Everytime I hear someone mention that a certain team lacks athleticism and/or a certain player is not athletic, it makes me cringe.

Water Cooler Talk: If I asked 50 sports enthusiasts (laymen) what being athletic means to them, in some form, their answers would all be similar.

An athelete is a person trained or skilled in exercises, sports, and/or games requiring strength, agility or stamina.

My Physical Therapist/Chiropractor is a world renown practtitioner who has his own practice here, this is a guy who was hired by the USA Olympics every year as one of their practitioners.

We had this conversation, he also agreed that the average person throws around the word athleticism like water.

Take the Pistons for example, Rip's athletic skills is probably way above average because of his stamina and agility. Tay on the other hand, possesses athletic skills that are not as pronounced, however, his athleticsm may not be defined based on strength and agility but moreso on his vertical & lateral leaping abilities or his hustling for loose balls i.e.

To say the Pistons are not athletic is very vague almost like a gross generalization simply because athleticism is a very broad term.

I even called in to the John Thompson show about this very topic...Both he and Doc Walker agreed that this is a term that we seem to throw around to prove a point i.e.

But for the record...Technically speaking, the Pistons are a very athletic team.

I don't think they mean 'more athletic than the average person.' Cause Charles Barkley probably still fits that description.

When I think of athletic players in the NBA, I think of guys like Iguadala, Pippen, LeBron... you know, freaks of nature. Although these guys have skills, they could probably make a living in the NBA on athleticism and hustle. High flyers, big, strong, etc.

On the Pistons:

Chauncey- nope. Too compact.
Rip- He athletic in a runner sort of way, not a bball player.
Tay- Too skinny.
Sheed- Gets by on height and coordination.
Webber- nope.

Dyess- Back in the day, he was freaky. But not after the surgeries.
Delfino- He's one of the more athletic on the team, but still not anything to brag about league wide. He's more finesse than power.
Maxiell- Too round.
Amir Johnson- He may be the closest we have, but is still too weak.
Lindsey- not really
Nazr- definitely not
Davis- No. He's just tall and strong at this point.

Dupree!! He's probably the one I would describe as being on the team more for his athletic ability than his bball ability. But, it's still not enough, and he never left the bench.

__________________
"I don't think MC is going to allow us to shoot as many jumpers." Tayshaun Prince.

I've always wondered about that too. You'll hear some commentator describe a player as not very athletic while he's out there spinning to the hoop. But occasionally you will get a guy who's in there just because he's extremely tall...like a Shawn Bradley.

When I watch my hometown guy, Jason Richardson...I will say this ...he makes other players sometimes look unathletic in comparison to him.

"Athleticism" in the context of the NBA (and college ball) usually equates to "quickness" and "hops" to me. Everyone says that the Bulls are more athletic than Miami because most of the key matchups were in their favor in at least one of those two departments.

Everyone in the NBA is athletic or they wouldn't be there, and all the generalized talk seems a little silly to me. Maybe we should be talking about a narrower definition - the pure athlete - which, to me, means someone who has the natural gift to compete in almost any physical activity they attempt....above average from the get go at most sports and excelling at any sport they play on a regular basis...

the players I'd put in this catefory for our team would be
Chauncy, probably Sheed, Blalock, Dice and Hunter, maybe Amir, maybe Delfino

Sometimes I think this has a lot to do with body proportion which may be the eliminating factor in my mind for some of our other players.

I think that's right. Pretty much anyone playing for Golden State versus anyone playing for Detroit.