Bing Bong Posted April 18, 2018 Share Posted April 18, 2018 Admittedly there's always recency bias but someone combat this fiery hot take: Did the 90s not give us the most dominant athletes in sports? My case: MJ, Gretzky, bonds.. GOATS in their respective, the plethora of QBs, Kelly, Marino, aikman, Favre, young, moon, elway. Not to mention Jerry rice, the GOAT until TB12 surpassed him. Lance Armstrong, Pete Sampras, aggasi, Mike Tyson, fat Ronaldo, early toger woods. At the time almost every sport had a GOAT in the 90s. Some of them are still there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bing Bong Posted April 18, 2018 Author Share Posted April 18, 2018 Honorable mention: 70s: Ali, Kareem, wilt, OJ, Bradshaw, Jim brown, PELE, Reggie Jackson, Barry Sanders, SECRETARIAT! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillsPride12 Posted April 18, 2018 Share Posted April 18, 2018 7 hours ago, PetermanThrew5Picks said: Admittedly there's always recency bias but someone combat this fiery hot take: Did the 90s not give us the most dominant athletes in sports? My case: MJ, Gretzky, bonds.. GOATS in their respective, the plethora of QBs, Kelly, Marino, aikman, Favre, young, moon, elway. Not to mention Jerry rice, the GOAT until TB12 surpassed him. Lance Armstrong, Pete Sampras, aggasi, Mike Tyson, fat Ronaldo, early toger woods. At the time almost every sport had a GOAT in the 90s. Some of them are still there. The 90s would have my vote for sure, but that also comes with some bias because that was the era I grew up in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bing Bong Posted April 18, 2018 Author Share Posted April 18, 2018 (edited) 1 hour ago, BillsPride12 said: The 90s would have my vote for sure, but that also comes with some bias because that was the era I grew up in. Yeah hard to get past the bias. But Gretzky Jerry rice and MJ alone make the case I think, especially if we're talking team sports. Obviously Olympians get DQ'd and Tyson is a stretch if you want the counter with Ali Edited April 18, 2018 by PetermanThrew5Picks 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shrader Posted April 18, 2018 Share Posted April 18, 2018 (edited) Gretzky's dominance was in the mid 80s. Tyson’s major moment in the 90s were going to jail and biting Holyfield’s ear. That are just just two glaring cases of you crediting the 90s for the previous decade’s moments. And then there’s your list of the 70s... Edited April 18, 2018 by shrader 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pine Barrens Mafia Posted April 18, 2018 Share Posted April 18, 2018 The word is DOMINANT. Sorry, pet peeve of mine 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gugny Posted April 18, 2018 Share Posted April 18, 2018 I'm gonna go with the 80s. Men's tennis, NBA, NHL, boxing ... to me ... had the most dominate athletes/teams in that decade and the NFL of the 80s (Steelers, Cowboys, 49ers) was very close, IMO, to the NFL of the 90s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Royale with Cheese Posted April 18, 2018 Share Posted April 18, 2018 49 minutes ago, Gugny said: I'm gonna go with the 80s. Men's tennis, NBA, NHL, boxing ... to me ... had the most dominate athletes/teams in that decade and the NFL of the 80s (Steelers, Cowboys, 49ers) was very close, IMO, to the NFL of the 90s. I'd say 80's too. Jordan and Gretzsky are in both decades....I know the OP mentioned them too in the 90's. Think about the 80's. Jordan, Gretzsky, Magic, Bird, Isaiah Thomas, Sugar Ray Leonard, Mike Tyson in his prime, Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, Macho Man Randy Savage, Ivan Lendl, Boris Becker, Doc Gooden, Roger Clemens, Orel Hershisher etc..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gugny Posted April 18, 2018 Share Posted April 18, 2018 1 minute ago, Royale with Cheese said: I'd say 80's too. Jordan and Gretzsky are in both decades....I know the OP mentioned them too in the 90's. Think about the 80's. Jordan, Gretzsky, Magic, Bird, Isaiah Thomas, Sugar Ray Leonard, Mike Tyson in his prime, Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, Macho Man Randy Savage, Ivan Lendl, Boris Becker, Doc Gooden, Roger Clemens, Orel Hershisher etc..... Good call on MLB. I'll also add women's tennis. Navratilova and Graf? Come on! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FappyTheClown Posted April 18, 2018 Share Posted April 18, 2018 1850's 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shrader Posted April 18, 2018 Share Posted April 18, 2018 12 minutes ago, Royale with Cheese said: I'd say 80's too. Jordan and Gretzsky are in both decades....I know the OP mentioned them too in the 90's. Think about the 80's. Jordan, Gretzsky, Magic, Bird, Isaiah Thomas, Sugar Ray Leonard, Mike Tyson in his prime, Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, Macho Man Randy Savage, Ivan Lendl, Boris Becker, Doc Gooden, Roger Clemens, Orel Hershisher etc..... Just to put Gretzky in perspective a bit. He score 985 total points from the 1980-81 season through to the 1984-85 season. From 1990-91 to 1998-99, he scored 875 points. I realize I'm missing part of the 90s thanks to the 89-90 season, but that takes more digging around than I'm willing to do. But anyway, 80s Gretzky blows away the 90s version. I chose my cutoff of 1985 intentionally. Those insane point totals I added up? They do not include the following season (85-86), which just happened to be the season where he put up the most points all-time. His better playoff runs were in the 80s as well. But then again, this is the same thread where 12 years old as of 1/1/1980 Barry Sanders and retired in 1965 Jim Brown are credited to the 70s. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CommonCents Posted April 18, 2018 Share Posted April 18, 2018 Good thread. I'd go with the 90's. Maybe it's the age we grew up in that we tend to remember as "good ole days" I looked up Nolan Ryan's stats, just from glancing over the numbers he had to have struck out almost 2500 batters in the 70s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apuszczalowski Posted April 18, 2018 Share Posted April 18, 2018 It's hard to actually say because many players careers span over different decades. Also sports seem to always be changing and evolving. What was once considered dominant in a certain sport may now be considered pedestrian. There also weren't as many really good players compared to now. You had usually a dominant player or 2 and then a bunch of mid level guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
row_33 Posted April 18, 2018 Share Posted April 18, 2018 (edited) Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, Red Grange, Eddie Shore Ruth completely altered the way the game was played, strangely enough it has taken 100 years for a starting pitcher to show up who can play every day as well. Edited April 18, 2018 by row_33 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shrader Posted April 18, 2018 Share Posted April 18, 2018 13 minutes ago, apuszczalowski said: It's hard to actually say because many players careers span over different decades. Also sports seem to always be changing and evolving. What was once considered dominant in a certain sport may now be considered pedestrian. There also weren't as many really good players compared to now. You had usually a dominant player or 2 and then a bunch of mid level guys. I think that's a big part of why people want to credit the 90s. You have major expansion in sports right around that time, but the talent pool hadn't yet caught up. You had more jobs to fill, but with a bigger talent gap. Later as the talent gap shrinks, there are more good players who are much closer together in terms of skill. It becomes that much harder for someone to excel beyond the rest of the field. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
row_33 Posted April 18, 2018 Share Posted April 18, 2018 hockey has completely lost the Gretzky edge, it's now an interference zone-trap shutdown of the great players the best days of sports were when you were 11 years old.... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bing Bong Posted April 19, 2018 Author Share Posted April 19, 2018 11 hours ago, joesixpack said: The word is DOMINANT. Sorry, pet peeve of mine Annoys me too. Typed over phone 11 hours ago, shrader said: 12 hours ago, shrader said: Gretzky's dominance was in the mid 80s. Tyson’s major moment in the 90s were going to jail and biting Holyfield’s ear. That are just just two glaring cases of you crediting the 90s for the previous decade’s moments. And then there’s your list of the 70s... Sorry man. It's a a pain coming up with these lists. Help me out in your infinite wisdom. Or just name your decade lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelly the Dog Posted April 19, 2018 Share Posted April 19, 2018 10 hours ago, row_33 said: Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, Red Grange, Eddie Shore Ruth completely altered the way the game was played, strangely enough it has taken 100 years for a starting pitcher to show up who can play every day as well. Yep. Babe Ruth was the most dominant player in any team sport ever. In his first few seasons playing in the field he hit more homeruns than entire teams. In 1921 he hit 59 homeruns, 44 doubles, 16 triples, scored 177 runs, 171 RBI, 145 walks, stole 17 bases and hit 378. That's pretty good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buffalo716 Posted April 19, 2018 Share Posted April 19, 2018 13 hours ago, PetermanThrew5Picks said: Yeah hard to get past the bias. But Gretzky Jerry rice and MJ alone make the case I think, especially if we're talking team sports. Obviously Olympians get DQ'd and Tyson is a stretch if you want the counter with Ali Gretzky to me is a hard call for a 90s guy. He came into the league in like 78 iirc i know he played till 99 or something but his prime was definitely the 80s not 90s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fadingpain Posted April 19, 2018 Share Posted April 19, 2018 13 hours ago, joesixpack said: The word is DOMINANT. Sorry, pet peeve of mine Don't be so dominate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts