Greatest sportsmen of all time?
 

Let's say the 10 best. Any sport goes, contact sports/team sports/Olympic sports... this is a thread all MB sports fans can post in and put arguments forward for your chosen sport and shit, whether you're a football fanatic, a cricketing connoisseur or an avid follower of handegg :cool:. Maybe post examples of said sportsman showcasing their greatness.

Some obvious candidates to get the ball rolling:

Sugar Ray Robinson (Boxing), Lionel Messi (Soccer)*, Usain Bolt (Sprinting)*, Michael Jordan (Basketball), Ronnie O'Sullivan (Snooker)*, Roger Federer (Tennis), Tiger Woods (Golf), Phil Taylor (Darts), Don Bradman (Cricket)

* = Ones I agree are #1 in their sport. The rest are there for discussion. Some sports are maybe not athletic enough to be considered for this type of list (snooker & darts). There's a bunch of Olympians and other names I've seen like Wayne Gretzky and Jim Thorpe but don't know enough about these to argue or form a real opinion.

I would include Messi and Bolt in a top 10.

Jordan isn't up for debate. Comfortably the best.

I'd personally say Messi because it's my favourite sport, and he's reaching levels that go beyond what you can expect of humans.

There are probably a few more I should had/could had mentioned...

Lou Gehrig - Baseball

Bobby Jones - Amateur Golf

Shoeless Joe Jackson - Baseball

Joe Frazier - Boxing

Yogi Berra - Baseball

Mario Lemieux - Hockey

Jim Thorpe - Olympian (Gold medals for pentathlon and decathlon) Football (collegiate and professional), Baseball and Basketball.

Terry Bradshaw - Football, QB

Troy Polamalu - Football, Strong safety/TV commercial actor

André the Giant - Pro wrestler/Movie actor

Bamboo Harvester - Horse racing/TV actor

Rollie Fingers - Baseball

1970-71 Season

MVP of the regular season. Scoring title. Best defenseman. MVP of the playoffs. Stanley Cup. Sportsman of the year. Canadian athlete of the year.

http://hockeygods.com/system/gallery...jpg?1367475961

There are so many factors you'd have to consider here, this discussion is a little too open-ended

For instance, if we're talking about just the best athletes, how many are gonna beat out Bo Jackson or LeBron James? If we're going by pure success, how does Jordan make the list but not Bill Russell?

Ya, he's the best in my book. He freaking owned Chamberlain.

http://wooderice.com/wp-content/uplo...wilttipoff.jpg

http://img.spokeo.com/public/900-600...1968_02_01.jpg

Depends on the sport, I'm just going by talent for the most part (which is why I included O'Sullivan over Stephen Hendry). For example Messi isn't as good an athlete as Ronaldo or as decorated as Xavi, but he's the better player by a distance cos of what he can do.

It's there to be discussed (I don't know shit about Basketball ftr I'm just putting a name out there to get the ball rolling)

Educate me innit, why is Russell better than Jordan?

Phil Jackson, Jordan's coach.

Well he was a Center, Jordan was what, a shooting guard? though i wasn't his biggest fan i think Jordan was the best Nba player ever, he was a ballhog but he certainly was a ballhog that won championships and his talent to thrive under pressure made the guy seem almost super human.

Phil jackson is probably right but he also comes from a different era of basketball where centers dominated the game.

Kind of hard to argue against 11 championships...which is basically unprecedented in any modern sport