With the above title in mind here are my list of the top 3 greatest from every sport.
Football
Tom Brady
Jim Brown
Jerry Rice
Baseball
Babe Ruth
Willie Mays
Hank Aaron
Basketball
Michael Jordan
Bill Russell
Kareem Abdul Jabbar
Hockey
Wayne Gretzky
Gordie Howe
Bobby Orr
Tennis
Roger Federer
Pete Samparas
Jimmy Conners
Golf
Tiger Woods
Jack Nicklaus
Arnold Palmer
Boxing
Muhammed Ali
Jack Johnson
Rocky Marciano
From That list I would present the final 8.
Tom Brady, Babe Ruth, Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Tiger Woods, Muhammed Ali, Jim Brown. Willie Mays:
The Playoff
Tom Brady defeats Willie Mays. Brady is the statistical leader in his sport and winning leader.
Babe Ruth defeats Jim Brown. Both are the greatest/dominant but Brown only won one championship.
Michael Jordan defeats Wayne Gretzky. The Edmonton Oilers won the Stanley Cup after they traded Gretzky
Muhammed Ali defeats Tiger Woods. Ali is just a bigger iconic figure.
Semifinals
Tom Brady defeats Michael Jordan. Brady's been to the conference championship 14 times, Jordan had to wait for Bird, Magic and Isiah to fall before he soared.
Muhammed Ali defeats Babe Ruth. Ruth has the stats but Ali has even bigger Aura.
The Finals
Ali is iconic but Brady's dominance started with 9/11 and now 20 years later in the Covid Pandemic. If Brady loses the Super Bowl, I think an ever slight edge goes to Ali but if he wins, I think He is The Greatest.
Interesting stuff. You make a good case for Brady but I think I'd still go for Babe Ruth, because he was statistically so far ahead of his peers (there were seasons where he hit more home runs than any other TEAM) and because he really helped establish team sports as we know them today. But it's hard enough to compare players of different eras, let alone different sports.
ReplyDeleteMaybe should have included soccer, where you'd probably go Pelé, Messi, and Maradona, not necessarily in that order. Some other names to consider: Michael Phelps, Edwin Moses, Aleksandr Karelin.
Your right I should have included soccer. The argument for Ruth should include his pitching exploits with the Red Sox, the argument against Ruth is 1 World Series win before 1927 with the Yankees. Once Lou Gehrig came aboard then the Yankees started to win more titles.
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