Donald Driver
Granted, he was a pretty good track athlete back during college...
Donald Driver
Granted, he was a pretty good track athlete back during college...
In high school (and I would guess it's the same everywhere) - fall and winter sport guys - football and basketball players would all do T&F. XC was made up so that the distance guys would have something to do in fall. I would bet that most pro level football and basketball players were pretty decent at some T&F event(s).
Michael Carter, father of current American shot putter Michelle Carter, threw a 12 lb shot 81 feet, a high school record that still stands today. After getting silver in the '84 Olympics he went on to play nose tackle for the 49ers during the glory years, making the pro bowl three times. He could PWN eaton in the shot (and discus and maybe jav).
Many years ago,the weekend of the Boston Marathon, there was a rain delay at Fenway Park, and the paper reported that there was a lively discussion among the players in the Red sox clubhouse over whether the marathon was a "real sport." Mind you: baseball players. I remembered thinking if there were 26 guys on the team, they could space them on the marathon course, have them run a mile apiece, and they couldn't even beat me, never mind a world class marathoner.
It's so trite to hear broadcasters praising the "athleticism" of guys in the so called major sports. If Michael Jordan was so great, he should have put the ball down and subjected himself to a high jump or long jump competition. The hype ends when they bring out a tape measure.
John O'Donnell
LOL
look at this 'speed' by Lebron. He gets up to maybe 5:30mile pace for about 45feet and people are going nuts.
My friend and I were talking about this (and I haven't read any of the posts). I think that the guys who could beat them in an individual event(s) would be very weak in the others.
Example- linemen would be very slow and couldn't negotiate the hurdles or even make it 400 or 1500 without oxygen.
Pro basketball players could do the HJ, LJ, but would have issues with the 100 and 110's. I think they'd be ok in the 400 and 1500. Like that.
John O'Donnell wrote:
Many years ago,the weekend of the Boston Marathon, there was a rain delay at Fenway Park, and the paper reported that there was a lively discussion among the players in the Red sox clubhouse over whether the marathon was a "real sport." Mind you: baseball players. I remembered thinking if there were 26 guys on the team, they could space them on the marathon course, have them run a mile apiece, and they couldn't even beat me, never mind a world class marathoner.
It's so trite to hear broadcasters praising the "athleticism" of guys in the so called major sports. If Michael Jordan was so great, he should have put the ball down and subjected himself to a high jump or long jump competition. The hype ends when they bring out a tape measure.
John O'Donnell
Yeah, Michael Jordan should have given up the millions of dollars and intenational superstardom to jump into a sand box on TV once every 4 years to prove he's the best.
Don't comment a ton but this thread is so full of BS it's unbelievable...
This next part is fact. Basically everything I say is completely indisputable:
Pro athletes in other sports could be Eaton in every single one of the Dec. events except possibly the long jump and the pole vault.
100m - there are a handful of NFLers who can/could run 10.20. jamaal charles, chris johnson, Jacoby Ford, and Stanford Routt all have automatic PRs in that range or better. 10.2 guys don't grow on trees in the NFL, but at any give point, there are a dozen or so in the NFL.
ALL THROWS - Your average NFL lineman could step up with no training and best Eatons marks. They have way longer levers and are much much stronger than Eaton. Eaton isn't even good at the throws. They are a weakness of his. Freaking Ed Reed (a safety! not a lineman!) has a Jav PR of 217! Eaton's is like 197!
High Jump - Many basketball/football players could HJ 6-11. Freaking Roy Williams (the maligned WR) high jumped 7-0 in high school. And as someone already mentioned, Ryan Hollins is a complete spare, but jumped 6-10 in college.
100h - The same guys in the 100 have the potential to beat Eaton here. Renaldo Nehemiah is the slam dunk historical example, but even Jamaal charles ran 13.6 in HS. RG3 ran 13.5.
400m - RG3 is not a bad example here (or for any of the events for that matter). He ran 45 splits in HS and at BU.
1500m - soccer players have a good chance here. not all of the mind you, just the ones who are naturally talented re endurance running, but opted for soccer.
I don't have time to keep going but I made my point. No one is claiming all athletes in some specific sport can best Eaton's marks. However, there are many VERY athletically gifted athletes in pro sports, and each league has a dozen (or more) athletes that could best one or more of eatons marks.
Heck, marquis goodwin will probably be in the NFL next year, and he is better than Eaton at the LJ (Eatons best event)!
Ahhh, THIS debate again! Not surprisingly (especially since the term "World's Greatist Athlete" is getting thrown around) this comes up pretty often.
Here is my post from ~2 yrs ago on how LBJ would do in the decathlon vs Bryan Clay (4th post from the top)
http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=3515125&page=1
In hindsight, I think my estimates for LBJ from back then were pretty accurate, with the exception of the PV. With a year's training+freakish athleticism I think LBJ could go more like 4.60-4.75m
In any event, here is the thing that I think most people overlook: THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BEING A FREAK ATHLETE AND A FREAK TECHNICIAN.
Allow me to explain, as a former D1er I have seen a lot of very, very athletic people do some very impressive things on the track with a minimal amount of training. This raw athleticism allows for eye popping performance such as 10.2x 100m by football players and 25'+ LJ by basketball players (see: James White)
The difference is this: raw athleticism only gets you so far. Ashton Eaton is not only a freak athlete, he is a freak technician. I wish there were an underline feature on here. If there were I would underline that part: freak technician.
