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Coolest Athlete All-Time? (2 Viewers)

the moops said:
If this was 20 years ago, he would get more love. Same with MJ I think. They have proven themselves to be not so cool anymore in their older years, IMO
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Maybe, but I am basing this off of the years when they were active, and was there any athlete more universally loved in the 80's than Magic Johnson? The guy just oozed charisma. (and I am not even a Lakers fan by any stretch of the imagination)

 
Random Thoughts:

Nolan Ryan - seems like a Man's Man.......

Joe Montana - didn't he have the nickname Joe Cool?

Does Arthur Herbert Fonzarelli 's waterskiing prowess qualify him as an athlete?

Roger Staubach - the QB for america's team back in the day - tough to get much cooler than that. No?

Charles Barkley seems like he would be a cool guy to party with. 

 
Sullie said:
Dr. J by a mile and it's not even close.
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Thank god.  2 pages in before the Doctor is mentioned.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK6OPqHpyWo

Dr J at Rucker Park.  People hanging out of windows and sitting on rooftops to get a glimpse.  And the thing that made him cooler was the legend.  No TV deal for the ABA.  No ESPN or nightly highlights.  You'd just hear the legend of this guy and how he played and, if you were lucky enough to see him?  You knew the legend was true.

 
Deepster said:
Thank god.  2 pages in before the Doctor is mentioned.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK6OPqHpyWo

Dr J at Rucker Park.  People hanging out of windows and sitting on rooftops to get a glimpse.  And the thing that made him cooler was the legend.  No TV deal for the ABA.  No ESPN or nightly highlights.  You'd just hear the legend of this guy and how he played and, if you were lucky enough to see him?  You knew the legend was true.
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I never got to see him in person but I watched him on TV a LOT when I was a kid.  Okay, so THIS happened on Wednesday Jan. 5th, 1983 and on Thursday, Jan 6th, 1983 a couple of high school kids (one being yours truly) got into a MEGA debate for the remaining time we were HS about who the coolest NBA player of all time was and I will go to my grave believing it was Dr. J.  One guy in particular argued with me, each and every single day, that Larry Bird was this and that. 

I grew up in Ohio, I live in Indiana now and I've actually run into Larry Bird (in passing, no words spoken) and he's huge.  He's done a lot for Indiana, specifically the Pacers, I love the hell out of the guy and he was clearly one of the greatest players of all time. . . but if you're putting guys on the Cool Wall, Dr. J is FROZEN - Larry Bird is luke warm at best, sorry, he's always looked like the biggest dork on the court to me.  Awesome, amazing, brilliant, once in a generation player but you can't get much dorkier looking than Larry the Legend, sorry Larry.

 
Angry Beavers said:
Random Thoughts:

Nolan Ryan - seems like a Man's Man.......

Joe Montana - didn't he have the nickname Joe Cool?

Does Arthur Herbert Fonzarelli 's waterskiing prowess qualify him as an athlete?

Roger Staubach - the QB for america's team back in the day - tough to get much cooler than that. No?

Charles Barkley seems like he would be a cool guy to party with. 
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Putting that dude in the headlock and pounding him is a top 10 badass move in sports history. 

 
i caddied at a country club where the pro was a former hockey player (Bill Ezinicki), so i got carry the bags for some of the Bruins of the era. it was more chore than thrill (canucks are thrifty-unto-mean - goalie Eddie Johnstone had a RodneyDangerfield-heavy bag and not only wouldnt give a paper tip but not even the full 50cent breakage from the fee. one quarter only) except when hockey's Joe Namath, Derek Sanderson, clicked into the clubhouse. Public profanity was still discouraged in those days, even among hockey players, but players and caddies would both have pools on # of barnyard epithets & broken/thrown clubs. Sandy's appearance belied what a brutal hick he was, but he really appreciated the fun & luck of his life in a way that was very contagious. kids would dive into hazards to retrieve either thrown clubs for Derek or the broken ones for themselves.

 
Charlie Steiner said:
Sad it took 3 pages to get to the right answer. No dropoff in cool factor after retirement.

FWIW, Zlatan would be the right answer if he were a man and not a lion.
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The issue with Zlatan is no one can tell if his entire persona is one giant wrestling like heel work, or if he is really that nuts.

I have to say though in my life time, there is no one athlete who backs up his ridiculous boosts better than the Zlat.

 
NewlyRetired said:
The issue with Zlatan is no one can tell if his entire persona is one giant wrestling like heel work, or if he is really that nuts.

I have to say though in my life time, there is no one athlete who backs up his ridiculous boosts better than the Zlat.
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The bolded is probably why he says whatever he wants.  I was lucky enough to see his first goal in MLS and of course it had to be wild.  It couldn't have been scripted any better, and when a guy has a career full of plays like that, you just have to accept that he is what he says he is and we can only be in awe.

