Bruce Lee is Overated

I googled "Bruce Lee" before taking this debate to check what's said about him. Most Bruce Lee discussions on the Internet explicitly state that he's NOT the best ever. There may be a few folks who think he's the best, but they're the minority. The overwhelming consensus is that Bruce Lee was not the best ever. So that's not how we evaluate whether he's overrated. To determine whether Bruce Lee is overrated, we should compare what's actually said about him with what he actually did. Wikipedia says he's "widely considered by commentators, critics, media and other martial artists to be one of the most influential martial artists of all time, and a pop culture icon of the 20th century. He is often credited with helping to change the way Asians were presented in American films." [1] The question, then, is whether Bruce Lee is "one of the most influential martial artists of all time," whether he's a "pop culture icon of the 20th century," and whether he "chang[ed] the way Asians [are] presented in American films." Bruce Lee is indisputably a "pop culture icon of the 20th century." There's also no dispute that he's "one of the most influential martial artists of all time." To this day, he is celebrated across the globe by fans. He's been on the cover of martial arts magazines more than any other single martial artist. He's been dead over 40 years and still draws out intense emotions among the living - emotions ranging from hate to love. Lee is one of the only figures in martial arts who evaluated the entire body of fighting techniques with an objective and analytical eye. Prior to Lee, martial arts were bogged down with folks who refused to go beyond their own individual styles. Bruce Lee believed that true fighters don't ignore what other successful fighters do; instead, they borrow and learn from others. And that's what Lee did. He was among the first practitioners of martial arts to embrace an objective approach that tried to encompass what worked from all different styles. That sort of synthesis and critical analysis brought the art of martial arts to a new level. Lee once said that the notion of "styles" itself in martial arts was too limiting, and that fighters should not tie themselves to any single style but should strip away such labels to get to the heart of combat. The reality, then, is that Lee may not have been the best martial artist ever (that's something we'll probably never know), but he certainly was one of the most influential. By all accounts, he was brilliant, technically proficient, and most importantly, brought important and profound insights to the practice of martial arts. The other part of Bruce Lee's legacy is his film. I quote Wikipedia: "His Hong Kong and Hollywood-produced films elevated the traditional Hong Kong martial arts film to a new level of popularity and acclaim, sparking a surge of interest in Chinese martial arts in the West in the 1970s. The direction and tone of his films changed and influenced martial arts and martial arts films in the United States, Hong Kong and the rest of the world." I think it's indisputable as well that Lee changed the depiction of martial arts in film. These are the things Bruce Lee is widely known for. And he's not overrated. He actually did these things. He brought an entire new approach to martial arts - an objective and analytic approach. He also popularized martial arts in the west. Those things don't make him overrated. They mean he's awesome and should be given the credit he deserves. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org...