I know its almost over, but what are your thoughts on it? I predicted to my buddies that Tiger would beat LeBron in the finals and now they have met each other. Though, I hope LeBron wins. (just wish I thought of posting on this earlier so we could have had more debates, but oh well).
Come on Lebron!
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Tiger is one of the few people to advance that has a legit claim to actually being "Now" in every sense of the word. Most of the competition has been a joke, with the masses blindly voting for one candidate over another. Sometimes they're right, sometimes they aren't.
The most marketable athlete in the world right now is Ronaldihno. Hands down. He lost in the first round. American bias, obviously, which is to be expected, but it's sad to see so much precedence put on something that is being done so haphazardly. But at least Tiger actually does belong in the finals (he has transcended his sport as few others have), so he'll most likely win.
5 years ago, sure. But not anymore. They don't even like him much over in England recently, Italy sees him as a traitor for leaving for the States, and his game hasn't matched his hype in America.
Jeter over Bush? Hell yes....both on the field and off. He has commercials, his own cologne, celebrity girlfriends, MVPs, captain of the Yankees, an awesome postseason history, Hall of Fame numbers, etc. And Bush has....one decent season, a commercial contract with a phone company, and some overblown hype? Get your head out of that trojan mascot's ass....it's stuff like this that makes the competition completely invalid as a critical analysis of athletes.
See, the thing is your looking at it from a sports perspective. I'm not. It doesnt matter if he's not good, or that people look at him as a bad guy. The fact remains is that no athlete in this world has the whole media talking about him playing for an second rate soccer franchise. If Ronaldinho went over to the MLS, he wouldnt nearly be talked about in the general media.
The fact remains is that in the football discussion board, hardcore football fans still talk about him. If nonbody cared, they wouldnt.
If Ronaldinho came to MLS, they wouldn't talk about him?! Remember the buzz Pele stirred in the States wehn he came to play back in the 70's? Soccer wasn't nearly as big then as it is now, and Pele was selling out Giants Stadium....the foreign support Ronaldihno would receive would be enormous....Becks, not so much.
And after the initial buzz, can we really see Beckham having a lasting impact? I can't, especially since his game is far from his peak anymore. The hype will fade. Besides, having the most overblown hype doesn't make you "now"...being the best in the world at the world's biggest sport does, and Ronaldihno is every bit the celebrity around the world that American stars receive in our country. Lots more people would know him here in the States than Europe would know, say, Ladainian Tomlinson for example.
It's just American blinders being applied to an inherently biased competition. I'm an American who can see that clearly...and anyone from other countries would (rightly) laugh their ass off watching it.
I do agree that Ronaldinho is a big named star, but I dont agree that he has an bigger media presence than Beckham.
If you go to an average non-soccer loving person and ask him/her who is most known soccer player and they will say Beckham. Ask anybody who is the most known wife in soccer and they will save Victoria Beckham.
Fair enough. It's just that worldwide the non-soccer-loving people are much more rare, and if they aren't into soccer they certainly won't know anything about American sports. Becks is undoubtedly bigger in America, but we're hardly a microcosm of world sport enthusiasm. The average American has never heard of Diego Maradona either, for example, to put in in perspective.
I just want to point out that I'm a big Yankees fan too.....and why fail to mention Bush's Heisman trophy and two national championships? Bush has commercials, endorsement deals, etc...and you want to talk about hype? I thought Jeter was the most over hyped player in the MLB? At least that's what most people think. I have no bias in this, since I'm a Jeter fan and Bush fan, but Jeter over Bush is just ridiculous. Also A-rod over Kobe, once again, Kobe fan and A-rod fan, no bias. You going to talk about success, what the hell has A-rod done? Kobe has 3 rings, 2 scoring titles, scored 81 points in a single game. A-rod has 2 MVP's and has enjoyed absolutely no playoff success. Haven't really heard anything about him off the field. This whole segment is just one big popularity contest, lets be real here, it doesn't matter how much success you have had on the field or who you are dating off, it's all about how the fans perceive you, so don't give me that bull shit about on the field success, because if it was based off that then Lebron would not be in the championship. I agree with Tiger Woods being in the championship though.
Yeah, that's why I think this ESPN is a complete waste of time. Of course everybody is going to vote for Americans.
How they hell did Tony Parker beat out Roger Federer for that matter. Even in basketball scene, Parker isnt the most well known, while Federer is considered the most well known tennis player, and surprisingly, I would think that tennis has a bigger fanbase, or knowledge base than NBA.
I just never seen Ronaldinho have a whole country amount of girls screaming about him. Remember the World Cup in 2002? That was crazy.
Actually, I never disagreed with you about A-Rod/Kobe, so most of that paragraph was unneeded. And Reggie's impressive and all, but college feats and only one season at the highest level still can't compete with everything Jeter does, on or off the field.
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Anyway, yeah. A joke. Not all of ESPN, just the "Now" competition. You have to take everything they say with a grain of salt and realize the bias inherent with the system...but at least they're starting to try to incorporate more international sports.
KMC Community Forums
Aug 1st, 2007 05:09 AM
