Who was the most dominant player in any sport, EVER?

RIP Bill Russell

 

Those are all good. To add a few more... Playoff and especially Finals Shaq for around 3 to 4 years is the closest we've seen in the NBA. Floyd Mayweather dominated everyone. Barry Bonds at the plate for that handful of years.

 

If winning is the objective, DEFINITELY.

 

There's a reason we see such insane winning percentages and dominating individual performances in nascent professional sports (women's especially).

The level of competition is incredibly immature such that one great, or even good, player can legit own the sport for a decade or more without breaking a sweat.

Once a sport has reached a saturation point of popularity, you don't see such things happen anymore because a lot more other people who are athletically gifted are competing against you and so the disparity largely goes away.

 

I could dig that, but I don't completely buy it. LeBron, for example, has dominated the NBA in his own way. Jordan was dominant individually before the Bulls dominated in championships winning 6 of 6. The Celtics were the first of their kind in so many ways. First Black starting five, Auerbach was innovative as a coach and general manager, and Russell did his defense and rebounding. But, at the end of the day, it was Russell who brought the championships to Boston. Point is that there are players who transcended and they likely would do so at any point in their sport's history.

 

LeBaby doesn't count. He's the one that started these Superteam collusions.

 

I'd kindly remind you that none were free agents. All were traded for (OT, Horry, Cassell, etc). Not even a close similarity.

 

I think that the run Leo Messi had at Barcelona is the best ever for any pro athlete
Just absurd numbers on top of team accomplishments

 

Ruth in MLB. In 1921 there were 16 teams in the AL and NL combined. Ruth hit 59 home runs that year. Only seven teams hit more (one of which was his own Yankee team). That might seem like a one-off freak occurrence, except in 1020 he hit 54 home runs, and only two teams hit more (again, one of them the Yankees). He had a career OPS+ over 200 (206), the second highest is Ted Williams at 191. Oh yeah, he also pitched for four seasons with the Red Sox, including in 1916 when he started 40 games and led the league in ERA at 1.16.

 

I would put Michael Phelps in the discussion in a crowded sport he just dominated at so many levels for years

 

In their peaks, they were. But if you're asking if they seemed more dominant than anyone ever... Nope for Shaq because he didn't do it long enough. Nope for Bonds for the same reason, the steroids, and the other historical baseball players. For Mayweather, I just haven't seen anyone straight up demoralize boxers as he did. He wouldn't knock them out, and maybe that fact eliminates him, but those boxers knew they didn't have a chance of beating him and that they weren't in his league.

 

Greco Roman Wrestler Aleksander Karelian. There is about a 12 year period from 1988 to 2000 where he was almost unbeatable. He won 3 Olympic golds 9 world championships in that stretch. His loss to Rulon Gardner in the finals at Sydney was one of the most shocking upsets in Olympic history. Possible more unexpected than the 1980 Miracle on Ice.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandr_Karelin

 

How was their trade meddling with the Rockets? Both trades were accepted by the NBA. We know the NBA has voided unfair trades before.

It's called collusion. The three got together during the off season and colluded to join together. Basketball hasn't been the same since.

 

Carl Lewis track and field