Greatest Athlete Of All-Time Is...

muhammad ali- just ask him.

Whoever the all time best Tennis player is.

There isn't a sport that combines everything such as skill, speed, strength, athletism (hands and feet, sorry soccer), brains, heart all in one. Nothing is more difficult to be the top of your sport than Tennis.

My pick would be Roger Federer until Nadal passes him (maybe).

The finals of a grandslam would be like (if you like BBall), Michael Jordan vs Bird, not 24 guys going against each other. Nothing is close to that imo.

Anyone who picks a basketball player is freaking crazy. They are not the most athletic basketball players, they are just the best basketball players over the height of 6 feet.

If normal people dont play your sport (height wise for instance), then your sport is a niche sport. And basektball is the most of them all, how many 6'9 people do you work with compared to normal height. Athletism has nothing to do with height so how can a sport that requires you to be tall possibly pick the most athletic guys, again they are the best guys who are tall, not the same.

Why did you even start this thread Dr Doctor, no one is going to change your mind. Your fanboy delusion won't allow you see the truth of what other people post. Times aren't all that matters, which, BTW, Bekele is faster. Your arguments of WR margins should only hurt your 10 argument in depth/quality of competition. Wins in major championships are what this sport is about. Geb is severely behind Bekele in 5000m and XC achivements, hell he's behind in 10000m.

"8. Distance running is by far and away the most participated sporting activity in the world." - This is absolutely hilarious. Lumping in the 44,990 yahoos who run the Chicago Marathon in with the 10 actual legit professionals who could win the race only to boost your participation and make the sport seem tougher. I'll give you a homework assignment. Pull together the total number of distance runners in NCAA Division 1 then compare to a sport like football.

Plus, this isn't even about Geb vs. Bekele, it's about best athlete ever. Neither one of those guys comes close to Wilt, Jordan, Russell, etc.

ventolin^3 wrote:

Mr. Obvious wrote:

ventolin^3 wrote:

go fetch a job paying inflation-adjusted 175 balloons/hour past 25y+...

then surmise why i have spent mosta last 25y+ watching individual sports on tv/satellite...

You get paid in balloons?

What does what you get paid have to do with spending all your free time in front of the TV?

you are on dumber side of stoopid

if pay is 175 balloons/hour for 25y, how many hours/week is trade-off couch-potatoeing watching tiger/pistol/serena/95%+ golden-diamond league meets since start ???

At this site:

I can buy 1000 balloons for $74 (USD). So 175/hour doesn't seem like very much.

Again, I have no idea what your pay is has to do with how much time you spend on the couch. Unless you are too out of breath from blowing up the balloons or something?

Reggin Reggi wrote:

The Big Dipper wrote:

Wilt Chamberlain was indeed a freak of nature.

* Incredible strength- benched over 500lbs

* 53' shot put in HS

* 49.0 440 yd dash

* 1:58.3 880 could out run most NBA guards

* over 40" vertical leap

* 6'6" HJ

* 22" LJ

* 45'9" Triple jump at KU

* World class volleyball player

Half of those stats aren't even true. Maybe more. Wilt was great, but the urban legends about him are a bit silly.

You are talking out of yer ass.

Wilt really???

Dude can barely make 50% of his freethrows. I do count skill level as part of your athleticism.

Basketball players are not even close to the most athletic. They are just tall.

Being an athletic 7 footer doesn't make you athletic, makes you athletic for a 7'0.

He plays a sport regular people are not able to play due to height. Make the freaking rim to 9 feet and the average height of basketball players would be a lot shorter. Then you would get really athletic people playing, not just tall people who can barely make freethrows.

Flagpole wrote:

Limiting this to the actual question, who is the greatest ATHLETE of all time, I have to say...

...LeBron James.

He's not (not yet anyway) the greatest basketball player ever, because that is Michael Jordan, but he's the best athlete ever.

He could have gone into the NFL and been a hall of famer there. Just freak of nature athleticism.

Bo Jackson would be another to consider, but LeBron James has got to be it.

