In one of my old jobs, a colleague once tried to argue that Don Bradman, the Australian cricket player, was the greatest sports person of all time. His central argument? Statistics. Don Bradman, statistically, was so far ahead of his peers that he was undoubtedly the greatest cricket player who ever lived. I’m not sure this is an argument that can be settled with statistics.
So how do you judge it? By what competitions they won? Iconic performances? Cultural impact?
Obviously judging the greatest sports person of all time is fairly subjective, so let’s hear opinions: who do you think is the greatest?
I have a couple of people who I think are up there: Muhammad Ali is the first one who springs to mind, just in terms of his impact. Another is Maradona, who I would say is the greatest soccer player who ever lived. More recently I think Roger Federer deserves a swing at the title. As does Michael Jordan probably, even though I’m not a massive fan of basketball.
Who would you say is the best?
Comments
78 responses to “Off Topic: Greatest Sports Person Of All Time”
ROGER FEDERER <3
that is all.
I was going to comment that “I think Roger Federer’s pretty cool”, but looks like you’ve got that covered.
Not sure if he’s the best sportsman ever, but in full flight he’s the most impressive and dominant I’ve witnessed in real-time (though only ever on TV, unfortunately)
100% Federer. He was dominant for so long and not by a small measure. Literally years of unrivaled performance. He was then overshadowed by some competitors but still managed to be one of the best tennis players, now he is back playing brilliantly again and looks like he may retain number 1 in the rankings again by end of this year. All of this in an individual sport, he can only rely on himself for his results. Plus he does a ton of charity work and comes across as a genuine good guy….easily best sportsman of all time.
Bo. He knows things…
Bo knows this. And Bo knows that.
But Bo don’t know Jack – cause Bo can’t rap.
(thankyou A Tribe Called Quest’s Phife Dawg)
All these references from 20+ years ago are making me feel so so old… :'(
It has to be Michael Jordan. Nobody else could have saved the planet from the Monstars.
YES
Phar Lap
He so totally was a person!
I sadly had to look up Maradona to see who he was. I read it as Madonna the first time and was doubly confused.
I don’t know a lot of sportspeople so they have to have made a huge impact, or have been picked up by marketing people, or have a game franchise for me to know who they are.
Ones I have heard of from Soccer are Pelé, from Gridiron, erm… Mr Madden, I know Jordan from Nike ads and that cartoon movie. I remember a few rugby league players from my childhood, as I used to buy and sell footy cards in the playground, but I don’t think any of them would qualify.
Formula one, I used to know them all, but stopped watching years ago (around the time Nikki Lauder had his accident)
I’m often embarrassed by my lack of sports knowledge, I actually find televised sports to intense in a way, I get too upset when my chosen team loses, and never really got into playing much in the way of team sports apart from playing ice hockey for the Macquarie Bears back in the late 80s.
So, I’d vote for Ali, he was apparently amazing as a boxer, and was a cultural phenomenon. Most people in the world would recognise his face or name I’d reckon.
I wonder if more than one or two female sportspersons will get mentioned.Senna, find me another sportsperson who’s life and tragic death have changed the sport for the better.
This is a strong argument for a question with no truly right answer
Hell yes. Insanely talented and with the balls to match.
Apollo Creed!!!!! Never forget Apollo Creed!!!!!!
that’s gotta be close to the introduction of headgear in Amateur boxing? I think Rocky IV was a bit later though.
Billy Bremna ( grandad says so)
Oop, Bremner. Seems he’s Scottish too
I’m biased, but I lean towards MJ as being the greatest sports person of all time. I’m not even convinced he is the best basketball player (it all depends on how you judge that), but as a sports person, his fire burned brighter than anyone I’ve heard about. Countless stories of his competitive nature, insane work ethic and drive.
He didn’t even make his high school basketball team, he didn’t get drafted number 1 in to the NBA, but he fought through adversity time and time again and wouldn’t stop until people recognised him as the greatest.
I could go on, but Melbourne Cup festivities are calling me.
true he was the greatest basketballer to play the game BUT lets not forget the Bulls had a team of stars during his day. Without Scottie Pippen for example, the legend of MJ would not be as great. Great teammates allowed Jordan to be even better.
the bulls didi not have an all-star team nor a team of stars.
Pippen yes, but no dominant centre, point guard or power forward. The bench was mostly role players, who came in and did what needed to be done at particular times.
BTW, I just looked up Pelé and his name is actually “Edson Arantes do Nascimento”, where did the name Pelé come from?
Me. I am the greatest sports person of all time.
I have never seen you sports. I need proof!
I’ve already proved enough!
