Greatest Sports Person Of All Time

[jimmmm]

A little while ago I posted a thread on Put 'Em Under Pressure, " Europe's Top 50 Football Clubs" a project first started by my son, which I became involved in the more he asked me for my opinions, until we finally compiled said list. It seems to have given me the bug to find out more with regards to all time best ofs, anoraky I know but, satisfying at the same time, especially as you find out a wealth of information about all kinds of sporting achievements as you research for any such projects. With this in mind, my Son, & I set about trying to compile a list to find the ultimate sportstar, male or female, crikey what a task, initially you think of the obvious names, Pele, Best, Maradona, Nicklaus, Woods, Sampras, Federer, McEnroe, Spitz, Redgrave, Lewis, Ali, Grace, Botham, Navratilova, Graf, Schumacher, Armstrong, etc., etc., then you start to research each sport, & event individually, & you realise just how many "Greats" from the past you have barely heard of, perhaps because their particular sport has never been high profile, perhaps because the person didn't crave media limelight as much as others, or any other reason, I found this mainly when looking into the history of the Olympic games, but as a UK resident, I'm sure there are some major US sportstars who are relatively unknown to me, & Vice-versa, UK-US, & all other countries around the world. Its with this in mind, & seeing how many people around the world use the Interference forum, & in particular Put 'Em Under Pressure, I was wondering if WE AS A WHOLE could find who we rate as the greatest SPORTSTAR EVER!
don't just send in names of stars, give reasons as to why you are nominating them, not just on achievement in their particular field, but longevity, impact on their particular sport, sport in general, impact on the world as a whole. There's certainly a wide enough spectrum of users on the forum to give as wide an opinion as possible, take your time, research the stars, & at the end of this year I'll compile the most definitive list in the world to find the greatest EVER. (as long as there's enough interest)

 

[phillyfan26]

Throwing some big names out there from three major sports...

Greatest of Football

Joe Montana - greatest QB
Walter Payton - greatest RB
Ronnie Lott - greatest DB
Chuck Bednarik - greatest LB

Greatest of Baseball

Willie Mays - greatest 5 tool player
Babe Ruth - greatest "put fear into you" hitter
Sandy Koufax - one of greatest pitchers
Steve Carlton - one of greatest pitchers

Greatest of Basketball

Wilt Chamberlain - greatest player
Michael Jordan - second greatest player
Julius Erving - one of greatest
Pete Marivach - one of greatest

 

[MrPryck2U]

Greatest of all time, huh?
I'll give this one a shot, but I'll break it down by sport.
Baseball- Babe Ruth
Football- Walter Payton
Basketball- Micheal Jordon
Hockey- Wayne Gretzky
Soccer- Pele
Male tennis- Pete Sampras
Female tennis- Martina
Boxing- Ali
Pro wrestler- Bret Hart

 

[MrPryck2U]

Ok, Jordon or Gretzky could be the best ever.

 

[yertle-the-turtle]

Throwing some big names out there from three major sports...

Oh boy, I can already see page 3 of this thread still harping on this.

My vote goes to the proverbial archer in Swaziland who could make William Tell weep. If only someone would give him a bow.

And I think that should elucidate my opinion on this, no offence, jimmmm.

 

[1stepcloser]

I think potentially Roger Federer could go on to be the greatest ever. The guy just dominates tennis now and if he won the French Open then i think that could seal his status. He's still yet to prove himself on clay courts however and that was something Sampras never achieved.

 

[BrownEyedBoy]

I think Jordan is the greatest ever. Only because Maradona had his whole drug problem and Jorden has a pretty much umblemished legendary record.

 

[intedomine]

Throwing some big names out there from three major sports...

Greatest of Football

Joe Montana - greatest QB
Walter Payton - greatest RB
Ronnie Lott - greatest DB
Chuck Bednarik - greatest LB

Greatest of Baseball

Willie Mays - greatest 5 tool player
Babe Ruth - greatest "put fear into you" hitter
Sandy Koufax - one of greatest pitchers
Steve Carlton - one of greatest pitchers

Greatest of Basketball

Wilt Chamberlain - greatest player
Michael Jordan - second greatest player
Julius Erving - one of greatest
Pete Marivach - one of greatest

Pfffft, major sports.....


