Best Athlete of all Time?

[stevestojan]

In your opinion, who's the best of all time? Seeing Lance win 7 straight made me think about this topic. I am not completely decided, but I think my top three would contain (in no particular order): Lance Armstrong, Bo Jackson, Jim Thorpe.

[CBusBillsFan]

I voted for Jim Brown. Not only was he an amazing football player, he was an All-American in lacrosse.

[erynthered]

Lance Armstrong, no doubt.

 

 

 

Hey sh*t head how's Geico?

[TSNBDSC]

... geez, you don't make it easy ! ... without giving it deep thought, I would say Wilt ... From what I understand, the rules of the game had to change because of him ... I think Gretzky, Ali, and Brown are very close seconds ... tom

[udonkey]

Al Bundy

[TravelingDad48]

My thoughts ....

 

 

 

Michael Jordan ... Maybe the greatest drive to never lose ... not win .. just never lose .. look at how he plays golf .... big bets on every hole .. man is driven to not lose !

Tiger Woods ... greatest attention to his sport .. who else has remade and rebuilt his game like he has ... and wins in todays very competive PGA enviornment

Jim Thorpe ... never saw him so kind of hard to rate ... but sounded like what he did with so much predujuce against him .. like Jackie Robinson

Bo Jackson ... my vote for best .. dominated two sports and could have done any with his size, speed and skills ... look at footage of him playing baseball an d football ... For the period he palyed before getting hurt he was amazing .. 1989 ... was an All-star in baseball and played football

 

Career Batting Record

Year Team G AB R H 2b 3b HR RBI BB SO BA SP

1986 KC AL 25 82 9 17 2 1 2 9 7 34 .207 .329

1987 KC AL 116 396 46 93 17 2 22 53 30 158 .235 .455

1988 KC AL 124 439 63 108 16 4 25 68 25 146 .246 .472

1989 KC AL 135 515 86 132 15 6 32 105 39 172 .256 .495

1990 KC AL 111 405 74 110 16 1 28 78 44 128 .272 .523

1991 CHI AL 23 71 8 16 4 0 3 14 12 25 .225 .408

1993 CHI AL 85 284 32 66 9 0 16 45 23 106 .232 .433

1994 CAL AL 75 201 23 56 7 0 13 43 20 72 .279 .507

Totals 8 yrs. 694 2393 341 598 86 14 141 415 200 841 .250 .474

 

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NFL Statistics

Year Team G Att Yds Ave TD Rec Yds Ave TD

1987 OAK 7 81 554 6.8 4 16 136 8.5 2

1988 OAK 10 136 580 4.3 3 9 79 8.8 0

1989 OAK 11 173 950 5.5 4 9 69 7.7 0

1990 OAK 10 125 698 5.6 5 6 68 11.3 0

Totals 38 515 2782 5.4 16 40 352 8.8 2

 

Lance Armstrong ... ti win ANYTHING 7 times is beyond amazing but what part of that is the team vs. him? I hear he practices 365 days a year at 140 miles a day .. that alone is amazing ...

Wayne Gretzky .... he said he looked at playes 3-4 passes beyind where the puck was at ... that beyond a athelic skill .. thats just plan amazing ...

Pele ... great player but a think more a marketing thing that the greatest ..but could be wrong

Muhammad Ali ... for all the crap he took during his early career I am glad he is respected now ... and he was a amazing fighter

Babe Ruth ... 300 feet to the right field corner .. not to say he was not a great hitter ... but BEST athelite .. take a look at that body !!!

Wilt Chamerlain ... greatest in bed??? He was and will always be the ONLY player able to score 50 and reb 20 a game .. and bed 6 more !

Jerry Rice ... excellent receiver with the skills of a surgen

Jim Brown ... a Bo Jackon type I never saw ... and played in a age where no one had seen that kind of power

[Kelly the Dog]

It's kind of a two-pronged question. You're asking who is the greatest athlete of all-time, and some people are using players like Bo Jackson as an example. But the list you presented were who were the best players of all time. The best athletes would likely include decatheletes or Jesse Owens and those kinds of guys. You can't, IMO, give more credence to Bo Jackson because of his size and strength and speed for this reason.

 

The best player, therefore, IMO, is Ruth. He was an incredible pitcher, as most know. His lifetime on the biggest stage, the World Series, is 3-0, with an 0.87 ERA, including I think 19 straight scoreless innings. He also, remarkably, the 9th best all-time in batting average. Just two mere points behind Ted Williams, .342 to .344, which is incredible. He not only changed the game, he literally changed the world.

