Most dominant sports-people of all time?

[PhoenixFire]

Actually reckon Beryl Burton wipes the floor with anyone TBH.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Leaving that aside, Lance Armstrong's efforts at Le Tour are pretty amazing, especially as he has yet to be proven to have been on performance enhancing drugs at a time when lots of his competitors have been proven to be. (Not saying that he was but simply hasn't been caught yet, I'm just saying that while I have an open mind as to whether or not he was on gear, lots of others who were at the time have since been caught, but no definite proof re: Lance has come out). But either way, Armstrong didn't carry his dominance through the rest of the season in the manner required to make him comparable to a Bradman.

TBF it's purely techincal that he hasn't. Six of his pee samples from 99 showed EPO when tested after the fact. He noteably refused permission for the samples to be retested too. From the BBC. Sorry he had cancer & all, but that doesn't make him clean. Or dirty, necessarily, he added for legal purposes.

Anyway: Julio Cesar Chavez. He went on too long so his record looks merely great (108 wins, 2 draws, 6 defeats), but he actually won his first 88 fights and was undefeated in his first 91.

 

[Michaelf7777777]

Eddy Merckx the Belgian cyclist from the 60's and 70's has to be Bradman's only competition in my opinion. 5 Tour de France's (could of won more but focused on the other grand tours in 1973, lost time due to after effects of a fan attack in 1975 and could well have won tours before his 1st one he competed in in 1969), also won 5 Giro d Italia's (Could of been 6 but was booted out of the 1969 one when leading it with a day to go on highly suspicious doping test (They booted him out and when he appealed the organisers had destroyed one sample and lost the other). Won 1 out of 3 of all races he competed in other his career which in fields of up to 200 riders is quite an achievement.

 

[ripper868]

Jonah Lomu...redefined what a winger does on the rugby field

 

[SirBloody Idiot]

In Aussie Rules, I'd say Peter Hudson. No one has come close to kicking seven goals a game over their career, and it might've been more had his knee not been ruined.

 

[ohtani's jacket]

Bill Russell smokes Michael Jordan for basketball dominance. 11 NBA championships in 13 seasons.

That Bradman scoring analysis was such a crock.

 

[The Sean]

Bill Russell smokes Michael Jordan for basketball dominance. 11 NBA championships in 13 seasons.

Russell was unquestionably one of the all time greats of the NBA, but that Championship record has as much to do with the strength of that Celtics team as him individually. As great as he was at an individual level, there are plenty of good judges who considered him only the second best Centre of his generation, behind Wilt Chamberlain.

That Bradman scoring analysis was such a crock.

Why?

 

[The Sean]

In Aussie Rules, I'd say Peter Hudson. No one has come close to kicking seven goals a game over their career, and it might've been more had his knee not been ruined.

I'm a Hawks man and so rate Hudson as highly as anyone, but to be fair his career goalkicking average in the VFL was 5.6 goals per game. The best ever, yes, but not quite 7 per match!

 

[SirBloody Idiot]

I'm a Hawks man and so rate Hudson as highly as anyone, but to be fair his career goalkicking average in the VFL was 5.6 goals per game. The best ever, yes, but not quite 7 per match!

That's his whole career (including TFL), so maybe that part shouldn't be included.

Over his career he kicked 1,874 goals in senior matches spanning the period 1963 to 1982. His impressive tally increases to 2,191 when night series and representative games are included, averaging over 7 goals a game over his entire career. Hudson was kept goalless just three times during his senior career, by Richmond's Barry Richardson in 1969, Carlton's Rod Austin in 1977 and Brucey Greenhill of TFL club Sandy Bay in 1978.

 

[The Sean]

That's his whole career (including TFL), so maybe that part shouldn't be included.

Fair enough mate - yep, his figures in the Tassie league are nothing short of phenomenal. Incredible to think what he final career tally might have been had been able to play more than three-and-a-half games from 1972 to 1976.

