Chuck had a pretty huge spike in popularity after his Entourage appearance, as well. Those sort of crossover moments can definitely make or break an athlete's recognition level. As asinine as the underwear commercials that Jordan does are, they have helped slightly with keeping his name fresh in the cultural hive mind.
As for Jon Jones, I actually think he'd run into less flak if he'd embrace the criticism for being cocky and play it up. He's a young, extremely dominate fighter, if he had a more comfortable public persona he could rake in the fans with that sort of Ali attitude. I like to hope that he'll bring the sport wider recognition, but he's also still very young so I try not to invest too much hope in one fighter. Any guy could go on an amazing tear through their division and be in a similar position. Until the sport reaches a certain level of acceptance and acknowledgement, though, those guys will likely only be remembered by the hardcore fans and historian types. A kind of Jack Johnson level of lasting fame. Known and adored by people who care, but not famous enough to raise an eyebrow when a beach bum musician with the same name becomes popular.
Bullshit. I'd be greatly interested in knowing what, precisely, is required of an activity for it to qualify as a "sport" by your definition.
The involvement & celebration of physical athleticism.
You do not need to be an athlete in any sense, or even physically fit at all, to be a good NASCAR driver.
Yes, and one must be in top physical shape to play golf m i rite? It requires skill and coordination, and you're probably underestimating the physical requirements as well (driving a car at 200mph isnt the same as driving at 55).
If you'll accept that golf is not a sport, though, I'll accept that NASCAR isnt.
Man, im sitting here defending NASCAR. Look what you're making me do!
You should read up on the Klitschko brothers. Let me just break down this incredible situation for you:
Handsome brothers, one 6'6", the other 6'8". They both have doctorates. They've both started charities independently, and work on other philanthropic projects jointly. Wlad has an Olympic gold medal. They both speak four languages. They both hold heavyweight boxing titles. Vitali is married to a former model and they have three children. Wlad has dated hollywood starlets.
I mean... their mom must literally never stop bragging ever.
She's afraid that if she stops talking she'll be sucked into those giant ass noses and disappear across the event horizon, forever.
Does a quick and dirty "How many hits do they get on Google" count for anything?
Original list reordered by how many hits "FirstName LastName" gets on google, unless people mainly know them by one name (Pele, Shaq). Numbers are rounded to the millions, unless they're under 10 million, where they get a decimal.
59M Tiger Woods (golf)
49M David Beckham (soccer)
45M Michael Jordan (basketball)
25M Serena Williams (tennis)
18M Mike Tyson (boxing)
13M Derek Jeter (baseball)
13M Brett Favre (football)
12M Venus Williams (tennis)
4.3M Wayne Gretzky (hockey)
3.5M Chuck Liddell (mixed martial arts)
Some other dudes who have been coming up.
82M Pelé
31M Lance Armstrong
22M Michael Phelps
19M Shaq (just results from "Shaq"--"Shaquille O'Neal" comes up with 10M, but who else is out there being "Shaq"?)
17M Muhammad Ali
11M Dale Earnhardt (NASCAR--probably includes Dale Earnhardt Jr--consider this the Earnhardt racing dynasty)
8.1M Babe Ruth
Tony Hawk Anybody? 17M Tony Hawk (Skateboarding)
Shaun White - More hits than Babe Ruth ha ha.
9.5M Shaun White (Snowboarding/Skateboarding)
Here's the list of the top sports people in the world by facebook popularity in 2010.
Honestly, Americans often forget how much bigger in terms of numbers of supporters the 'world' sports are than the US sports.In a true "Have you heard of this guy" test, only Jordan and Ali would really make it anywhere in world terms.
Honestly, Americans often forget how much bigger in terms of numbers of supporters the 'world' sports are than the US sports.In a true "Have you heard of this guy" test, only Jordan and Ali would really make it anywhere in world terms.
You say that, but while Cristiano Ronaldo is killing everybody popularity-wise, 3 of the top 10 dudes are US basketball players--isn't basketball still really US-centric?
