Andy Roddick’s Served Media (Youtube)

Par Joël Pütz | Journaliste sportif

While not everyone is an über-athlete capable of launching himself into the air or outsprinting, you still need to have certain athletic qualities when you play in the NBA. With a minimum of 82 games in a season, few people make it through their careers without being in adequate physical condition. Some, like Larry Bird or Dirk Nowitzki, weren’t very athletic, but they were still above average.

Unsurprisingly, some claim that basketball is one of the toughest sports there is. Andy Roddick, however, doesn’t share this opinion, as the former tennis player explained in his latest podcast. While the men’s final at Roland-Garros resulted in a nearly five-hour-and-a-half showdown between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, the American was keen to defend his former sport:

This isn’t to say one thing doesn’t mean you’re throwing shade at someone else. I’m celebrating and applauding one set of athletes. An NBA game is 48 minutes played in air conditioning, where you have teammates, halftime, timeouts, the whole thing. There’s communication. I think tennis players are the best athletes in the world. The more I watch it, the more I think it.

You have to be strong, fast, mentally resilient. You have to be able to basically do sprint intervals while also using hands. It’s just the most complete examination of an athlete that I can think of. (…) Dude, try Memphis on a Friday and Dubai on a Monday. I don’t wanna hear about Los Angeles.

A strong opinion from the former world number 1, which obviously did not meet with unanimous approval among his followers, who quickly came up with counter-arguments:

: It depends on how you’re defining an athlete or athleticism. Endurance is one thing. As far as athletic skill, the best tennis player couldn’t score on an NBA player just like an NBA player probably couldn’t win a point against the best tennis players.

: Not even close. NBA basketball players by farrrrrr. Big, Strong, Athletic, Run, Jump, Skill. Not that many people even play tennis ever in their life but hoops it’s a more far reaching sport maybe surpassed only by soccer / futbol in those that actually play it in their lives physically