THE MAVERICK: Various SI writers are posting essays on their favorite 2011 athletes, but can anyone realistically win Sportsman of the Year 2011 other than Dirk Nowitzki?
Amended: Okay, I forgot Aaron Rodgers isn't just having this great regular season, but won the Super Bowl earlier this year. Equally worthy pick. I still prefer Dirk.
(Others suggested in an SI poll include Aaron Rodgers, Pat Summitt, Albert Pujols, Novak Djokovic, and Hope Solo.)
I think Aaron Rodgers is a pretty clear-cut pick. Won the Super Bowl at the start of the year, and now he's having perhaps the best season of an QB in history for an undefeated team. I believe he still hasn't lost a game in this calendar year.
ReplyDeleteIf SI wants to go with an off-the-wall pick, why not the Japanese Women's World Cup team? They came from nowhere to win the gold medal after their country had been hit by a natural disaster. If an American team had also won a championship under similar circumstances, it would be a no-brainer selection.
Okay, I forgot that Rodgers won the SB this year. I'd still take Dirk because of narrative preference, but Rodgers would be a fine choice.
ReplyDeleteAs a Knoxville native and a long-time admire of Pat Summitt, I hope she's not the pick (which I doubt she would be). It would make it more of a "Lifetime Achievement"/"Sorry You're Sick" award.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who doesn't follow sports, I refuse to believe that Hope Solo isn't a character from the Star Wars Expanded Universe.
ReplyDeleteWhat's so exciting abot Nowitzki's narrative? He got noticed early by some good German basketball coaches and moved on to the NBA. Good for him. Everything I know about Nowitzki comes from my 30 second review of Wikipedia (since I had to google him to be reminded that played basketball).
ReplyDeleteI'm not saying Aaron Rodgers narrative is brilliant, but it's not bad either: no one picked him up to play college football, so he poked around Community College for a year when Jeff Tedford came up to scout a different player and decided to bring Rodgers to Cal and he narrowly missed five years of being crapped on as a 49er.
(That was me)
ReplyDeleteNovak seems like the obvious pick to me. He's had one of the most dominant years by any athlete in any sport.
ReplyDeleteThe narrative of the 2010-11 season and playoffs -- sweeping Phil Jackson and Kobe Bryant in the conference semis and defeating an alleged dream team in the finals, 4-2.
ReplyDelete"doesn't follow sports" -says the man who is now baseball's biggest fan....
ReplyDeleteThey didn't give it to Federer in all the years he dominated, so they're not going to tennis now. And lord knows I hoped they would.
ReplyDeletelet's face a basic fact -- the award is based on which athlete sells the most magazines. Federer was well deserving, but he is also much, much more boring than Novak. However, when the SI special issue comes out, we'll be getting ready for the belated start to the NBA season and the NFL playoffs. I'm guessing Dirk doesn't even get the cover for the NBA preview unless it's a composite, so i think that leaves Rodgers.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Djokovic did win the three Slams, the idea that he was having one of the most dominant seasons in tennis history - or in sports history - faded late in the year. I think at the time of his U.S. Open victory, he had lost just twice all year. He tired after the U.S. Open and finished the year with six losses. He retired from Serbia's Davis Cup semifinal with a back injury and lost two of his three matches at the year-end championships. He still had an amazing season, but I don't think it was being regarded as the best in the history of his sport by the end of the year.
ReplyDeleteIf Hope Solo is named my sister's head will explode like the death star.
ReplyDeleteWAS baseball's biggest fan. That ended after they totally forgot to air Game 8.
ReplyDeleteHope Solo is an incredibly talented goalkeeper but, based on her attitude re: the '07 World Cup and her personality on Dancing With the Stars this past season (which just confirmed her lack of sportsmanship), I really really hope she is not the pick. I know it's "reality" tv, but wow she seems to have a miserable personality that makes it tough to root for her in anything.
ReplyDeleteUnlike, but agree.
ReplyDeleteRudolph Giuliani, Man of the Year Edition
I wonder if Nowitzki will be dinged for the NBA lockout?
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of Rory McIlroy, who followed his epic Masters choke with grace and humility and then dominated the US Open. It's a good story. Realistically, he wasn't nearly dominant enough or Tiger Woods enough to win this meaningless award.
ReplyDeleteIn general, this was a pretty weak year for clearly viable Sportspeople.
Somewhat pragmatically, I'd suggest that the world's most dominant athlete this past year was Yani Tseng, but she's clearly not going to win.
I just don't feel like a man named Dirk should be winning major honors outside of the Adult Video News Awards.
Thus, I'm reaching...
Patrick Makau broke the world marathon record this year. That's pretty awesome, right?
-Daniel
My sister played her in high school sports. What you sense erin has been reflected in her personality and behavior in her past.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to have that confirmed. I don't know if you've ever watched the show, but the pro she was paired with rarely appeared to be having fun with her in any of the clip packages, dances, backstage, etc. Of course, that could be chalked up to a bad edit but maybe it had something to do with her attitude.
ReplyDeleteI never knew her (few years younger and I was not an athlete although my sister was). My sister and her were in a little pocket of locally elite female athletes even though their only overlap sport was basketball, but the fact that mentioning her name now a decade later elicits such hatred from my usually easygoing, non-grudge carrying sister speaks to something raw. I do know that she did have kind of a shitty childhood, not by way of a pass but maybe an explanation.
ReplyDeleteWow, we have our single funniest vote for "sportsman" of the year: Roger Goodell. Right, because attempting to break the union that represents the product your business is based on makes you a sportsman to be admired.
ReplyDelete