OT... Greatest athlete you've ever seen play. Any sport
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that makes him a better "athlete" than say Bo Jackson who excelled at multiple sports ? total farce. Jordan being the best ever in his sport is certainly debatable.
In no particular order, the best athletes I’ve seen IN PERSON:
Stan Musial
Bo Jackson
Willie Shoemaker
Paul Hornung
Nolan Ryan
Bob Gibson
Sandy Koufax
I disagree with that.
Jordan was good. Very good.
When Jordan started winning titles the surrounding competition was all gone on way past prime.
In particular the East..
Bird
Isiah
Dr. J
Moses Malone
McHale
Parrish
The late 80's Cavs
Wilkins
Bernard King
The NBA was extremely depleted when Jordan started winning titles.
He can only beat the opponents in front of him but when the opponents were the highest he never even made a final.
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Because his teams stunk. He was still the best player in the world before he started winning
Watched Tiger win at Augusta this year. Arguably the most dominant athlete in his individual sport. Highlight of my trip to Augusta, however, was Sunday AM walking through the main gate and to the first hole chatting with Tim Brown. Pretty good day.
Best athlete overall - Bo Jackson.
Best at his own sport - Ronaldo (soccer)
Best college football player - was always in awe of Reggie Bush. His game against Fresno State was absolutely NUTS.
Best at his own sport - Ronaldo (soccer)
Best college football player - was always in awe of Reggie Bush. His game against Fresno State was absolutely NUTS.
Is being elite in your particular sport entitle you to be labeled as the best athlete? Would Bruce Jenner fall into this category? Secretariat? Rocky Marciano? Dave DeBusschere? Cigar won 16 straight races, tying the record of the great Citation. How about this incredible athlete? I saw Cigar at Arlington, so I'm going with him.
Hey Rockne, you must be an old futz like me. I've seen in person everyone on your list, except for Willie Shoemaker. I only saw Musial play once, and it was near the very tail end of his career, so he wasn't the same player he was when he was younger.
You don't have Michael Jordan on your list. As a Bulls fan I got to see MJ in person about 7-10 times, and of course saw him play on TV probably 100 times. He was The Man.
I actually may have seen Willie Shoemaker, but didn't know it at the time. I'm not a horse racing guy. I've been to only 1 horse race in my life, but it was the 1973 Kentucky Derby, won by Secretariat. One of my college roomates was from Louisville, and he was really into horse racing, so a group of us went down to see the Derby that year. He kept telling us all this stuff about Secretariat, but it didn't mean anything to me at the time. We watched the race from the infield, where the college students and riffraff watched the race. The high society types watched from the grandstand. My two best memories of that day: One, Secretariat was a magnificent looking horse. Two, finding out that mint juleps pack a mean punch. My buddy's mom made a couple of thermoses of mint juleps for us, which we smuggled in with us. I drank a few too many of them.
Interesting sidebar on Secretariat. Some time after Secretariat died in 1989, Sports Illustrated ran a nice story on him. (Here it is for those interested:
https://www.si.com/longform/belmont/index.html) In the story they quote Dr. Thomas Swerczek, the vet who did the necropsy (an autopsy on an animal) on Secretariat after he died. Here is what he said:
“We were all shocked,” Swerczek said. “I’ve seen and done thousands of autopsies on horses, and nothing I’d ever seen compared to it. The heart of the average horse weighs about nine pounds. This was almost twice the average size, and a third larger than any equine heart I’d ever seen. And it wasn’t pathologically enlarged. All the chambers and the valves were normal. It was just larger. I think it told us why he was able to do what he did.”
In other words, because of his extraordinarily large heart, Secretariat was an oxygen making machine, which is why he kicked ass like he did.
Bo, Barry Sanders, Gretzky, and Tiger stand out to me, but my sleeper is Dominik Hasek. In his prime, he was unbelievable, and thats coming from a Flyers fan.
Speaking of champions and the elite of their sport, 7k racing pigeons were incinerated in a housing barn fire that destroyed the whole structure. These birds were the best from all around the world and getting ready for their racing version of the Indy 500. This all happened not very far from South Bend in LaPorte, Indiana just the other day.
Jordan beat some really good teams in the finals. Lakers were still really good (magic, worthy, Thompson, Perkins, Byron Scott, divac, AC green). Blazers w/ porter, drexler, duckworth, Kersey, buck Williams, Sam Perkins, Danny ainge. Sonics w/ Gary Payton Kemp, schrempf, Hersey Hawkins, Sam Perkins). Suns w/ Kevin Johnson, Barkley, majerle, ainge, Tom chambers. Jazz w/ Stockton, Malone, hornacek, bryon Russell. All those teams were loaded & would be considered just as good or better than any of the dream teams that have been constructed in today’s game, especially when we’re talking about depth, and Jordan’s bulls beat them all w/o going to a game 7. He’s the best player ever, imho.
