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Is Michael Jordan the best team sport athlete of all time?

Mysterio79

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Oct 25, 2017
2,159
I've watched a lot of sports in a lot of era's and I don't think anything surpasses MJ.

He seemed to have more influence over a games outcome than any other single team sport athlete I've ever seen.

It was like everyone just tuned into watch him play like some sort of event, even non basketball fans.
 
Temp_User

Temp_User

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Oct 30, 2017
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I'm sorry, i know most NBA fans wanted to forget about him but whenever i see the terms 'best team', its a coded signal to mean that Bill Russell, he of the 5 MVP's, 11 championships and #4 in advance stat-rankings, is OK to be brought up into the discussion. He usually gets the consolation prize of 'best team player' (or rarely, winningest) in basketball instead of the 'best' or 'greatest'.

Almost forgot, he was also set to represent the US in two unrelated sports in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. Basketball and high jump. So yeah, if we are judging by athleticism, he would still be extremely high-up the charts.
 
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23qwerty

23qwerty

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Oct 27, 2017
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It's hard not to put Gretzky over him when Gretzky had more assists than anyone else had points and MJ didn't even have the most points. Not exactly 1:1 comparison but still.
 
JustSomeone

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No, Messi is.
Jordan is OK of you are into basketball, i guess
 
Serene

Serene

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Oct 25, 2017
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Gretzky

Not only does he have the records, but even his records have ridiculous stats you can apply to them to make them more ridiculous
 
A real sad boy

A real sad boy

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Nah. Jordan wouldn’t even have a shoe deal in the modern NBA. 90s NBA lame as fuck.

Gretzky is the only real choice if we’re talking all sports, team or otherwise. Lebron if we’re talking just NBA. The man literally willed his way to the finals in his goddamn own. He even did it after his team got blown the fuck up halfway through the season.

Jordan and his stupid ass jeans would’ve quit to go be bad at NASCAR or some shit if that happened to him.
 
Artdayne

Artdayne

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Nov 7, 2017
4,220
I have Bill Russell ahead of Jordan. 11 titles in 13 years and he's far and away the main reason they won that many. His titles get diminished a lot for various reasons but his impact on defense is unparalleled.

As to the topic of Gretzky, he has no equal offensively but I've heard that some of the better statistics recently have Bobby Orr at least on par if not better than him because of his defense. I'm not a big hockey fan though.

Babe Ruth might be the most dominant. He would have been a Hall of Fame pitcher if he continued with that but he changed the game forever in baseball to the point that the eras change around his existence as a hitter; before he began hitting it was the deadball era but ever since its been the live ball era. Ruth was hitting more home runs than entire teams in some seasons, it's impossible to overstate just how dominant he was. Then again for numerous reasons I'm not sure he's the without question best baseball player ever.

I think about topics like this quite a bit.
 
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Conor419

Conor419

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Nov 26, 2017
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Which one was Michael Jordan again, was he the hockey player? Sorry I’m not from Republica, so I don’t know much about him.

I’d say Ronaldo or Messi
 
ishan

ishan

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Oct 27, 2017
2,192
Lmao Don Bradman . It’s not even close .
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Bradman

Scroll down to world sport context and you will see why pele , jordan etc don’t compare either .

I like Sachin because I’m Indian but this isn’t even a competition . Bradman is simply put the best ball sport player by a large large margin .

It’s not close at all .
 
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Schreckweg 5000

Schreckweg 5000

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Jan 10, 2018
6,327
People who were or still are active in between 1990 and now are also the ones I remember the best. I might mention also someone who I read about in a "history of (insert sports)" book. I make interesting choices!
 
xbhaskarx

xbhaskarx

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Artdayne said:
I have Bill Russell ahead of Jordan. 11 titles in 13 years and he's far and away the main reason they won that many. His titles get diminished a lot for various reasons but his impact on defense is unparalleled.
...
I think about topics like this quite a bit.
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Oh you think about this topic quite a bit and that's what you came up with?

Bill Russell played back when the NBA had 8-12 teams, and playoff games were shown late at night on tape delay. What do you think average NBA attendance was in the 1960s? If Russell was the best of his era, how many people would that place him above, in terms of number of athletes attempting to play basketball seriously across the globe... a few hundred thousand?