* Zinedine Zidane *
Diego Maradona
Ference Puskas
Eusebio
Lev Yashin
Don Bradman
Muttiah Muraliduran
Roger Federer
Steffi Graf
Hicham El Guerrouj
Haile Gabriesilesse
Carl Lewis

 

[zoney!]

WORLD FAMOUS:

Pele, Jordan and Ali

 

[randhail]

I think Jordan is the greatest ever. Only because Maradona had his whole drug problem and Jorden has a pretty much umblemished legendary record.

Jordan had issues with gambling, which I think were a lot worse than we were lead to believe. Regardless he's probably the best basketball player of all time, though I'd throw Larry Bird's name in there just for the sake of argument being a Boston fan.

 

[Got Philk?]

Jordan had issues with gambling, which I think were a lot worse than we were lead to believe. Regardless he's probably the best basketball player of all time, though I'd throw Larry Bird's name in there just for the sake of argument being a Boston fan.

I wondered when this would come up. But you're absolutly right.

I miss the Jordan, Magic, Bird era.

 

[randhail]

I wondered when this would come up. But you're absolutly right.

I miss the Jordan, Magic, Bird era.

I miss Bird and Jordan's McDonald's commercials.

 

[angelordevil]

 

[TheBrush]

In terms of SUPERSTAR, I think Babe Ruth.

POPULARITY: He was known around the world when sports werent rammed down our throats 24-7. He was a common word in Japan when Coca-Cola was the only other english commonly uttered by the Japanese.

ATHLETICISM/TALENT: Hitting more Home-runs in a season than any other team at times pretty much speaks for itself. I don't want to hear about him being fat. Yea he was a little husky...no where near John Goodman size when Goodman protrayed Ruth in "THE BABE".

Could very well have had the best offensive season ever hitting . 356 with 60 HRs and 164 RBIS and 7 SBS in 1927

He also won 94 games as a pitcher and had a career winning percentage of .671. So he really was a complete player!

Also, he didn't take steroids. Unless Beer and Hotdogs are performance inhancing substances.

I can see people making cases for others, but I think when you add the popularity and overall talent level of Ruth up, no one can compete in both categories.

 

[phillyfan26]

Oh boy, I can already see page 3 of this thread still harping on this.

So can I.

I forgot the words "in America."

Whoops.

 

[J_NP]

In terms of SUPERSTAR, I think Babe Ruth.

Never heard this guy

Indeed , agree with zoney , the guys that anywhere on earth and out of it people will know are Michael Jordan , Ali and Pele

 

[phillyfan26]

Never heard this guy

Which is probably why he doesn't qualify.

(Baseball player in America in the 1910's to 1930's who set many home run hitting records that lasted for many years, including 714 career homers and 60 homers in one season. He was also an obsessive eater, smoker, and alcoholic, which ended up endearing him more to the people.)

 

[toscano]

I think Jordan is the greatest ever. Only because Maradona had his whole drug problem and Jorden has a pretty much umblemished legendary record.

apart from the gambling and womanizing ?

 

[Got Philk?]

and womanizing ?

I also wondered if this would come up. I didn't bring it up b/c to some people, this fact might not matter. It always bugged me though. Definately tainted his image of a hero to me for sure.

Still, an amazing athlete.

 

[No spoken words]

Is this about greatest athlete, or sportsman?

If it's athlete, then for me, in my lifetime, it's Michael Jordan in a landslide....with Tiger Woods creeping up annually. Federer, too.

If it's for sportsman....then I'm just not sure....if we use world wide polularity, seems like it might be Ali. If we project....maybe Federer...his skills are sublime, he is a joy to watch and he is an international good will ambassador for UNICEF.

I'll just toss this out there, too....one of my all-time favorite athletic performers is Eric Heiden. He skated in 5 different speed skating disciplines and won all 5. He won a race as short as a 500m race, and as long as a 10,000m race. That's like Carl Lewis winning the 100m then going out and winning the 1,500. It does not happen, you sprint, or you do middle or long distance, you don't do both. Heiden also set 5 Olympic records while he was at it. He went on to become a Doctor, and serves as one of the Olympic team doctors every 4 years. I'm not saying he's the greatest sportsman or athlete ever, but, that was one hell of a performance.

