Other The Greatest of All Time Sportspeople

[Fadge]

Has Tom Brady moved up a few rungs in this list after today?

7th Superbowl - more than any NFL franchise.

 

[Fadge]

May this thread needs a poll?

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

He's definitely moved into the top 5 quarterbacks of all time at least

 

[Fadge]

My top 20:
1. Jordan
2. Bradman
3. Ruth
4. Phelps
5. Federer
6. Gretzky
7. Pele
8. Mohammed Ali
9. Lindrum
10. Rod Laver
11. Carl Lewis
12. Nicklaus
13. Nadal
14. Tiger Woods
15. Bill Russell
16. Usain Bolt
17. LeBron James
18. Tom Brady
19. Kelly Slater
20. Phil Taylor

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

My top fifteen:
1. Jordan
2. Bradman
3. Ruth
4. Phelps
5. Federer
6. Gretzky
7. Pele
8. Lindrum
9. Brady
10. Rod Laver
11. Carl Lewis
12. Nicklaus
13. Nadal
14. Tiger Woods
15. Kelly Slater

Brady above LeBron?

 

[Fadge]

Brady above LeBron?

Fair point.

I had originally limited my list to the best from each sport, but then added Nadal, Laver and Woods.

LeBron and Bill Russell should also be in on that basis.

Let me reconsider....

 

[juss]

I'll try and go per sport from some of the sports I've watched. Note that there is some bias towards modern sport and players I've seen, or in an age where more data and vision is available. So apologies if there's some 1920s freak player that no one alive has seen.

AFL: Leigh Matthews
Cricket: Don Bradman*
Tennis: Roger Federer
Soccer: Pele* / Christiano Ronaldo of those I've seen
American Football: Tom Brady
Basketball: Michael Jordan
Ice Hockey: Wayne Gretzky
Darts: Phil Taylor
Golf: Tiger Woods
Rugby League: Cam Smith
Baseball: Babe Ruth*
Boxing: Muhammad Ali
Rugby Union: Dan Carter
MMA: Khabib Nurmagomedov

*Haven't seen

 

[Jala_86]

Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee.

 

[Partridge]

Both Sugar Ray's>>
Tyson isn't even near the best in his division. I wouldn't bother with athletics given how dirty is is. The idea that Bolt is significantly faster than the golden era of proper steroid abusers like Lewis is beyond laughable. Gretsky isn't better than Bobby Orr either.

Can't argue with that. I'd have Ali and Louis comfortably ahead, and that doesn't begin to include Marciano, Johnson etc.

Ali and Louis my top 2.

 

[Partridge]

Lindrum is a tad over-rated here in Australia. He was the best in the world for some of his career, but he played in an era where huge scores became the norm, and so many matches became 'chase a record'. Many of his 57 World Records are things like 'Most Points in 5 minutes', 'Most Points in a two-week match(!)' etc. While he was in England, he usually played exhibitions against other players - sometimes conceding huge handicaps, but these were primarily to give him a chance to knock up another huge record score against a local chump. All the top English pros were doing similar. Lindrum WAS probably the best for much of the period 1928-1934, but not by an overwhelming margin.

The World Championship was held in England. Lindrum played in 1929, 1930 and 1932 and didn't win. He won in 1933 and 34, but the Championship was not contested again until 1951. So, yes, technically he was World Champion from 1933-1950. (Clark McConnarchy won in 1951, the title was not contested again until 1968, so he also held the crown for 17 years). The US is still technically the Olympic Rugby Champion.

After 1934, most of the top players switched to snooker - where the money was, but Lindrum continued mostly playing billiards exhibitions in Australia.

That's not quite correct. In his 4 tours of England from 1929 onwards, he regularly played and beat the top players - Joe Davis, Willie Smith, Tom Newman, and Clark McConachy. In his 2nd season - 1930/31 - there was a tournament where all other players (Davis, Newman, and McConachy) all started on 7000, and Lindrum started from scratch. Those matches weren't exhibitions, and he still won the tournament (at one point in the final he was 9000 points behind).

The part about the World Championship isn't quite right either. He didn't compete in it on his first three tours due to trade conflicts - he was sponsored by one company, another sponsored the World Championship. Seems completely ludicrous now (imagine Trump or O'Sullivan not competing in the World championship) but that's how it was. He competed once in England in 1933 on his fourth and final trip and won. Competed again in Melbourne in 1934 and won again. You're right, after that it wasn't held again until 1951.

The other aspect that shows that he was definitely superior was break building. He not only scored bigger breaks, but much, much more of them. Willie Smith and Joe Davis were both multiple time world champions - legitimately great players. Both scored 2 breaks in their career over 2000 - Smith with 2743 and 2030, and Davis with 2052 and 2002. Neither Newman nor McConachy made a 2000 break in their career. Lindrum under competition pressure once did it within 4 visits to the table (in order, it was 2835, 451, 1796, and 2583). Additionally to that, the world record break when he arrived in England was Smith's 2743. Lindrum immediately upped it to 3262, in the next season to 3905, and in the next season to the (current) record of 4137. Only the introduction of the baulk-line rule stopped this.

It's definitely a shame he didn't switch to snooker like Davis (in particular), there is footage of him playing snooker, but apparently to him it was a lesser game and he preferred billiards.

 

[ITCHY EYEBALLS]

Walter Lindrum
Bradman
Michael Jordan
Kelly Slater

 

[toxic]

Walter Lindrum
Bradman
Michael Jordan
Kelly Slater

Jahangir Khan