# Greatness will not harm you, but greatness will annoy the fuck out of you.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatness-will-not-harm-you-but-greatness-will-annoy-the-fuck-out-of-you/237168>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [March 29, 2004, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatness-will-not-harm-you-but-greatness-will-annoy-the-fuck-out-of-you/237168 "2004-03-29T21:35:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2004, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatness-will-not-harm-you-but-greatness-will-annoy-the-fuck-out-of-you/237168/21 "2004-03-31T15:07:11Z")

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> [@dantheman](#):
>
> Terrible way to express the message, then. Telling me one mega-athlete from one sport can play another sport?

That’s not what she said, and that’s not what the ads are trying to say.

They’re trying to say one mega-athlete from one sport _could have_ played another. That’s these athletes are so good, they would have found their way into a professional sport one way or another - if Agassi’s father had given him a baseball bat instead of a tennis racquet 30 years ago, he’d be playing shortstop for the Red Sox.

Place my vote in the “kickass commercials” column on those.

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**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2004, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatness-will-not-harm-you-but-greatness-will-annoy-the-fuck-out-of-you/237168/22 "2004-03-31T15:19:17Z")

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> [@Munch](#):
>
> That’s not what she said, and that’s not what the ads are trying to say.
> 
> They’re trying to say one mega-athlete from one sport _could have_ played another. That’s these athletes are so good, they would have found their way into a professional sport one way or another - if Agassi’s father had given him a baseball bat instead of a tennis racquet 30 years ago, he’d be playing shortstop for the Red Sox.
> 
> Place my vote in the “kickass commercials” column on those.

I think you’re picking nits if you’re seeing an important difference between “could have” and “can.” My point is the same as yours, that these athletes are so good they could have played (or can now play) sports other than the ones they play now. But so what? What does that have to do with Nike shoes? (It _is_ Nike, right?)

I just think that if the point really were that one could achieve greatness through sweat and hard work, the ad would have featured people who didn’t already have the great advantage of athleticism.

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