur I agree. He's fortunate to have played in the NJ system for so many years, but he's kind of like Emmitt Smith in that sense. He had longevity and was able to take advantage of the system. My vote, as much as I love watching highlight reels of him...Cristiano Ronaldo.

well put. he's a really hard player to evaluate objectively. he scored 30 a night but would need 30 shots to do so. but the fact that he created 30 shots was hugely valuable on a Sixers team that had no players who could create shots on their own.

oh i have some good ones:

cam neely

reggie jackson

(both HOF's with spotty assed statistical resumes and careers).

Seriously, what's the deal with Reginald Martinez Jackson? Bad batting average and struck out alot, no surprises there. Could he field? Wasn't his hype that he was Mr. October and could hit homeruns? I read that he might have been the top school boy athlete in Philadelphia history(Wilt, Kobe?)

i've got a controversial ones: royce gracie and sakuraba there's some part of me that thinks if he fought under the old school UFC rules (no time limit, weight classes, and fights with full karate uniform) he'd still win against someone like brock lesnar. but even with those rules i think that he'd be submitted/KTFO by GSP/Silvia. the gracie family did ingrain the need for BJJ skills in MMA, but they themselves never adapted fully to the changing MMA game. saku had a great run beating BJJ guys handily, but just flamed out spectacularly against anyone with good striking. the thing i loved with saku is that he basically exposed major weaknesses with the gracie style BJJ that the whole MMA community just soaked in and made commonplace. i love both of those fighters dearly, but they are held in such reverence that they are overrated in my opinion.

I think when the NHL is forced to make a 'brodeur' rule it means he isn't overrated.

Totally agree with you. It is due to the media that Crosby and James are compared to their respective great ones. But I cannot put them as overrated.

Marvin Harrison and/or Edgerin James might have been overrated. With the way the other Colts receivers and Addai have filled in I'm not sure how much they benefited from getting Payton Manning passes or running against defenses that were putting fewer men in the box.

Well unlike Crosby, LeBron did choose to wear 23 and call himself the King. That's a little different from someone else labeling you The Next One and wearing your birthday as your number. Fwock...lame 1000th poast.

How do you figure?

If anything you could make the case that saku could be one of the most underrated. What would his career look like if he fought at 170 or 185 the whole time, instead of being fed to guys that outweighed him by 30 or 40 pounds like Wanderlei and Cro Cop? I guess for his time he was indeed overrated by an amount because the Japanese media wanted a homegrown fighter to succeed against foreign opponents, and even if the most successful foreign fighters at the time were these huge guys they threw sakuraba at them and hoped for the best. The fact that he managed to win some of those matches though is extraordinary.

IIRC, he's only fought a Japanese fighter like once or twice in his MMA career. Also he took the Gracie family out at a time when people thought BJJ was the answer to everything.

I agree with Royce being O.R. (O.R. being the official abbreviation for overrated). His friggin' family INVENTED the style of fighting that dominates the UFC today. Ultimately, the UFC, like many things in life has an optimal solution, and he figured it out five years before anybody else.

Lance Armstrong.

+1000


nope