OT - 50 Greatest Black Athlete Poll
The Undeafted did a poll of 10,000 people to compile the 50 greatest black athletes of all time. I wont copy/paste the whole section explaining the rankings, just this part:
" Each athlete was ranked on four factors: overall ranking, dominance, inspiration and impact on society."
http://theundefeated.com/features/50-greatest-black-athletes/
If you put the mouse over any of the numbers 1-50 on the bar going across the top of the screen a dropdown will show you the full list.
Needless to say, I have thoughts.
There a tons of issues with this list, but just focusing on Football for a second.
Emmitt Smith at 19, Barry Sanders at 44? Larry Fitzgerald is 2 spots above Barry.
Think they need to poll people who are not high.
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The Larry Fitzerald thing makes no sense. Sure he is a great player, but is he better than players like:
Lawrence Taylor
Reggie White
Deion Sanders
Any list that has Jim Brown at 30 is automatically disqualified as being relevant!
Yeah Jim Brown being 11 spots below Emmitt Smith, does make the list seem like a joke.
Most people online are upset about the 2 female gymnasts in the top 10, which is absoluetly laughable. But the Emmitt/Barry thing really make me LOL.
Also Steph Curry above Lebron James? Above Bill Russell?
I love Curry. Love watching him. Favorite guy to watch in the NBA in a long time.
And that's total hogwash. Honestly there's no way he belongs on this list yet. He's had a couple of great, perhaps even transcendent seasons, but let's let the dust settle a bit.
August 8th, 2017 at 11:18 PM ^
Jim Brown should be in the top 5 of the "all athletes regardless of race" poll.
He played four different varsity sports at Syracuse. In High school, he was also a spectacular basketball AND baseball player. Simply a beast.
Everyone knows about football, but he was also a legendary lacrosse player.
Which should push him even higher on the list with the defined criteria. PLUS he was in the highly underrated "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka," so that's higher still.
August 10th, 2017 at 12:00 PM ^
Jim Brown needs to much, much higher. I thought he would be #1 or at least in the top 10.
Recency bias much people? I'm sorry but that's wrong, wrong, wrong. Especially when you consider the criteria they laid out for inclusion.
And how does the greatest FOOTBALL player to every play (Brown) get ranked #30????
For some reason the thing that jumps out most to me is Shaq only two spots below Usain Bolt.
August 8th, 2017 at 10:32 PM ^
August 8th, 2017 at 11:10 PM ^
Usain Bolt is a cyborg, confirmed. Nothing else can go that fast on two legs.
August 9th, 2017 at 10:19 AM ^
Unless your name is Justin Gatlin...
1. Thanks for the list
2. No thanks for the cut/paste job that didnt render properly
oh, yeah. IDGAF about the text issues. MGoBlog/Drupals fault for allowing text formats to be able to be copied into the comment box imo.
Most of these people would be on an "All-time Athletes" list, regardless of race. Wish we could start getting passed those things that don't matter (race, gender, sexual orientation, religion) and focus on the important things like WHERE IS TIGER WOODS?
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Yeah, wtf?
You can drink while you golf. Main reason no black bowlers made the list.
Yes, normal people like us riding in carts with our buddies, praying to break 80, can drink beer on a saturday afternoon. Do me a favor. Get up in the morning and hit 300 balls, walk 18 holes, work on your short game for 2 hours, then hit 100-300 more balls. This is a normal day for a touring pro. Tell me how you feel afterwards.
I hate Tiger Woods and even I think his exclusion from this list is egregious.
Surprised to see Derek Jeter make the list given his handicap.
Yeah, confusing. I thought the race issue was resolved for Tiger.
Yup no Tiger.
I thought Lawrence Taylor would be on this list too.
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on "and."
That if we compiled a list of the 50 [x demographic practically anything else with three notable exceptions - female, Jewish or gay] top athletes the list would be viewed as __-ist? Moreover, the "impact on society" aspect appears undervalued. There was this strapping middle-aged black man who sat directly in front of me during my bar swearing-in ceremony and it's a challenge to imagine a former athlete who has had much greater impact on our society for a time. He played football for NC AT&T, his name is Jesse Jackson, and he blotted out my view of the damn stage. Nice guy though, hung out with him a few times. I don't see Rev. Jackson on the list.