Originally posted by: XcadmusX

Hahaha

lol

Ibaka's Speech.

all hail the king!

Cool, you guys play hockey.

Shut the fuck up

even though James over exaggerated that injury... those statements from NHL players reek of "we wish our sport was that popular" written all over them.

and let me just say now, hockey players should remember that basketball is a sport that requires actual high level athleticism (maybe not the reflex/balance skill in hockey, but thats disputable unlike the previous statement)... so even if the guy is playing to the cameras a bit they need to remember he's also going airborne at speeds and rates their mainly white boy bodies wouldn't be able to comprehend let alone achieve. but also, I'm not a james fan at all.

I'm sorry, that sounds rude to hockey.

albiet basketball, athletically is superior, hockey features some of the toughest professional athletes on the planet. my only gripe with that picture and comparing injuries is that in hockey, there's not the sheer freak of nature size and strength you see in the NFL or NBA and it seems like maybe they forget that an impact these 6'8 trains are having that look small are something to be concerned about especially if every possession you're doing superhuman things.

Originally posted by: da truth

Shut the fuck up

Originally posted by: swerve

and let me just say now, hockey players should remember that basketball is a sport that requires actual high level athleticism

...

"Rangers forward Marian Gaborik will undergo surgery on his right shoulder that is expected to sideline the high-scoring winger for about five months.

Gaborik said Friday he was injured during Game 3 of New York's first-round playoff victory over the Ottawa Senators when he was hit into the boards shoulder-first.

Gaborik, who scored 41 goals during the regular season, didn't miss any games because of the injury..."

The guy played 17 games after that injury. That shit happens all the time in hockey. I see where hockey players are coming from with comments like that.

Hockey players are some of the most highly conditioned athletes on the planet, how is basketball "athletically superior"? Because they're on shoes instead of skates?

no, because hockey is a reflex driven game. athleticism in it's sheer form is the ability to jump, sprint and move and an incredibly mobile clip. hockey players are probably higher reflex athletes than clean up hitters in baseball, tennis players.. sports that require more focus and less raw athleticism. which is the key word... i mean, what they're doing is incredibly impressive athletically, but you're talking about a sport in hockey which is literally limited by its means of play to how raw the athletic ability of its competitors is. the goal in hockey is placed on the ground, therefor theres no play ABOVE the goal thus no high flying which is jumping which is raw athletic ability. now i didn't say hockey players are bums, and there are some raw athletes in hockey, but let's not kid ourselves and say in terms of sheer raw athletic ability that 90% hockey players are in the NBA/NFL stratosphere. it's the same with MLB players. it's a reflex and reaction sport, that undoubtedly is incredibly difficult to master and i'm sure most raw athletes would never be able to develop the way hockey players do but to compare the most basic elements of athletic nature between the sports is silly.

also, I'm sure a lot of hockey injuries would take a lot longer to recover from if someone Kendrick Perkins size was skating around out there laying wood. i don't necessarily feel like a good hitter in hockey would be any stronger than a solid tackling free safety or tough nosed SF/SG.

LeBron James compared to Zdeno Chara, for example... its pretty clear which one has the sheer force of nature type athletic capabilities. That's not supposed to be taken offensively, I'm just saying if you're running an old style athletic, olympic, simulated situation: James is superior in most disciplines except possibly (and it can't be proven) hand eye coordination and balance driven exercises. I mean, it can be proven James would leave a man similar size (Chara) in his dust in a sprint, and I doubt the vertical leap is similar. I also wouldn't doubt it that James, who benches 15-reps at 225 for warm up activities, couldn't out muscle Chara. That's sheer athleticism to me. I mean, I'll say right now most NBA players lack anything near the hand-eye coordination of any NHL player.