Honestly, Americans often forget how much bigger in terms of numbers of supporters the 'world' sports are than the US sports.In a true "Have you heard of this guy" test, only Jordan and Ali would really make it anywhere in world terms.
You say that, but while Cristiano Ronaldo is killing everybody popularity-wise, 3 of the top 10 dudes are US basketball players--isn't basketball still really US-centric?
It's getting less so. Yao made it boom in China. Dirk less so in Germany. Others have at least made their countries take interest. Every time the olympics/world championships come around, the gap seems to have closed a little more talent-wise between the US and the rest of the world (indicating growth in basketball interest elsewhere). Yes, it's still US-centric, but Stern takes pride in the strides he's made in drawing international interest to the game.
Tyson was definitely a scumbag... but he's done his time and I still root for him even while acknowledging his scumbag past.
IMO hoping Jon Jones will be as big as Ali is a futile hope - boxing was way bigger then than MMA is now. What you would hope is that Jon Jones through his ability raises the profile of the sport to somewhere higher than it is now. For him in particular it might be tricky because he's not the most charismatic guy, nor is he that comfortable in front of a camera (though this may change in the future).
However I bet he will raise the profile of MMA, and partly because it's a self-fulfilling prophecy so to speak. UFC/Fox believe they have a star, believe they have an edge, so they promote Jon Jones and his fights aggressively - and through doing so, Jon Jones actually does become a star with wider name recognition. It can come from unexpected places too - I have a non-MMA watching friend that sometimes asks me about Tank Abbott, because Tank Abbott was on Friends that one time.
Basically what I'm saying is that Jon Jones needs to be a Jersey Shore castmember ASAP.
From what I've seen, you have to do something really big to get noticed. That means that the sport needs to be big enough to have attracted the best of the best. It also means you have to beat that field in a spectacular way, generally by beating the guy with the active fame. Under that framework, Jones will make MMA big, but it will be the guy who beats Jones who goes down in history if he is able to stick around (longevity is another requirement).
It's a shame, from a sports perspective, that Tyson is a terrible, stupid human being, because he was an amazing boxer.
Actually, Mike Tyson has become a vegan and a pretty devout muslim. And his twitter stream is pretty awesome, full of stuff like "I bit Evander because I was undisciplined at that moment. I had nothing to lose then. I had no wife, I didn’t have my kids." and "I always had the 'glamour life' when all I wanted was serenity." and "I’m just trying to convey gratitude."
So, yeah, Tyson was pretty monstrous, but watch what you say, because it seems like he's put in a lot of effort to change.
While I was unaware of this, and it is admirable, I tend to take a very hard stance towards rapists. Personal opinion.
That conviction is questionable at best.
Although there's plenty of other stuff that makes him not the greatest guy around, like wife-beating, and other sexual assaults (that he admits to) for which he wasn't arrested/charged.
People who call Wlad boring are the same people who would call Royce Gracie or GSP boring. Wlad doesn't care about the KO, he cares about the W.
Anyone who calls Vitali boring is just confusing him for Wlad.
This is basically my point, though. People who already like boxing can watch them and appreciate their skill as boxers, but for the "casual" fan there's not much that's exciting about watching a 6'8" guy use his size and reach to outpunch smaller opponents.
You do not need to be an athlete in any sense, or even physically fit at all, to be a good NASCAR driver.
I'm not a fan of NASCAR or any other racing, but this is just completely dumb and reflects a lack of understanding of the physical demands of driving a formula car.
it was the smallest on the list but
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
Honestly, Americans often forget how much bigger in terms of numbers of supporters the 'world' sports are than the US sports.In a true "Have you heard of this guy" test, only Jordan and Ali would really make it anywhere in world terms.
You say that, but while Cristiano Ronaldo is killing everybody popularity-wise, 3 of the top 10 dudes are US basketball players--isn't basketball still really US-centric?
Not so much, not anymore. The world has come a long way since getting destroyed by Jordan's Dream Team.
The 92 dream team was an amazing collection of talent even by historical standards. That team would've demolished any field since 92's almost as thoroughly as they did that year.
it was the smallest on the list but
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
People who call Wlad boring are the same people who would call Royce Gracie or GSP boring. Wlad doesn't care about the KO, he cares about the W.