As for football (soccer) players, I live in the US and just do not have the knowledge required to consider a football player for this, though I of course understand the global popularity of the sport.

Lastly, for my American sports fans, by sport:

Basketball - Jordan
Football - Jim Brown
Baseball - Willie Mays
Hockey - Bobby Orr (Sorry Gretzky fans)

All of this, of course, is merely my humble opinion, I could be very off-base here.

 

[speedracer]

Jackie Robinson -- as the first black player in MLB, you could argue that he was as big a figure as anyone else in the civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s in the United States.

 

[TheBrush]

Never heard this guy

Indeed , agree with zoney , the guys that anywhere on earth and out of it people will know are Michael Jordan , Ali and Pele

Because it was in the past makes it non-relevant?

I cannot believe federer could be placed above the greatest baseball player of all time. True, era's are hard to compare, but with how little sports were publicized back in the day, he was still bigger than the game. That is not easy to do. Federer is not...never will be.

 

[1stepcloser]

I cannot believe federer could be placed above the greatest baseball player of all time. True, era's are hard to compare, but with how little sports were publicized back in the day, he was still bigger than the game. That is not easy to do. Federer is not...never will be.

I think potentially Federer could be placed above Babe Ruth for 2 reasons. First of all is that like i said in a previous post, he just dominates tennis at the moment. I think he's won the last four wimbledons in a row now and he's only 25 i think, if that. He's also won the US Open and the Australian Open. If he can win the French Open that would make it the grand slam. He's got a great chance of beating Sampras's record and adding significantly to it (Sampras has 14 major titles i think).

Secondly tennis is a more global sport, more people from around the world play and watch it. As far as i know, baseball is only really popular in America and Japan. I have heard of Babe Ruth but i couldn't tell you any of his achievments.

However Federer still has to prove himself over the rest of his career so we can only wait and see.

 

[Salome]

Steve Waugh



obviously

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Worldwide: Ali or Pele.

america, you'd think i'd say jordan... which wouldn't be a bad choice, but i'm going with gretzky. hockey mattered when gretzky played. without him, it gets lower ratings than women's college softball. the NBA may not be as big as it was when jordan was at his prime, but it's still light years ahead of the NHL.

 

[MrPryck2U]

The Great One is the best! Jordan is a very close second though. I don't really care if he's got a gambling problem.

 

[CTU2fan]

Wayne Gretzky is one of the most amazing athletes I've ever seen. If you look at his raw skills you'd never think he'd be the player he was...he wasn't nearly the fastest skater, or hardest shooter...his small size in an amazingly physical sport. Obviously his playmaking is his greatest skill, and what he's known for, but he still holds the single season & all-time goal scoring records. The beauty of Gretzky, and people who've had the opportunity to see him play live can tell you this, was his ability to anticipate where the puck, and the play, were going. You'd see him come up with a loose puck, or just appear wide-open for a quality scoring chance, and say to yourself "What the hell was he doing there?"

That said, worldwide, I'd guess the guy is Pele, or Ali. I can't see a case for Federer or Woods, or any golfer or tennis player frankly. I know in my country golf & tennis are "the rich sports". I do think that perception is changing, particularly re: golf. Is that true in other countries, or are they more sports of the people in Europe than they are here?

 

[J_NP]

As for football (soccer) players, I live in the US and just do not have the knowledge required to consider a football player for this, though I of course understand the global popularity of the sport.

Very simple , some few achievements of what make a above of all normal football ( Soccer to Americans) players , things like :

-Scoring more than 1000 goals , Pele scored 1281 in 1363 games , it's like in almost game of his almost 20 year career he scored
- Winnin 3 World Cups , the WC is the biggest competition of football and in happens in a hiatus of 4 years , think about An American player winning 3 Basketball Olympics

That of course besides the paintings he made , the fact he was the youngest at the time , to play a WC final , he only 17 crushed Sweeden with one of most beautiful goals of the WC history

 

[andyuk]

how can an american footballer/baseball/basketball or hockey player be the best sportsman ever when these sports are hardly played world wide and only in america! it would have to be a soccer player, tennis, golf etc WORLDWIDE SPORTS GUYS!!!!

 

[Axver]

Colin "Pinetree" Meads. Greatest All Black of all time.

This discussion is over.