Greatest Athlete Ever

[SandSquid]

Figure this would be fun to get opinions. Each has it's own merit. Be it the impact/popularity of the sport, the level above others they are, the team vs. solo sport debate, etc...

Who do you think is the Greatest Athlete Ever?

A few I would throw out there.

Jim Brown- Lettered 13 times in 5 sports in high-school. NFL, NCAA football, and Lacrosse HOFer. Arguably greatest NFL and Lacrosse player ever (2 sports!). Dominated the NFL. Set records until he was bored, and sometimes would double what the next best guy could do. The one complaint I've heard is he wasn't a great blocker, which I say If you are keeping him in to block, you are failing and using him wrong. It's like saying Babe Ruth wasn't a great bunter.

Michael Phelps- most dominant Olympian ever. Lets just say he broke Leonidas of Rhodes 2100 year old olympic medal record. Tough to call a record breaking accomplishment better than that one.

Pele- 1281 goals and 3 world cups. Best player in the most popular sport in the world.

Muhammad Ali- lost a lot of his prime with the Vietnam draft. But was the best in a STACKED heavyweight field.

Babe Zaharias- Arguably best female athlete ever, track and field, and golf champion.


Womens tennis I think is too close (Navratilova, Serena, Graf, Court)
Same with Mens tennis (Federer, Nadal and now Djokovic).

Baseball I don't know well enough

Golf is tight (Snead, Nicklaus, Tiger, Hogan, Palmer)

Basketball is tight and so dependent on so much more. Russell won 11 championships in 13 years. Wilt had the most dominant years. Jabbar had an insanely long elite career. Jordan was magical, and Lebron is doing things now with all around play and longetivity that are scary.




Some others I wouldn't put in there but fun to talk about.

Sugar Ray Robinson 213-1-2 record as a fighter by age 30 (amateur and pro). Wow. 258 wins before he hung them up.

Jim Thorpe- Olympic gold, and pro football, baseball, and basketball player

Lance Armstrong - if only clean

Kelly Slater and Tony Hawk - not super popular sports, but they rocked them

Florence Griffith Joyner. STILL holds the 100m and 200m womens records over 20 years later. In an era it seems these fall like domino's that is impressive.


Herschel Walker. Ok a bit of homerism here, was a huge fan and always liked him. at 230 lbs and football weight was able to set the 60m collegiate record (broken in the next heat by Carl Lewis....). A legit track demon, nearly made both summer and winter olympics (winter made bobsled, summer was Taekwondo, but the US failed to qualify). And just blew guys away in any of the "superstars" challenge for athletes back in the day. One of the best college backs ever, 5500 rushing yards in his 3 USFL seasons, and just a freak.

Still does an insane body weight workout, and in his 50's was winning fights in MMA.

30+ years of aging shouldn't look like this.




Wayne Gretzky. It's a team sport and not a super popular one. But you don't wear 99 in hockey period anymore because of him. If he'd never scored a goal in his career, he'd be the all time points leader.

Jerry Rice. I already called Brown for football, but his ability and his longetivity are unrivaled.

Nadia Comaneci- the perfect 10 in gymnastics.

Lionel Conacher - Hockey Hall of Fame, the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, and the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame. Won a Grey Cup (CFL champ), an International Professional Lacrosse League championship, a Stanley Cup (NHL Champ), an international league championship (Baseball pro league in 1930's), and was the Canadian amateur light-heavyweight boxing championship.

There's a story he won a baseball championship, then ran across town to join his pro-lacrosse team which was losing 0-3, and scored 4 goals to give them a win.

 

[JoeMoma]

Bruce Jenner when he was a he and not a she or it.

 

[BuckToothMoron]

You should have an honorable mention for Alex Honnold from free solo. No body has prepared longer for a single event that took 3 hours, and if it wasn’t done perfectly he would have died. Physical endurance and mental focus beyond any single athletic accomplishment. How he didn’t win Athlete of the Year I will never understand.

 

[BuckToothMoron]

 

[Wyatt earp]

MJ



Thread closed


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[Darkwind]

Billy Bob Ray Woodsmoke.

The only true competitor who could draw down a half-gallon of the hard mash -- the Acetones and aldehydes, known as the 'heads' included -- and live to tell the tale.

The man's liver was a machine!!!!

 

[harmonica]

.....Phelps was not the most dominant ....the swimmers just have more medal races---so if they are good in one race, they will be good in others
...the USA basketball players were much more dominant ..they don't have:
the half court game
the 3/4 court game
3 vs 3
etc etc
if the BBall players had 20 medal games, they would've won 20 medals
....main point being: just because they win so many medals doesn't mean they are dominant/great

 

[DGS49]

Sorry, but without parameters it is impossible to say.

Does ATHLETE refer to individual strength, flexibility, quickness and endurance (Olympic Decathlon), or does it refer to dominance in a competitive sport (Babe Ruth, Tiger Woods)? Are you talking about one outstanding season (Denny McLain) or a career (Henry Aaron, Gordy Howe)? Do you include athletes who COULD have dominated, but whose careers were cut short by injury or other tragedy (e.g., Bo Jackson)? Do you allow for changes in the sport over time (Rod Laver vs. Novak Djokovic)? How about athletes who were occasionally super-human (Nolan Ryan)?

Without parameters, I can't answer.

 

[harmonica]

the women are obviously not the greatest at all--not even close

 

[DGS49]

But Serena could be considered the most dominant player in the history of tennis, regardless of gender. Indeed, the only time she loses is when she has the occasional mental lapse or when she is injured. Otherwise, it's lights out for her opponent, and it has been thus for nearly 20 years. What other athlete can say the same?