Anyone who calls Vitali boring is just confusing him for Wlad.
This is basically my point, though. People who already like boxing can watch them and appreciate their skill as boxers, but for the "casual" fan there's not much that's exciting about watching a 6'8" guy use his size and reach to outpunch smaller opponents.
You do not need to be an athlete in any sense, or even physically fit at all, to be a good NASCAR driver.
I'm not a fan of NASCAR or any other racing, but this is just completely dumb and reflects a lack of understanding of the physical demands of driving a formula car.
Formula racing is a bit different, both because of the highly variable g forces and because you have to know how to turn right.
As for golf, you have to be able to hit the ball just right with highly consistent force, meaning that there is a high degree of muscle control. You also need to be able to swing with as high power as possible without messing yourself up on the drives. It's basically the same as being the DH in baseball, which is why the two have such similar figures. Now, with stock cars, you choose when to turn left and less left and try to watch your mileage to minimize pit stops.
Honestly, Americans often forget how much bigger in terms of numbers of supporters the 'world' sports are than the US sports.In a true "Have you heard of this guy" test, only Jordan and Ali would really make it anywhere in world terms.
You say that, but while Cristiano Ronaldo is killing everybody popularity-wise, 3 of the top 10 dudes are US basketball players--isn't basketball still really US-centric?
Not so much, not anymore. The world has come a long way since getting destroyed by Jordan's Dream Team.
IMO hoping Jon Jones will be as big as Ali is a futile hope - boxing was way bigger then than MMA is now.
From what I've seen, you have to do something really big to get noticed. That means that the sport needs to be big enough to have attracted the best of the best. It also means you have to beat that field in a spectacular way, generally by beating the guy with the active fame. Under that framework, Jones will make MMA big, but it will be the guy who beats Jones who goes down in history if he is able to stick around (longevity is another requirement).
Yeah, I don't know that anyone actually said anything about Jones (or anyone) becoming as big of a deal as Ali, but that will never happen. Nobody will become 'the next Ali.' There will never be anything like him, for a number of reasons. The world is different.
-Individual sports don't resonate like they used to. Certainly, team sport athletes can become global icons (or become villains trying, hi Lebron... but I digress), but they largely share the credit and blame. The focus isn't entirely on them. Basketball is the closest, in that you can still form a more personal connection to the players during the game (see their faces. Watch them grimace thru pain or smile with joy or shrug their shoulders after hitting half a dozen threes in a half) and the game is smartly marketed based on the stars. That said, it's still a team sport. It might be Lebron's name on the commercials, but it's still the Heat vs the Mavericks, not Lebron vs Dirk. There's a romantic element to an individual sport like boxing where it's the purest of competition. One on one. That added a level of resonance to individuals (not to mention allowing individuality itself) that you see less of in team sports. Tiger might be the last great individual athlete to rise above (and/or elevate) his sport. Even after he broadened golf's reach (considerably), it still didn't carry the heft that boxing did in Ali's time.
-There's too much information now. When Ali would win a big match, it was covered on half the TV stations and all the newspapers. Now, Tiger would've had to keep about 60 mistresses across a huge variety of professional fields and interests to even approach that kind of coverage. The entire family isn't glued to radio or one of three broadcast networks anymore. Timmy's on his PSP. Sally's texting her bffs. Billy Joe's watching porn in his room with the volume muted. Dad's watching NFL red zone and mom is watching Hoarders or Ace of Cakes. We're no longer receivers of information, we're seekers. As such, the information is provided to us a little differently. Athletes today only go beyond the bubble of their sport for a few reasons: Scandal, advertising, an incredible story that transcends the sport (a 'positive scandal', if you will. Ex: Lance Armstrong beating cancer), or winning something enormous/historic (Phelps, Bolt).
