Best Athlete Ever: Kelly Slater?

[Eja117]

Not only that, but there are just way too many atheletes that played at a high level at several sports

Jim Thorpe
Bo Jackson
Deion
Dave Winfield
Jim Brown
Ronald Curry
Charlie Ward
Tom Brady
Danny Ainge
Hershel Walker
Shaq as we all know from his reality show
Randy Moss
Terell Owens
Lebron
Jonathan Ogden
Stephen Neal
Tony Gonzalez
Donovan McNabb

Honestly I'm not sure I rank him ahead of Drew Henson.

[bdm860]

The best athletes in the world are College NCAA
DIV. 1 wrestlers and some of the MMA guys. I wrestled all through High School and ran 4-5 miles every day I did not have a match and so did most of the dedicated guys on the team! One period of a wrestling match is equal to the energy you expend during one half of a b-ball game. Basketball player are not even close to the best athletes, they sit around and rest 70% of the time!
Don't get me wrong they are good athletes and I respect them!! Basketball Is my FAVORITE SPORT PERIOD!!! I love to watch the NBA! But Lance Armstrong is a better athlete then anyone in the NBA!!!

Isn't this just looking at stamina though?

How long does a college wrestling match last, 7 minutes?

If an NBA player sits around for 70% of the time, he's still playing more than a wrestler wrestles, right?  (48 minutes - 70% = approx 14.4 minutes).

Not saying wrestlers aren't great athletes, but it seems like your argument for athlete was based solely on stamina.

No way (in my book) is Lance Armstrong a better athlete than a lot of NBA players.  In my opinion, NBA and NFL players are probably the best overall athletes because of the vast amount of different athletic attributes required to succeed in those sports (and I if I had to choose between the 2, I'd say NBA beats out NFL).  It's just the combination of strength, speed, size, quickness, agility, vertical jump, stamina, etc. and the size of the field they do it on and the opponents they face (a football player potentially has 11 guys chasing after him, a basketball player 4.  What does a volleyball player or baseball player face?  A single moving object?  What does Lance face?). That combination of attributes and opponents is what makes them the best overall athletes in my book.

[CbrewEra]

a person trained or gifted in exercises or contests involving physical agility, stamina, or strength; a participant in a sport, exercise, or game requiring physical skill.

With that said my brief list consists of:

Randy Moss
LeBron James
Alex Ovenchkin
Rajon Rondo
Jacoby Ellsbury
Floyd Mayweather
Terrel Owens
Dwight Howard
Andrew Iguodala
Ronaldinho

[bdm860]

This is also a reason why Shaq wouldn't be on the list. The height is too large a part of what made him great.

I have no problem putting Shaq on the list.  Size is huge attribute, and adds greatly to things like strength.

Look at a guy like Greg Ostertag, same size (roughly) as Shaq.  It's not only Shaq's size that made him so good.  It was the combination of his size and the many athletic attributes.

I'm just saying, if you had a series of athletic events between two people with relatively equal abilities, size would play a huge factor in determining who would win.  Don't believe the myth, size matters