The Greatest

One of the most unique, talented individuals of our time.  In and outside of the sports world.

The best athlete I've ever seen.

Unparalleled hand speed and graceful movement. He did float like a butterfly.

His charisma burned. As did his competitive fire. Ali-Foreman and Ali-Frazier III are exemplars of the aging athlete digging deep and refusing to lose.

And then bore his illness with simple grace, cheerfulness and courage. I cried when he lit the Olympic flame in Atlanta.

The young man rumbled.

Imitated but never duplicated. We will not see his like again.

3000 years from now "they" will dig our civilization up and find a news paper headline - "ALI IS THE GREATEST".  They will assume he was a king.  Greater in death than he was in life.  RIP. 

Some good schit here....

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https://www.paulmccartney.com/...paul-on-muhammad-ali

When I opened the thread, I thought it was about Brett Favre

Seriously, Ali was a special person in a special time. He had an impact on our society & still does today. 

The planet is a lesser place without him.

RIP Muhammad Ali

Cassius Clay back in the day

I learned so much from him.  I unfortunately tried not to learn from him in those days, but he was too correct and too compelling for my ignorance and bigotry to win...and I am better for it.  RIP Champ.

October 30th, 1974... I was ten years old and living in Islamabad, Pakistan.  The whole country had come to a standstill and it must of been 1 o clock in the morning but there were 20 people huddled around a television.   This was a hopeful yet fearfully nervous crowd of parents, uncle, aunt, and cousins.  Why were we awake and watching a sporting event involving two Americans in Zaire?   Two words... Muhammad Ali.  

He was already a world household name.  By the end of that night, he would become the most recognizeable human on our planet.  America will never understand how deeply and completely the Muslim world accepted Ali as one of our own.  It was a time just thirty years after the fallen empires of Muslim countries had gained their freedom from the British and the French (due to to World War II).   There weren't many Muslim "heroes" in those days so Ali's conversion to Islam injected a much needed hero to the Muslim world.  

Though I was 10, I knew from reading about Ali that he had experienced hardships due to discrimination from his own countrymen.  No doubt, a lot of Americans wanted to see him destroyed and shut up once and for all.  Even one of my cousins was saying I was dumb to watch this because Ali would get knocked out in 2 rounds.  

If you have not read "The Fight" by Norman Mailer, do yourself a favor and read it.  It is one of the best ever sports book in history.   If you have not watched "When We Were Kings", again do yourself a favor and rent or buy a copy.   It is a fascinating study in psychology.   

Ali vs Foreman was the greatest international sporting spectacle ever in history.   Nothing comes close for the magnitude of that fight's impact worldwide.  Ali used speed, good defense, cunning, guile, and a tremendous heart to defeat Foreman.  He did not just decision him, he took Foreman's best and then knocked him out in spectacular fashion.   I will never forget his confidence, his fearlessness, and his faith that night.  That night he had come full circle and defeated the second bully of the sport of his time.  It was Sonny Liston III.   

It would have been nice for him to stop here and possibly save himself of the ailment which was soon to afflict him.   It would have been perfect but boxers can never correctly decide the right time to stop.   We as Muslims believe you must be humble lest God put you in your place.  Number two, we believe one pays for his sins in this world or the Hereafter.  We pray we do it here.  Parkinson's ironically took away his speech and bravado.  But, it did not take his spirit or his heart.  In retirement he said his goal was to get close to God.   He was an amazing help in fundraisers to all sorts of charities in the last half of his life.  In 2015, he led an expedition to Iraq to win freedom for 15 hostages.   They came home with him.  Literally, no other man in the world could have done that.  A year before he died, he saved 15 lives.  

If we go back to his refusal to be inducted into the military and the strength that the anti-war movement gained by his participation, how many lives did he potentially save of our servicemen and the vietnamese?  

He led a life full of the highest highs and the lowest lows.   Somehow, he did the impossible...somehow he turned tragedy into a positive.  Somehow, he stood up and risked everything (including his career) when no other athlete of his stature ever had...or probably ever will again.  Jordan, for all his greatness on the court, could never carry Ali's jockstrap as a human being or an agent of change.  All he cared about were his endorsements and money. He never used his position to influence anyone other than to sell his products.  