-The internet and The Brand. Something changed in our media between then and now. It's the difference between the coverage of JFK and the coverage of Clinton. Combine that with Jordan ushering in the era of 'Athlete as a brand' ("Republicans buy sneakers too") and nobody has a personality anymore. It's all about maximizing your earning potential. Ali managed his image too, but it's different now. You don't see guys at the top willing to take the kind of monumental risks like Ali did with his stance on the Vietnam war. Not Jordan, not Tiger, not Kobe or Lebron. Ali came along at a time when the media was large enough to give him global reach, but small enough to control the message. Media may have as much, if not more to do with many of these athletes' cultural permeation as anything of their own doing.
I'm sure someone, somewhere, has more articulately described many of these things (some of them probably covered in Bill Simmons' article breaking down the difference between Tiger's comeback and Ali's), but I think that covers most of what I was trying to say.
In typing this, I wondered. What would be a modern-day equivalent of Ali's anti-war stance, trial, and all that? I can't think of anything close, though if Lebron came out of the closet and started openly campaigning for legalizing gay marriage, it might have some parallels on the civil rights side... a little (also it would be a pretty historic moment as the first openly gay man in a team sport, but that's a whole 'nother thread). Edit- now that I think about it, that'd be more akin to Ali's conversion to Islam, which was a pretty unpopular thing at the time too.
There's no current political issue that's as controversial as the vietnam war was, and no modern analog for how Ali figured in race relations either.
I guess a star athlete coming out as gay could have an Ali-like impact, but the number of athletes close to as charismatic as he was is pretty small.
Athletes already campaign for gay marriage (although generally not the really major ones) and various other minor political issues; I doubt if people would really care about that.
it was the smallest on the list but
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
Honestly, Americans often forget how much bigger in terms of numbers of supporters the 'world' sports are than the US sports.In a true "Have you heard of this guy" test, only Jordan and Ali would really make it anywhere in world terms.
You say that, but while Cristiano Ronaldo is killing everybody popularity-wise, 3 of the top 10 dudes are US basketball players--isn't basketball still really US-centric?
That's interesting... I would have expected Ronaldo to just take a dive.
Michael Schumacher gets 17M. I'm really surprised that he has only been mentioned once in this thread.
Also:
Cristiano Ronaldo: 88.5M
David Beckham: 59M
Ronaldinho: 46M
Diego Maradona: 10M
There is an important lesson here about the international popularity of football compared to all other sports. But, as the result for Maradona shows, this is very much biased against older players who have long since retired.
I'm not a fan of NASCAR or any other racing, but this is just completely dumb and reflects a lack of understanding of the physical demands of driving a formula car.
NASCAR (The 'National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing') isn't formula car racing, it's - as the acronym would imply - stock car racing.
It is not physically demanding to race a stock car; as long as you're not so fat that you actually weigh down the vehicle, it's much more about being a skilled driver than being in athletic shape.
I don't know enough about Formula racing to debate the physical requirements for it.
Yes, and one must be in top physical shape to play golf m i rite?
No, you don't. Golf's not really much of a sport either.
Here's the list of the top sports people in the world by facebook popularity in 2010.
Honestly, Americans often forget how much bigger in terms of numbers of supporters the 'world' sports are than the US sports.In a true "Have you heard of this guy" test, only Jordan and Ali would really make it anywhere in world terms.
There might be 700 million people on Facebook or whatever but there's 6 billion people on the planet. Facebook represents less than 15% of the population.
I'm telling you right now, Muhammad Ali is the most famous athlete on the god damn planet.
I'm telling you right now, Muhammad Ali is the most famous athlete on the god damn planet.
Pelé seems more likely. If you go by pure name recognition, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and quite a few footballers could be at least on par with Muhammad Ali as well.
This, along with the list you posted earlier (hint: almost no one outside the US has ever heard of Babe Ruth), makes me think you might be mistaking the United States for the whole planet.
I do not care what anybody says: driving a car really fast around a track is not a sport. It's a talent, doing it competitively requires a lot of skill, and NASCAR knows how to put together a great live show, but it's not a damn sport.
Bullshit. I'd be greatly interested in knowing what, precisely, is required of an activity for it to qualify as a "sport" by your definition.
