The undisputed greatest sportsperson of all time...

[Puros Y Vino]

I want to say Wayne Gretzky. Phenomenal team and personal accomplishments and all around classy guy. However, the guy I am most impressed with from the sporting world is Roberto Clemente. And I have never seen him play a live game! I was born in 1969. It was only as a little kid collecting baseball cards that I'd look over his stats, read or hear about his exploits. I've read many articles and an excellent book on his life. He was a great athlete but more impressive was his humility and big heart. This is a guy who risked all to make a difference to human suffering. He did not send money, endorse a charity, smile for photo ops. Nope. Having heard or a terrible earthquake in Managua Nicaragua. He organized a plane full of relief goods on his own. He had heard of three previous relief flights being diverted to the corrupt government cronies. Angered. He chartered his own plane. Tragically, it crashed off an island near Puerto Rico on New Years Eve. Clemente's body was never found.

I don't know what it is about him but I cannot think of any other athlete the way I do about Clemente. This guy had all the skills, charm and persona of many athletes at the time. In one game as a right fielder, he grabbed a ball that went deep towards the foul line and threw out a guy running for 3rd base from the wall!! Unreal. Never heard of such a play since.

So, my vote goes to all around great player, humanitarian and near-saint Roberto Clemente. I wish I could have seen him play. For now, old youtube clips will have to do.

[Skyfall]

The mentioned worldwide appeal/fame has to eliminate NBA/NFL/hockey/baseball/etc surely? Granted there are huge individuals in those sports but outside of North america they are essentially niche markets

The world number one tiddly winks player is probably an amazing tiddly winkns player but outside that community they are going to be unknown

Purely on Worldwide fame it has to be Muhammed Ali, Pele, Beckham, Tiger, Bolt

Jordan's World Olympic Record is impressive too. I bet there is a pair of his shoe's somewhere in every single country and state in this World.

Who else can say that?

[CaptainQuintero]

Shoes???

[Skyfall]

I know he is black and is bald, beyond that no idea, even less on shaquille and the first time I eve heard of babe ruth was on Carnivale (the tv show in 1930s america)

I could be wrong, but I don't think this is the norm. I mean, not ever even hearing of Babe Ruth?

[Skyfall]

Shoes???

Oh come on...now you're just being silly.

Nike Air Jordans!!!!!!!!!!!

Over $1 Billion in Global Sales.

Jordan is the First Sportsman ever to have his product sale $1 Billion in global sales.

[CaptainQuintero]

There is literally zero exposure to baseball here

[CaptainQuintero]

Oh come on...now you're just being silly.

Nike Air Jordans!!!!!!!!!!!

Over $1 Billion in Global Sales.

Jordan is the First Sportsman ever to have his product sale $1 Billion in global sales.

huh cool I guess, I'm guessing that the global sales were 99% north america though right?

it might come as a surprise but honestly, Baseball, Basketball, NFL, hockey etc are just not shown here. NFL has started appearing on pay monthly tv subscription services in the last few years but it's still an incredibly tiny market section

Darts and snooker seriously dwarfs all the above mentioned sports put together here in terms of viewers and popularity etc, as the most 'americanised' country outside of the US I'm guessing the Uk is a pretty good standard to base things on

[khomeinist]

Most of the world does not know from baseball. Lol.

Lou Gehrig. Jackie Robinson. Clemente.

Will take those guys as sportsmen over Babe.

[khomeinist]

If David Beckham is the answer....

I might shed one single, solitary tear

[Skyfall]

Most of the world does not know from baseball. Lol.

Lou Gehrig. Jackie Robinson. Clemente.

Will take those guys as sportsmen over Babe.

I agree, but it's hard to not have ever heard of Babe Ruth.

[Skyfall]

Interesting Fact:

Michael Jordan is #2 on the World's Richest Athletes list for Net Worth at $650 Million, only behind Arnold Palmer.

The first time an International Athlete makes the list is #8 with Michael Schumacher. (I'm not even going to stir the pot about drivers being athletes.)

Also the first Cricketer comes in at #34 - Dhoni???