You have no actual evidence for this. He was a good HS football player. Do you have any data on Lebron's lifting numbers? Do you have any data on his speed? Oh did you see him 'sprint' 50 feet and outrun Shaq? There was an article on this awhile back that found Lebron SELDOM exceeded 10mph in a game.

If you say he is 'big and strong' - randos like Margus Hunt are much bigger, much stronger, and much faster.

Lebron is a dominant basketball player, probably the best ever. But he is not magic. It is a game of height.

Huckleberry wrote:

Whoever the all time best Tennis player is.

There isn't a sport that combines everything such as skill, speed, strength, athletism (hands and feet, sorry soccer), brains, heart all in one. Nothing is more difficult to be the top of your sport than Tennis.

My pick would be Roger Federer until Nadal passes him (maybe).

Yeah, but can they run a 12:39 5k and a 2:03:59 marathon? Cause if they can't...

Guaranteed, in his prime, Haile could outrun any tennis player at any distance. So, there goes speed. Strength we'll never really know. Strength in tennis means something completely different in running. Athleticism!? Nice try. I guess that leaves skill. I'll agree that tennis probably takes more skill, but that doesn't mean that a tennis player has any more skill than a soccer player or runner. For example, I'd argue high-hurdles takes more skill than tennis. All-in-all there's no way of charting any of this best athlete nonsense.

I have said this for many years - Haile Gebrselassie definitely is the "greatest" distance runner (male ore female) in the history of the sport (there just isn't any serious argument against that). And he really has very, very strong arguments on his side to be called the "greatest" in the history of sport at all - not just distance running or athletics in general. For sure there can't be anything like a proof for something like that - but at least the arguments for him are very strong.

Just a few days ago I have looked at some old races of him from the late 1990s, for example the 7:26,15 WIR over 3000m - he was hindered by his pacemakers and definitely could have run faster. Or his 26:31,32 WR over 10000m from 1997 - I can't remember any other record which was set with such ease. In 1992 he was World Junior Champion and in 1993 World Champion - and we are still talking about his actual performances. He is absolutely unique, absolutely.

All the people who are mentioning what he has NOT won! Well, that's probably the greatest sign of his greatness. You can just start what he hasn't won after you have listed all his achievements - after a long, long list.

No 5000m gold? True. But than please add that on two occasions after the championships he has set the WR by big margins few days later. And so on...

Mr. Obvious wrote:At this site:

http://www.balloonwarehouse.com/SpecialDealLatexBalloons.htm

I can buy 1000 balloons for $74 (USD). So 175/hour doesn't seem like very much.

Again, I have no idea what your pay is has to do with how much time you spend on the couch. Unless you are too out of breath from blowing up the balloons or something?

idiot

try more like upper-mid :

The premise of your post is really stupid. I mean, even for you this is exceptionally stupid.

You focus on height and say that we should discount this because height is an advantage in this sport. OK, but then we need to discount all distance runners because VO2 Max is an advantage in this sport. We also need to discount all sprinters because fast twitch muscles is an advantage in that sport.

Indeed, we have to discount ALL athletes, or at least anyone with athletic ability because those abilities give them advantages in their sport.

You are an absolute imbecile. Please never post again.

Yes, for better or worse this argument is interesting and not "winnable" in any sense since you would first have to define the terms and in defining those terms you would determine at least the candidates, if not the winner. There is not such a thing as "athleticism in general" as all sports have specific requirements which are particular to them.

I personally favor athletes who have proven they have skill sets that translate to more than one sport. Thus, Gebresellasie, though he may be the best in the history of athletics, has only one very particular skill. I would also not entertain Pele or Michael Jordan. Others might think that dominance in that one activity is a "better" measure of best.

Chamberlain is a compelling figure to me because he had a track record of success in a variety of sports. Jim Brown also dominated college lacrosse during his time at Syracuse, pretty much unstoppable.

Jim Thorpe.

* Gold in pentathlon and decathlon in 1912.

He could run the 100-yard dash in 10 seconds flat, the 220 in 21.8 seconds, the 440 in 51.8 seconds, the 880 in 1:57, the mile in 4:35, the 120-yard high hurdles in 15 seconds, and the 220-yard low hurdles in 24 seconds. He could long jump 23 ft 6 in and high-jump 6 ft 5 in.[6] He could pole vault 11 feet, put the shot 47 ft 9 in, throw the javelin 163 feet, and throw the discus 136 feet.