I do not care what anybody says: driving a car really fast around a track is not a sport. It's a talent, doing it competitively requires a lot of skill, and NASCAR knows how to put together a great live show, but it's not a damn sport.
Bullshit. I'd be greatly interested in knowing what, precisely, is required of an activity for it to qualify as a "sport" by your definition.
I do not care what anybody says: driving a car really fast around a track is not a sport. It's a talent, doing it competitively requires a lot of skill, and NASCAR knows how to put together a great live show, but it's not a damn sport.
Bullshit. I'd be greatly interested in knowing what, precisely, is required of an activity for it to qualify as a "sport" by your definition.
Standing up.
Thats not such a good criteria...
However, I don't really consider motorsports to be on the same level as non mechanically assisted sports though.
1. Michael Jordan
2. Tiger Woods
Edit: # 3.. Rethinking, Tony Hawk has to be in the top 3 IMO. Everyone in America knows who he is.
4. Hulk Hogan or Macho Man Randy Savage or "The Rock"
5. Babe Ruth
6. Mike Tyson
7. Dale Earnhardt Jr or Jeff Gordon
8. Michael Vick ( I think the dog fighting thing, made him a household name, even to non football fans)
9. Shaun White
10. Serena Williams (I think people know she has a sister who plays with her, but don't know her name, or as the case may be.. "Agh, I know it, I just can't think of it!".. again I'm talking not sports fans)
That's what I"m thinking. And personally I don't think an MMA star will ever be on the list. Yes it's a popular sport, but not nearly on the level of other sports IMO. And my list is specifically US oriented. I don't know what some dude in Egypt thinks about sport stars, or Australia, or anywhere else where I am not from.
EWom on
Whether they find a life there or not, I think Jupiter should be called an enemy planet.
Posts
As for Jon Jones, I actually think he'd run into less flak if he'd embrace the criticism for being cocky and play it up. He's a young, extremely dominate fighter, if he had a more comfortable public persona he could rake in the fans with that sort of Ali attitude. I like to hope that he'll bring the sport wider recognition, but he's also still very young so I try not to invest too much hope in one fighter. Any guy could go on an amazing tear through their division and be in a similar position. Until the sport reaches a certain level of acceptance and acknowledgement, though, those guys will likely only be remembered by the hardcore fans and historian types. A kind of Jack Johnson level of lasting fame. Known and adored by people who care, but not famous enough to raise an eyebrow when a beach bum musician with the same name becomes popular.
The involvement & celebration of physical athleticism.
You do not need to be an athlete in any sense, or even physically fit at all, to be a good NASCAR driver.
Yes, and one must be in top physical shape to play golf m i rite? It requires skill and coordination, and you're probably underestimating the physical requirements as well (driving a car at 200mph isnt the same as driving at 55).
If you'll accept that golf is not a sport, though, I'll accept that NASCAR isnt.
Man, im sitting here defending NASCAR. Look what you're making me do!
She's afraid that if she stops talking she'll be sucked into those giant ass noses and disappear across the event horizon, forever.
Original list reordered by how many hits "FirstName LastName" gets on google, unless people mainly know them by one name (Pele, Shaq). Numbers are rounded to the millions, unless they're under 10 million, where they get a decimal.
59M Tiger Woods (golf)
49M David Beckham (soccer)
45M Michael Jordan (basketball)
25M Serena Williams (tennis)
18M Mike Tyson (boxing)
13M Derek Jeter (baseball)
13M Brett Favre (football)
12M Venus Williams (tennis)
4.3M Wayne Gretzky (hockey)
3.5M Chuck Liddell (mixed martial arts)
Some other dudes who have been coming up.
82M Pelé
31M Lance Armstrong
22M Michael Phelps
19M Shaq (just results from "Shaq"--"Shaquille O'Neal" comes up with 10M, but who else is out there being "Shaq"?)
17M Muhammad Ali
11M Dale Earnhardt (NASCAR--probably includes Dale Earnhardt Jr--consider this the Earnhardt racing dynasty)
8.1M Babe Ruth
Tony Hawk Anybody?
