Greatest Athlete Of All-Time Is...

I am sorry, I thought that the person replying was you since you both have OBVIOUS in your title. My fault.

I am not sure what position volleyball he played, so I am guessing, but I would imagine it was the middle blocker or the outside hitter and not the setter (the higher skill position). While they require some skill, it wouldn't even be close to the level of skill of making a free-throw for example, jk! ;) Meaning, you will see 6'5 girls playing Volleyball, but not 6'5 girls playing other sports where height isn't much help cause they are not athletic enough.

Tennis requires amazing hand/eye skills, but it also requires EVERY single other attribute to be the best, speed, endurance, intelligence (no coach), strength etc. Tennis requires you to be great at every attribute, not soo much in Basketball or other sports.

Sports that don't require height, you don't see basketball size players, cause they cant compete athletically.

You said that wilt is such a great athlete (being 7'1 has nothing to do with being athletic like you said before). Just by going with basketball, I would put Mugsy Boges much higher on the list. His quickness, speed, free throw ability, jumping ability far exceeded most everyone who ever played bball including Wilts. But since he wasn't 6-3, he was challenged vertically, he isn't considered among the best. He should have played tennis.

Calvin Murphy was a great great athlete, as he is a hall of fame basketball player at 5'9, AND an ALL-American tennis player in college. Those guys are some of the best athletes imo.

Jordan couldn't hit a curve ball much less return a 135 mile serve from Federer.

Gary Kasparov

Pele a close second

Jim brown punished his opponents in any sport he played.

Clark MF Kent. The dude can fly...

Ahemmm,

Not sure if you are a chess fan or just said Kasparov cause he is considered by many the greatest ever, but where do you see Magnus Carlson in comparison?

I think in another 5/10 years, with the current pace, will be considered the best of all time.

Dennis Reynolds 2.0 wrote:

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.

You're just frustrated because you can't debate. Let me give you a little help. When you make a claim, you have to back it up with evidence and compelling factors. You have not done anything but make asinine statements of your silly opinion without backing anything up.

If you're going to whine about making a fool of yourself, don't post anymore.

The guy who said tennis players are underrated in right. Tennis is more grueling than people realize. Federer belongs in this discussion as well as Navratilova and Graf.

Some of you are getting off track and trying to imagine how a certain athlete would do in other sports. That's futile and pointless to this discussion.

How did the athlete do in his/her own sport relative to how other athletes fared in theirs. And how did those sports stack up in terms of difficulty. That's the only thing you can compare.

Huckleberry wrote:

Ahemmm,

Not sure if you are a chess fan or just said Kasparov cause he is considered by many the greatest ever, but where do you see Magnus Carlson in comparison?

I think in another 5/10 years, with the current pace, will be considered the best of all time.

I used to be a chess fan. (Very lousy player, btw). Stopped following it many years ago. Kasparov was on top, and no one was on the horizon to challenge so I lost interest. There was a thread on LRC not too long ago on the Anand-Carlsson match, and I did pay attention. Carlsson looks like the real deal. Looks like he tends to prefer to drag matches out and wait for mistakes / win in the end game. Tough to go by ranking points when comparing players of different eras due to ranking point inflation. Kasparov and Carlsson matchup in their primes would be intriguing to say the least

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

Just watch the 30 for 30 about Bo Jackson, "You Don't Know Bo"

40yrd 4.12

100m 10.39

HJ 6'8

PV Over 13'

TJ 48'8

2 State Decathlon

Heisman Trophy Winnner

All Star in 2 Sports

Ron Lee

Drafted by 4 pro teams in 4 different sports plus put up some good marks in T & F while in HS and College.

Phoenix Suns - NBA

Portland Timbers - MLS

SF Giants - MLB

LA Rams - NFL

Barry Sanders was a far greater athlete than Bo Jackson.

Dr Doctor wrote:

Some of you are getting off track and trying to imagine how a certain athlete would do in other sports. That's futile and pointless to this discussion.

How did the athlete do in his/her own sport relative to how other athletes fared in theirs. And how did those sports stack up in terms of difficulty. That's the only thing you can compare.

If that is your criteria than Babe Ruth or Wayne Gretzky are going to be heavy contenders.

Jim Thorpe, Carl Lewis, Jackie Robinson, Wilt Chamberlain, Deion Sanders, Jim Brown. Just to name a few multi-sport studs.

Haile was good, but he only ran. If he played soccer or something too, that would have been a different story.

No mention of Usain Bolt?

Dan Gable

Lost only one match, his last, in college.

Undefeated and unscored upon in his way to an Olympic gold.

Barry was a better running back but he never was selected as a MLB allstar MVP (1989).

I believe Bo also had a faster 40 time than Barry.

And lastly I am not aware of any other major sports figure to come back from hip replacement surgery like Bo.

There used to be a show on tv that was a great way to settle debates over which stars are the most athletic. It was called The Superstars (not Battle of the Network Stars). Top athletes from all sports competed head to head in running, lifting and some skill events. It was easy to see who the really great athletes were: OJ was tough to beat, Deon Sanders was a true superstar, some basketball players were great. Overall I remember that the tennis players were some of the worst athletes. It's too bad we can't have similar competition today - I am sure contracts wouldn't allow it.

Here is a peek at what it was like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZkK7umu3JI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dj_sciOA74o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mN758d2qUjk

Mr. Obvious wrote:

Dr Doctor wrote:

Some of you are getting off track and trying to imagine how a certain athlete would do in other sports. That's futile and pointless to this discussion.

How did the athlete do in his/her own sport relative to how other athletes fared in theirs. And how did those sports stack up in terms of difficulty. That's the only thing you can compare.

If that is your criteria than Babe Ruth or Wayne Gretzky are going to be heavy contenders.

I said earlier that Gretzky should be in the discussion, but not Ruth, he played in an 8 team segregated league. That's nonsense, he faced no serious competition at all.

The Bayman wrote:

Jim Thorpe, Carl Lewis, Jackie Robinson, Wilt Chamberlain, Deion Sanders, Jim Brown. Just to name a few multi-sport studs.

Haile was good, but he only ran. If he played soccer or something too, that would have been a different story.

The problem with this is you keep listing people who weren't even seriously considered the best in their own sport (with the exception of Jim Brown, who I agree belongs in this discussion)

Thorpe was an average football player and below average baseball player. Lewis' PR's are not even near the top 20 times of all time and he was on steroids! I could go on, but I think you get the point.