I see a post morphing into a discussion totally unrelated to the OP but deserving of its own attention. Before name dropping different sports, let us classify the characteristics of a true athlete and with such named parameters proceed to name the sport.
I see the ideal athlete possessing traits such as mobility, strength, power, explosiveness, agile, good endurance, intelligent, and last but not least, hand eye coordination. Ok, with such characteristics put forth, I decree mma has the best all-around athletes. They are a reflection of mobility (try a switch kick head kick), strong (and not just weight lifting strong), they must have good endurance but be explosive at the same time (consider a single leg shot when a knee is fully available by your opponent), you must have great hand eye coordination, and finally intelligence does play a role (timing, learning distance, a handful of different martial arts to master). Let the debate begin.
Basketball with football as a close second. I don’t see any argument that could refute that. Please find me an answer to Lebron James before replying. Basketball has ridiculously explosive players that need a combination of footwork, hand eye coordination, court intelligence, brute strength and endurance. The new type of big men playing in the league are monsters: Kenneth Faried.
Jon Jones could probably hold is own in basketball against lebron but vice versa he would be destroyed. GSP never wrestled in his life but was asked to join the Canadian wrestling team. Jose aldo was an excellent soccer player. I would rank bball a close second to mma but overall mma are better athletes.
It’s really tough to include team sports saying that they “produce” the best athletes. Football and basketball have too many different types of players, many of whom are very one dimensional. Lebron and Ed Reed, both great athletes, are not the standard athlete in either of their sports. The are suited well to their positions.
I like MMA, boxing and other fighting sports as an example, although I do not like that it involves no ability to control an object outside of ones own body. Same for gymnastics.
I suppose Decathlere is probably the best overall given all athletic criteria. Athlete is a general term, so it needs to be applied generally. No doubt, Lebron is a great basketball player. What is his mile time?
If Jon Jones could come anywhere close to holding his own on the court with Lebron he would be in the NBA. I know that to be 100% true because Jon Jones was the top earning MMA fighter in the world last year and made less than Lebron makes in a week in the NBA. A 3 year vet who rides the bench made more than Jon Jones last year.