Current Events > im sorry Lebron James but Messi is the greatest athlete alive right now

(+) Yeah! (+)

Yall agree?
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Messi isn't even the greatest athlete in his league
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Lmao LeBron with soccer training would make Messi look like a little bitch
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lol lebron
lol soccer
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it's Kevin Durant
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josifrees posted...

Lmao LeBron with soccer training would make Messi look like a little bitch

There's a reason you don't see a lot of 6'10" soccer players
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gdaddy posted...

Messi isn't even the greatest athlete in his league

What is this
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josifrees posted...

Lmao LeBron with soccer training would make Messi look like a little bitch

What is this
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lmao
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The only advantage Messi would have is he could go between LeBrons legs
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Serana
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..............no. messi is a very small man
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josifrees posted...

The only advantage Messi would have is he could go between LeBrons legs

And the fact that Messi is an unrivalled football genius who flummoxes the best players in the world like they're amateurs despite the fact that he's significantly less athletic than most of them.
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Based off the generally accepted definition of athlete, no.

Let's see:

Serena Williams
LeBron James
Cristiano Ronaldo
JJ Watt
Novak Djokovic
Rafael Nadal (who also could have played professional football)
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Antifar posted...

josifrees posted...

Lmao LeBron with soccer training would make Messi look like a little bitch

There's a reason you don't see a lot of 6'10" soccer players

Yeah...they play basketball instead.
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Two_Dee posted...

it's Kevin Durant

Lol
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gdaddy posted...

Messi isn't even the greatest athlete in his league

Truth.
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The posts in this topic are so misinformed holy shit
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harry kane would smash em both
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dgb909 posted...

harry kane would smash em both

I would give Kane my first born child, but come on now.
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giantblimpN7 posted...

dgb909 posted...

harry kane would smash em both

I would give Kane my first born child, but come on now.

yeah i wasnt serious mate calm down
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TiamatKiller posted...

Based off the generally accepted definition of athlete, no.

I'd like to know what your definition of athlete is because I don't know if there is a "generally accepted definition of athlete". By nature sports with different requirements attract athletes that would be terrible at other sports.

For example, imagine any NBA player trying his hand at weightlifting. He'd be laughed out of the gym.

Another definition of athlete might be "most dominant/gifted player in a given sport", which is a good case for Messi, even though he's tiny and relatively weak and would be terrible at most other things.
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pinky0926 posted...

For example, imagine any NBA player trying his hand at weightlifting. He'd be laughed out of the gym.

Kevin "Slim Reaper aka the 6'12 assassin aka 2017 finals MVP" Durant can press 315 with ease

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjHnQexeFkc
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Two_Dee posted...

pinky0926 posted...

For example, imagine any NBA player trying his hand at weightlifting. He'd be laughed out of the gym.

Kevin "Slim Reaper aka the 6'12 assassin aka 2017 finals MVP" Durant can press 315 with ease

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjHnQexeFkc

315 bench press is impressive for the average joe but would barely qualify you for an amateur weightlifting competition. There's a guy on CE who benches 500lbs and he does it just for a hobby.

For reference, pro weight lifters who weigh what Durant did here typically lift around 420 and upwards.

The point I'm making here is that when you're all limbs you're not going to have physics on your side when it comes to lifting weights.
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pinky0926 posted...

TiamatKiller posted...

Based off the generally accepted definition of athlete, no.

I'd like to know what your definition of athlete is because I don't know if there is a "generally accepted definition of athlete". By nature sports with different requirements attract athletes that would be terrible at other sports.

For example, imagine any NBA player trying his hand at weightlifting. He'd be laughed out of the gym.

Another definition of athlete might be "most dominant/gifted player in a given sport", which is a good case for Messi, even though he's tiny and relatively weak and would be terrible at most other things.

If LeBron decided when he was a kid to be a weightlifter, no he would not be laughed out the gym as an adult in his prime the same way if he pursued soccer as a kid he would not be dominated by Lionel Messi.

Yes sports have different athletic requirements but Speed, agility, strength, explosiveness, work ethic and intelligence are applicable to every sport. LeBron has much higher ceilings in all of the physical aspects than Messi has and the intangible aspects of sports are hard to quantify
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Jared Lorenzen is the most athletic human ever, FACT
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josifrees posted...

