Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Who's Your Favorite Sports Figure Of All-Time?
I'm curious to see where everyone goes with this question.
I've always found it to be a somewhat daunting question since I've always had plenty of favorite teams, but almost never a favorite player. I guess I've always put the team way ahead of the player with regard to importance and level of (let's call it what it is) worship.
Being a Philadelphia sports fan, my choices have always been a little sparse.
The Phillies had greats like Mike Schmidt and Steve Carlton, but Schmidt was so obviously an asshole as a person, I could even sense it as a small child. Carlton was as dynamic as particle board, and therefore a little hard to rally around.
The Flyers' heyday back in the 70's came about 3 years before I was born, so I missed the boat there. In the 80's they had great players like Tim Kerr and Brian Propp and even semi-entertaining thugs like Dave Brown, but hockey players also suffer from an almost crippling lack of personality. When Eric Lindros came along in the 90's, it seemed like an entire generation of fans had found it's new poster boy. We all know how that turned out.
The Eagles have had amazing players for years, but almost none of them really resonated with me. Once again, team comes before player.
Which brings me to what is arguably my least favorite of the Philly teams, the 76ers. Here you find more than a few players that had both ability and personality: Charles Barkley, Moses Malone, and my personal #1: Julius Erving.
Dr. J was (and still is) the epitome of class in the NBA. A true sportsman that will always be respected not only for his skills but for the way he played the game...
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