[Greybeard]

And Jessie Owens didn't make the first cut? Not one decathaloner either.

It's tough to compare apples and oranges, in this case it is what your definition of athlete. Great agility. Count out Lance. Capable of generation HP per Pound, Lance is tough to beat.

 

You might get some complaining but it would be slightly easier to judge, the greatest athlete to play football. the greatest to run track, etc. etc etc.

[Greybeard]

Kelly, I often agree with you. Amazingly I was creating my post at roughly the same time you were. Very interesting that we would both name Owens and decathaletes.

[hoser12]

Anyone yahoo ride a bike especially when guys are handing you water as you go. Who can make 6 threes in a finals game and make more than 70% of the clutch shots when everyone knows you are getting the ball? who can score 50 goals in a season? Lance is not even in the top 10.

 

Jordan

Jim Brown

Bobby Boucher

[MDH]

Why not just get rid of Pele and ask the question, "Best American athlete of all time" since that's what just about everybody's reference points are limited to. Somehow I doubt that all the best athletes the world has ever known have all come from the same country...

[Corp000085]

1) Lance Armstrong

2) Jordan

2) Gretzky

2) Woods

3) Everyone else

[MDH]

Anyone yahoo ride a bike especially when guys are handing you water as you go. Who can make 6 threes in a finals game and make more than 70% of the clutch shots when everyone knows you are getting the ball? who can score 50 goals in a season? Lance is not even in the top 10.

 

Jordan

Jim Brown

Bobby Boucher

389118[/snapback]

 

 

They could give you 6 months to complete the Tour de France and you couldn't finish it. Saying "any yahoo" can ride a bike is like saying "any yahoo can run, Jesse Owens is nothing special" or "any yahoo can dribble a basketball, Jordan sucks." And the water comment is just hilarious, when's the last time you saw Jordan play an entire game without an intake of fluids during timeouts or when he was resting on the bench?

 

Armstrong is one of the finest conditioned athletes we've seen in the past 20 years (if not THE finest). I can't speak for his overall athletic ability, but to instantly discount him because "all" he does is ride a bike is moronic.

 

That being said, of the athletes listed in the poll I'd have to go with Jim Thorpe. Nobody has come close to doing what Thorpe did in his time. Sure modern athletes that have better strength/conditioning than Thorpe did thanks to science and technology advancements. I'd say that Thorpe could compete with the best of them today given the same diet/conditioning that today's athletes enjoy.

[Buffal0 Bill5]

Anyone yahoo ride a bike especially when guys are handing you water as you go. Who can make 6 threes in a finals game and make more than 70% of the clutch shots when everyone knows you are getting the ball? who can score 50 goals in a season? Lance is not even in the top 10.

 

Jordan

Jim Brown

Bobby Boucher

389118[/snapback]

 

That's asanine. Go ride 140 miles tommorrow with all the water you want and try another post. Trust me, everyone in the race was aware of his presence, and he was the guy to beat, but he still smoked the rest of the field. I rode 13 miles the other day, and i was pretty tired. Armstrong is an amazing athelete. The best of all time? I just don't know, but he certainly is top 10.

[Buffal0 Bill5]

I think the greatest of all time was Bruce Smith in Madden on my old Super Nintendo. He got a sack on almost every defensive play, but now that I think about it, Thurman was puttin up 500-600 yards rushing in some of those games. Man I loved that game.

[BRH]

I think the greatest of all time was Bruce Smith in Madden on my old Super Nintendo.  He got a sack on almost every defensive play,  but now that I think about it, Thurman was puttin up 500-600 yards rushing in some of those games.  Man I loved that game.

389142[/snapback]

Hell, the best athlete I've ever seen was the little red blip on my old Mattel Football II when the battery had worn down to almost nothing.

[My Friends Call Me Tebucky]

Keith Goganius had rare athletic ability.

[billfan63]

Any list of greatest athlete of all times that doesn't include Carl Lewis is seriously

lacking.

[bluenews]

Carl Lewis

 

Please no singing!!!!

[Simon]

You put Lance Armstrong on the gridiron or the court or the diamond and I bet hilarity ensues. You put Bo Jackson on a bike and I bet he'd have been an elite rider in a short time.

Props to Armstrong for an unreal accomplishment (although I bet he turns out to be a real jackass before it's all said and done). But I've never seen anything like Bo Jackson on any field of play.