Saturday, August 16, 2008

Believe in Greatness

Ridiculous. Just look at this image.


Whenever something in sports stimulates a perfectly calm person to jump out of a chair, scream "Yes!" in his friend's living room, and execute a high-five with others who really aren't that well versed in the sport to begin with, I suppose it signifies one of the rarest and most dramatic events ever.

So be it. Phelps' unwillingness to lose made a believer of millions when he won his 7th gold medal by the slimmest possible margin. Even Mark Spitz, who admits he was not surprised by the victory, is grateful for it all... and what a wonderful exchange of words the two champions had on NBC about their accomplishments and career comparisons.

For more on the greatest Olympian of all time, check out this article on Phelps' mental game. It's reminiscent of Lance Armstrong's feats, an athlete who was so focused, so fit, and so physiologically gifted, that he made the impossible seem possible.

After an eventful and successful individual competition in gymnastics for the USA, who knew the Games would be followed by a .01 win? The Olympics get better and better. I wonder what Team Spain and Ricky Rubio, the so-called Next Maravich, have in store?

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Doc,

There will never be another of the following:

Pete Maravich, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson or Larry Bird.

Comparisons to these guys will be going on forever. Rubio is good, but he's no Maravich.

I loved the story about Press Maravich and John Wooden becoming good friends and one day Press told Wooden, "he's (Pete) going to be the first million dollar NBA player" Wooden looked at Press and said, "Yeah but he will never win a championship."

-Hoops Coach
Play The Right Way

Based on original Visionary template by Justin Tadlock
Visionary Reloaded theme by Blogger Templates

Visionary WordPress Theme by Justin Tadlock Powered by Blogger, state-of-the-art semantic personal publishing platform