Best All time

I've been blessed to live in an era that showcased some of the greatest athletes of all time. I followed the careers of Michael Jordan, Joe Montana, Walter Payton, Mario Lemieux, Patrick Roy, Cal Ripken, Rickey Henderson, etc. Out of all of them, the most dominant athlete I've had the privilege to watch has been Wayne Gretzky. I don't know of any player who so single handedly and seemingly effortlessly dominanted his sport like he did. Collecting hockey cards was very popular in the Massachusetts city I grew up in. While all the other athletes were greatly admired and collected, Gretzky was like a god. If you didn't like The Great One you didn't have friends.

[TUM301]

Easy, the greatest team sport player in N American history. Bill Russell !!

[ChiefBenderForever]

Had to go with Gretzky just because he was so amazing to watch and was the greatest, although he did have great teamates which really help. Just like Jordan became the greatest when Pippen and Grant got on board. Without great teamates you are just a great player ( aka Adrian Peterson ) , and then some like Randy Moss think they are the greatest.

[sdkammeyer]

Cobb

[Exhibitman]

Most dominant:

Babe Ruth in baseball because he was right up with the top 2-3 hitters of all time and could pitch at a HOF level too. No one else has come close to that level of skill.

Wilt Chamberlain in basketball. His stats are astounding. In terms of peak performance in 1961-62 he averaged 50.4 points and 25.7 rebounds per game. Cut that in half and it is still the output of a HOF center. As for career, he averaged 30.1 points and 22.9 boards per game. Wilt's win shares are 2nd all-time but he accomplished it in 13 seasons and it took #2 [Kareem] more play to top him. He is #1 in alltime rebounds per game, edging out Bill Russell, but Russell's scoring average was 15.1 points, half of Wilt's. Jordan has him by 0.05 in scoring average but only had 6.2 rebounds per game.

Jim Brown in football. He was a monster. He averaged 104.3 yards rushing per game [#1 alltime] and 5.2 yards per carry. He's still #5 alltime in rushing TDs.

[mart8081]

I like the choice of Merckx but would add:

Donald Bradman - Australian Test Match cricketer. Finished his test career with an average of 99.94 runs per innings. The next highest is 60.97 runs per innings (Pollock of South Africa).

40 runs per innings is the broadly used marker of a good test batsmen - I would guess it is roughly comparable to a .300 batting average in baseball. 50 runs per innings equates to .320, 60 runs per innings to .340. Therefore, 99.94 runs per innings using this scale would result in batting .420 in baseball - for your entire career.

[tachyonbb]

As documented earlier, to me Eddy Merckx was the most dominant in his sport over the longest time.


2nd to me is Bill Russell. 2 NCAA championships. 11 times NBA champion. He did what had to be done to win. Rebound, shoot, lead the fast break, whatever the team needed, he did.

[pepis]

Gretzky-Ruth
both somewhat equal choices!
advantage for Gretzky, he did it pretty much in our life time,
advantage for Ruth, he did excel in both hiting and pitching
he still is one of only 2 lefty pitchers to compaile an ERA of under 2.00
while pitching 300 or more innings in american league history
and one of only 4 in modern major leagues (113 years}

[soxfan1986]

most dominant athlete of all-time,
is also the greatest winner of all-time bill russell.
the guy has more championship rings than he has fingers,

he;s got my vote.
and yes i have a boston bias

GO CELTICS

[bfrench00]

Have to go with the babe on this one. Not positive but i think he had more homers than entire teams a few times. He brought back baseball after the black sox scandal and since he would have been a hof pitcher that just adds to his legacy. 714 hr 342 ba and over 2000 rbis. As long as there is baseball babe will always be around.

[Piratedogcardshows]

While I'm not a fan of the 100 point game I chose Wilt Chamberlain.The stats earlier in the thread are just mind boggling.He totally dominated his peers at that time like no other athlete has.

[Shoele$$]

Gotta go with the "Great One".....nobody will ever touch Wayne's records. He changed the entire sport and it's marketing in this country by himself when he arrived in LA in the late 80's. There will never be another WG

[David W]

To me it was just about a tie between Gretzky, Ruth, and Chamberlain.

However, people have come close to Gretzky's totals, passed Ruth's totals, but no one has come close to Chamberlain in his first 6 seasons.

He completely changed basketball, scored 100 points, averaged 50 and 40, first to shoot 50%, 60%, and 70% in a season.

He also led the league in assists once in 1968 with 702.

He once averaged 48.5 minutes per game.

I voted Chamberlain.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/...chambwi01.html

[EvilKing00]

no one has come close to Gretzky's totals

look - its almost like video game stats compared to the normal human players

http://www.nhl.com/ice/careerstats.htm

[David W]

Originally Posted by EvilKing00

no one has come close to Gretzky's totals

look - its almost like video game stats compared to the normal human players

http://www.nhl.com/ice/careerstats.htm

Career wise counting the WHA, Gordie Howe has more total goals, and Bobby Hull is real close.

Single season Gretzky has 92 and 87 and then Brett Hull and Lemieux have 86 and 85.

No one has come near Chamberlains 1st 5 years in the NBA

[drc]

Don Hutson should have been on the list. He dominated his sport in his era as much as or more than anyone. That doesn't mean I would have voted for him.

[EvilKing00]

Originally Posted by David W

Career wise counting the WHA, Gordie Howe has more total goals, and Bobby Hull is real close.

Single season Gretzky has 92 and 87 and then Brett Hull and Lemieux have 86 and 85.

No one has come near Chamberlains 1st 5 years in the NBA

All time NHL stats

[dabigyankeeman]

Ruth had some years where he hit more home runs that any other TEAM. And this is after being one of the greatest pitchers in the game! The Babe is the man!!

[EvilKing00]

Babe and Jordan catching up to the Great one! looks like its gonna be alot closer than I thought