His Olympic decathlon record stood for two decades.

* Played collegiate and professional football. At one point scored all his teams points in a win over Harvard (four field goals and a touchdown).

Dwight Eisenhower said: "My memory goes back to Jim Thorpe. He never practiced in his life, and he could do anything better than any other football player I ever saw."

* Played professional baseball

* Played professional basketball

Mr. Obvious wrote:Thus, Gebresellasie, though he may be the best in the history of athletics

drivel

no 7'20

no go

I do think Ventolin deserves a nomination for greatest sports fan of all time. He is the world's leading expert in 1/2 dozen sports plus he gets his paycheck in balloons. I don't know how anybody else could compete with that.

He also has incredible skills at insulting people and making up numbers!!!

Mr. Obvious couldn't be more oblivious if he tried.

My point isn't that we should discount them, my point is that people look at basketball players as these great athletes, but imo they are not THE best ever, but the best at people who are 6'7, or 6'10.

They are selected (by the grace of god cause you cant be taller if you tried) from a very very small group of men who are taller than 99% of America. If you believe that all these great athletes are in the top 1% in America just because they happen to be tall is F'n crazy.

I think there would/are be a crap load of much much better athletes in the other 99% of the freaking population than the tall booty club.

And another thing...ur examples are beyond ridiculous, even for your slow....

You can train to be faster, you can train to have higher VO2, you can train to be better at mostly anything, but tell me genius, how the F do you train to be taller?!!? please tell me that?

Huckleberry wrote:

Mr. Obvious couldn't be more oblivious if he tried.

If you believe that all these great athletes are in the top 1% in America just because they happen to be tall is F'n crazy.

I think there would/are be a crap load of much much better athletes in the other 99% of the freaking population than the tall booty club.

I do not recall saying that all basketball players are great athletes. Of course many of them are in the league just because they are tall.

Physical attributes play a part in many, many sports. Even though you are right that VO2Max, for instance, can be trained and improved that does not mean there is not a genetic component or that anybody can be great at it. That is certainly not true. A whole host of attributes that make people great athletes are genetic. Life is not fair sometimes.

Wilt Chamberlain was a great athlete. Part of that greatness (but by a long way not all) was due to him being 7'1."

Sorry you are unable to have any sort of nuanced, interesting conversation.

You just said to never post again and then come back and tell me I cant have any sort of conversation. Wow...

Why do you think the best tennis players are not 6'9, or soccer players, or badminton players etc...all of who have to compete against the other 99% who are of normal height to be the best at their sport. Because tall players don't have the ATHLETICISM to compete against normal size players or the other 99% of the world.

My point is that Basketball is a niche sport that requires height that you cant train or teach, so by that rule, you already are limiting yourself to a very small population, and imo, disregarding much much better ATHLETES who are not tall. Which is ok, that's what they want.

Athletes a lot of times are trained for years, especially the greatest ones to be better, so even if you may have initially better speed than someone else, do you have the drive, will and motivation to actually improve it. That is where the BRAINS and PERSONALITY comes into making the greatest athlete. You are not just born with ur max capacity, you have to earn it most of the time to be the best.

Wilt might be able to run or jump, but couldn't make a free throw. And I know there are a lot of other athletes who can run, jump and make a free-throw better than him.

In simple terms, he doesn't have the "skill" to make a simple free throw I think the GREATEST athlete should have. That would tell me he would be very limited in actual skill sports like tennis, bowling, baseball etc. He is a great athlete for someone who is 7 feet tall.

Basketball is beautiful to watch, but imo, are just the best Tall athletes only. NOT the best athletes EVER.

Mr. Obvious wrote:

I do think Ventolin deserves a nomination for greatest sports fan of all time. He is the world's leading expert in 1/2 dozen sports plus he gets his paycheck in balloons. I don't know how anybody else could compete with that.

He also has incredible skills at insulting people and making up numbers!!!

Agreed!