The Rice/MJ comparison is a good one... If you had told a basketball fan 20 years ago that the most dominant player in the game was a guard, much less a shooting guard, he would have thought you were crazy. And that is why MJ was special, he reinvented a positon. And just like other people have noted on this post, Rice was special because before him, wide receivers mostly just "ran routes." I think Joe Montana was lucky to have Rice, not vice versa. Without Rice, you are seeing Montana with the "Troy Aikman concussion face" on the sidelines a lot more often due t his lack of mobility (he could always throw to Rice, no matter what). One thing about MJ though, he was mean. David Halberstam said that in the play-offs he would hear a journalist say that player would be able to guard him, and MJ would just take it personal. Like Craig Ehlo and the Cavaliers, MJ ruined their franchise. Not just Ehlo and that year's play-offs, but the Cavs have never been the same since. So the edge goes to MJ.
I didn't think an MJ retirement thread would involve Jerry Rice, Bo Jackson, Pete Sampras, and whoever... I'm expecting someone to mention Secretariat, the race horse.
LOL, Secretariat is a good one. Anyway, if you want THE greatest sportsman ever, I think it has to be Pele. Pele is to soccer is like Jordan is to basketball and Gretzky is to hockey. But soccer is 10 times bigger than any of those other sports. Brazil was almost unbeatable throughout Pele's career. Pele was not the only reason the Brazilians were so great. But he was the best player on the best team in the world for over a decade and a half. His name is synonymous to the most popular game in the world. And he is one of the classiest guys in all sports.
Oh...if we're talking ALL TIME, we're talking Babe Ruth. No one...no one ever dominated a sport the way he dominated baseball...When He was 26 he already had way more homeruns than anyone in his sport's history, and when he retired, he had more than twice as many as the 2nd place person on the all-time list. There have probably been better all around players, but no one near as dominant. He was, as George Will described him, " like an Everest in Kansas."... Pele, Gretzky, Rice, Brown, Ali, etc. were all dominant in their time, Gretzky and Pele come closest, but Ruth was the most dominant player in his sport in the history of American sports...and I hate the Yankees. ( The above recognizes that Josh Gibson might have been close, at the time, but it's impossible to say for sure.)
I have to disagree about Babe Ruth. The most dominant sportsman had to be Donald Bradman (an Australian cricketer). When he retired in 1948, his Test batting average was 99.94 (that's in international play). To this day, the next highest average over a completed career is 60.97. A batsman is considered extremely successful if he averages over 50, and over 40 is very respectable. I don't know of any sportsman that has been that much better than anyone who has ever played, before or since. And it pains me to say that about an Aussie
I fully admit that I know nothing about cricket...and did qualify my statement with the word 'American'...Can't argue for or against your point...but the numbers, to an ignorant, look impressive.
Well I am going to miss MJ And his brains.I always wonder how can can use that brain so well and just dominate the league.
Agreed. Jordan really could have helped the Wizards... he succeeded in getting them more coverage by just being him, but he had put together the team in such a way that it was going to be very difficult to win. It was a team full of swing men... Stackhouse, Russell, Hughes, Dixon, Jordan himself... and no one else. Point guard? Lue. Yay! Center? White... give me a break. And instead of developing Brown, Oakley was brought in... wtf is Oakley on a developing young team? All that, coupled with Jordan's insistence that he start... oh well. If the Wizards can get a more balanced team, they can do alright in the future. After all, they're in the LEastern Conference.
I still think Pele is the biggest because of the sport he's in. How many players have all the other athletes competed against to become the best in their sports? Soccer is the most established sport in the world. There have been many many great players competing from different countries in the world scene for more than half a century. Of all these great players, no one would claim to surpass Pele's greatness. I mean no one.
Diego Maradona, George Best and Johann Cryuff would all have a more than reasonable claim to be in the same category. A large number of professional footballers would cite Maradona as the greatest footballer ever.
Some would even suggest Beckenbauer, and another Englishman who's name escapes me... But I think it's Pele...and not just cause my aunt's boyfriend at the time got me his very own (sweaty) shirt from when he played with the Cosmos...signed...heh heh...
George Best is from Northern Island. I'm guessing that you mean Bobby Charlton. You could be right, Pele might be the best ever, but I don't see the difference as great as the difference between Babe Ruth and the rest, or Bradman and the rest.
Well, back on topic...... MJ was an absolute wonder to watch from the moment he stepped onto the court in the mid 80's, until he walked off in Philly last week. I had the opportunity to watch him his entire career. I had the privilege of seeing him mature, seeing his game evolve, and seeing him force his teammates to get better, maximizing their production. I have never seen someone with such a visibly obvious competitive spirit and will to win. Everywhere you went, you saw kids emulating MJ.....wearing his shoes, sticking their tongues out. You still see it today. He has had a huge influence on so many. I was lucky to have seen that man play basketball. But to see his entire career has been truly amazing.
Beckenbauer was the only one who was close to having the longevity of greatness as Pele. Cryuff and Maradona were the only players (as far as I know) that have been mentioned as Pele's "heir" as the "king in football" because of their talent level. In other words, Beckenbauer was not on the same level talent-wise but he had the long domination. Cryuff and Maradona had the talent but had short or sporadic dominance. Only Pele had both the talent and the longevity. I agree that the gap between Pele and the other superstars is not as great as that of Ruth. But the sheer number of superstars in the soccer world makes the "best ever" status more impressive.