If LeBron decided when he was a kid to be a weightlifter, no he would not be laughed out the gym as an adult in his prime the same way if he pursued soccer as a kid he would not be dominated by Lionel Messi.

Yes sports have different athletic requirements but Speed, agility, strength, explosiveness, work ethic and intelligence are applicable to every sport. LeBron has much higher ceilings in all of the physical aspects than Messi has and the intangible aspects of sports are hard to quantify

This is basically all hypothetical at this point. Do I think LeBron is basically a mutantly gifted athlete and would excel at any sport? Absolutely. I would even say he'd be a great soccer player, premier league even. Do I think that he would be better at soccer than Messi? Hell no. Messi is a one in 5 billion soccer player. He was put on this earth by some divine power to play that game. The stuff he does doesn't even make sense. As you say, there are intangible aspects to sport. And Messi - despite being a manlet with not much in the physical department - consistently outperforms every other player at the highest level of the game to such an absurd degree it's hard to quantify.

I'm sure you would not say that Cristiano Ronaldo would be one of the greatest NBA players in the world if he took up basketball as a kid instead of soccer. That street should go both ways.
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SF_Okami posted...

Jared Lorenzen is the most athletic human ever, FACT

the hefty lefty was a one of a kind physical specimen
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Also the worlds strongest men competitors are almost always over 65

You can have long arms and have big muscles
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josifrees posted...

Also the worlds strongest men competitors are almost always over 65

You can have long arms and have big muscles

Yes, but strongman requires an adaptable strength for lots of different events, which is part of the reason why you don't get strongmen type guys doing olympic lifts. And the taller guys are definitely worse at certain events, particularly the static ones. The best deadlifter in the strongman circuit is 6ft3, which is small by strongman standards. Because having a small center of gravity and less distance for the bar to travel on a static lift is a bonus.

The point I was making here is that the physique that makes you excel at one sport doesn't automatically make you excel at every other sport. Most soccer players are average in height, because outside of the rare exception (peter crouch is an example) it's simply more of a hindrance than a help.
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Is this topic for real?
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Messi, the guy who missed two penalty shots on two separate world cups? LMAO
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LordFarquad1312 posted...

Messi, the guy who missed two penalty shots on two separate world cups? LMAO

gtfo casual non fan
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I'm sure you would not say that Cristiano Ronaldo would be one of the greatest NBA players in the world if he took up basketball as a kid instead of soccer. That street should go both ways.

No the street doesnt have to go both ways in the case of basketball because it has an element of verticality that soccer doesnt have. Gridiron or baseball are more analogous because they dont have a goal that is ten feet in the air. I do believe that many of the greatest professional soccer players could succeed at those sports due to their athleticism though. (Assuming of course theyre hand-eye coordination is as good as their foot-eye coordination
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josifrees posted...

I'm sure you would not say that Cristiano Ronaldo would be one of the greatest NBA players in the world if he took up basketball as a kid instead of soccer. That street should go both ways.

No the street doesnt have to go both ways in the case of basketball because it has an element of verticality that soccer doesnt have. Gridiron or baseball are more analogous because they dont have a goal that is ten feet in the air. I do believe that many of the greatest professional soccer players could succeed at those sports due to their athleticism though. (Assuming of course theyre hand-eye coordination is as good as their foot-eye coordination

But this is exactly why 6ft7 dudes tend to be terrible at maneuvering a ball that's generally glued to the ground. Almost all the greatest soccer players in history have been under 6ft. That's not a coincidence.

There's only a handful of top soccer players who were/are exceptionally tall and most of them were goalkeepers.
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pinky0926 posted...

LordFarquad1312 posted...

Messi, the guy who missed two penalty shots on two separate world cups? LMAO

gtfo casual non fan

That doesn't change the fact that fuckboi Messi missed 2 penalty shots at the world cups.
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Considering that at most 20% of men globally are over 6 it isnt so much a coincidence as a certainty that most top professional soccer players are going to be under 6

I understand your point though and if it were pretty much any other athlete I would take Messi. LeBron is just in a class of his own
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josifrees posted...

