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January 25, 10:57 AMSacramento Fight Sports ExaminerRick Rockwell
For a country that opens its doors to people from all over the world, it sure has a tough time allowing non-American athletes into the realm of “Greatest of All-Time”. If you examine some of the country’s major sports you can see a history of this. Now, I don’t believe it’s racially motivated. However, I do think it is more of a matter of pride and ignorance.
If you look down the list of who Americans think are the greatest boxers ever, you will see a mixture of races: from Dempsey to Marciano, from Joe Louis to Muhammad Ali, and from Sugar Ray Leonard to Mike Tyson. So Pacquiao’s ascent to all-time greatness isn’t blocked by racial barriers, but due to pride and ignorance. If you look at other sports you can see this happening to foreign athletes as well.
Yao Ming is probably the most popular basketball player in the world thanks to 1 billion Chinese fans. However, that doesn’t make America think he’s the greatest big man in the sport today, tomorrow, or historically. He’s often compared to Shaq and overlooked for Dwight Howard. Hakeem Olajuwon was a phenomenal big man in the NBA, but he was often overshadowed by lesser accomplished big men like Patrick Ewing.
In tennis, Roger Federer is arguably the greatest tennis player of all-time but Americans won’t put him ahead of John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors and Pete Sampras. Even Andy Rod**** gets as much media coverage and more hype than Roger. Yet, Roger has more championships than any of them.
In track and field, Usain Bolt is a phenom but even another dominate performance at the next summer Olympics won’t put him on the same level as Carl Lewis and Michael Johnson in the minds of most Americans.
Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin are the faces of the NHL yet American media and fans still focus more on who the next great American will be. If Wayne Gretzky was American, and not Canadian, he would be considered a hero like Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods.
Some of these examples might be crude at best, but you get the point. American media and fans tend to put Americans only at the top of the “Greatest of All-Time” list. It’s a shame too, because athletes like Manny Pacquiao have accomplished more in their respective sports than most American athletes can ever dream of.
America needs to wake up from its prideful and ignorant thinking and start realizing that their fellow countrymen aren’t exclusive to this “Greatest of All-Time” club. The world has phenomenal athletes too and on March 13th America will see one in action right in the stadium of America’s team.
For a country that opens its doors to people from all over the world, it sure has a tough time allowing non-American athletes into the realm of “Greatest of All-Time”. If you examine some of the country’s major sports you can see a history of this. Now, I don’t believe it’s racially motivated. However, I do think it is more of a matter of pride and ignorance.
If you look down the list of who Americans think are the greatest boxers ever, you will see a mixture of races: from Dempsey to Marciano, from Joe Louis to Muhammad Ali, and from Sugar Ray Leonard to Mike Tyson. So Pacquiao’s ascent to all-time greatness isn’t blocked by racial barriers, but due to pride and ignorance. If you look at other sports you can see this happening to foreign athletes as well.
Yao Ming is probably the most popular basketball player in the world thanks to 1 billion Chinese fans. However, that doesn’t make America think he’s the greatest big man in the sport today, tomorrow, or historically. He’s often compared to Shaq and overlooked for Dwight Howard. Hakeem Olajuwon was a phenomenal big man in the NBA, but he was often overshadowed by lesser accomplished big men like Patrick Ewing.
In tennis, Roger Federer is arguably the greatest tennis player of all-time but Americans won’t put him ahead of John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors and Pete Sampras. Even Andy Rod**** gets as much media coverage and more hype than Roger. Yet, Roger has more championships than any of them.
In track and field, Usain Bolt is a phenom but even another dominate performance at the next summer Olympics won’t put him on the same level as Carl Lewis and Michael Johnson in the minds of most Americans.
Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin are the faces of the NHL yet American media and fans still focus more on who the next great American will be. If Wayne Gretzky was American, and not Canadian, he would be considered a hero like Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods.
Some of these examples might be crude at best, but you get the point. American media and fans tend to put Americans only at the top of the “Greatest of All-Time” list. It’s a shame too, because athletes like Manny Pacquiao have accomplished more in their respective sports than most American athletes can ever dream of.
America needs to wake up from its prideful and ignorant thinking and start realizing that their fellow countrymen aren’t exclusive to this “Greatest of All-Time” club. The world has phenomenal athletes too and on March 13th America will see one in action right in the stadium of America’s team.
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