Hack

Against his best efforts to do otherwise, Skip Bayless just can't help shitting on Lance Armstrong's parade. Here are a few pearls of idiocy:

Armstrong doesn't qualify as the greatest all-around athlete because cycling doesn't test enough athletic talent or skill. And he doesn't qualify for greatest performer because his sport doesn't have the equivalent of last-second shots or throws or catches, of two-outs-in-the-ninth swings or of final-hole putts. The pressure through 21 Tour stages is constant, but rarely if ever acute. ... But an all-out sprint for a stage finish doesn't require grace under knee-knocking, throat-closing pressure. It's just about guts and heart. ... But is he a greater clutch performer than Jordan or Ali or Montana or Nicklaus? When has Armstrong ever been tested under huge-moment fire the way those greats were? No, he doesn't belong in the same argument with them. ... Armstrong and Iverson are about the same size. But Iverson not only has the NBA's best body control but also could have starred in college football as an option quarterback...Armstrong isn't in Iverson's all-around league.

Someone clearly hasn't: 1) Participated in an endurance sport of any kind; 2) Had to go beyond his self-perceived capabilities in said endurance sports; or 3) Watched the Tour de France in 1999 or 2003. Anyway, it just goes on and gets worse from there, to the point that Bayless names Deion Sanders as his choice for all-time greatest. Uh huh.

Oh wait, one more:

Greater than the greatest distance runners -- from Frank Shorter to Paul Tergat, Joan Benoit Samuelson to Paula Radcliffe.

Nice. Way to throw the token black guy (Tergat) in there, despite your describing a sport historically dominated by African athletes. Real smooth, Skip.

While I do think what Lance Armstrong accomplished over the last seven years is one of the three or four single greatest accomplishments in sporting history, I don't necessarily think he is the greatest athlete of all-time. Mostly because it's a waste of time to try and choose one person to fit that title. You can't answer the question of who is the greatest, because it's not even a question, it's a discussion topic. But to definitely state a negative, as Bayless has done, is just as stupid, maybe even more stupid, as definitively stating that another superstar is the greatest athlete.

Bayless doesn't want to be considered a cynic or skeptic for his thoughts in his article. No problem, Skip, we all have our opinions. You're still a lazy, uninformed douche, though.

Comments

[briandtw]

Saw that Frank and thought about posting something similar on the Frog, then decided that Bayless is a waste of zeroes and ones. What a jackass.

[daveNYC]

I'd hate to see what he would have written if Lance had come in second.

[soup nazi]

Sad thing is, Bayless accomplished his purpose. By writing from the "opinion you don't want to hear" POV, he got people to click on his article. Oldest trick in the book. It would've helped if the content he wrote was worth anything....

[Babu]

Someone wrote a similar article a year or two about Lance, might have been the same guy....same ideas, just rehashed...guy is an idiot, has never ridden a road bike, has no idea how hard and what skill it takes to ride up 12% grades at a mile of altitude, and descent on a bike at 60mph with the road contact surface of two band-aids and jostle for position in a peleton....jackass.

[M. Butler]

Personally, I feel it would be more tele-genic if you had to drink a 12 pack during the ride.

[Tiffany]

I agree that it's silly to pick one person as the greatest athlete of all time because when you're talking about different sports, you're talking about different skills. For instance, Bayless names a golfer (Nicklaus) in his article. So what if Nicklaus was a good clutch performer in golf, I bet he couldn't ride a bike through 21 stages of the Tour de France. I'm sure he got winded just walking around the golf course. Bayless is just a jealous idiot who has to find a way to knock someone down for doing what he probably only wishes he could do. Bayless? More like Brainless.

[Jess]

What a schmuck. Obviously the man has never peddaled a bicycle up a mole hill, let alone the Alps. I just love hearing these know-it-all shits sit on their fat asses and talk about people, like Lance, who are able to accomplish things they couldn't even dream of. Pathetic.

I don't know if Lance Armstrong is the best athlete of all time...such comparisons are pointless. He is, however, amazing no matter how you slice it, clutch or no clutch.