Sport
3. BIOLOGY an animal or plant showing abnormal or striking variation from the parent type, especially in form or colour, as a result of spontaneous mutation.
He’s an exceptional shade of mauve, has three legs and horns. Definitely the greatest sport in existence. (Or so I have to assume…)
I nominate Lance Armstrong, for his services in promoting the importance of effective drug testing.
Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards.
A true inspiration to us all.
It is Michael Jordan.
6 winning finals, 6 MVP’z in finals etc etc
In all seriousness, I think Rod Laver should be part of the conversation.
I didn’t even know he posted on Kotaku.
Are we going to just skip the only true Aussie answer here? It’s The Don
I don’t know many sportsball personalities, but I think we can all agree that the greatest of all time was that Aussie one. You all know who I’m talking about, it doesn’t really need mentioning.
stephen bradbury?
Michael Jordan is “athletically” the greatest sportsman of all time.
I think Usain Bolt should get a mention though because he is awesome.
I can’t believe no one has mentioned Don Bradman, his batting average of 99.98% is something that has never been matched and possibly never will.
Put in a standard deviation over every sport, he has the highest average of 4.4, in front of Pele with 3.7. [Source http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2007/sep/16/comment.news1%5D
*Edit pipped at the post by Piat
Steven Bradbury without a doubt….. any who disagree are clearly wrong
🙂
I don’t know, it’s hard to say really. Unfortunately, this is probably restricted to sports that are played on a pretty global level, so awesome athletes from sports like Rugby League and AFL would mostly be left out…if you asked anyone outside of Australia who Wally Lewis was for example, they’d stare at you with a blank face.
If you believe Anthony Mundine, he’s the greatest sportsperson in history. But I don’t think you should believe him.
Michael Schumacher? There’s no denying he’s got the greatest results in the history of F1 that may not ever be surpassed.
David Beckham? While his skills on the field are debatable, there’s no denying that he’s one of, if not the most recognised sportsperson worldwide, even in countries like the US who are not big soccer playing nations. He is a huge ambassador for the sport.
Donald Bradman? It’s doubtful there will be another cricketer that gets even close to his on field accomplishments.
Usain Bolt? Fastest sprinter to have ever lived, has smashed world records all over the place.
Ian Thorpe? Arguably the greatest Olympic swimmer ever.
Roger Federer? Possibly the greatest tennis player we’ve ever seen.
Tough call.
And in the AFL you have Leigh Matthews and the Gary Abletts.
Working out who is the greatest in their individual sport is difficult enough. Then trying to compare them to different sports… it gets messy. The Don has the stats, Schumacher has the results, Beckham & Jordan have the cultural impact. Who comes out in front depends solely on the metric you use.
I was joking when I said Jordan earlier on but I do genuinely believe that he is one of the top contenders because he does very well by quite a lot of metrics.
There are also the cyclists. A sport tainted by doping so much that the top names (Armstrong, Merckx and more) are all excluded by most. Even with the doping, what they achieved is simply amazing. Jan Ullrich could power up a mountain like a freight train along the plains, Contador dancing on his pedals is a sight to behold and Evans’s descents are a thing of beauty.
Then you have somebody like Marianne Vos
World champion on road, track and cyclocross. Multiple world cup winner, multiple grand tour winner. Arguably the most well rounded cyclist ever.
It’s a real shame that I don’t follow Women’s cycling (because it’s really damned hard). There’s some exciting stuff going on. I hear Orica Greenedge has a genuine team at the moment too.
I follow it a little but mostly through the connection with the greenedge mens team.
Orica-AIS signed Emma Johansson who is the swedish national champ and UCI #1 ranked rider in 2103. They have been riding for her most of the season. I actually quite enjoy watching the ladies race some times at the teams are smaller and you can’t get a sky train negating the race up the hills.
But Vos is a great rider, was actually close to cutting a deal to allow her to ride on the mens Rabobank squad.
Sky has single handedly dulled my interest in the grand tours. They just suck all the fun out of races.
I forgot that there was a woman who almost got to ride with Rabobank. I heard about it at the time and thought it would be genuinely interesting (even if only as as domestic). Man… now I really want to see it happen.
Thought it was great that Orica ended above them on the UCI ranking this year.
Just wish that Porte would hurry up and leave them so there is no reason at all to support them
The Dream, but I am incredibly biased.
its gotta be steven bradbury.. amirite
edit: aw someone beat me to it.
in all seriousness though, its pretty much impossible to nail it down. also, i’m not seeing very many female athletes being mentioned.
Little Mac.
Statistically, the greatest ever sportsman was Australia’s Heather McKay.