Oh and even now basketball is only the most popular sport in like Lithuania and the Philippines.



Meanwhile Messi and Ronaldo have each won the Ballon D'or 5 times and finished second 5 times (Messi finished third once)....
 
Maven

Maven

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Artdayne said:
I have Bill Russell ahead of Jordan. 11 titles in 13 years and he's far and away the main reason they won that many. His titles get diminished a lot for various reasons but his impact on defense is unparalleled.
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When there's about 10 teams and most players had second jobs....

meh

basketball wasn't a thing back then.

Roger Maris hit 61 HR's in 1961. Russel scored 18 points a game

But, it looks good up in the rafters today and counting all the championships
 

Deleted member 25600

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Juicy Bob said:
Don Bradman or Wayne Gretzky for me.
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Both of them have comparable stats and acheivements, and nobody else in all of professional sports has come close to beating them.

For comparison with OPs question, Michael Jordan would need to score 65 points per game, over twice as many as did in order to match Sir Donald Bradman.
 
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Krejlooc

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Can we count horses as athletes? because nothing is touching Man o War.

He only ever lost one event. That loss is why the term "upset" exists. Man o War lost to Upset.
 
Artdayne

Artdayne

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Nov 7, 2017
4,220
xbhaskarx said:
Oh you think about this topic quite a bit and that's what you came up with?

Bill Russell played back when the NBA had 8-12 teams, and playoff games were shown late at night on tape delay. What do you think average NBA attendance was in the 1960s? If Russell was the best of his era, how many people would that place him above, in terms of number of athletes attempting to play basketball seriously across the globe... a few hundred thousand?

Oh and even now basketball is only the most popular sport in Lithuania and the Philippines.



Meanwhile Messi and Ronaldo have each won the Ballon D'or 5 times and finished second 5 times (Messi finished third once)....
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There are loads of variables to consider when talking about this subject, so drop the condescending attitude. I mean, I don't see you taking issue with the multiple votes for Gretzky when that is an extremely niche sport. Bill Russell was the most dominant athlete in his sport, it was significantly less popular back then but they also had to deal with things modern athletes simply do not. For one, Russell was one of the first athletes to break the color barrier and he was playing in Boston which has a reputation for its racism. They played in Converse All Stars every night, which if you've ever worn them you'd know how uncomfortable that would be. They made a small fraction of what players today make. The talent in the league was more concentrated onto fewer teams so yes, it was less competitive generally speaking but again there is no parallel to his level of dominance both as an individual and a team.

You also didn't seem to grasp the fact that I wasn't putting forward the idea that Russell is the greatest team sport athlete of all-time, simply that I have Russell ahead of Jordan. If you haven't even considered the possibility of that being the case, then you aren't nearly as big of a basketball fan as you think you are, or you don't know as much about the sport as you think you do.

Also, looking at how many countries basketball is the most popular sport in is a completely bizarre way to look at this, not to mention that list includes sports that are not team based so it doesn't fit this thread at all. Basketball is the 3rd most popular sport in the world. Cricket is the second most popular sport in the world even though its only played fervently in a few countries. Soccer has been around for 2000 years, what are the odds that the best soccer player in history is playing right now in your life time? Pretty friggin slim. THINK before you type.
 
Krejlooc

Krejlooc

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Artdayne said:
Soccer has been around for 2000 years, what are the odds that the best soccer player in history is playing right now in your life time? Pretty friggin slim. THINK before you type.
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While I get your point, I don't think it's that far fetched to think that with modern science and analytics, the most impactful player in a sport could exist today. Now's as good a time as any other.
 
Krejlooc

Krejlooc

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It's funny that 10 years ago, lance armstrong would have been mentioned so often in this thread.
 
Krejlooc

Krejlooc

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Also, how do we approach people like Steve Nash or Bo Jackson? Who are great at multiple sports? Steve Nash, despite not playing professional soccer, is actually a hell of a soccer player and says he could have played in europe had he wanted to, but chose basketball instead. And Bo Jackson was... well, Bo Jackson. And, while MJ had a baseball stint, Bo Jackson was legitimately a star in both baseball and football.

What about Michael Phelps? Or Usain Bolt?
 
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