17M Tony Hawk (Skateboarding)
Shaun White - More hits than Babe Ruth ha ha.
9.5M Shaun White (Snowboarding/Skateboarding)
http://www.sportingintelligence.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Worldsmostpopathletes.jpg
Here's the list of the top sports people in the world by facebook popularity in 2010.
Honestly, Americans often forget how much bigger in terms of numbers of supporters the 'world' sports are than the US sports.In a true "Have you heard of this guy" test, only Jordan and Ali would really make it anywhere in world terms.
Michael Jordan
Tiger Woods
Babe Ruth
Maradona
Kobe Bryant
Lebron James
Ronaldo
Lionel Messi
As for MMA, I don't watch it, but I live in a city where everyone does. Names I've heard most are probably GSP, Silva, and Chuck Liddel.
You say that, but while Cristiano Ronaldo is killing everybody popularity-wise, 3 of the top 10 dudes are US basketball players--isn't basketball still really US-centric?
It's getting less so. Yao made it boom in China. Dirk less so in Germany. Others have at least made their countries take interest. Every time the olympics/world championships come around, the gap seems to have closed a little more talent-wise between the US and the rest of the world (indicating growth in basketball interest elsewhere). Yes, it's still US-centric, but Stern takes pride in the strides he's made in drawing international interest to the game.
From what I've seen, you have to do something really big to get noticed. That means that the sport needs to be big enough to have attracted the best of the best. It also means you have to beat that field in a spectacular way, generally by beating the guy with the active fame. Under that framework, Jones will make MMA big, but it will be the guy who beats Jones who goes down in history if he is able to stick around (longevity is another requirement).
That conviction is questionable at best.
Although there's plenty of other stuff that makes him not the greatest guy around, like wife-beating, and other sexual assaults (that he admits to) for which he wasn't arrested/charged.
This is basically my point, though. People who already like boxing can watch them and appreciate their skill as boxers, but for the "casual" fan there's not much that's exciting about watching a 6'8" guy use his size and reach to outpunch smaller opponents.
I'm not a fan of NASCAR or any other racing, but this is just completely dumb and reflects a lack of understanding of the physical demands of driving a formula car.
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
Not so much, not anymore. The world has come a long way since getting destroyed by Jordan's Dream Team.
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
Formula racing is a bit different, both because of the highly variable g forces and because you have to know how to turn right.
As for golf, you have to be able to hit the ball just right with highly consistent force, meaning that there is a high degree of muscle control. You also need to be able to swing with as high power as possible without messing yourself up on the drives. It's basically the same as being the DH in baseball, which is why the two have such similar figures. Now, with stock cars, you choose when to turn left and less left and try to watch your mileage to minimize pit stops.
Here's the stats for facebook users by country: http://www.nickburcher.com/2010/07/facebook-usage-statistics-by-country.html
The US is #1 there by a lot.
Yeah, I don't know that anyone actually said anything about Jones (or anyone) becoming as big of a deal as Ali, but that will never happen. Nobody will become 'the next Ali.' There will never be anything like him, for a number of reasons. The world is different.
-Individual sports don't resonate like they used to. Certainly, team sport athletes can become global icons (or become villains trying, hi Lebron... but I digress), but they largely share the credit and blame. The focus isn't entirely on them. Basketball is the closest, in that you can still form a more personal connection to the players during the game (see their faces. Watch them grimace thru pain or smile with joy or shrug their shoulders after hitting half a dozen threes in a half) and the game is smartly marketed based on the stars. That said, it's still a team sport. It might be Lebron's name on the commercials, but it's still the Heat vs the Mavericks, not Lebron vs Dirk. There's a romantic element to an individual sport like boxing where it's the purest of competition. One on one. That added a level of resonance to individuals (not to mention allowing individuality itself) that you see less of in team sports. Tiger might be the last great individual athlete to rise above (and/or elevate) his sport. Even after he broadened golf's reach (considerably), it still didn't carry the heft that boxing did in Ali's time.