Playing squash at the top level, she lost her first match in 1960 and another in 1962. She retired from full-time competition in 1981. She was also a world champion in both hockey and racketball.
No-one comes close.
I’m going to drop a vote for Arnold Schwarzenegger. He took a sport where you aspire to be something more and excelled.
Wow, a lot of interesting opinions here.
I think it’s Lord Edmund Sports, who invented Sports in 1612. Before that, sports did not exist and we have him to thank for our ability to enjoy sports today.
Wayne Gretzky. Most all time goals, most all time assists, most all time points, most goals in a season, most assists in a season, most points in a season, most playoff goals, most playoff assists, 7 consecutive scoring titles, 7 consecutive MVP’s – none of those records are likely to be beaten, and he has plenty more.
Heather McKay though for me has the greatest record of all time – Unbeaten for 19 years, and only 2 defeats in a 20 year career. No-one will ever have a career like that again.
All of these would be in contention….and more:
Roger Federer
Don Bradman
Michael Schumacher
Michael jordan
Rod Laver
Margaret Court
Steffi Graff
Kelly Slater
there are so many unrecognized great sportspeople as well. The commentor abover me mentioned Heather McKay. had to google her but jeeez, what a career.
I was gonna add Billie Jean King to that list, but she really doesn’t quite stack up against Margaret Court. Wikipedia kindly reminded me what a force she was. Glad they’ve snazzed up her arena.
Mr Marathon, the ancient Greek, clearly, without a doubt, being the one who started it all. :-p
MJ.
6 NBA championships, involving 2 three-peats. He basically defined the basketball revolution in the 90s — even people with no interest in basketball knew about him and who he played for. (As a side note, I bet any girl/woman you talk to about the NBA in the 90s mentions they liked the Charlotte Hornets. It clearly was about the colour scheme and how cute they found either the mascot or Mugsy Bogues.)
2 Olympic gold medals. Without him, the Dream Team would not have been seminal moment in sporting history that it was.
So many sporting records and achievements that’s too long to go into.
Had the ultimate mix of physical skills, brains, and the cut-throat will to win. If his team was down by 20 (if that ever happened), you still knew he could find a way to get them back in it. And he is pretty much forever associated with the term ‘circus shot’.
Starred in a feature length film and wasn’t completely terrible. (But I maintain the best basketball film involving an actual NBA player is He Got Game. I mean, Denzel going one-on-one with Ray Allen. Forgedaboutit. But yes yes, Above The Rim is also good.) Unlike any movie that Shaq appeared in.
Has global name recognition up there with Superman and Jesus. If you show me a picture of child soldiers in Sierra Leone or some other equally depressing African country, I’d be slightly intrigued if I saw one wearing a Maradona jersey or Fed tennis shirt. If I say a #23 Bulls jersey, I wouldn’t even think twice about it. (I can’t talk about depressing Africa without thinking of that pic of the guy shooting an AK while wearing gardening gloves and a life jacket. Um, dude, I don’t think you really know how bullets work.)
Muhammed Ali did a lot in the ways of sports narrative (see: When We Were Kings), but I guess Jordan just benefits from better media technology and attention. Aside from the stories of each championship run, you got things like The Flu Game, The Shot, The Shrug, The Return, and a plethora of memorable dunks.
And sadly was one of the key players in the transition of professional athletes into corporate brands. Try throwing a rock in a sports apparel store and not hitting something with Air Jordan written on it. No, really, do it. Without MJ, I’d probably have to hear less about Lebron James. I hope we can all agree that would be a good thing.
I know, I know, TL;DR. But sometimes, you just got to give the people… Give ’em what, Jalen?… Give the people what they want!
Well said, i tried but have pretty much failed to do something similar.
Sorry for the long post but this sort of stuff gets me thinking and it is also one of my big passions.
This all comes down to how it is measured and what fan you are talking to, In my eyes it needs to be a sport participated by the vast majority of the world, and the person has to be playing around a time that the sport is close to being at its toughest. I also look at what the person has done for the sport during their career and after their career (cultural impact i guess). Stats matter but how can you compare a basketballer to a swimmer or a tennis player?
Many believe Michael Phelps to be the greatest athlete due to his insane amount of medals at the Olympics, in my opinion you cannot use a swimmer as the greatest athlete as they have the chance to win more Olympic medals than most due to the sport. Same for Runners as they can compete in multiple events.
So my top 5 athletes of all time and why.
5. Rod Laver, won the grandslam twice (?) and although he doesnt have the same amount of titles as Federer, but without him Federer is not what he is today.
4. Maradona, Unbelievable talent who was a freak on the field, only knock is his off field issues, whether he really changed football hard to say but Beckham to me was not the player Maradona was.
