NBA Champion Brian Scalabrine famously once said to a heckling fan, “I’m closer to LeBron than you are to me.”
It’s something that’s stuck in the minds of many sports fans, the idea that even professional athletes that we deem to be average, or even bad, are far closer to the very best in the world than we are to the worst in professional sports.
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But an exchange between a sports media figure and a PGA Tour winner serves as a reminder that even some of the best players in the world in their respective sports feel like they are miles away from the pinnacle.
There’s the very good, and there’s the legendary, and some players are accurately aware of it.
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Michael Kim’s Scottie Scheffler comment after Carlos Alcaraz beat Alexander Zverev
The conversation began when Kyle Porter, a lead golf writer for CBS Sports, made a post on X about Carlos Alcaraz’s match against Alexander Zverev at the Australian Open.
Porter said, “My thoughts after watching two hours of Alcaraz-Zverev: it sucks to be 40th in the world in men’s tennis.”
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Alcaraz was two sets up against Zverev at the time and looked to be in a completely different class.
This post struck a chord with PGA Tour winner Michael Kim, who gave an intriguing insight into what it’s like having to go up against an all-time talent. Kim has navigated the volatile middle-to-upper tiers of the world golf rankings for years and replied with a dose of self-deprecation.
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He replied, “@KylePorterNS It’s not that much better being 40th golfer in the world watching Scottie Scheffler.”
Scheffler dominated the PGA Tour last season, winning six events and two major championships. No one could touch him, and it must be a sobering reality for guys like Kim and Zverev who are very good, but nowhere near ready to compete with these legends.
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Michael Kim compares Scottie Scheffler to Tiger Woods
Scheffler’s 2025 season could only be compared to the most dominant of Tiger Woods, so debate raged as to how his year shaped up against the greatest golfer of all time.
Kim recently weighed in on this debate, and said Scheffler’s season matched up against nearly all of Woods’ best years.
He posted to X, “Maybe not the peak Tiger years like 2000 or 2006. But Scottie is as good as Tiger amongst every other yr.
“And Scottie isn’t going to change swings drastically throughout his career either. Just gotta avoid cooking from time to time.”
That’s a little nod to the cooking accident which saw Scheffler sidelined for the early parts of the season. With Scheffler’s mentality and consistency, it’s hard to see how his form falls off a cliff like Woods’ did.
So while he can’t match the best Woods season, he could perhaps be better than him with consistency.
