Shaq vs. ???

I was laughing so hard at the ridiculousness of that show. Sure enough, it was entertaining, but dear lord, it was so staged. I wonder how much they paid for the people in the stands to be there?

It was a good show and good promotion for the sport.

There's no better indication that someone is a distance runner than when they proclaim that NBA/NFL/WMBA/PGA player X could "break the world record" in "2 years" if only they bought a pair of spikes, based on some goofy show they watched to TV without any supporting numbers or figures. You think that any 8.0 m + long jumper couldn't dunk from the free throw line in his sleep? Notice that no one on the forum is so idiotic as to suggest that Lance Armstrong could buy some Asics and run 2:03 in a couple years.

mundus vult decipi wrote:

guy who is just sayin wrote:

How do you have so little respect for your own sport?

Powell's 8.95 is just under 30 feet.

I have seen Dwight Howard take off from well behind the free throw line and lay the ball in. So I have long known that he can jump. Until last night, I had no idea how much speed he had. I don't think it's a stretch to suggest that he could jump 29+ feet after two years of training.

I mean this literally: Dwight Howard is the most talented athlete I have ever seen.

I loved Howard's handoff--his lunge to pass the baton was hilariously exaggerated because of his size.

That lunge earned an extra meter on the handoff!

[quote]ztrack wrote:

There's no better indication that someone is a distance runner than when they proclaim that NBA/NFL/WMBA/PGA player X could "break the world record" in "2 years" if only they bought a pair of spikes, based on some goofy show they watched to TV without any supporting numbers or figures. You think that any 8.0 m + long jumper couldn't dunk from the free throw line in his sleep? Notice that no one on the forum is so idiotic as to suggest that Lance Armstrong could buy some Asics and run 2:03 in a couple years.[quote]mundus vult decipi wrote:

damn right. In college we had a 23 foot long jumper who won a dunk contest on campus by dunking from behind the free throw line (he was a white guy to boot)

A 29 foot long jumper could dunk from the top of the key, and one Howards size could lay it in from the NBA 3 point line.

Does anyone have split times for the relay? I'd love to know how fast Dwight Howard and Chris Johnson ran?

A 29 foot long jumper cannot dunk from the top of the key. However both Mike Powell and Mike Conley (TJ) dunked from the free throw line back in the early 90's when ABC ran a dunk contest that they would show at halftime of there college basketball games. It was actually pretty sweet. Barry Sanders was in it and he is only about 5'8". Mark Henry did it as well all 300lbs. of him.

Hilarious how they called it a "standing room only" crowd when there was hardly anybody in the stands! A very silly event all the way around, but strangely fascinating anyway. It looked to me like Gay took his time getting moving after getting the baton.

The 25 man roster of the Yankees each runs a lap and they race Teg.

25 x 400 wrote:

The 25 man roster of the Yankees each runs a lap and they race Teg.

That is actually a really interesting idea. Except instead of Teg let's go with Solinsky since he's the current AR holder.

Also, I think another poster's comments about Dwight Howard might not be far off. I know it might sound disrespectful to our sport to think an NBA center could train for two years and break a very old LJ record, but let's not forget that many of America's best athletes do not compete in track and field because there is so much more money to be made in sports like the NFL, NBA, and MLB. It would not surprise me in the slightest if there is a current NFL or NBA player capable of a 29'+ long jump with a couple years of training.

25 x 400 wrote:

The 25 man roster of the Yankees each runs a lap and they race Teg.

The 25 man roster vs a 30 min 10000 guy. Very few if any of the 25 could manage a 72 second lap.

It was total hokum and I think it was great for a sport that desparately needs media coverage. It was not that different from the hokey "Superstars" competitions on TV in the 70s. In those they had stars from various sports competing aginst each other not only in things like sprints and weight lifting, but ping pong. The only athletes who seemed to take it seriously were the T&F athletes since they were the ones who needed the money the most (famously, boxer Joe Frazier looked like he was going to drown in the swim competition). The first Superstars was won by Olympic champion pole vaulter Bob Seagren, and first BBC-covered competition featuring British athletes was won by 400 metre hurdles Olympic champion David Hemery.

i kinda like running wrote:

That is actually a really interesting idea. Except instead of Teg let's go with Solinsky since he's the current AR holder.

Well, that, and because Teg doesn't run the 10k.

TV don't show no 10k.

i would love to see CC's split on that relay. im willing to bet he would have trouble breaking 2 minutes.

i kinda like running wrote:

25 x 400 wrote:

The 25 man roster of the Yankees each runs a lap and they race Teg.

That is actually a really interesting idea. Except instead of Teg let's go with Solinsky since he's the current AR holder.

Also, I think another poster's comments about Dwight Howard might not be far off. I know it might sound disrespectful to our sport to think an NBA center could train for two years and break a very old LJ record, but let's not forget that many of America's best athletes do not compete in track and field because there is so much more money to be made in sports like the NFL, NBA, and MLB. It would not surprise me in the slightest if there is a current NFL or NBA player capable of a 29'+ long jump with a couple years of training.

The only thing disrespectful to our sport is the fact that so many of its participants know so little about it, that they would make such claims. There happens to be a small element of technique involved in long jumping, which requires more than a few years of training to acquire. Again, you and your distance runner friends would laugh at the idea of a cyclist, swimmer, or even triathlete producing even a world class running performance, let alone a world record. Dunking is just as untranslatable to long jumping as biking to running.

Video of the "races" is now up here:

http://www.letsrun.com/2010/shaq-vs-tyson-0818.php

derr da derr wrote:

i would love to see CC's split on that relay. im willing to bet he would have trouble breaking 2 minutes.

Sabathia would have to anchor, as part of the agreement.

toro wrote:

It was a good show and good promotion for the sport.

STRONGLY DISAGREE. It made it look that pro runners are in the same ballpark racing, as NBA'ers. Announcers used to say that guys like Pippen or Rodman were olympic medal fast. If I didn't know better, the show would have me agreeing.