If you asked me who was the greatest athlete in 1972 I would have to say it was me. I dominated gym class in floor hockey, basketball, softball, wrestling, flag football, tackle football, dodge ball, track and field, weightlifting, karate, and square dancing. Jim Thorpe had nothing on me.
I am an “old futz”. If I were to pick a great horse that I’ve seen, I would choose Swaps. I did go to school with Kareem but his name at that time was Lew Alcindor.
Last I checked basketball is a team sport. 5 vs 5
Now of all team sports it's definitely the one where a single player can make the most difference. Why? No contact and illegal defense.
Football you can't do it by yourself. Hockey you can't do it by yourself. Baseball you definitely can't unless we're talking pitchers.
You're either too young or just a trendy fan but in Jordan's younger days even in the NBA wgich promotes individualism he still couldn't reach the finals until the east was depleted.
When he started winning those teams he beat were nowhere as good as the 80's Celtics, 80's Lakers, late 80's Pistons. The Lakers team he beat in the finals was nothing compared to the 80's version.
No Kareem. Worthy was almost retired. Magic got hurt in game 2. They weren't even close.
Listen there's no right or wrong answer. It's the best in your opinion.
Personally I don't think he was the best in his sport let alone greatest athlete ever.
He was the best player on the planet from 1988 to 1998. If you couldn't see that then you dont know sh*t about basketball. His teams sucked. The celtics lakers and pistons had 2 to 4 hall of famers and Jordan had nothing. As soon as he got one more big time player (Pippen) the Bulls were right there. He dominated Bird but you cant do it alone. And he dominated the pistons so they came up with "Jordan rules" where 2 people were over him at all times. And when he got to the rim they tried killing him everytime.
They had to change their entire defense to slow down one guy lol. He was destroying the league according to the great Chuck Daly. Said hes destroying the league and no one was like him.
When he hit his peak no one was on his level
Good lord... Yet again your lack of real knowledge comes shining right on through.
He had Pippen for 3 years before he made the finals.
That was after the Pistons were done... Celtics were done...
Did you ever actually watch Bird vs Jordan? Before Bird was a shadow of himself?
If you did and you knew anything about sport in particular basketball you'd never say he dominated Bird.
Truth be told when healthy Bird was every bit as good and even better in some areas.
Perhaps you should take a moment and read this. It just might skew your trendy view because you seem to have a hard time with facts.
http://basketbawful.blogspot.com/2007/07/jordan-versus-bird.html?m=1
Oh so Pippen in his fist 3 seasons with Jordan is supposed to beat a team with 3 and 4 hall of famers on it lol. Come on dummy. Be realistic
Psitons won the title in 1990 and Jordan took them to a game 7 where Pip got hurt or they couldve won that title. The year after Pistons won the title they are "done" ( that sounds really stupid....Jordan took them out. They werent done but Jordan ended them.
Yes i watched Bird vs Jordan. 1986 was Birds best team and he was mvp. One of the greatest teams ever. Jordan wa . A young pup and had zero help whatsoever. And he put 63 on Bird in the freaking Garden and against one of the greatest teams of all time by himself. Un freaking real. Still one of the greatest performances of all time.
In that series he averaged 43.7ppg 6.3rpg 5.7apg. He was a baby in the league and shredded Bird and the hall of fame Celtics. LOL YOU ARE CLUELESS
Michael Jordan changed the NBA. He was so much better than anyone in the league when he hit his prime. He was on another level. Bird was great. And I'm a huge Celtic fan. But player to player he couldnt hang with MJ. Too athletic too skilled too good. MJ is the greatest player ever. Bird is a top 10 player. Legend. But he aint Mike
In my eyes, there is no doubt/argument MJ was the best ever..I disagree with the league being depleted- Stockton/Malone, Ewing, Olajuwon, David Robinson, Drexler, Barkley.
Better argument would be made for Eldrick.. Think about who Tiger beat up on in his prime in route to dominance- Phil, Vijay and Duvall.
I followed the NBA very closely from the mid-60s through the end of the 90s. Still a casual fan. MJ was the best IMO. He obviously had great athletic skills, but what set him apart was his tremendous will to win, and to dominate you while doing so. I loved Bird's mental side of the game, and he may have been Jordan's equal there, but he just didn't have MJ's pure athletic skills. It's always hard to compare players from different eras, but MJ was All-NBA first team 10 times, All-Defensive NBA first team 9 times, 5-time MVP (and should have won 3 other times, IMO), 10 scoring titles, and has the highest career scoring average. He dominated the game while he played. Virtually all of his peers, including Magic and Larry Bird, said MJ is the greatest ever. LBJ is probably the most athletically gifted player I've ever seen, but his mental side of the game and ability to take over a game when the game is on the line doesn't come close to MJ. Not even close.
