the greatest, oh yes, the greatest

yesterday someone told me that tiger woods was the muhammad ali of golf. last week i overheard someone call chris rock the muhammad ali of comedy. i am not sure how all this muhammad ali comparing got started but it seems to be everywhere. i love tiger woods. i love chris rock more, but let's be clear about it: no one anywhere is the muhammad ali of anything.

in the final lists of what makes us proud to be human, muhammad ali represents such a singular personality, ability, passion, courage that it's just not appropriate to compare him to others. that's not to say that he is the greatest thing since sliced bread or anything, but if i were putting together a set of biographies for some distant alien species to help them better understand humanity, what we are capable of and indeed what stories represent the the vast arena of our experience and love, there would be at least one muhammad ali biography in the stack.
any such list would be imcomplete without it.

and anyone that unique deserves more than offhand comparisons. i'm just saying.

2006-05-17 | 1:21 p.m.
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