[CaptainQuintero]

If this is truly world-wide, I bet that Jordan is far, FAR, more famous than Messi or Beckham in China, and obviously the USA. Thats almost a full quarter of the world-wide population.

I'll take that bet! Put a picture of Jordon next to a picture of Beckham and I'll say in very country in the world apart from the US more people will know who beckham is

for better or worse golden balls is marketing gold, pre season trips with manchester united and then real madrid has pushed his exposure to every corner of the globe

[Jason]

It's Paolo Maldini numpties

[markmurase]

interesting way to do it. endorsements? a lot of this seems to place more emphasis on how important the sport is as that would inevitably lead to a variation in recognition and affect parts of the criteria you have set out (not complaining about that, just making the point).

no idea under those criteria but for purely the greatest, anyone who has ever heard of cricket would be likely to put forward don bradman. extraordinary domination across several decades and no one has ever come within cooee.

i'd also suggest heather mckay. yes, i know that even today most aussies have no idea who she was. squash player (which raises the concept of how much weight to what might be seen as a lesser sport). dominated the world for twenty years. when i say 'dominated', she lost two games very early in her career. she was never beaten again. the british open was considered the world championship. i don't think she ever lost another set, let alone a game. and many times, never even lost a point. imagine if this was tennis - people we long argue over the best - and we could say that federer had not only not been beaten for 20 years but had not lost a set at wimbledon for that time and often won games without losing a point. gives it some perspective.

and she took up racquet ball as well, in order to play someting in the States. she won the American Amateur Racquetball Championship, the American Professional Racquetball Championship three times, and the Canadian Racquetball Championship five times and was inducted into the USA Racquetball Hall of Fame in 1997. she also took up hockey and played for australia in the national team for a number of years.

or depending on your "definition" of sports, walter lindrum - billiards. more than 50 world recorsds, many still standing. greatest break was over 4,000. the problem was that he was so sominant, many players simply refused to play him or enter tournaments with him. and the officials were forced to make rule changes to bring him back to the field. he used to play a lot of exhibition matches against former world champions and would give them 7,000 points start. as for charity, during wwii, he raised more than half a mill pounds doing exhibitions and more than two mill in his career. not bad for those times.

Ken, 3 great sportsmen there. Sir Don Bradman is the sportsman who I consider the greatest ever.

[Ken Gargett]

. When you get right down to it, I just don't know that there was ever a sportsman who dominated his sport as completely and irrefutably as Michael Jordan. Greatest of all time.

as i said, huge fan of jordan. and i know stats don't tell the entire story in any sport for any sportsman but here are the top scorers in basketball. and then batting averages in cricket.

jordan is point 05 ahead of the next best? yes, lots of other factors. but take a look at bradman. and then think that he played for more than 20 years (these are test figures), and was interrupted by some serious illnesses and a little thing called WWII. he is so far ahead of the next bloke - and i would argue he must be discounted at this stage. super talent but only been playing for a year or two so his figures are highly unlikely to remain at that level. no one else ever has. bar bradman.

and one other point. bradman scored all his runs on uncovered wickets. for the last 40-50 years, every other cricketer (so not everyone in that list) has played on a covered pitch.

for non-cricketers, this is a massive disadvantage, making his record far more extraordinary than it might appear.

now that is dominating your sport.

and curiousity it might be but cricket has a massive audience. possibly only soccer is larger. and fishing.

the reference to the wrestler by one member, absolutely legitimate though wrestling suffers from the same problem as squash - minor sport. but if 13 years undefeated is impressive, 20 years is extraordinary. i mentioned heather mckay. some of her matches were won without the loss of a set and some without even losing a point.

but has anyone considered RG3?