As an example: do any of you realize how technical the PV is? Youtube "Ashton Eaton Pole Vault" and take a look at how he jumped his freshman year of college. He literally does a front flip over an 11' bar. That was only 6 years ago and now, in a decathlon no less, he goes 17'6" (along with having one of the prettiest looking vaults I have ever seen)...that would have made finals in the open PV! All that improvement whilst training for 9 other events! There were a dozen PV specialist out there Tuesday who couldn't squeak over the 5.30m it took to qualify for finals tonight (yea yea the weather, rain, blah blah blah...Ashton set a WR in the same weather)
Another example you say? Ok, how about hurdles - Technical beast.
Oh one more? Ok, how about LJ - Technical. Beast.
For arguments sake, let's just say that D Rose and Ashton Eaton are materially similar in athleticism (are they? I don't know, I'm sure if we hooked them up to machines we could quantify it but for now I'm comfortable making that statement). The question becomes this one: if after 6 years of training (Ashton started training for the decathlon in college, before that he was strictly a sprinter/LJ to the best of my knowledge), world class facilities at U of O, elite coaches, etc. etc. would D Rose be enough of a TECHNICIAN to match Ashton's performance? They are both athletic enough. Heck, there are probably a handful of guys in Eugene right now who are more "athletic" than Ashton is....but they aren't better TECHNICIANS. That is why he is so good. He is superbly athletic and supremely technical.
So the answer to the question - can D Rose or LBJ grasp the technical aspect well enough beat Ashton in a decathlon?
Answer: I have no idea
are you a ritard? wrote:
can D Rose or LBJ grasp the technical aspect well enough beat Ashton in a decathlon?
Answer: I have no idea
I don't know about this Rose guy, but I'm pretty sure Lyndon Johnson, even were he alive and in his prime, would lose a decathlon to Ashton Eaton.
Michael Jordan managed to find a summer or two at the height of his career to play minor league baseball, time he could just as easily -- and profitably-- spent jumping in a sandbox, but you miss my point. In other parts of the world, our sport is called "athletics." When broadcasters gush over the "athleticism"of team sports stars, don't buy the hype.If Jordan, or any other NBA star can "fly" "defy gravity," etc. etc.somebody can get out a tape measure and see if they can go 29' like Carl Lewis and Mike Powell, or clear the bar at 8' like Javier Sotomayor. And don't even get me started on these ficticous 40 yard dash times by pro football players. They'd have you believe any NFL receiver could beat Usain Bolt. Thank you.
Pretty good post. The top deca guys develop a skill set for their sport that combined with their athetism make them the best at what they do.
The top basketball players develop a different set of skils for their sport. People underestimate the skill set of basketball players. I have seen plenty of great athletes never become that good of basketball players. They can jump high and are quick but aren't skilled enough to be good players.
There are a lot of top sprinters who never do much in football. I have seen plenty of Calif state champions in the sprints try to become football players in college and not develop into that good of players while they could have been great track athletes. Heck, Quincy Watts tried to play football one year and then had a great Olympics in the 400. He was smart to get out of football. He didn't have the skill set since he never played in high school.
With that said, I think Eaton would be able to beat a football team that trained for 3 months in a deca as speculated.
I think the correct answer here is that yes, many pro athletes can beat Ashton at the event of their choosing (HJ for basketball players, Shot Put for Football), but I I don't think any one athlete would be able to match Ashton in all 10 events. I'm sure guys like LBJ could be close in maybe 6-7 events, but could you imagine him Pole Vaulting or hurdling?
You guys don't give him enough credit for what he does. Ashton is a freak of nature in his own right and deserves the recognition.
Also, I'm sure there are a bunch of soccer players who can run 4:30 in the mile. Heck, when I was in high school, there was a soccer player who ran 4:35 after only a month or two of minimal training.
Chris Johnson likely could beat him in the 100.......
RGIII nearly made the Olympic team in the 400 Hurdles out of high school and could likely run 44 or 45 with some training.
There has got to be someone in the NBA who could beat him in the high jump.
Yes...
Lebron James
Cam Newton
Pirates Barry Bonds
I'm sure soccer has someone and well as the NHL.
The worlds best athletes do not run track...if they did the sport would look much different.
You guys don't understand non-track sports. Keeping close to Rondo for 40feet isn't the same as outrunning Hardee.
Lebron couldn't break 12 right now.
Not pro but what about the current winner of the US trials long jump?
Yes, athletes in other sports could clearly beat Eaton in ONE event. Many could probably beat him in two or three (all three of Eaton's throws are relatively weak).
Nobody who doesn't train for the decathlon could come anywhere CLOSE to him in a decathlon. Nowhere close. Some lineman could put up great marks in the throws, but they'd score laughably poorly in many of the other events. You don't score 9000 points if you're posting less than 600 in any particular event. Most of the guys who could beat Eaton in an event or two would have terrible, terrible weak points.
Eaton is clearly the world's greatest athlete.
stop watch2.4 wrote:
You guys don't understand non-track sports. Keeping close to Rondo for 40feet isn't the same as outrunning Hardee.
Lebron couldn't break 12 right now.
Yes sir, lots of JV high school boys nationwide will beat LeBron James in a footrace. Right on.
Two "speedy" guards from our HS basketball team came out for track senior year and ran 10.8 and 11.0 with minimal training. I think they both ended up playing D3 basketball.
Thoughts if Michael Phelps were to have started training for the decathlon instead of swimming at an early age? Also to note I clearly don't think track would have been a better choice for him.