 
Charlie Steiner said:
The bolded is probably why he says whatever he wants.  I was lucky enough to see his first goal in MLS and of course it had to be wild.  It couldn't have been scripted any better, and when a guy has a career full of plays like that, you just have to accept that he is what he says he is and we can only be in awe.
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I love Stu Holden's  John Strong's call on that goal. I've probably watched it 20 times because it was so ridiculous.

edit for accuracy. 

 
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Major said:
I'd take a pre injury Bo Jackson ahead of most of the folks mentioned 
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I went to a White Sox game in 93 when he was on the team. A shell of his former self. We moved down to seats right behind home plate to watch him bat late in the game. His legs were shot and he muscled out a huge home run with basically just his arms. It was amazing, and even more amazing to envision what he would of done if he stayed healthy.

 
Coolest of all-time. MJ for me. My family had season tickets and I was lucky to see him play live well over 100 games during his run. Every night the guy was money. Never seen anything like it since.

In baseball, I always thought Carlton Fisk was cool. I was a big Red Sox fan when I was younger in the 70's. Fisk, Rice, Lynn, Yaz.. they were stacked. That Fisk homer in the '75 World Series was one of the cooler sports moments I remember. When the White Sox got Fisk I dropped my Cubbie blue and was a Sox fan from then on.

 
Ichiro mentioned already by @Harris

This throw got me off my couch.

He was still pretty unknown even in Seattle. We had just heard the stories in Spring Training and that he was a Japanese legend. He was so tiny though and was just slapping the ball around. That throw on Sunday night game IIRC was sort of his intro to everyone. And then he just crushed that season as did the M's.

One of my favorite seasons of watching baseball.

 
El Floppo said:
Eric Cantona and The Zlatan in soccer. Lots of swag.
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This is an interesting pairing as they share the idea that no one knows where the schtick ends and the real crazy begins.   My theory is that they both started out with a slight schtick but it became so well liked that it almost became a part of their personality.   (there might be a screw loose on both of them though to be fair).

And for as much chaos (bad and good) as Zlat has created at every team he has ever played for, his private life seems more quiet than even the blandest superstar of all time in Messi (who at least has the tax scandal hanging over his head).

 
Most of these guys are people we have never met.  I met and played golf with a very cool Detroit Piston player.

Locally one of the coolest guys was the Pistons Vinnie "The Microwave" Johnson.  I played in a golf outing years ago and every group had an athlete of local celebrity and Vinny was our "celebrity" 4th player in our group.  We rode in the same cart.  We went out in  8 somes so it was playing very slow.  Vinny was a lousy golfer but We had a riot.  After we were going to a bar after and Vinnie asked if he could come along and he hung out all night with us.  The stories he told were funny and interesting about the Bad Boy Pistons day but more than that he is truly a nice, fun man.  The next year he asked if he could join our group again and we ended up playing 3 years in a row together until he moved. We also played a couple times a year not with the outing.

Another group had Bill Laimbeer who is a very good golfer, they said Laimbeer hardly talked the whole round, was totally disinterested and when the round ended he never came in for dinner or drinks, just  walked to his car and left.

 
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Tony Hawk is a cultural icon and is cooler than any of us will ever be, and still comes across as chill and laid back 

 
Da Guru said:
Another group had Bill Laimbeer who is a very good golfer, they said Laimbeer hardly talked the whole round, was totally disinterested and when the round ended he never came in for dinner or drinks, just  walked to his car and left.
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On the plus side, it sounds like he didn't start any fights or cheap shot anyone, so a good outing?

 
Long Ball Larry said:
Dame lillard 
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Yeah, he's one of the real good guys.  Does a LOT for local kids and charities here, selfless, giving of his time and god help you if you challenge him a rap battle, right Marvin Bagley? 

Steve Prefontaine deserves a mention.  I know a bit obscure for this, but he was a god in the running world and by all accounts, one of the coolest cats ever to lace up a pair of Nikes.

 
Charlie Steiner said:
NewlyRetired said:
The issue with Zlatan is no one can tell if his entire persona is one giant wrestling like heel work, or if he is really that nuts.

I have to say though in my life time, there is no one athlete who backs up his ridiculous boosts better than the Zlat.
Click to expand...
The bolded is probably why he says whatever he wants.  I was lucky enough to see his first goal in MLS and of course it had to be wild.  It couldn't have been scripted any better, and when a guy has a career full of plays like that, you just have to accept that he is what he says he is and we can only be in awe.
Click to expand...
I don't consider the Zlatan cool though, not in the slightest. For cool, I would say Pirlo or Berbatov.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFgeIfVFl58

 
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