Top 5 Best All-Around Athletes or Mars Attacks!

For everyone who has ever seen Space Jam, we know we all have Michael Jordan to thank for saving the planet from alien invaders(Donald Trump may argue with that). BUT what if the aliens played baseball? Would we have wanted a minor-league flunky to be our savior?

With that in mind, I've created my Starting Five: Athletes across all sports that I'd want to represent me in sports if I didn't know what sport would be played.

1. Lebron James: Love him or hate him-I'm definitely rooting for the Spurs-you've go to admit that he's quite an athlete. He has a 44 inch vertical, ran a 4.4 40yard dash in high school. Became an All-State wide receiver as well as could throw 70 yards. With a little practice he could make the switch from the NBA to NFL without a problem. With his reach and strength, I think he could also hold his own in the boxing ring and rugby arena as well.
Runner Up: Michael Vick: Animal lovers-please don't hate. This guy could throw but also run fast clocking a 4.25 40yard dash which is one of the fastest of all time... He also had a 38 inch vertical. I haven't seen his jumpshot but I'm sure he could pitch, as well as do many of the track and field events.

2. Steve Nash-In addition to be one of the best point guards of all-time, Steve Nash could have played professional soccer and also dabbled in rugby. He has relative size(6'4") and speed and I would be surpised if he could mix it up with other sports like lacrosse and hurling. We need a quick, cerebral athlete like Steve. Oh yeah, and he can guard Lebron...

Runner Up: Deion Sanders (if, in addition to aliens, time machines also exist to get him in his prime). Deion or Bo Jackson? Went with Deion because of his dominance in track at Florida State as well as baseball and football-even though it's Bo Jackson who has the fastest ever 40yard dash time... Deion, while only 6'1", dominated in both sports as a professional and he's actually a pretty good basketball player as well.  


  3. Jim Thorpe- This guy won gold medals in both the decathlon and pentathlon events in the 1912 Olympics in Sweden. He also ran 100-yard dash in 10 seconds flat, the 220 in 21.8 seconds, the 440 in 51.8 seconds, the 880 in 1:57, the mile in 4:35, the 120-yard high hurdles in 15 seconds, and the 220-yard low hurdles in 24 seconds. His long jump was 23 ft 6 in and high-jump 6 ft 5 in! Supposedly he could also pole valut, shot put and throw the discus and javelin.  He played baseball for the New York Giants and for sixteen years, he would go between playing professional baseball and football(All-NFL team in 1923), which he played until he was 41 years old. Supposedly he could also play basketball. Need I say more?




Runner Up: Ashton Eaton- Ashton is the Olympic gold-medalist in decathlon, an event that involves ten(hence deca) sprinting, jumping, throwing, and middle-distance disciplines. The winner of the Olympic decathlon is traditionally considered the world's greatest athlete. Not a bad guy to have on your team if that time-machine doesn't exist.





  4. Craig Alexander-With other sports, there can always be an argument that some old-timers were actually better(i.e. Oscar Robertson over Michael Jordan etc) but in the world of triathlon, I would say it's pretty safe to say that the athletes just keep getting stronger and therefore I'm going to have to go with Craig. He's proven himself to be the best on the world stage at the half and full Ironman distance. Not only will he have the long-distance running, biking and swimming down but also sports like water polo and welter-weight boxing.

 Runner Up: Lance Armstrong-Come on, he doped get over it! He still is one of the best athletes of all time. In a sport that doped, he was the best, even in his forties when not doping, he was crushing the field of much younger triathletes. He can swim with the best, run with them and is the best cyclist in the world. I suspect he also plays a mean dodgeball and coming from Texas probably knows how to shoot which would be important for the biathlon.

5. Spud Webb- At 5'7" he won the 1986 slam dunk contest. He did a helicopter one-handed dunk, and the 180-degree reverse two-handed dunk from a lob bounce off the floor to win big. This little guy played big and if the aliens happen to be horse racing fans we know who we'll put in as our jockey! It was going to be either Spud or Amber but I don't think Amber likes horseback riding.


Runner Up: This was a toss up between Adam Sandler and Sean Austin. Adam can play football and golfs but Sean can play football, fence and weight lift so the nod goes to Rudy:)

Up Next:Want to see some other high level athletes compete? Then check out this Sunday's Eagleman 70.3!