1. Michael Jordan* 30.12 2. Wilt Chamberlain* 30.07 3. LeBron James 27.56 4. Elgin Baylor* 27.36 5. Jerry West* 27.03 6. Allen Iverson 26.66 7. Kevin Durant 26.59 8. Bob Pettit* 26.36 9. George Gervin* 26.18 10. Oscar Robertson* 25.68

Highest averages Player Span Mat Inns NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 0

DG Bradman (Aus) 1928-1948 52 80 10 6996 334 99.94 29 13 7

CA Pujara (India) 2010-2013 13 22 4 1180 206* 65.55 4 3 0

RG Pollock (SA) 1963-1970 23 41 4 2256 274 60.97 7 11 1

GA Headley (WI) 1930-1954 22 40 4 2190 270* 60.83 10 5 2

H Sutcliffe (Eng) 1924-1935 54 84 9 4555 194 60.73 16 23 2

E Paynter (Eng) 1931-1939 20 31 5 1540 243 59.23 4 7 3

KF Barrington (Eng) 1955-1968 82 131 15 6806 256 58.67 20 35 5

ED Weekes (WI) 1948-1958 48 81 5 4455 207 58.61 15 19 6

WR Hammond (Eng) 1927-1947 85 140 16 7249 336* 58.45 22 24 4

GS Sobers (WI) 1954-1974 93 160 21 8032 365* 57.78 26 30 12

[CaptainQuintero]

has anyone not heard of hulk hogan?

[CossackCarl]

The Don (greatest in terms of statistics)

Or

Floyd Mayweather Jr (undefeated, enough said)

[kiwifruit]

Global recognition would have to go to Jordan. Barring Cumbria, just his silhouette alone is the most recognizable sports icon. Above Beckham, Messi and other sports stars. Any sport that can be played in both urban and suburban areas have a huge advantage over sports like soccer, golf and baseball. It appeals to more people due to access. Not saying you can't play soccer in back alleys but definitely being able to play a certain sport gets more attention than otherwise.

[khomeinist]

Floyd over Ali or Sugar Ray Robinson or Carmen Basilio or Hagler or Duran or twenty other greats?

C'mon son....

[kiwifruit]

Current boxing is like professional wrestling. Winners and losers are dictated by the next possible event. Records are a reflection of good managers. Pick fights that are probable wins and continue to do so until the pay is enough to take a loss.

[CossackCarl]

Ali and Sugar Ray were great but they lost fights, FM jr hasn't. How can you say he isn't the greatest, he hasn't lost a fight.

[khomeinist]

Floyd has not fought nearly the same caliber of opponent. Sugar Ray Robinson fought like six times a year against the absolute best. Really no comparison. Floyd never fights challenging guys in their prime. If he would beat guys like Martinez, I would be impressed. Yet he won't take those types of fights.

PS: JL Castillo beat Floyd in their first fight. Real boxing junkies know that.... Judges be damned

[Ken Gargett]

Global recognition would have to go to Jordan.

jordan would undoubtedly have great recognition but unless the world has changed massively in the last decade or so, he would not be close to the top soccer stars. this is, of course, a different question to who is the greatest.

maradona. as big a grub as he might be, massive world wide recognition. messi, for sure. pele. beckham less so. helps to be good at your sport.

a decade or two ago, i spent a year travelling africa, middle east, asia. we would not have gone through a village in africa, from one end to the other, without seeing at least a third of the kids in ragged, dirty shirts with maradona or pele or some other soccer star on them. and this was when jordan was still playing. not saying we never saw a shirt with him on it but it would have been 50 to one. asia varied depending on where you were but again, huge recognition of the soccer players. and take a wild guess at what you'd find in south america. messi would be everywhere in africa and asia and south america now. my fishing guide in cuba? all he wanted for his son was something linked to soccer and brazil. he was typical.

no offence to jordan and no reflection on his greatness but his global recognition would be a blip on the radar compared to top soccer players.

[Overproof]

Floyd has not fought nearly the same caliber of opponent. Sugar Ray Robinson fought like six times a year against the absolute best. Really no comparison. Floyd never fights challenging guys in their prime. If he would beat guys like Martinez, I would be impressed. Yet he won't take those types of fights.

PS: JL Castillo beat Floyd in their first fight. Real boxing junkies know that.... Judges be damned

[dvickery]

how interesting that "the undisputed greatest sportsman" thread is being used to decide who made/makes the most $$$.

secretariat...(undefeated, enough said)

derrek