Cuthbert

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 . 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.

Goofle

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.

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Neapolitan

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

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Chula Vista

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.

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on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

YorkeDaddy

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?

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Chula Vista

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

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“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

Cuthbert

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?

Thom Yorke

I think you're thinking of 1969/70, which may have been the craziest single season ever. He put up better numbers later on, but he completely changed hockey that season.

I'm biased as a Bruins fan, but I give the edge to Orr over Gretzky. It's more than just an offensive game. Orr was dominant in every phase of the game, which I just don't think Gretzky was.

I definitely understand the longevity argument though; it is easily the main thing going against Orr. I still think his complete game makes up for that though.

Chula Vista

Only 4 players (all forwards) in the entire history of the NHL, averaged more points per game than Orr did.

Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Mike Bossy, and Sidney Crosby.

Bobby Orr (a defenseman) averaged more points per game than these other notable forwards:

Steve Yzerman, Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, Phil Esposito, Jarri Kuri, Eric Lindros, Marcel Dionne, Guy Lafleur, Evgeni Malkin, Alexander Ovechkin, Jaromir Jagr, Pavel Bure, Brett Hull, Mark Messier, and hundreds of others.

No other defenseman in the history of the NHL has ever won a scoring title. Bobby Orr did it twice - and both times was named best defenseman too.

Orr won the Norris trophy a record 8 consecutive years. No other player has won it more than 3 consecutive years.

For those who are of the opinion that Wayne Gretzky is the greatest ever, try this. Imagine Bobby spent his entire career as a forward and that Gretzky had spent his as a defenseman (hard to do seeing as Wayne was nowhere near tough enough for the position) - now try to imagine how many points each would have scored. Wayne made a career of hanging out by the blue line waiting for outlet passes - Bobby never had that luxury.

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“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

Black Francis

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.

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