My Sport is Better Than Your Sport: the GOAT thread

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

32 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

I don't think any sport has had such a proliferation of all time greats up against each other as wrestling did 1997-2002. 

You sir, are speaking my love language. Haven't watched wrestling live in ages outside of flipping through channels and stopping on something for a few minutes. But the Attitude Era was wild. How did The Hardy Boyz not die?

[DMC]

1 minute ago, Tywin et al. said:

How did The Hardy Boyz not die?

Right I was about to edit but might as well just add - you also had the Hardyz, Edge/Christian and the Dudleyz doing their TLC magic too.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Shameless excuse to play this:

 

[BigFatCoward]

I loved how long and well they built up Kane before he even appeared on a show. 

@DMC totally agree, Michaels was the best in ring performer ever. Its apparent how so many of his peers, despite mainly hating him, give him his props for what he could do in the ring. 

[DMC]

2 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

@DMC totally agree, Michaels was the best in ring performer ever. Its apparent how so many of his peers, despite mainly hating him, give him his props for what he could do in the ring.

While obviously the born again thing isn't for me, his ability to admit he was an asshole - even during that hiatus where he admits he was still domineering and drugged out - is quite admirable to me.  Then to come back and do what he did for the next generation...

And it wasn't just "in-ring" talent per se.  I absolutely love his match with Hogan where he just oversold everything to show what an asshole Hogan was.  He was hilarious and finally found a way to be mature but still biting about it.  As Hall famously said, he's the only guy that could have a five star match with a ladder.  To circle this back to the thread, he found ways to entertain people through the combination of his athleticism and his own form of genius that just can't be matched among any other pro wrestler.

[polishgenius]

Looks like I need to edit the title to 'my sports entertainment is better than your sports entertainment'. 

[BigFatCoward]

7 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

Looks like I need to edit the title to 'my sports entertainment is better than your sports entertainment'. 

Wwe can't hold a candle to big daddy and giant haystacks. 

[polishgenius]

3 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

Wwe can't hold a candle to big daddy and giant haystacks. 

 

 

[James Arryn]

22 hours ago, DMC said:

Meh, yes, LeBron lacks the relentless intensity Jordan does, but I don't think this is indicative of their overall defensive abilities.  Obviously, at a certain point, effort does make a difference even in such a comparison, but this seems like picking nits.

I’d even argue that Jordan’s relentless intensity on D is seriously overrated once Pippen emerged. He was more of a pick-your-moments defender after that, Pipp was the guy who did the bulk of the locking down the other top swing for most of most games. Earlier in his career and/or when he picked his moments, sure, he was fantastic…but very few guys (*cough Hakeem/~Duncan *cough) could actually be the full-time primary player at both ends for the bulk of their career. It just takes way too much out of you. 

Edited September 11, 2022 by James Arryn

[baxus]

On 9/10/2022 at 10:06 PM, polishgenius said:

 

That's not really fair. Gymnasts perform more than one routine in a day during competition and if you asked me to nail down one single sport I'd least like to do because of the level of hardcore preparation required, it'd probably be that. Stamina isn't the only athletic quality. 

Gymnastics is probably the sport with highest bar for entry level. I mean, we can all go out on the court and play basketball, nowhere near world class level of course, but still play it. No dunks, but we could pretty much all hit a three pointer or play some defense etc. On the other hand, not sure many (if any) of us could even get to starting position on the rings.

That being said, gymnasts obviously do perform more than one routine, but routine is a minute or two long so I wouldn't really count that the same as a match in football, basketball etc.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

3 hours ago, baxus said:

Gymnastics is probably the sport with highest bar for entry level.

Wouldn't that be something involving the ponies or race cars? 

[Which Tyler]

15 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Wouldn't that be something involving the ponies or race cars? 

To be fair - at the pones, the bar is typically about 110cm (43") heigh, whilst in Gymnastics, even the low bar is 170cm (63"), whilst the heigh bar is 250 (98) and the Horizontal is 280 (109)...

Of course, I fully agree with you here when not being facetious

Edited September 12, 2022 by Which Tyler

[Raja]

He's not gonna be on that many lists, but with football, Modric is defo one of my GOATs

Thankfully he left spurs so i can enjoy him properly

 

Edited September 18, 2022 by Raja

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

@BigFatCoward, watch this:

[polishgenius]

A new challenger approaches

[Mr. X]

Holy crap. 

I mean, Chicago is an incredibly flat course and seems like the spot where a record could be set, but it still blows my mind a bit to think about sustaining that pace.

I mean, it averages out to about 4:36 a mile! For two hours! 

[polishgenius]

In his third race over the distance.

 

Like he holds three of the six fastest marathon times ever run, and those are all his races. Mental.

[Denvek]

I don't think we can fully include him here until he breaks 2 hours. Doesn't matter if he's consistently the fastest man for the rest of his career and wins all the medals, in 20-30 years time if he's not the first sub-2-hour man he won't be the one who gets remembered.

[Arakasi]

Pretty sure he will do that (barring injury). He just blew half of that away today just needs to do it again.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

3 hours ago, polishgenius said:

In his third race over the distance.

 

Like he holds three of the six fastest marathon times ever run, and those are all his races. Mental.

Well, I read somewhere (might have been over at the guardian) that one of the reasons is, that Marathon is becoming younger. In the past it used to be the folks that got too old/slow for the 5.000 and 10.000 that switched over to the Marathon distance. Now with increased prize money people go into the Marathon right away. That in combination with those kybernetic shoes you get those lower times.