Considering that at most 20% of men globally are over 6 it isnt so much a coincidence as a certainty that most top professional soccer players are going to be under 6

I think it's a weak point to look at the average joe and use that as a basis. I mean the average NBA player is 6ft7 and the average strongman competitor is 6ft3. The average person never represents the top tier of athletes on any basis.
Take swimmers for example.
https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--PKwH2-XP--/c_scale,f_auto,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/17u1l1a1s8b5rjpg.jpg

They're all mutants and their bodies are basically tailor made for their chosen sport.

Being especially tall just simply doesn't help you play soccer. It actively hurts your chances most of the time.

One thing that makes messi special for example is his ability to change directions multiple times so quickly and effortlessly, something he simply wouldn't be able to do if he was any bigger. It makes him a less physical player but also an impossible player to predict.

I understand your point though and if it were pretty much any other athlete I would take Messi. LeBron is just in a class of his own

The way you feel about LeBron is how soccer fans feel about Messi. That level of genius is hard to quantify and I don't think you can just drop it into a different sport and expect it to work.
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I found this interesting. Doesnt have non-American leagues on it. I found another table that had the average heights of premier league teams as well

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^What would also be interesting is a breakdown on how their physiology is otherwise different. I think it's interesting for example when you look at top athletes at how unlikely their proportions and ability to recover from injury quickly and stuff like that tends to be.
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Before he turned 30 Messi was already the leagues all-time leader in assist and goals scored and had broken a 70-year-old record for most goals scored in a single season, winning 8 league titles and 5 Ballon d'Ors.

So forget about Lebron, there is no one in the history of basketball that's comparable to Messi. He's an anomaly.


https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/lionel-messi-is-impossible/

Broseph_Stalin posted...

Before he turned 30 Messi was already the leagues all-time leader in assist and goals scored and had broken a 70-year-old record for most goals scored in a single season, winning 8 league titles and 5 Ballon d'Ors.

So forget about Lebron, there is no one in the history of basketball that's comparable to Messi. He's an anomaly.


https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/lionel-messi-is-impossible/

I know at least 1 thing on there is wrong, as Ronaldo has more CL goals.
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Broseph_Stalin posted...

Before he turned 30 Messi was already the leagues all-time leader in assist and goals scored and had broken a 70-year-old record for most goals scored in a single season, winning 8 league titles and 5 Ballon d'Ors.

So forget about Lebron, there is no one in the history of basketball that's comparable to Messi. He's an anomaly.


https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/lionel-messi-is-impossible/

Son, most of those achievements are based on scoring. Like do you know how many scoring titles Jordan, A.I. and T-mac had? Like come the fuck on.
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donkeyjack posted...

Like do you know how many scoring titles Jordan, A.I. and T-mac had? Like come the fuck on.

Those three spent 15, 14 and 16 seasons in the NBA respectively with none finishing as the leagues all-time point leader. Messi became the leagues all-time top goalscorer in his twenties while also being the all-time assist leader.

Trust me you don't know what you're talking about, no basketball player in history was as much of an outlier as Messi is.

Imagine thinking any of them touch tom Brady

Sidney Crosby. Not even a contest.
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Broseph_Stalin posted...

donkeyjack posted...

Like do you know how many scoring titles Jordan, A.I. and T-mac had? Like come the fuck on.

Those three spent 15, 14 and 16 seasons in the NBA respectively with none finishing as the leagues all-time point leader. Messi became the leagues all-time top goalscorer in his twenties while also being the all-time assist leader.

Trust me you don't know what you're talking about, no basketball player in history was as much of an outlier as Messi is.

It was different before 2000s in basketball. the PG is like the quarterback and also SG shouldn't be dishing out the rock on some John Wall shit.
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shiby with it posted...

Sidney Crosby. Not even a contest.

Maybe if he'd been healthy, but as is he hasn't accomplished nearly as much as guys like Messi, Lebron, Federer
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donkeyjack posted...

It was different before 2000s in basketball. the PG is like the quarterback and also SG shouldn't be dishing out the rock on some John Wall shit.

The same thing happened in soccer though, which is what makes Messi such a mutant. I don't know enough about basketball to make comparisons on that basis, but it's distinctly weird in this day in age with this level of competition for Messi to be so utterly dominant in so many categories.

Like we're talking the biggest sport in the world, with kids being bred from age 3 to play the game, and a guy like Messi comes along who is basically like the cheat player in a PS1 game. It's unnatural. That boy not right.
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