Greatest Sportsman of All Time?

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at the risk of spamming the site, intedomine posted this table before, here's a little bit more context

World sport context
Wisden hailed Bradman as, "the greatest phenomenon in the history of cricket, indeed in the history of all ball games".[1] Statistician Charles Davis analysed the statistics for several prominent sportsmen by comparing the number of standard deviations that they stand above the mean for their sport. The top performers in his selected sports are:

Athlete Sport Statistic Standard deviations
Bradman Cricket Batting average 4.4
Pelé Association football Goals per game 3.7
Ty Cobb Baseball Batting average 3.6
Jack Nicklaus Golf Major titles 3.5
Michael Jordan Basketball PPG 3.4

The statistics show that "no other athlete dominates an international sport to the extent that Bradman does cricket". In order to post a similarly dominant career statistic as Bradman, a baseball batter would need a career batting average of .392, while a basketball player would need to score an average of 43.0 points per game. The respective records are .366 and 30.1.

When Bradman died, Time magazine allocated a space in its "Milestones" column for an obituary:

... Australian icon considered by many to be the pre-eminent sportsman of all time ... One of Australia's most beloved heroes, he was revered abroad as well. When Nelson Mandela was released after 27 years in prison, his first question to an Australian visitor was, "Is Sir Donald Bradman still alive?"

New York Times article after his death for those who think he is unknown in the US - http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/27/sports/sir-donald-bradman-92-cricket-legend-dies.html
 
I wonder if Bradman would be more universally known had his peak been more recent, rather than during the Depression. And for that matter, if he was more like Pele and not so private following his retirement.
 
Not to get off track here, but, Woods is not the greatest golfer of all-time, not yet at least.

And I'd really love it if some interlanders from other parts of the world than have been represented heretofore would let me know if they had ever heard of Bradman prior to this thread. So far, we have people from one country that are trumpeting him. Again, I'm not dismissing him or anything close, his achievements are astounding....just wondering if he's as world renowned as you guys think....and he might be. It's just really amazing to me to have never heard of him when you consider the width and breadth of my appetite for sports.
 
^ check the NY Times article I posted. Quote from mandela in my last post, and there have been a few interlanders from the UK that have also blown his trumpet in this thread. Considering the England-Australia rivalry (think Lakers-Celtics rivalry, on an international scale), I think that speaks volumes.

If you do have time (it's a large entry) Donald Bradman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Specifically the part on his test career.

Context may be an issue if you don't know much about cricket. Bear in mind that most batsmen average between 35 and 45 runs per innings. The greatest bastmen may score 1 or 2 scores in their career over 200, and some (around 15 in history score 300).
 
^ check the NY Times article I posted. Quote from mandela in my last post, and there have been a few interlanders from the UK that have also blown his trumpet in this thread. Considering the England-Australia rivalry (think Lakers-Celtics rivalry, on an international scale), I think that speaks volumes.

If you do have time (it's a large entry) Donald Bradman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Specifically the part on his test career.

I already read all about Bradman in Wikipedia, actually. :)
 
Dan, you're a fucking Red Sox fan? There aren't enough on this site already (Hewson, Phanan, Speed Racer, U2CTfan, Varitek, etc)????

:D Sorry dude. It's the same reason I'm a Celtics fan, my uncle lived in Boston for a while and used to mail us xmas gifts, we'd get jersey's or tshirts, so we started following the teams he did. He is like you in that he just loves sport in general. My whole family are like that. So he moved there and became obsessed with the sporting culture. He went to countless Red Sox, Celtics, Bruins a Pats games, so we (my brother and I) started following them when we could. When we got the internet in the mid-late 90's it was much easier, and we blossomed into fully fledged fans. I can't say I know every player from every team, I know much more about the NBA than the MLB, but I have a reasonable understanding of the game, and have followed the Sox from a distance since I was 10.

edit: although I have to say, my obsession with sport only extends to following scores with the NFL and NHL. I watch maybe 2 or 3 games a season of each, because I watch every Celtics and Red Sox game I can, aswell as every cricket match, every rugby league game, and every English Premier League game I can: life has to fit in somewhere!. We don't get much MLS here, but, keeping things in the same area, I watch the NE Revolution when I can too
 
yes, well, considering as india has 1/7th of the world's population, that thus would explain that the sport is so "widely played and known" yet i have no idea who the heck it is.

in fact, i can not name one single cricket, um, player.

i can name many soccer players, tennis players, golfers, race car drivers, boxers, ice skaters, skiiers, competitive food eaters... but i can not name a single cricket dude. not one. and i have no clue who dave birdman is.
That's because you're a stupid American. :wink:
 
Except it's cricket and it's from the 30s and 40s.

you've made your dislike of cricket clear. other than the fact you don't like it, do you have a genuine reason to argue with it? The 20's, 30's and 40's make it more impressive, as every rule change and innovation since then in cricket has benefited batsmen, meaning that batting acheivments aren't as valuable as they were in those days
 
Dan certainly loves to ramble about Don Bradman, and for some his point mightn't have already come through.
 
Dan certainly loves to ramble about Don Bradman, and for some his point mightn't have already come through.

haha, I do... I get bored at work!

either way, the discussion is all in good fun, and if we all get educated on other sports, and other sportspeople, the thread wins.
 
Earlier in the thread I was thinking of putting together a shortlist on who were the greatest sportsmen/women and produce a poll out of it in which the winner will hold the title of 'Greatest Sportsmen of All Time as voted by Interference'.
 
I suppose it could, it would depend on the size and the frequency of the off field blemishes. I doubt that Bradman had anything of the sort, same goes for Pele as far as I know. But using this rule would exclude Diego Maradona.
 
The only think I know about Maradona is the hand of god stuff. I bought it up because i thought of wayne carey and ablett sr.... both champion footballers who don't get their due credit because of unrrelated off-field crap.

most of the stuff carey is alleged to have done would come under a normal saturday for some blokes
 
As far as I know Maradona had taken drugs (which had been publicised) before so that's why I questioned his eligibility for this 'award'.

It really is a pity that a sportsmen's off field controversy overshadows their playing career.
 
It's always disgusted me how Ablett and Carey's status as a legend of the AFL has been brought into question by off-field misdemeanors. Let's just say it was PoL PoT who had a batting average of 99.94, the fact that he committed all his evil atrocities is irrelevant. The fact of the matter is is that he produced sheer magic on the cricket pitch. He is a legend of the sport, and that's all that should matter when classifying someone as a legend of their sport.
 
it was PoL PoT who had a batting average of 99.94, the fact that he committed all his evil atrocities is irrelevant. The fact of the matter is is that he produced sheer magic on the cricket pitch. He is a legend of the sport, and that's all that should matter when classifying someone as a legend of their sport.

out of context, this would make for a great sig
 
It's always disgusted me how Ablett and Carey's status as a legend of the AFL has been brought into question by off-field misdemeanors. Let's just say it was PoL PoT who had a batting average of 99.94, the fact that he committed all his evil atrocities is irrelevant. The fact of the matter is is that he produced sheer magic on the cricket pitch. He is a legend of the sport, and that's all that should matter when classifying someone as a legend of their sport.

If anything the fact that he could keep a 99.94 avg WHILE commiting mass atrocities and other crimes against humanity should prove just how awesome he is. All that killing and conspiring would weigh on a lesser man.
 
Gibson.jpg


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