Is Danny Ainge the most athletic white player ever?

[KevinNYC]

but my definition of athletic is obviously a lot different than yours.

Right, you're discounting several aspects of athletic ability to redefine ahtleticism is. Redefining it to the point of absurdity.

Redefining so that it not only would no longer apply to any average human being, but redefining it so that it wouldn't apply to majority of professional athletes.

Specifically ignoring Proprioception and hand-eye coordination/dexterity to a great degree and to a lesser degree ignoring things like agility, balance and stamina.

The basic meaning of athletic is good at athletics or sports. So it's an absurdity to say that someone made the big leagues in two different sports is not athletic.

Somebody here once asked if Shaq was the most perfectly athletic specimen ever. And the answer is yes, for the center on a basketball team. He would be pretty shitty in the Tour De France or Olympic diving.

[Walker]

Surprised Dan Majerle isn't getting any love.

He's probably the most physically imposing white player I've seen. He was, what, 6'6, 6'7? And he was super ripped. He was probably one of the top-5 explosive players in the league at his prime.

Thunder Dan ftw

[Da_Realist]

Do people not know what athletic is anymore? This has gone beyond ridiculous.

Forget high school, Danny Ainge was a major league baseball player before he joined the Celtics. That is he did something Jordan couldn't do.

How many people do you know that made the big time in two different professional sports?

Ainge reached the NBA finals as a contributor on 3 different teams.

So we're at the point where a guy could play 14 years in the NBA at shooting guard make an All-Star team, end up with a career average of 11.5, but he not athletic.

This.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEGZuHsrvQg

[Round Mound]

Tom Chambers

[JohnnySic]

[Cosmonaut]

just because you can play 3 different sports at a high level doesn't mean you are great athletically, it more likely means you are good mechanically.

[get these NETS]

are dudes really that insecure that ainge is compared to jim brown and micheal jordan?


with a straight face??



same type of insecurity that had people believing that a former cancer patient could beat the disease and then go on to (CLEANLY?) win several tour de france races against young and healthy cyclists.


sad sad sad..

[KevinNYC]

are dudes really that insecure that ainge is compared to jim brown and micheal jordan?


with a straight face??



same type of insecurity that had people believing that a former cancer patient could beat the disease and then go on to (CLEANLY?) win several tour de france races against young and healthy cyclists.


sad sad sad..

What's insecurity got to do with this discussion?

[get these NETS]

What's insecurity got to do with this discussion?

well if you're from NYC for real....you already know..

Dave Debusschere,rip, played in the MLB before playing in the league

think he might be in the basketball hof, seems like damn near every guy on 70s knicks team is in there..

fact that a NYC area fan like you, didn't make THAT comparison but rather wrote about ainge doing what MJ "COULD'NT".. is laughable...

Ainge's accomplishments are great but talking about them in relation to what Jordan "could not" do....reveals some insecurity..perhaps about white athletes.

[KevinNYC]

well if you're from NYC for real....you already know..

Dave Debusschere,rip, played in the MLB before playing in the league

think he might be in the basketball hof, seems like damn near every guy on 70s knicks team is in there..

fact that a NYC area fan like you, didn't make THAT comparison but rather wrote about ainge doing what MJ "COULD'NT".. is laughable...

Ainge's accomplishments are great but talking about them in relation to what Jordan "could not" do....reveals some insecurity..perhaps about white athletes.

I do know that about Dave Debusschere playing baseball, but I only learned it recently. I've never been a Knicks fan . I'm too young for the Knicks's glory days and my Dad's team was the Celtics from way back. When I started playing ball after school, my Dad's favorite player was Dave Cowens, so I was Celtics fan from before they got Bird and once they did there was no chance of me being Knicks. I grew up with the Knicks teams that didn't know what pass to make or that the pass was the play to make at all. (I did like Bernard a lot though. He played high school ball in my neighborhood.) When I did learn about the early 70's Knicks I think I probably would have liked them because they were a great team as a unit.

Um, notice that I never commented one way or the other about Danny Ainge being the most athletic white player ever, because I don't really care. I'm not saying the answer is Ainge and not Debusschere. I just think the reductionist view of what is athletic is ridiculous. Because Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal couldn't make the NBA, they are not athletic? Wayne Gretzky is not the fastest or strongest hockey player, but he was by far the best. This is not athletic? We have to call this mechanical now? Because Shaq was a great NBA center means he would be good in ping-pong or jai-lai?

And yes, Ainge could hit the curveball better than Jordan. And I think Jordan appreciates that achievement.

[KevinNYC]

Actually, I might be able to make my point better using just cycling. Within the one sport, you have several different types of athletes. Sprinters in track cycling are all about power in short distances. They are not very good road cyclist. And road cyclists usually aren't very good track cyclists. In road cycling you have guys also have sprinters, but in the case of road cycling a sprinter is someone who is a good enough distance cyclist to keep up with other distance cyclists over say 100 or 120 miles and still have enough in the tank to burst away from anyone else in the race. Then you have road cyclists who excel at climbing. These are almost never the sprinters because they are usually heavier than the climbers. Some guys are good climbers and terrible time trialists, and vice versa. Some guys who could win a long one day road race might not be even able to finish the Tour De France with one gruelling day after another.