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Rank These Three Sportsmen- Jordan, Ruth, and Ali

5K views 78 replies 19 participants last post by  Magic 
#1 ·
ESPN ranked the greatest sportsmen of the 20th century. The top 3 were;

1. Michael Jordan

2. Babe Ruth

3. Muhammad Ali


You might feel a different athlete should be somewhere in that top 3.

But what I'm asking is, how do you rank these 3 sportsmen against each other? Do you agree or disagree on how ESPN ranked them?


Jordan and Ali's careers have parallels.

-Both rose to the top and dominated. Ali won the Heavyweight title and defended it successfully over and over. Jordan had his first 3 peat.

-Ali was forced out of boxing before anyone defeated him for the title. Jordan took a year and a half off after his first 3 peat.

- Jordan was rusty when he came back midway through the regular season. The Bulls lost in the playoffs that season. When Ali came back, he just wasn't the same at first. He lost to Frazier and Ken Norton.

- Next season, Jordan and the Bulls started another 3 peat. Ali won rematches with Frazier and Norton, and then beat George Foreman, a monster, for the Heavyweight title.

-Jordan eventually retired and came back for 2 seasons. He was really good, but couldn't play at the level he did in the past. Ali retired, but came back for a match with Larry Holmes. Holmes embarrassed him and beat him soundly, giving Ali his only non-decision loss.

How do you rank Jordan, Ruth and Ali?
 
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#60 ·
^^

Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry could have been the two best ever at their positions if they even remotely had their heads screwed on straight.
 
#61 ·
Mike Tyson is up there. I have always wondered what Josh Hamilton could have done and another is Len Bias. Had he not overdosed I think the 80's Celtic could have had one more championship in them.
 
#66 · (Edited)
App State was at least a good in 1AA. They had a very experienced team and won their 3rd national title in a row that year and Michigan is overrated just about every year. Yes a major upset but some bigger college football upsets to me were...

Temple over VA Tech in 1998 (Temple was winless and VA Tech wa 5th in the country and blew a 17 point halftime lead to the fighting Cosbys
Nebraska over Oklahoma in 1959 (snapped OU's 74 game conference winning streak....my grandparents were at this game)
James Madison over VA Tech in 2010
Stanford over USC in 2007
Pitt over West Virginia in 2007 (cost WV a national title appearance)
Washington over USC in 2009 (Wash was 0-12 the year before)
Iowa State over Nebraska in 1992
Michigan over Ohio State in 1969
Michigan over Ohio State in 1995
Michigan State over Ohio State 1998
Boston College over Notre Dame in 1993 (cost Notre Dame the national title)
Kansas over Oklahoma in 1975
 
#68 ·
Anyone who says Jordan I will meet you half way. He is the best basketball player ever probably. Couldn't hit a curve ball to save his life.
 
#69 ·
The only thing Bo didn't know is Diddly. He would've been bigger than Jordan in the collective minds had he not been injured. Now, he's a footnote and that sucks. There has never been someone with that combination of power and speed. He was better at football, but he was a good baseball player. That's amazing considering how hard baseball is.
 
#70 ·
Buck O' Neil said in an interview before he died there is a sound he has only heard 3 times off of someones bat. The 3 guys he was referring to were...

Babe Ruth
Josh Gibson
Bo Jackson

I agree Bo was a better football player but he was HOF caliber in baseball too. Guy ran like a deer and was strong as an ox. He struck out a lot but hell so did Reggie Jackson.
 
#71 ·
Only really familiar with Jordan but hard to beat a guy who would have most likely led his team to eight straight NBA titles and who won six finals MVP's for the six finals he appeared in, never allowing a series to go to a game 7. Then you've got mad stats like 33.4 pts play-off average, ten scoring titles, 3000 pts in a season etc. On another level.
 
#74 ·
Im a huge Lions/Barry fan but there will never be another Barry. He is the most exciting football player I have ever seen. Shame he played on so many bad teams.
 
#75 ·
Barry was exciting, yes.

Here is the biggest decider for me with the Rice/Sanders debate - each NFL players plays one position usually. you play it as well as you can.

Barry Sanders is not the unquestioned greatest RB of all time. Some feel Jim Brown or Walter Payton may have been. In a stronger passing scheme, you may take Tomlinson or Faulk even.

There is no debate on who the greatest WR of all time is. It is virtually nonexistent. Said discussions almost always are done in a "Who is the 2nd greatest..." because you know who the GOAT was for WR's. And no player in NFL history dominated their position to be the unquestioned GOAT at their position, like Jerry Rice did.

That is what makes him the best player in NFL history.

Not even Jordan is as universally celebrated as the unquestioned "greatest" in Basketball.
 
#76 ·
I will agree with that. Rice is the best WR of all time. Not even close.

Barry might be the best RB of all time. Might being the key word cuz it could be Jim Brown or Walter Payton. I could see 5-10 years from now Adrian Peterson being the best RB of all time and saying it in a way where it's not even close. Like Rice.
 
#77 · (Edited)
Nah it'd still be close. Even if ALL DAY amasses enough yards to pass Emmitt, he can't cancel out Barry's amazing elusiveness. Peterson isn't even close to as elusive.


@ Freeloader: Mays hit 660 HR. lol that's amazing and 4th all time. He's the #5 hitter on the STATS site Baseball Reference. He was a supreme fielder and great baserunner. Don't be mad that a black guy was great at this game, and possibly the greatest (he is the greatest).

DesoRow where are you to defend the Say Hey Kid?
 
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