 

[Jono]

John Coleman had an amazing career as a full forward before injury robbed him of many records.

 

[The Sean]

John Coleman had an amazing career as a full forward before injury robbed him of many records.

Indeed - his goal per game average is second only to Hudson's but a dislocated knee ended his career after only 98 games at the age of just 25. He has at least as many advocates as Hudson for the title of greatest ever Full-Forward.

 

[Matt79]

Matt:

Ah, of course. I was thinking Michael Jordan--->Magic Johnson--->Michael Johnson wtf?

 

[ohtani's jacket]

Russell was unquestionably one of the all time greats of the NBA, but that Championship record has as much to do with the strength of that Celtics team as him individually. As great as he was at an individual level, there are plenty of good judges who considered him only the second best Centre of his generation, behind Wilt Chamberlain.

Yeah, but it's one of those things where if you take Russell off the team the Celtics don't come close to winning 11 titles. The team was built around Russell's defence. There's no doubt Wilt was more dominant, even when he went against Russell he still put up huge numbers, but basketball is about titles.

Why?

The author said Jordan would've had to average 43 points a game to match Bradman, but that doesn't make sense since basketball only lasts for 48 minutes under normal circumstances. Here's what I wrote about it last time:

"Let's take basketball as an example. Jordan played 1072 regular season games, averaging around 38 minutes a game. How in the hell is he supposed to average 43 points a game under those circumstances? Wilt Chamberlain did it for his first four seasons (averaging 50.4 in '61-62 and 44.8 in '62-63, on different teams I might add) & his name doesn't even get brought up in the discussion. Only one player in the history of the NBA has ever scored a 100 points in a single game and that was Chamberlain. If Bradman scored at 42 an hour, then it's fair to say that he's not that much greater than a Jordan or a Chamberlain when it comes to scoring average."

I dunno where he even began trying to compare facing a delivery in cricket to a possession in basketball, two batsman v. five offensive players, 6 balls per over v. no guaranteed shot attempt on a possession, 38 minutes vs. Bradman's average stay of 2 hours, 14 minutes... boundaries vs. 1-3 points...

 

[Matt79]

But it's not a straight comparison of Bradman vs Jordan/Chamberlain. It's a comparison of the comparative difference between Bradman vs. all other cricketers and Jordan vs. all other basketballers. What sets Bradman apart is that there is literally no contest under any kind of measure you can come up with that doesn't end up with Bradman being the best by a big big margin. I admit I know next to nothing re: basketball, but from what you're saying about Chamberlain, it sounds like it's not even cut and dried that Jordan is the best basketballer ever. In virtually every other sport it's possible to have a sensible debate re: who has been it's greatest exponent.

 

[Xuhaib]

If squash is your sport then Jahangir Khan, he went unbeaten for 5 years in the period he won 500 matches straight

 

[The Sean]

But it's not a straight comparison of Bradman vs Jordan/Chamberlain. It's a comparison of the comparative difference between Bradman vs. all other cricketers and Jordan vs. all other basketballers. What sets Bradman apart is that there is literally no contest under any kind of measure you can come up with that doesn't end up with Bradman being the best by a big big margin. I admit I know next to nothing re: basketball, but from what you're saying about Chamberlain, it sounds like it's not even cut and dried that Jordan is the best basketballer ever. In virtually every other sport it's possible to have a sensible debate re: who has been it's greatest exponent.

This.

 

[Xuhaib]

lack of Rikki Clarke in this thread saddens me.

 

[The Sean]

If squash is your sport then Jahangir Khan, he went unbeaten for 5 years in the period he won 500 matches straight

Jansher had a pretty amazing record too, didn't he?

Though as pasag said, if squash really is your sport it's hard to go past Heather McKay.

 

[Xuhaib]

Jansher had a pretty amazing record too, didn't he?

Though as pasag said, if squash really is your sport it's hard to go past Heather McKay.

Jansher was the most boring sportsstar I have ever seen and playing such a visually boring sport like Squash made me hate him even more.