The original question, verbatim, from an ESPN survey formerly at http://ESPN.SportsZone.com/gen/features/00714005.html

The month of June will likely be dominated by two athletes -- Michael Jordan
and Ronaldo. Both are the focal points of team favored to win championships.
Both are at the top of sports that are among the most popular around the world.

But who's bigger? Who has more fans? Screaming teenage girls? More
endorsements? In the U.S., you don't hear much about Ronaldo because soccer
doesn't have the same level of popularity as basketball. But is it a
different story elsewhere? 

Make your case for who's bigger on a worldwide scale, especially if you
live overseas or have spent time in a country where people are familiar with
Ronaldo and Jordan. Fill out the form below and be as specific as possible
when comparing the two athletes, using whatever numbers or anecdotes you can
think of. 

To whomever i may be addressing,

Who's bigger? The last time i was in Brazil during a world cup (1986), i recall fondly that after the first Brazilian tally, the Salvador skies and streets exploded: _gente_ (folks) were tossing firecrackers out of their apartment building windows and blasting their car horns as they careered through the streets. Poor Brazilian children fashion balls out of their shirts and play on the median strips of highways. Metropolitan Chicago would never see a holiday strictly because its city basketball team won another national (or even "world") championship; but many of Brazil's cities continue their after-game partying through to the next day, halting every public transaction and private endeavor. It's no coincidence that basketball stadiums seat maybe 20,000 on average, whereas soccer stadiums (of comparable teams in their leagues) seat several times more (have you ever seen fires in the stands of a basketball game? i have seen them, the result of fan passion, in soccer stadiums). In terms of passion, the discussion is doomed to be moot: i know there are rabid basketball fans out there; i know courts on neighborhood playgrounds have fostered legends; i know that Isiah Thomas grew up practicing by aiming a basketball at his mother's circled arms, using her chest (and no doubt her face) for a backboard. But in terms of sheer numbers and history around the globe, i believe there's no contest as to the dominance of the sport: if the world plays with one ball, it's a soccer ball--particularly if the players, on the whole, grow up unable to afford purchasing one of their own.

Who's better? Michael Jordan has been the centerpiece of basketball in the United States for just over a decade; Ronaldo has emerged only within the last five years, earning FIFA player of the year (out of thousands of professional players worldwide) honors the last two. Basketball's roles require Jordan to play defense, which he does superbly; soccer's roles allows Ronaldo to concentrate on the opponent's half of the pitch. Some claim that soccer is too slow or low-scoring; personally, i find the redundancy of basket after basket a drag. I just enjoy the rhythms of a soccer game far more than i do that of a basketball game. But at this stage in their careers and in the history of their sports, i believe it would be premature to place Ronaldo on the pedestal that Jordan has earned in his sport. Jordan may be to basketball what Ruth was to baseball--a giant dazzling everyone at a critical juncture in the history of his sport--or even greater (heck, i love to watch the man hustle, fly, and just _play_), but the playing fields simply do not compare: soccer's world stage dwarfs that of basketball. Thus, Ronaldo has so much farther to go than does Jordan before he assumes lasting, reverie-inducing dominance in his sport.

Who has more supporters? The multinationals that Jordan and Ronaldo endorse.

Play ball,r

Eric had the right idea; let's bean this fruitcake with a cocount again.