Greatest living athlete? Greatest athlete of All Time? ANY sport.
TheThrill
Posts: 130
in Sports Talk
I hope this isnt wearing out the topic. But I love baseball. Love the past, and the present.
When I ask people about this stuff. I get tons of different answers. Some are the same athletes, but with different reasons.
But one topic that is almost alway's different is The Greatest living athlete. And the Greatest athlete of all time. College, Professional, ANY sport. And why? Any reason.
Who are yours? Why?
When I ask people about this stuff. I get tons of different answers. Some are the same athletes, but with different reasons.
But one topic that is almost alway's different is The Greatest living athlete. And the Greatest athlete of all time. College, Professional, ANY sport. And why? Any reason.
Who are yours? Why?
Man I miss the 80's!!!
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Bo Jackson (if he had picked one sport, and not been injured we would be talking HOF career numbers) Really only scratched the surface playing baseball. If not for that freak football injury, easily a RB that would rack up 1000 yards a season.
Jim Thorpe: Olympic athlete, baseball, football and lacrosse
Dave Winfield: Baseball, OF and Pitcher, Basketball and drafted in the NFL despited never playing football! drafted in 3 sports, and never played in the minors.
Michael Jordan: dominated Hoops, baseball (not bad for someone who hand played since little league) and a heck of a golfer.
Carl Lewis--Olympic gold in four straight Olympiads. 9 Gold medals overall. Very intelligent man. Dominated a sport into his old man years. Might have had more medals if it weren't for the strike in 1980.
Steffi Graf--played tennis in a league of her own. Too dominating! Nice clean cut quiet woman off the field. Excellent athlete and citizen of the world.
Pete Sampras--Very dominating in Men's tennis--arguably the best all time. Good guy off the field.
Micheal Jordan--arguably the best player in NBA history.
Dara Torres--Olympic swimmer who has an uncanny ability to defy age. She medaled in 1984 and competed in the last Olympics as well (where I believe she won gold). She is going to compete again in the Beijing games too.
Pele--arguably the best player of all time in soccer, the world's number one sport. Great ambassador to the game. Very recognizable worldwide.
Vegard Ulvang--Norwegian Olympic athlete. Won tons of gold in various winter sports. One tough athlete, both physically and in endurance. Winter sports require a lot of conditioning and strength since snow is not the best landscape for humans to move on.
One can also make arguments for Wayne Gretzky, Mark Spitz, Eric Heiden, etc.
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Thread over...
My short list in no particular order:
Babe Ruth
Wayne Gretzky
Wilt Chamberlin
Bill Russell
Michael Jordan
Jerry Rice
Jim Thorpe
Mark Spitz
Carl Lewis
Jack Nickalus
Tiger Woods
Pete Sampras
Jim Brown
Some of these on the list are primarily due to the era they played (Chamberlin, Russell, Brown and probably Ruth). The others I believe are legitimate for this short list.
JMHO.
I was thinking most dominate in any sport any level, but with responses of Jack nickalus, others obviously dont see this question the way i do.
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Basketball-Wilt the Stilt, Michael Jordan
Football-????????????????
Baseball-???????????????
Russell dominated Chamberlain.
Bo Jackson? I loved Bo! but the Greats don't go down with injuries.
Modern day players don't count. Rule changes and steroids have made it much easier for even average players to "Hit 50 HR's" "Throw for 4000 yds / 40 TD's" etc.. ect.. The absolutely true greats are the ones who paved the way the hard way and broke down barriers for the "Cream Puff" players of today. These ungreatful spoiled players just don't have the same heart and soul for the game. Butkus, Havlicek, Jackie Robinson, Staubach, Starr, Nitscke, Ruth, Cobb, etc.. Guys like these who left their Blood, Sweat and tears on the field and played to WIN. Im not so sure the modern day Athlete really cares if they win as long as the get their millions. There are a handful of Modern day players who still offer some hope. OK There are ONLY two. Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzkey
Jim Thorpe (Any Sport, Any time, Anywhere)
Johnny Unitas (Football)
Bill Russell (Basketball)
Mickey Mantle (Baseball)
Bobby Orr (Hockey)
<< <i>Modern day players don't count. Rule changes and steroids have made it much easier for even average players to "Hit 50 HR's" "Throw for 4000 yds / 40 TD's" etc.. ect.. >>
No matter how much rules have changed or drugs have been injected, there have been there is still only one World Series champion, one Super Bowl champion, one Gold Medal winner. Mickey Mantle wasn't a great homerun hitter because he hit 50, he was a great homerun hitter because he hit more than almost anyone else during the years he played. The same is true for modern players
Bonds has to be among the top. How many people have used steroids? How many have won seven MVP awards? If it really made things much easier, many others would have done it too
Bo Jackson doesn't come close. While he was near the top of the best running backs for a few years, still doesn't come close to the best ever. Never close to the best outfielder and a good college sprinter. There were other multi-sport stars who were good at a few and close to the best ever in one area
I have yet to see an intelligent reason why Bo Jackson is even close to Jim Brown as a football player. Yet Brown was even better at track-and-field than Jackon, and one of the very best lacrosse players
Russell always beat Chamberlain. He also always had better teammates and did nothing outside of basketball. Chamberlain was unquestionably one of the best basketball players ever and reached high levels in volleyball and track-and-field. That has to be worth something
Some of this diversity can be explained by the changing sports culture, which is why Jordan and Bonds also deserve recognition
Suprised to see no mention of Montana. As amazing as the Patriots are, the 49ers still won more Super Bowls, and outside of Montana and Rice those 49ers teams were pretty average
Name one athlete who has more World champioonships than that since 1990 in any sport, pro or amateur
Total domination & he has a few more yrs left in him
Most athletes rarely win more than One World title
So double digits is mind boggling
Barry Bonds couldn't carry the water bucket for most of the Greats listed in this thread. The Greatest players ever have been able to transend playing field to become legendary MEN as well as Sports heroes. Numbers don't always tell the whole story. Bonds is a loser, he choked in the big games with the Pirates, Never propelled his teams to any championships. A loafer in the field and was to good to run out every hit. Disrespectful to the Game and the Fans. I'll give him a pat on the back for juicing up for enough years to hit the homers.