-There's too much information now. When Ali would win a big match, it was covered on half the TV stations and all the newspapers. Now, Tiger would've had to keep about 60 mistresses across a huge variety of professional fields and interests to even approach that kind of coverage. The entire family isn't glued to radio or one of three broadcast networks anymore. Timmy's on his PSP. Sally's texting her bffs. Billy Joe's watching porn in his room with the volume muted. Dad's watching NFL red zone and mom is watching Hoarders or Ace of Cakes. We're no longer receivers of information, we're seekers. As such, the information is provided to us a little differently. Athletes today only go beyond the bubble of their sport for a few reasons: Scandal, advertising, an incredible story that transcends the sport (a 'positive scandal', if you will. Ex: Lance Armstrong beating cancer), or winning something enormous/historic (Phelps, Bolt).
-The internet and The Brand. Something changed in our media between then and now. It's the difference between the coverage of JFK and the coverage of Clinton. Combine that with Jordan ushering in the era of 'Athlete as a brand' ("Republicans buy sneakers too") and nobody has a personality anymore. It's all about maximizing your earning potential. Ali managed his image too, but it's different now. You don't see guys at the top willing to take the kind of monumental risks like Ali did with his stance on the Vietnam war. Not Jordan, not Tiger, not Kobe or Lebron. Ali came along at a time when the media was large enough to give him global reach, but small enough to control the message. Media may have as much, if not more to do with many of these athletes' cultural permeation as anything of their own doing.
I'm sure someone, somewhere, has more articulately described many of these things (some of them probably covered in Bill Simmons' article breaking down the difference between Tiger's comeback and Ali's), but I think that covers most of what I was trying to say.
In typing this, I wondered. What would be a modern-day equivalent of Ali's anti-war stance, trial, and all that? I can't think of anything close, though if Lebron came out of the closet and started openly campaigning for legalizing gay marriage, it might have some parallels on the civil rights side... a little (also it would be a pretty historic moment as the first openly gay man in a team sport, but that's a whole 'nother thread). Edit- now that I think about it, that'd be more akin to Ali's conversion to Islam, which was a pretty unpopular thing at the time too.
I guess a star athlete coming out as gay could have an Ali-like impact, but the number of athletes close to as charismatic as he was is pretty small.
Athletes already campaign for gay marriage (although generally not the really major ones) and various other minor political issues; I doubt if people would really care about that.
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
Wow, wrong thread
That's interesting... I would have expected Ronaldo to just take a dive.
Michael Schumacher gets 17M. I'm really surprised that he has only been mentioned once in this thread.
Also:
Cristiano Ronaldo: 88.5M
David Beckham: 59M
Ronaldinho: 46M
Diego Maradona: 10M
There is an important lesson here about the international popularity of football compared to all other sports. But, as the result for Maradona shows, this is very much biased against older players who have long since retired.
NASCAR (The 'National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing') isn't formula car racing, it's - as the acronym would imply - stock car racing.
It is not physically demanding to race a stock car; as long as you're not so fat that you actually weigh down the vehicle, it's much more about being a skilled driver than being in athletic shape.
I don't know enough about Formula racing to debate the physical requirements for it.
No, you don't. Golf's not really much of a sport either.
There might be 700 million people on Facebook or whatever but there's 6 billion people on the planet. Facebook represents less than 15% of the population.
I'm telling you right now, Muhammad Ali is the most famous athlete on the god damn planet.
Pelé seems more likely. If you go by pure name recognition, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and quite a few footballers could be at least on par with Muhammad Ali as well.
This, along with the list you posted earlier (hint: almost no one outside the US has ever heard of Babe Ruth), makes me think you might be mistaking the United States for the whole planet.
Standing up.
QEDMF xbl: PantsB G+
Fuck the Paralympics? /snark
Thats not such a good criteria...
However, I don't really consider motorsports to be on the same level as non mechanically assisted sports though.
That's what I"m thinking. And personally I don't think an MMA star will ever be on the list. Yes it's a popular sport, but not nearly on the level of other sports IMO. And my list is specifically US oriented. I don't know what some dude in Egypt thinks about sport stars, or Australia, or anywhere else where I am not from.