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Who is the all time greatest sportsman

villaguy

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choffer Grand Master

choffer

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Surprised nobody has mentioned Gretzky yet. I know hockey isn't very well followed round these parts but there haven't been many people who have so dominated their sport. Even in a relatively small scale sport, he was a global icon.

(And no nonsense about him being nothing without McSorley, please).

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leviramsey Enthusiast

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Surprised nobody has mentioned Gretzky yet. I know hockey isn't very well followed round these parts but there haven't been many people who have so dominated their sport. Even in a relatively small scale sport, he was a global icon.

(And no nonsense about him being nothing without McSorley, please).

Bobby Orr was better than Gretzky. Imagine Paul McGrath crossed with Messi.

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Tegis Grand Master

Tegis

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Surprised nobody has mentioned Gretzky yet. I know hockey isn't very well followed round these parts but there haven't been many people who have so dominated their sport. Even in a relatively small scale sport, he was a global icon.

(And no nonsense about him being nothing without McSorley, please).

Ahem!

Wayne Gretzky (in before Levi counters with Bobby Orr)

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Folski Community Regular

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MJ

Took to page 6 for him to get a mention, wow, he's number one for me. How anyone can compare Michael Jordan to Ronnie O'Sullivan is beyond me. Messi is up there no doubt, but it's so hard to compare sports, you'd have to say the more popular sports should hold a heavier weighting due to the the greater number of opponents and direct competition. Jordan takes it for me though, to win 3 championships in a row, take a season and a bit out to play minor league baseball and come back and win another 3 in a row that's some going. Faced a lot of great nba players too and beat them all and has about $700m to show for it.

But, he basically played a faster version of netball.

 

 

NBA players play 82 games in a regular season between November & April, sometimes playing 3 games back to back (night after night), not to add all the flight miles they rack up, yet if a football team have to play a game on the other side of Europe during mid-week everyone makes excuses that they will be jet lagged. In the 6 years he won a championship he played an extra 17, 22, 19, 18, 19, 21. The fact he's the most celebrated player in the sport by a mile and took 2 seasons out to play baseball during his prime says enough really. Can you imagine Messi or Ronaldo taking 2 years out and winning 3 champions leagues on the bounce?

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choffer Grand Master

choffer

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Surprised nobody has mentioned Gretzky yet. I know hockey isn't very well followed round these parts but there haven't been many people who have so dominated their sport. Even in a relatively small scale sport, he was a global icon.(And no nonsense about him being nothing without McSorley, please).

Ahem!

Wayne Gretzky (in before Levi counters with Bobby Orr)

Oops, my bad. Although we both had the same expectation of Levi's response. ;)

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The_Rev Mentor

The_Rev

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Can you imagine Messi or Ronaldo taking 2 years out and winning 3 champions leagues on the bounce?

No, but I'd imagine it would be quite a bit easier to do if football were only played in one country.

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Zatman Grand Master

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not really. the travelling and schedule is a lot more hectic in US sports like hockey and basketball and makes it more difficult, have to agree with Folski about footballers complaining about travel when a basketball player could play in Boston, New York, Detroit and LA all in 1 week

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Stevo985 Grand Master

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It's relative though isn't it.

 

Footballers and their managers complain because other teams don't have to do it.

If a team has to go to Kazakhstan and back on a Thursday and play on a Sunday against a team who has been in England all week, they might moan.

 

Everyone in America travels and plays that regularly, so it's a level (ish) playing field.

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Folski Community Regular

Folski

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Can you imagine Messi or Ronaldo taking 2 years out and winning 3 champions leagues on the bounce?

No, but I'd imagine it would be quite a bit easier to do if football were only played in one country.

 

 

You're forgetting The Toronto Raptors ;) Winning the NBA is basically like winning the Champions League. I'd say the best team generally wins as the games are over 7 games instead of 2 games and an aggregate scoreline so it's harder for an upset. Then America is roughly 95% the size of Europe anyway geographically speaking. 

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Eames Newbie

Eames

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It's relative though isn't it.

 

Footballers and their managers complain because other teams don't have to do it.

If a team has to go to Kazakhstan and back on a Thursday and play on a Friday against a team who has been in England all week, they might moan.

 

Everyone in America travels and plays that regularly, so it's a level (ish) playing field.

Equally, basketball is roll on roll off subs so no player ever plays the full game and changes are made regularly. 

 

Footballers play 90 mins 2/3 times a week on a regular basis. 

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The_Rev Mentor

The_Rev

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Can you imagine Messi or Ronaldo taking 2 years out and winning 3 champions leagues on the bounce?

No, but I'd imagine it would be quite a bit easier to do if football were only played in one country.

 

 

You're forgetting The Toronto Raptors ;) Winning the NBA is basically like winning the Champions League. I'd say the best team generally wins as the games are over 7 games instead of 2 games and an aggregate scoreline so it's harder for an upset. Then America is roughly 95% the size of Europe anyway geographically speaking. 

 

 

 

Australia is about the same size as the lower 48 states.  Should we say whoever the best Aussie Rules player (another sport with only one league worth being in) is the best sportsman ever?  I don't accept the argument that winning a 30 team invite only competition is the same as winning the Champions League, a title which is the pinnacle at the club level of a truly global sport. 

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