Bonds might have the HR's* But he never made any memorable playoff of WS plays. I have more respect for his Father Bobby Bonds as a player. Barry wouldn't even make my all time greatest baseball list.
AGREED: Montana and Rice are the only other two Modern players
Living athlete? Randy Moss--I don't care much for him but he could have played division I college basketball and possibly in the NBA. He was an incredible track & field competitor in high school as well.
<< <i>Living athlete? Randy Moss--I don't care much for him but he could have played division I college basketball and possibly in the NBA. He was an incredible track & field competitor in high school as well. >>
On that note, I believe Dave Winfield lettered in 3 sports at the University of Minnesota. Didn't Kenny Lofton play point guard for the University of Arizona? I know Tony Gwynn played hoops at SDSU. Others include multi sport players: Danny Ainge, Brian Jordan, Deion Sanders, Bo Jackson, Hershell Walker, Dave BeBusschere, Eric Lindros.
<< <i>Bonds is a loser, he choked in the big games with the Pirates, Never propelled his teams to any championships. >>
When Alex Cole and Gary Redus are the leadoff hitters, when Danny Jackson and Bob Walk are starting pitchers, when Don Slaught was the second best hitter on the team, and they still win the division (when there were only four divisions), to not give credit to the league MVP who was on that team is absolutely ridiculous, especially when the Pirates won their division three years in a row. Struggling over those 20 playoff games is a negative. Just not enough of a negative to take away from the 486 games they needed to reach those playoffs
To say that what Barry Bonds did did not extend past the playing field is accurate. But now we are ranking something other than athletic ability
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
What scorecard are you looking at? The Pirates also had Van Slyke, Bonilla (who some considered equal Bonds at the time), Jay Bell, Doug Drabek and John Smiley (both 20-game winners during that stretch). Bonds was a great player, no doubt, but the Pirates certainly had a great supporting cast, too.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
Football, Jim Brown
Basketball, tie Jordan and Chamberlin
Track, Lewis
Swimming, Spitz
Hockey, Hull and Gretzky
Golf Bobby Jones, Nicklaus and Tiger
Nascar-who cares
Soccer, Pele
http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/PIT/1992.shtml
That team won as many games as this years Red Sox team
Smiley and Bonilla were gone
For Bonds to be able to lift that team to those heights in 1992, then do similar things with another mediocre Giants team in 2002 and be great all the years in between and several years before and after has to put him among the best ever
(Van Slyke, Bonilla, Bell, Drabek were all good players. Good does not mean great)
Both were there for two of the first three titles.
I just thought it was curious that you'd omit those names (among the others) from your previous post about the three straight titles the Pirates won from 1990 to 1992 (not just 1992). If you're going to make a point that Bonds was the man on that team, that's fine, but you shouldn't disregard the contributions of other key players from those teams. You made it sound like all THREE of those title teams were nothing without Bonds, and that's not accurate.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
see my post above
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
Ruth, Grehig, Dimaggio, Mantle, Jackie Robinson, Roberto Clemente, Willie Mays, Ted Williams, Ernie Banks, Hank Aaron, There's 10 of the greatest Baseball Legends of All-Time. It's laughable as well as insulting to ever think Bonds could ever be mentioned in the same breath as these True Greats of the game. The True Greatest Players DID EXTEND beyond the field. They impacted the social Fabric of American. They became household names and hit homeruns for sick little boys in hospitals, Broke down color barriers, Fought in Wars, made historical farewell speeches and captivated the Nation with a Special Charisma that no numbers can measure. Every kid on every sandlot wanted to be them. Oh and they won Championships and had pretty darn good numbers too. Bonds is none of the above.
WALTER PAYTON
One day God woke up and Said "I'm going to Chisel me a halfback"
Living? Jeter
Flame on
Steve
Football - Jim Brown
Basketball - Michael Jordan
Track - Carl Lewis
Hockey - Wayne Gretzky
Golf - Tiger Woods
Best all around athlete - Bo Jackson. He had crazy skills! Deion Sanders & Dave Winfield were impressive as well.
Basketball- Jordan mainly because he makes everything look so easy
Football- not sure... probably Red Grange
Baseball- Walter Johnson
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<< <i>there is an equally big cloud hanging over armstrong as there is Bonds. >>
There have been questions I agree, but nothing on the scale of Bonds. Say what you will about Armstrong but to come back from his incredible health issues to win 7 in row is remarkable.
In other words. " I did, and just want to cover my a$$ when it's proven". Beyond a reasonable doubt.
Bonds has a guy sitting in jail covering his a$$.
Testing was not even normal until the last couple of years. Most things were legal.
Armstrong is tested after every stage, every win, every month at random. ALL negative. Not one positive.
Over his 7 Tour wins, probably tested 100's and 100's of times over. Before, during, after the season.