Cassius X: Becoming Ali documentary

That he was bigger than boxing, okay. The irony is our government made him a martyr and then laundered his biography to make him look like he wasn't really challenging its authority at all.

 

Find me a book about Magic Johnson that doesn’t mention his name is Ervin. A book on Tiger Woods that doesn’t reveal his name is Eldrick.

Those books will probably tell you about their upbringing and various things about them as human beings other than their real names.

You won’t find anything but the most superficial book or documentary about Michael Jordan that doesn’t tell you 1) how he got cut from the varsity team in high school, 2) why he wears No. 23, or 3) about him being the first athlete to have his own shoe line. None of that has anything to do with what made him great in the NBA but that’s what books and documentaries do … tell you about a person. Hell, they just made a movie about his freaking shoes.

Ali could have been named John Doe and his boxing resume still stands above any heavyweight and up there with any fighter ever at any weight.

The fact that Ali transcended boxing and became famous for other reasons while still holding the single most important title in all of sports in his day says a lot about him. He was able to speak on a variety of topics and make the world listen. You act like it’s a negative, which I frankly don’t get.

 

Find me a book about Jerry West that doesn't discuss his emotionally distant father or the loss of his brother in Korea or a book about Don Shula that doesn't mention his strong Catholic faith. Whare are we going with this?

 

Actually their is several books and documentaries that only speak MJ's achievments on the court.
And Ervin changing his name to Magic is fun not loaded like Ali changing his Christian name to a muslim name and new religous journey that literally has nothing todo with boxing.

 

As i said before no other Athlete has leaned on and made more public his religion, beliefs and activism for notoriety the way Ali did.
Take away all of his beliefs and activism and his popularity gets cut in half.

 

You tell me? I made a simple point. Your the one saying no other athlete has had more movies, documentaries and books made about him than Ali. I say to that that their all watered down with his activism and religion and theres more people that consider him the goat because of his activism not as an athlete.

 

Jerry West and Don Shula? Your reaching.

 

There’s a major motion picture out right now about George Foreman.

It goes into his faith.

It also I’m pretty sure covers the fact that he became a multimillionaire on his grill deal.

Fact is, more people probably know about his grill than could tell you who he beat for a title or lost it to.

Does that make him any less significant as a boxer?

Is that a reach?

 

If you don't think the model for the NBA logo and the coach with the most wins in the NFL and the only coach to have an undefeated season qualify as a famous sports person nothing I can do to disabuse you of that notion.

 

They didnt gain their fame or notoriety through Activism like Ali did so i dont see the connection.

 

To be clear, Ali is an ATG and his accomplishments in the ring cant be denied but it was his activism outside the ring that took him to the next level not him as an athlete.

 

At the end of the day everybody from Nelson Mandela to Prince to Ronald Reagan wanted to bask in Muhamnad Ali's reflective glow. That's more impressive than spending a life separating men from their senses, dunking a basketball, or hitting a baseball. He was the alpha and the omega. To call him an athlete is to limit him. It's akin to saying Einstein was merely a physicist, Monet was merely a painter, and Jonas Salk was merely a doctor.

 

Sorry man, watching Martin reruns. Ali, or clay, or whatever in the hell he wants to call himself will have to wait for another day.

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Yes, all the elites wanted to "bask in his reflective glow" ...but Ali himself was too high and mighty to serve with his fellow countryman grinding it out in Vietnam. ...
Can't say I blame him.
Go to Vietnam, or stay home and sleep on silk sheets, .....I'd take the silk sheets every day

 

Why would Ali go to fight in a civil war against other people of color who never attacked us? His stance was a principled one:

WASHINGTON -- Muhammad Ali, his hands shaking and eyes
reflecting the White House chandeliers, accepted the nation's
highest civilian award from President Bush on Wednesday.

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