NBA Athletes vs AFL Athletes

[tbagrocks]

Kind of a silly argument really as everybody knows black guys in the states are freakishly good athletes, but to say there better athletes would be wrong, the fitness base would be the arguement and I doubt many athletes train harder or get fitter than our footballers

[quinny88]

I read this article a few weeks ago actually and to be honest, I cringed at the way it was written and the bias outlook he had on basketballers over footballers.
He attempted to give off the impression that he was a fan of both sports and enjoyed football, yet his points and examples were all suited to build basketballer's up and belittle footballers athletic ability.
If you pick the main strengths of a typical NBA basketballer and compare them to that of a typical footballer, of course they are going to stack up much higher with the basketballer. Its the same as me writing an article on the athletic ability of an AFL player vs a rugby union player. The AFL player needs to be more athletic than the rugby player. The rugby player has to sacrifice some of the athleticism to strengthen the areas that are important to his game.
A basketballer needs to be able to have a massive vertical leap, bursting power, and quick turn of speed. An AFL player needs to have these things but it isn't as important to our game as it is to basketball. They still need to be able to continuously run, tackle, bump and grind out a game over 2 hours. They cant have all attributes to the highest level. To be great in one area means something needs to give in another area.
Its just a case of horses for courses. Both games have a mould of what attributes you need to play your game at the highest level. AFL varies slightly more as there are more positions but the bottom line is that the men playing each are the best available athletes for that given sport.

As far as anyone saying that in Melbourne everyone lives in an AFL bubble, that couldnt be further from the truth.
Melbourne was named the sporting capital of the world, not just for AFL and the M.C.G but for its large selection of sporting teams in different codes and world class stadiums for all different sports.
Basketball is the most played sport in Melbourne and all of Australia for that matter.
I know a lot of people that are NBA mad, its a major talking point amongst a lot of different groups I know.
The label of "basketballers being skinny tall guys that dont need to jump to dunk" isnt based on the NBA at all. Everyone knows the NBA hosts some of the most amazing athletes in the world. I think that label is more based around the NBL, if anything.
Without being disrespectful here, lets be honest, if you take out the African- Americans from the NBA your left with a game that has 1% of the athletic ability.