That's certainly not the US athlete I expected to get picked.

Oh, and I updated the first post and added a listing of picks by category at the bottom, so you can see what countries have been taken in each category.

I don't know... when you consider his levels of excellence in so many different sports and the fact that he was able to accomplish so much and retire at a young age and -still- be one of the greatest ever statistically speaking... that to me is the very definite of an athlete.

Versatility. Success. Immortality. All in one package.

In a bad way. I think there are WAY better athletes that personify the nation. Jesse Owens, Mark Spitz and Mary Lou Retton come to mind.

But just think, Izulde's nation will be the home of some classic blaxploitation films.

dola- there's also the Jordan and Woods guys

I also think it's to early to take an athlete, there's a ton of depth there.

I congree

Yeah, those are the type of athletes I figure would be going. But the reason I somewhat disagree with those is because they're specific to something that happens only every four years and is limited to one sport and ones that furthermore get little attention outside of the Olympics.

I considered Jordan, but the demonstrated multi-sport excellence of Brown swayed me.

What about Jim Thorpe then? There was a guy who could play more than one sport.

Also in terms of American economists Milton Friedman is better than Galbraith. Hell I'd have taken Steven Levitt over Galbraith because I think more people would have heard of him.

I do love the Marx pick BTW. Clearly an incredibly important economist.

In my mind this was the clear #1 athlete pick for the U.S. if not a pretty strong one worldwide. I agree with others that the combination of picking an athlete this early and picking a lesser choice from the country is a bad combination.

I love the Adam Smith pick, much more than the Karl Marx praise going around recently. (Even though Marx was a strong pick in a weak category).

I also love the Ghandi pick. When people in the U.S. think of civil rights leaders, they tend to relate that directly to African Americans and their struggles to try to be equal. There are so many minority groups out there, I am really interested to see where people go with that (including civil rights that aren't just about race).

Anyways, great idea for a draft, and I'll be reading along as best as I can, as this is very interesting to me.


Edit: I meant to also mention as far as Athlete goes, I think a close second to Thorpe would have been Jesse Owens (which I think someone else mentioned). He was an amazing athlete in many different fields, but where he accomplished it and when is just as important and probably trumps Thorpe there.

*sigh* Aight so I fucked up my draft again... and in the second round to boot. :(

Izulde, to be honest with you I'm having trouble coming up with my next pick, so don't feel too bad. All of the big names left on my board are in categories where I have several very solid alternatives who I can see slipping. The categories where I don't have nearly the bench depth all are people who are second (or even fourth) tier names.

DOLA - In other words don't feel bad :)

I agree, don't feel bad. I apologize if my wording was harsh. I can only imagine it is so tough to try to think of so many world wide categories and then try to rank them, and on top of that try to prioritize them based on when to pick them. That is why it is fun for me to watch, I don't have to do the picking, I can just be a backseat driver :)

Thanks guys :)

I guess that all depends on the circles you run in. I feel good about Galbraith - he served in the administration's of 4 different presidents, from both parties. clearly the guy has the political saavy to be my chief economist, and i like his policies

I'm not knocking Galbraith. He's a giant of the field. I just think his name recognition will hurt you with the voters.

The more I think about this draft, the more I appreciate the Red Baron as a pick.

I'm not going for name-recognition...I think that's a poor way to try to "game" these drafts if you will. I think I've shown that fairly consistently with some of my picks in past drafts.

I woulda chosen Thorpe from US atheletes.

I agree. The obvious names are out. My next pick is to go for someone not anywhere near the level of fame others have or someone not nearly with the impact others have, you know?

I do appreciate that.

Rather surprised I nabbed Einstein. Wheeeeee!

Einstein was the last of teh big names I think.

I know we settled down on this, but I think the key is national recognition in a nation building draft. Jim Brown was a star in a uniquely American sport.


On another note, I think Jesus has been picked (in some fashion) in something like 3 of the last 4 drafts. :)

No drafting of jesus/god/the bible in my draft, i'm sure.

Another unexpected one, but an awesome pick for the category.

Whoah

well done noop

Oh we'll see about that.

I totally didn;t see that, and I really, really like it. Good job Noop

Yeah good pick noop

I just hope Judge Dredd makes it to my pick

Heh

C'Mon BK. I'm ready as soon as you go. Boom. One-two, one-two

I've got 6 picks in the hopper. One of them needs to last till my next one, dammit. :)

I just hope Bk doesn't take the one i want, but unlike DT, I have a backup ;)

I'm drafting as I go, I have not come up with a list for each spot yet. Maybe later today.

Ok. The air cateogry has completely flummoxed me. I can't come up with a name of anyone that someone might have heard of that isn't German or American. Not wanting to lose America, I'm making my pick. I'm guessing this is going to be a Jim Brown sort of pick where others give me all sorts of ideas I didn't think about. However, many of the famous pilots weren't military pilots and that didn't seem in keeping with the draft.

I select John Glenn - Air Chief
Glenn, in adition to being the third person to orbit Earth, was a top notch test pilot, even helping to break the sonic barrier. In his later life he became a US Senator. Glenn would have both the political and practical expertise to make sure this nation had a superior air ability.

Forgot to mention, he's United States 20th Century.

kickass - way to go john glenn!

You ass. EXACTLY the same direction I was gonna go here.

Nappy is a solid choice here.