Move over Roger Bannister, Muhammad Ali and Arthur Ashe, Dwyane Wade in da house

Re: Move over Roger Bannister, Muhammad Ali and Arthur Ashe, Dwyane Wade in da h

For an athlete to transcend his sport, he/she has to make a significant impact on people who are not serious fans of that sport. There are precious few athletes who have done that -- Ali, Michael Jordan, Arthur Ashe, Lance Armstrong are in that group. Roger Federer surely is not.

The more I think about it, Buck O'Neil would have been a fabulous choice. He not only refused to be bitter about the discrimination and racism of the Negro Leagues era, he became an ambassador for baseball. When baseball paid him back by snubbing him for the Hall of Fame, he handled that with class as well. The man embodied dignity until his dying day. That's what a Sportsman of the Year is, not the guy who won the most tennis matches or the guy who'll sell the most magazines.

 

What did George Mason do... really?

 

One of my baseline criteria is that, if the SOTY walked down Fifth Avenue naked at high noon, at least 12 people should be able to recognize him/her.
Roger Federer "transcended" tennis?
How? By being better at it than anyone else?
And, even if he did, so what? Transcending tennis in 2006 is about as hard as transcending the Whig party is.

 

Why do you hate heterosexuals so?

 

George Mason (December 11, 1725 – October 7, 1792) was a United States patriot, statesman, and delegate from Virginia to the U.S. Constitutional Convention. He is called the "Father of the Bill of Rights". For all of these reasons he is considered to be one of the "Founding Fathers" of the United States.

Mason wrote the Virginia Declaration of Rights, which detailed specific rights of citizens. In addition to anti-federalist Patrick Henry, he was later a leader of those who pressed for the addition of explicitly stated individual rights as part of the U.S. Constitution, and did not sign the document mainly because it did not contain such a statement. His efforts eventually succeeded in convincing the Federalists to modify the Constitution and add the Bill of Rights (the first ten amendments of the Constitution). The Bill of Rights is based on Mason's earlier Virginia Declaration of Rights.

Although a slave owner, Mason favored the abolishment of slave trade. He once referred to slavery as "that slow poison, which is daily contaminating the minds and morals of our people." However, he spoke out against including any mention of slavery in the Constitution--whether from an abolitionist or anti-abolitionist standpoint.

 

Wait a minute.
Are you campaigning for the guy, or for the university named after him?
If it's the former, I'm with you, although he hasn't been able to get around on the fastball for a century or so.

 

Re: Move over Roger Bannister, Muhammad Ali and Arthur Ashe, Dwyane Wade in da h

Giving it to O'Neil even though he's gone would have added to the poignancy of it. I'd love to see Scott Price or Gary Smith turned loose to do a posthumous tribute to him. That could have been something really memorable. The problem is that Sportsman of the Year has become such a bottom-line oriented, marketing and promotions driven vehicle for SI that someone like O'Neil probably never had a chance. He wouldn't appeal to the 18-35 demographic, and of course he couldn't be interviewed on Bob Costas' HBO show or be the guest of honor at SI's lavish NY party.

And George Mason hoops would have been a fine choice, too.

 

Wade is one of the nicest players in the NBA, almost definitely the nicest superstar...

The Sportsman of the Year should be able to help his team win without Shaq...

The Heat are 3-7 in their last 10...

 

Federer would have had them at least playing .500.

As much as I think they've trivialized this with some of their selections recently, particularly Wade, it's still not insignificant enough to be affected by 10 meaningless regular season NBA games.

 

I agree, but I just think a player on a team has to have an absolute monster year to win this award... Wade is a great player. He's a great guy.

Sportsman of the Year? C'mon...

 

I don't hate you. I guess that doesn't necessarily refute your assertion, tho.