so…here’s what went down on the way to colt’s basketball game last night:
a fight nearly broke out between chad and i over a comment that he made…
“basketball players are the overall best athletes in the world.”
at first, i thought he was kidding because my main sports that i competed in growing up were soccer, swimming, and gymnastics and he likes to tell me that those are not “real” sports…which drives me bonkers and makes me want to kick him in the shins. but…no such luck. he wasn’t kidding and that one, little, (somewhat passive aggressive) comment started a debate that has lasted for more than 24 hours.
we discussed it with my parents and my brother over dinner last night.
and then we did the only logical thing left to do.
we took it to facebook.
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my original stance was that it was an impossible question to answer. in every competitive sport…there are extremely talented athletes that are the only athletes in the world who can do what they do.
i stated that soccer players could run circles around most anybody.
i stated that if you put a basketball player in a pool to swim against michael phelps…they most likely would sink.
i stated that i would love to see any basketball player do an inverted cross on the rings while keeping them totally still.
michael jordan, himself, tried a run at baseball and couldn’t hang.
chad doesn’t like it…but i agree with one facebook friend of chad’s who brought up the point about height being the principal requirement at high levels of competition in basketball…de-valuing his original statement.
the point is…i felt it was an unfair statement.
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at dinner, my brother argued that the top UFC fighters are in a physical and mental state like none other. he said that athletes from other disciplines come into the sport and try to compete and can’t.
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my mom threw tennis out there…commenting on how much court they have to individually cover and how long the matches can be.
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my dad echoed my opinion and said that it was not a question that can be fairly answered.
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friends on facebook have weighed in and have made some really good points…
i particularly loved “motherhood” and “synchronized swimming” and “curling” being mentioned.
(you may remember that i had seriously considered taking up both those last two a few years ago…thinking that my olympic dreams may eventually come true. but that’s beside the point.)
anyhow…here’s the facebook breakdown on the votes:
SOCCER: 15
BASKETBALL: 11
TRIATHLETES/DECATHLETES: 9
HOCKEY: 6
TENNIS: 6
RUGBY: 5
GYMNASTICS: 5
UFC: 4
BASEBALL: 4
BOXING: 2
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i’m not gonna lie. it makes me extremely satisfied that soccer came out on top…even though i wasn’t arguing with him that it should. not once did i say that one sport held the best athletes in the world.
chad, on the other hand can’t stand it and has proceeded to get nasty. he tried to make up other rules…such as all of his family and wanna-be basketball player friend’s text opinions should also count in the facebook vote. don’t worry. i would never let him get away with cheating like that.
and then he tried to tell me that if a person is not a competitive athlete…their vote doesn’t hold any weight. another obvious ploy at cheating.
he’s just bitter.
and that makes my “win” all the sweeter!!
plain and simple…the boy doesn’t like to lose.
or…be WRONG.
Hahaha! I’m so glad you posted the results! I am friends with Chad on FB but I chose not to put in my vote. I did ask my husband and his first thought was basketball, as was mine. He also mentioned soccer and tennis. I threw in hockey…but mostly because it was listed on Chad’s FB. Congratulations on your “win”! 🙂