Is Muhammad Ali right?

[ScoobyDoo]

Saw a cool picture of Ali this weekend in a photo shop. It was a picture of him standing over I think Sonny Liston after he knocked him out. He was doing his Ali thing, jeering at him, daring him to get up, etc. He was intimidating his opponent with soem teeth, some toughness and some will, Ali style... 

But more interesting to me was the quote by Ali accompanying the picture in the bottom left ( black print against the white canvas of the ring ). It was Ali talking about what makes a champion, what separates them from the also rans, the pretenders.

Roughly paraphrased he said a champion has a plan and a vision of where he's going, what he's going to do, etc...

Then he ended with "a champion must have great skill and great will but his will must always be much greater than his skill, or he will never be a champion".

We have more than enough skill to be domianting every team in the league right now. I don't see the will, the toughness, the heart.

Is/was Ali right?

Thoughts?   

[FatjohnReturns]

yup

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNSH9eX6xRA&feature=related

great will but his will must always be much greater than his skill

[ScoobyDoo]

Yeah Fatjohn, I've written some post about how important I thought OLeon's inprational play was for the team in general. How some guys just juice the team by the "way they play, the heart they play with" but those post tend to get squashed, saying it's not that important.

I don't know, I think it is. With some guys it's not the numbers, it's how they get the numbers, the flare, the hustle and the heart they show in getting the numbers that affect the team.

Leon was like that. He also had more toughness in his little pinky than Big baby or Sheed appear to have in their entire bodies.

I'm talking "real toughness" not "pretend toughness".

Rambis was a player like that. Thos types of guys are hard to find.