The legends of sports: Who was the greatest player is a matter of opinion. I look at it this way.

[fightforfreedom]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by JudyM (a host of the General Discussion forum).

When it comes to baseball Babe Ruth is the greatest legend. Was he the greatest player in baseball history? Some people may say Willie Mays, Ted Williams, etc, is the greatest baseball player in history. Nothing wrong with that. I say it is Babe Ruth for this reason.

Ruth would go out drinking the night before a game. The next day he would pitch a shutout and hit two home runs. Ruth was not a great athlete like other baseball legends. He was not the fastest, the biggest player. He hit over 700 homers and early in his career he was a very good pitcher. Which means he played once every 4 games. His home run total would have been much higher if he did not pitch. He also hit for a very high average.

Lebron James just became the all time scoring leader in basketball history. He is one of the greatest basketball players in history. Is he the greatest? Some people would say Jordan, Russell, Bryant, were the best ever to play the game. Nothing wrong with that. For me, the greatest basketball player I have ever seen is Larry Bird, for this reason.

All the basketball legends I listed had some things in common that Bird did not have. They were bigger, faster, better athletes than the players they faced. Bird was not. Yet, Bird would completely take over games. He would win games on his own. He would do things that would leave players on the other teams stunned. How did he do that? He's white, he's slow, can't jump.

There are videos you can find on youtube about what other players said about Bird. Videos of what he did. One example is this. Name me one other time were you saw players on the other team sitting on the bench cheering an opposing player as he kicked your ass. Players on the Atlanta Hawks did this with Bird. I believed they were fined for doing this. Bird would call his shots out. He would tell the player that was guarding him he was going to get the ball , shoot from this spot and win the game. Then Bird would do it.

There are legends and then there are legends.

[NoRethugFriends]

1. Wilt!

[PCIntern]

9. Exactly

This generation does not understand Wilt Chamberlain, and what he did and could do.

[fightforfreedom]

14. This is the point I was trying to make. This is just my way of looking at it.

There are great legends in every sport. I give extra credit to the great players who were not the biggest, tallest, fastest, better athletes than the other players. Then they did improbable feats. For me these type of players are truly legends. Wilt towered over the other players when he played. He was a giant compared to the other players. It was almost unfair.

[brewens]

2. Gordie Howe gets my vote. More people had bad nights because of that dude than any other. n/t

[MiHale]

4. +1...👍

[brush]

12. Willie Mays and Ted Williams. Williams home run total would've been...

way more if he hadn't been called to serve in both WWll and Korea as a fighter pilot (John Glenn's wing man). And Williams still easily made the 500 home run club...his very last at bat in the majors was a home run.

Willie Mays also served in Korea, which took at bats away from him, and HRs IMO. Willie also lost many HRs playing many years in Candlestick park in SF where the wind blew in and took away HRs. He still hit 660 HRs though.

I disgreed with you that Ruth wasn't a great athlete. Or course he was. He was a pitcher and a great hitter. You have to be a great athlete to do either of those things. Call up videos on Ruth hitting and it might change youur mind as to him not being a great athlete. You'll see the outstanding timing he had as he would stride into the on coming pitch...great to see and understand he was an ATHLETE. The only thing I would say of Ruth v Willima v Mays is that he played in Yankee Stadium with that short right field fence, not even 300 ft, where little more than pop-ups went over the fence and added to his home run total.

[fightforfreedom]

15. When Ruth was young he was in good shape like most young people.

He did not take care of himself , he did not workout, he drank, ate badly, and yet his play did not suffer as he became fatter and slower. Of course it caught up to him eventually.

[brewens]

17. When Ken Burns made his Baseball documentary, they found two reels of Red Sox

footage from the year before they sold Roth to the Yankees. They were too late. I think they only salvaged a few seconds of it. That story is in the final episode of their making of the documentary.

What a shame. If anyone would have realized that was there a couple decades before, they would have tried to preserve it. Maybe they would have saved a lot more of it.

[gab13by13]

3. Eddie The Eagle

[Celerity]

5. O Rei

[maveric]

6. Bill Russell

Eleven championships in 13 years. Player-coach for the last two.
Olympic gold medal and two NCAA championships.
Russell’s defensive play was dominant often owning Wilt.

[Caliman73]

7. I think ranking players as "The greatest" is mostly mental masturbation...

Certainly Bird is one of the best, along with Jordan, Russell, Chamberlain, Bryant, and James, and others.

Same with Ruth, Mays, Williams, Musial, Aaron, etc... in baseball


Too much energy, in my opinion, is spent on topics that really have no real world effect on the average person's life.

I admire all athletes who perform as the highest levels. I can certainly admire those who do so and who also transcend the sports they play and offer more to the culture.

I simply don't see any real value to arguing over "who was best?"

[LiberalFighter]

8. Different standards then and now. And different factors.

[OneBlueDotS-Carolina]

10. It's a toss up between the manning bros....

said no one ever....

Really why does the sport watching public have to endure these sloths?

Apologies to Sloths.

[jalan48]

11. I think it's contextual to the time the athlete's performed in but my vote would be Jim Thorpe.

[gab13by13]

13. What Jesse Owens did at the Olympics

was right up there.

[jalan48]

16. I agree. Sadly, Thorpe was stripped of his Olympic medals for playing semi-pro baseball

one summer where he received a few hundred dollars. It was unlike today where there are paid, professional athletes in the Olympics.

[JudyM]

18. Locking after alert and discussion among forum hosts

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