 

[westwall]

But Serena could be considered the most dominant player in the history of tennis, regardless of gender. Indeed, the only time she loses is when she has the occasional mental lapse or when she is injured. Otherwise, it's lights out for her opponent, and it has been thus for nearly 20 years. What other athlete can say the same?

Pele, Mayweather, Bolt, there are others, but off the top of my head...

 

[rightwinger]

Bo Jackson was one of the best I saw. Too bad he had such a short career

Overall, I’d go ..

Ali, Ruth, Jordan, Gretzky, Brady

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

Todays athletes are far superior than those of old.
Bigger,faster and stronger so it's really hard to say.

 

[sealybobo]

Bruce Jenner when he was a he and not a she or it.

You beat me to it. Lol. Bruce is my answer too

Michael Jordan was the best basketball player
Barry Sanders best running back
Aaron Rogers best qb
Ken Griffey jr baseball
Royce Gracie greatest fighter ever.
Roy Jones jr best boxer
Geordie Howe best hockey player ever

 

[rightwinger]

Todays athletes are far superior than those of old.
Bigger,faster and stronger so it's really hard to say.

Very true

 

[SandSquid]

But Serena could be considered the most dominant player in the history of tennis, regardless of gender. Indeed, the only time she loses is when she has the occasional mental lapse or when she is injured. Otherwise, it's lights out for her opponent, and it has been thus for nearly 20 years. What other athlete can say the same?

Well that depends. Court won more grand slams (Serena is one away though). Evert, Graf, and Court all have better winning %'s at Grand Slam events. and Graf has a better record than Serena overall.

Navratilova won 1442 games and 167 WTA events. Serena is at 743 and 72.

I think she's the most physically dominant, and may be the best ever in the sport, but there's some data there that says maybe not. Maybe just the best marketed of the dominant female tennis players.

 

[SandSquid]

Sorry, but without parameters it is impossible to say.

Does ATHLETE refer to individual strength, flexibility, quickness and endurance (Olympic Decathlon), or does it refer to dominance in a competitive sport (Babe Ruth, Tiger Woods)? Are you talking about one outstanding season (Denny McLain) or a career (Henry Aaron, Gordy Howe)? Do you include athletes who COULD have dominated, but whose careers were cut short by injury or other tragedy (e.g., Bo Jackson)? Do you allow for changes in the sport over time (Rod Laver vs. Novak Djokovic)? How about athletes who were occasionally super-human (Nolan Ryan)?

Without parameters, I can't answer.

Kinda leaving the parameters up to the poster.

If you think that Jenner is it, I can get that. If you think the best athletes are those today with modern training and conditioning, well Jenner doesn't even have a top 25 decathalon score anymore. And one could argue Daley Thompson or even Eaton was better.

What about Thorpe? Had his shoes stolen right before the event. Found a pair made up of two different shoes out of the trash, and went and set a decathalon record that stood for almost 20 years. Then followed up his NCAA football championship with an NFL Hall of Fame career. And played some pro-baseball for the Giants and Reds to round out his career.

If you think Bo is it, that makes sense but if you think there is something to be said for a player like Nolan who was able to keep playing for decades, so be it.

 

[Jitss617]

Larry bird

 

[G.T.]

Michael Jordan in basketball. He had the fan fare, the heart and determination, the work ethic, the skill, the look and he didn't benefit from the size of a Center. He's my favorite athlete of all time, and LeBron is not even top 10, to me. Statistically, sure, but LeBron throws up a lot of those goofy, un-coordinated bricks....and his dribble benefits greatly from how far he sticks his elbows out...his body mass is just wide, and strong - but skill-wise, he does a lot of suspect shit and heart-wise, he's bottom tier. I'd never trust him in a finals game 7.

 

[rightwinger]

Sorry, but without parameters it is impossible to say.

Does ATHLETE refer to individual strength, flexibility, quickness and endurance (Olympic Decathlon), or does it refer to dominance in a competitive sport (Babe Ruth, Tiger Woods)? Are you talking about one outstanding season (Denny McLain) or a career (Henry Aaron, Gordy Howe)? Do you include athletes who COULD have dominated, but whose careers were cut short by injury or other tragedy (e.g., Bo Jackson)? Do you allow for changes in the sport over time (Rod Laver vs. Novak Djokovic)? How about athletes who were occasionally super-human (Nolan Ryan)?

Without parameters, I can't answer.

Kinda leaving the parameters up to the poster.

If you think that Jenner is it, I can get that. If you think the best athletes are those today with modern training and conditioning, well Jenner doesn't even have a top 25 decathalon score anymore. And one could argue Daley Thompson or even Eaton was better.

What about Thorpe? Had his shoes stolen right before the event. Found a pair made up of two different shoes out of the trash, and went and set a decathalon record that stood for almost 20 years. Then followed up his NCAA football championship with an NFL Hall of Fame career. And played some pro-baseball for the Giants and Reds to round out his career.

If you think Bo is it, that makes sense but if you think there is something to be said for a player like Nolan who was able to keep playing for decades, so be it.

Jenner was the most hyped track athlete ever. He won one Decathlon and was not overly dominant. Decathlon is overrated in terms of athletic prowess. Give me Carl Lewis or Ussain Bolt any day

Thorpe was most dominant of his era, but the era did not have outstanding athletes and sports was not really a career

Today has the best athletes ever. They have the best facilities, best training and best drugs