Comments on: Michael Phelps 8 Golds vs. Bill Russell’s 8 straight NBA titles?

By: Celtics4Mula

Celtics4Mula — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 11:12:00 +0000

Hooped up that is a very good point. It’s fresh now, but in a few weeks, the average person won’t even remember Phelps. It’s not like he won the 100m dash or anything.

By: Hooped Up

Hooped Up — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 06:52:14 +0000

Bill Russell’s 8 is definitely bigger? After the Olympics the public will only recognize Micheal Phelps if he is beside a pool, in a Speedo, with wet hair wearing all his metals.

By: Brandon Hoffman

Brandon Hoffman — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 04:02:12 +0000

@ Brian Carter: How many games did Russell have to play to win his 11 NBA titles?

Here you go:

http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/BOS/

Russell won his first championship in 1957-58.

The Celtics played won two playoff series to win that ring, and played a total of 10 games in the playoffs.

I’m not a swimming fan, but I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that Phelps has swam more times in these Olympics.

By: Brandon Hoffman

Brandon Hoffman — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 03:56:44 +0000

@ Jigga_wha: Phelps owns 14 gold medals. Five of his eight gold medals in these Olympics were from individual events.

Phelps may not be the greatest athlete of all-time, but I can promise you that he’ll rank higher than Russell on the next 1-100 list that ESPN creates.

By: Cookie Monster

Cookie Monster — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 03:36:06 +0000

It is unfair to compare these two athletes. First off, swimming and basketball are two completely different sports. Both feats are absolutely phenomenal and stunning, but it is, once again, unfair to say one is better than the other. First off, this article is written as if Russel was a one-man team. Newsflash! Basketball requires five men on the floor and twelve for a complete roster. But the bias in this article is clearly towards Russel, which is unfair (again, I know). They are both extremely, ultra-talented individuals who dominated their sport in their era. End of discussion. You cannot compare two different sports feats in two different eras by two completely different athletes. It’s like saying beef is better than lamb chops- it’s an opinion, and the truth is, both opinions can be correct, in different contextualizations.

By: Jigga_wha

Jigga_wha — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 03:26:13 +0000

@timmy – you are an idiot man. if it was such a terrible league why didn’t any other team win 8 straight?

@brandon – i’m pretty sure some of phelps gold medals were team events. I guess he is lucky to have such good swimmers as teammates or he never would have even close to 8 golds. (see how flawed the logic is that you use?)

and phelps may be the greatest swimmer of all time, but he’s certainly nowhere near teh greatest athlete of all time. He was good for 4 or 5 years. Let’s see if he will be good two olympics from now. My guess is he won’t even qualify!

By: grover

grover — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 03:04:50 +0000

Interesting thought, lil’ timmy. Does your rec league include Wilt Chamberlain too?

By: Brian Carter

Brian Carter — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 03:00:51 +0000

Umm, sorry, but there are a heck of a lot more games in the playoffs and finals than Michael Phelps swam, right? All the training etc. might equal out, but how many actual basketball games did Russell have to win to get those 8 titles, compared to how many races Phelps’ swam in?

The number of years argument above also makes this comparison ludicrous.

By: Brandon Hoffman

Brandon Hoffman — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 01:27:10 +0000

No question, Phelps’ accomplishments are more impressive. Russell was a great player, but he played a team game. And seven of his teammates during his championship seasons were NBA Hall of Famers.

Not to mention the fact that there were only like 8 teams in the league.

Phelps is the greatest swimmer of all-time.

Contrary to popular opinion, Russell wasn’t the greatest player of his era — much less of all-time — those honors belong to Wilt Chamberlain and Michael Jordan.

Cool blog idea.

By: XXXXXXXX

XXXXXXXX — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 22:12:50 +0000

Russell had to deal with more than basketball…Read about it!

By: timmy

timmy — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:26:38 +0000

Russell played in an era when the nba was little more than a rec league consisting of semi-athletic white guys

By: warriorfan

warriorfan — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:42:26 +0000

I dont know this is tough….One one hand, a team sport is difficult to dominate in, especially for that stretch of time, but I think I have to go with phelps

Phelps, he had to win 8 different races, against dudes who specialize in that race, against a super competitive field that is basically swimming the fastest times ever recorded.

Compared against Russell, his era wasnt the most talented era of basketball so he wasnt competing against the best…while he was a great player/leader on some great teams, the advantage I think has to go to phelps simply because this is probably one of the most competitive eras of swimming ever

By: Red's Army

Red's Army — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 06:44:59 +0000

As awesome as Phelps’ accomplishment was, I’m joining the line behind Russell. To sustain that excellence over 8 years is ridiculous. I don’t want to take anything away from Phelps… but Russell’s sustained excellence with all those variables is more impressive to me.

As for the Bulls… you can’t speculate what might have happened. You can say they would have won 8 straight… but there’s too much that can go wrong to just assume it. There’s a reason its only happened once.

By: Celtics4Mula

Celtics4Mula — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 03:40:27 +0000

Ryne Nelson -

that’s so true he totally was dominant in every way.

Orangemen -

I doubt the bulls would have kept winning if jordan didn’t go play baseball, they needed that rodman deal so they could prevent the jazz from beating them eventually. Rodman was huge for them.

By: Orangemen

Orangemen — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 02:41:47 +0000

@Ryne or Celtics4Mula

do you think that if Jordan never went to play baseball, and then Krause didn’t break them up after the 6th he would have had more than 8 straight titles? I think they would have had 8 straight at least.