Kobe187 wrote:Is Jordan the Greatest Team Sports Athlete of All Time?
Babe Ruth
Wayne Gretzky
Tom Brady
Joe Montana
Jerry Rice
Jim Brown
Bo Jackson
Pele’
Maradona
Messi
There have been some legendary players in team sports throughout history that have completely revolutionized the game and changed the culture of the sport they play.
Michael Jordan likely had the greatest impact, more than any other athlete in history. Everyone wanted to be like Mike; his swagger, the way he played the game, the way he moved, the dunks, the buzz he created was phenomenal.
He revolutionized the game by showcasing how dominant a guard be. The cultural impact was huge from the low top shoes, to the gold chain, shorts being lower to the knee, etc. Jordan is not only the GOAT in basketball but all of team sports. Thoughts?
1. Jordan
2. Ruth
3. Gretzky
4. Pele’
When we talk about Greatest Sportsmen (and Sportswomen), we're always talking about someone who captured the imagination of the world. While it makes sense to think this would be more likely to happen with individual sports - early on boxers and olympians would have dominated the list - in the modern landscape it's pretty clear that that the biggest icons can come from team sports just about as easily as individual sport.
If we're asking who captured the imagination most, I'd mention 4 guys:
Babe Ruth - transformed baseball and essentially made it the #1 sport in the American landscape
Pele - the face of World Cup soccer, and specifically of Brazilian dominance - before Pele, Brazil was not the dominant soccer nation on the planet, but for the half century plus, it has been.
Muhammad Ali - the ultimate social justice icon among those who have already reached this stage. Things were a bit different in the Babe's day, but Pele and Jordan are well-known for doing whatever sponsors tell them to do despite knowing full well that they could try to do something different. You can disagree with what Ali advocated for, but you cannot deny that he was more important because of it.
Michael Jordan - of course. Remains the gold standard of athletic excellence to this day.
Ali was an individual athlete so we can eliminate him from this list if we want, but we should just understand that other guys being in team sports really isn't the reason they are a tier down from him.
Between the other 3 guys mentioned, the big question is whether Ruth being a spearhead from an earlier era helps him or hurts him in your criteria. Ruth essentially defined what it meant to be a celebrity athlete on a level beyond what was seen before, but he certainly seems less relevant today than Pele or Jordan.
Between Pele and Jordan, I'd like to here from non-Americans. What's undeniably the case is that Jordan's brand is stronger than Pele on a monetary level. Jordan's the reason Nike dominates sportswear, and he has his own brand that pays him F-you money every single year. Pele does dumb little Subway sandwich adds and when he opens his mouth people in his own sport tend to roll their eyes. I'd argue that Jordan had the wisdom to realize he wasn't wise enough to try to say anything important or significant about anything important or significant while Pele unthinkingly cannibalized his reputation with time...but the fact that he's not American or European is a big deal for a lot of reasons. The fact he's also the grandest icon of the #1 sport on the planet is important also.
Forced to make a pick between the 3 at this moment, I'd go with Jordan.
To circle back to two names already mentioned:
None of this is meant as a knock on Wayne Gretzky or Tom Brady. Both have good arguments for having had more accomplished careers in their sports than Jordan, but they aren't icons to the degree that Jordan is. Gretzky never will be, and the fact his sport is so minor is part of that (I don't like knocking hockey, I wish it were more popular than it is).
Brady is a guy who it seems like it should be possible to surpass Jordan at least in the US, but I think at the time of his retirement it's a given that he won't have matched Jordan. Where Brady's always had a shot to surpass Jordan is if he ends up having a second life in politics. I think that's become less likely with his uncertain connection to Trump. You either got a jump on that bandwagon or jump on the opposing one, and Brady's been Jordan-like with his refusal to take a stand.
Last note:
I'd be remiss without mentioning the other two basketball players to bring up: Bill Russell and LeBron James.
I've always said that if separate specifics of basketball skills, there's zero question whose athletic excellence is more respect-worthy between Russell and Jordan. It's Russell by a country mile. Anyone looking to try to adopt a mentality that allows for optimal success needs to study Russell. There is however the matter that the sports has been purposefully transformed since Russell's time to allow for Jordan-like guys to be more impactful than Russell like guys, and this was done to gin up popularity. It worked and thus it'd be a bit strange to put Russell forward here as basketball's representative.
LeBron vs Jordan is frankly a lot trickier if you're trying to separate based on actual play. Jordan was more dominant, but not by as much as people think, and LeBron's style is more optimized for the NBA rules that have been around since before Jordan joined the league (he just plays against more optimized competition). But while LeBron has an argument to be the Athlete of the 21st Century, to this point, there's no serious question of who the grander icon is. That's Jordan, and it probably always will be.