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bengie molina
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The thing is for me questions like this are impossible to answer because I wasn't alive when Jim Thorpe was playing so what basis do I have to say he is a better athlete than say Bo Jackson and vice versa.
One way is to compare them to the rest of their generation.
Babe Ruth for instance was batting against whites, yes. But when comparing him to other players in that era (who also were "just" facing whites) hewas hitting more HRs than entire teams were. Babe probably would have been a monster no matter who he faced then.
With that said all one needs to do is look up Thorpe on his wiki:
Olympic gold medal in pentathlon and decathlon
All American college football player
All-NFL football player
Pro baseball player, first Native American to win the world series
Pro basketball player
Named to Pro Football HOF in 1963. Also is named to college football, US Olympic, and national track and field HOFs.
Named greatest athlete of the 1st half of the century by the AP.
Named greatest pro football player of the 1st half of the century by the AP.
One can compare Thorpe to that generation and conclude there is a very high likelihood Thorpe is the greatest pure athlete ever.
Obviously there are others on the short list no doubt.
Thorpe was way ahead of his generation, but that doesn't mean he is the greatest. it just means he was way ahead of his generation. i can't look to much into some of those achievements, because some of those sports had nowhere near the athletes they have today. (i'm talking about baseball, basketball, and track mostly, but football applies to)
Bo Jackson would have COMPLETELY destroyed that era
Guess what, a ton of our current athletes would have destroyed that era.
And if that era had access to today's training methods they would have successful ones now too. It's obviously a matter of opinion because we don'tthe exact details. But we can use some facts presented.
Do we completely dismiss all of yesteryear's athletes cause it was a different time? We can't. We know that.
I'm not going to argue against Bo's cause simply because Bo would have been a beast in any era and any future era. He was that absurd. But, when onesees the different sports Thorpe not only played in but excelled in then you gotta go with him. We've also seen quotes from people who saw him live. Theman's name has been the definition of "athlete" for 70 years, there's a reason for that. Hell I just called my old man real quick (60 yearsold) and asked him "dad who's the best athlete ever?" and he said for 2 seconds and responds "Jim Thorpe." (true story)
Simply put everything he did he almost dominated. That's an athlete. And you rarely saw any other athlete in that era compare. No one else did it.
Discussions like these have wide ranges of opinions, I'm not going to discredit others. Shoot, one could use a variety of track stars as theirchoices....Carl Lewis, Edwin Moses, etc.
so Ska, you saw Jim Thorpe play?
I thought the same thing... there are NO correct answers for a question like this... Bo Jackson, in terms of pure athlete, was insane.
Ima have to go with Bo
Jackie Robinson
Influential, important, etc. then yes... athlete, no
Influential, important, etc. then yes... athlete, no
Robinson chose to attend the nearby University of California, Los Angeles, where became the school's first athlete to win varsity letters in four sports: baseball, basketball, football and track.
having sex with 20'000 women
ok, how was this f'ing possible?
K8be wan Kenobi wrote:
so Ska, you saw Jim Thorpe play?
The question wasn't, "Who's the greatest athlete you ever saw play?"If you're responding about the way I responded (callingthose 3 answers 'the only 3 correct answers'), then... I was just stating my opinion, bro.Nothing more.
I like Fanatic's answer, too.
And I never knew Jackie Robinson lettered in 4 sports. Interesting.