Muhammad Ali, a man who I became aware of at age 7 and followed to today...a man who led an incredible life because of his difficult choices... A man I admired greatly because he had a sense of social justice though he was not perfect by any means... A man who affected the world... 

Muhammad was a messenger of God and Ali was one of Islam's greatest warrior.  So Muhammad Ali... A messenger and a warrior... Very aptly named...Rest in peace and may God grant you a place in Heaven.

A son was born to me just over four years ago... His name is Ali.   

What a fantastic post. 

Bravo.

n.b. "When We Were Kings" is fabulous.

I have posted this before, but San Doggy and I were at 6-flags and actually met the Ali at some point in the late 80s. A man walked up to us and asked us if we would be interested in meeting Mohammad Ali, he is signing autographs. He led us to very vacant restaurant near the ride we had just got off (we were wobbly from both the ride and what we had been consuming). We walked in and there he was sitting at a table with nobody around him. He was signing some papers describing the Muslim religion and what it meant to be a Muslim. He did not say a word and was shaking like a leaf as he signed. As he handed me the paper he had signed I said thank you very much and he looked up at me and made eye contact. It was as significant of a moment that I can remember having with someone I had never met before. I am still floored to this day that he was sitting at an amusement park signing autographs virtually by himself. It was so out of the blue that I almost do not believe it happened.

He was an amazing man and led quite a life. RIP!

Starting in the early 60's the world was in a pretty screwed up place. Bay of Pigs (crazy to go back and see how close we really were to lobbing nukes) Kennedy assassination, civil rights riots, Cold War, Vietnam, Watergate, Olympic massacre in Munich, gas embargo. Just a horrible 15 year dark dark period. America was a mess. 

But during that period we were given possibly the greatest sports teams and figures we've ever seen. The Packers, the Celtics, John Wooden and his Bruins, Bobby Orr, Sandy Kaufax, Kareem, Secretariat, Jim Brown, Palmer and Nicklaus, Wilt Chamberlain. 

Hard to imagine how much worse things would have seemed during that period with sports and more importantly, the greatness of those teams and players. 

And the center of that sports supernova was Ali. Seems like he was put here at a very specific time and place to be a diversion in a way that only he could have pulled off. 

35-year-old #MuhammadAli dodges 21 punches from 19-year-old Michael Dokes in 10 seconds. Look at his victory dance �� pic.twitter.com/hSnS2Toz14

— Makho Ndlovu (@makhondlovu) June 4, 2016

Cheez

That is a really interesting story. The same thing happened to me. In about 1990 I was at a work convention in a nice Anaheim hotel.

I took the elevator, thought I was going up to my room, ended up in the basement somehow. Must have taken the down elevator. 

Anyway I exited the elevator and about 50 feet away there was Ali sitting. Do not know why he was there, he had a couple of people around him kind of protecting him and asked me if I wanted to meet him. I waved, he waved back with a nod, I did not hassle him or anything for an autograph, because I do not believe in autographs. We are all souls equal on this earth, no one is special. Celebrity worship is what is wrong with our society in my opinion.

Anyway to finish the story, I asked a couple of the guys why he was here and they replied he likes to do this once in awhile, to show up unannounced to try to meet people and spread some smiles. I was kind of floored with this answer and I figured it must be true since their was no announcement or sign anywhere to indicate this. 

Meanwhile, a couple of the other guys in the group were going around the main floor telling some people that he was there I later found out. I hung around and it could not have been another 10 minutes and there was a crowd of 200 people lining up for autographs. You should have seen the champ's face light up with a smile as well as the crowd's excitement. 

After all , how many people when they made plans to go to this hotel for business, work or whatever ever thought that they would meet Muhammad Ali. I left to go back to the convention and found out he left after about an hour.

He was quite the man indeed!!!

Great post CALF'!

Probably not good enough to shame 'Bonger into fixing your moniker, but still really good.