3. Tiger Woods, how many kids wanted to play golf before he came around? he made the sport what it is today without him golf is not as popular. Sure since 08 he has done very little but he is still a danger each and every time he is on that green, His brand at it’s peak was almost at the billion dollar mark, This year is the first in a number of years where he is not the number 1 sports brand (as an active player).
2. Muhammad Ali, First time ever i have put Ali at number 2 in my top 5 and that is because i don’t think he stands up to my number 1 in cultural impact any more. Ali was great fantastic skills in the ring great trash talker (although possibly pushing it at times). Had his title stripped for standing up for what he believed in, Heavy weight champ 1 of the most iconic fights ever in the jungle. He is still well known around the globe but i don’t think it is to the point that it was 15-20-30 years ago when he was arguably the GOAT.
1. Michael Jordan, Made basketball what it was in the late 80’s to late 90’s no other sports person has done what he did on the basketball court as well as he did it, Also look at the Jordan brand now probably Nike’s biggest selling product the line for some of those shoes is insane. Not sure if any of you are into fantasy sports but if you look at Jordan’s stats from a fantasy standpoint he is head and shoulders above everyone else, If you got number 1 pick in your draft and chose Jordan you would win 90% of the time. 92 Barcelona Olympics 1 man and 1 team threw basketball into the stratosphere we have not and will not see anyone else do what Jordan did for basketball in any other sport ever. The talent he went against back in the 80’s and 90s was unbelievable so he was truly the best amongst a great group. Also how many people can name a sports star simply by seeing a number? the amount of people who have worn 23 since because of Jordan is incredible in itself.
I’m pretty sure that youtube would agree that Dendi is obviously the greatest sports person of all time.
Another one, Aryton Senna.
Jackie Chan
I would have to say, hands down Michael Jordan. No one is as well known as MJ. He was the total package and I would say 99% of the world has heard his name…I could not say the same for Ali (close) or Federer. Kids are still trying to ‘be like Mike’ in playgrounds all over the world.
Definitely hard to say, you’ve got to throw Kelly Slater out there though, can’t beleive he hasn’t been mentioned yet. Won his first world title at 20 and his most recent at 40 or 41, and still pushing for more. He is undoubtedly one of the greatest.
The unnamed runner who ran to Athens to deliver news of the victory at Marathon.
How many other sportsmen here are remembered two plus millenia later and have a sport named after their deeds? Will Bradman, Jordan and Ali be remembered in two thousand years?
BOONIE! I don’t watch cricket, I don’t play cricket, I don’t like cricket. But that man is an Australian hero who should have the eternal respect he earned. No other man can get drunk, vomit on the pitch, hit for six and win man of the match all in 24 hours.
Can’t be MJ. Bill Russel has more rings.
More rings than fingers.
and he has put em in more holes than he has rings.
MARK HUNTUUUUUUUUU!
Brett Kimmorley!
I’ll be old school and throw a vote to Carl Lewis. The guy basically owned track & field events in the 80s.
Failed 3 drug tests though…
Andrew Johns 😉
much maligned and derided these days but that guy was a freak on the rugby league field. complete package.
Kelly Slater quite comfortably…. possibly followed by Anderson Silva because he would comfortably beat the shit out of every other person mentioned.
Pffts. Bloody ‘strayans. The obvious answer is Richie McCaw.
Seriously though, I give it to the Don.
Somebody not mentioned but deserving of consideration is Jonah Lomu. That guy was just a freak, never been a winger before or since at his level.
If it wasn’t for illness he would have been a world wide superstar without a doubt
I was thinking of Lomu. The strength of a forward and the agility of a back. I dreaded every time England played New Zealand because it always seemed that their tactic was ‘get the ball, pass it to Lomu’…and it worked every time. I still preferred Jason Robinson though, not that I’m biased in that opinion or anything 😀
Maradona will always be a cheating ****. You might like him though Mark for your allegiances are on the wrong side of Hadrian’s Wall 😛
Steve Redgrave will be the ultimate Olympian for me. A gold medal at 5 consecutive Olympics in a physical sport like rowing? That’s almost superhuman
The most talented footballer I’ve seen was Gheorghe Hagi. He’s tied with Alan Shearer for my most favourite player
Toss up between Mansell and Schumaker for the best racer (in my generation anyway) Mansell because he did it before it was more about who had the best car and there was a great deal more skill involved, Schumaker for dominating for so long.
It’s hard to pick one though. If I’m pushed for it, I’ll say John ‘Shaggy’ Taylor as he’s Cambridge United’s all-time top scorer 😉
I vote for Bruce Lee