The Eye Test: Watching Makes a Difference

I have lived my whole sports life by this principle and I believe it to be the best way to judge an athlete. Certainly not the only way, but the best. 

Simply put, the eye test is a way to judge an athlete as they compete within their sport based upon your own observations. Not by statistics, but by the media or any other means other than your own two eyes. 

You can never assume someone is what you hear they are. Instead, you must see it for yourself. 

This is the main reason why I have always been so hesitant to listen to anything regarding high school athletes entering college or the professional ranks. Just because someone is dubbed the next “superstar” does not mean they are any good.

It does not mean they are bad either.

Every year in almost every sport, you hear about the next Michael Jordan, the next Dan Marino, the next Alex Rodriguez, or the next whoever. I often wonder where these people get their sources.

It is all so subjective, which brings me to my first amendment to the eye test. It is not a one time deal. You can’t judge a book by its cover. You cannot tell whether Randy Moss is as good as he is just by watching one play, or one game for that matter. It is a process.

One of my biggest pet peeves is those who pass judgment on an athlete without actually watching a game.

For example, I have a friend who is very critical of LeBron James and claims he is not a good basketball player. Disregarding the fact that statement alone is its own article, he does this without having watched him play two, maybe three times on television, which he watches sparingly anyway.

My problem is whether the statement is true or not, it is not something he should be commenting on in the first place. You can site statistics all you want, you can quote the media all you want, and you can even claim you have seen a dunk on youtube. But all those things are different than actually sitting down to watch him compete. 

How could you possibly critique him?

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