Is MJ the greatest?

[HoyoDC]

Is MJ the greatest athlete ever? He is in good company with Muhammad Ali, Pele but did anybody else have his drive and versatility?  

[JohnS]

We did discuss this in the thread below not too long ago...

Certainly, Michael Jordan is one of the best athletes of all time, in his field. But the very best? Well, that's open to debate.

[HoyoDC]

Thx John, will do more checking next time.  Shariff 

[Ken Gargett]

it does raise an interesting question. athlete as opposed to sportsman. 

[Ford2112]

No.The Nature Boy Ric Flair is the greatest WHOOOOOOOOOO!!!

[HoyoDC]

On 11/8/2025 at 2:03 AM, Ford2112 said:

No.The Nature Boy Ric Flair is the greatest WHOOOOOOOOOO!!!

 

[MadridPuros]

It’s very clear to me the greatest athlete of all time is Tiger Woods! 

[Ken Gargett]

1 hour ago, MadridPuros said:

It’s very clear to me the greatest athlete of all time is Tiger Woods! 

i am still of the view that we should look at dividing sportsmen (and of course, women) and athletes, but if we combine, for me, MJ is undoubtedly the greatest basketballer and one of the all time greatest, but the stats and results and everything else are such that Donald Bradman is clearly the greatest, daylight second. 

if there is a challenger, surely it is heather mackay. 

the only two people who dominated a sport, that i can think of, to the extent Bradman did would be heather mackay and walter lindrum. a push to call lindrum an athlete, but perhaps a sportsman. 

tiger is a superstar but it is very hard to name him best of all, given that there is a more than legitimate case to argue that he may not have even been the greatest golfer, in comparison to Jack Nicklaus. line ball between them. jack with 18 majors, tiger with 15. 

[ha_banos]

Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr is a great all round athlete and has dominated CrossFit for what 8 years? Matt Fraser too for 5 years. This is not a thing one can keep up for too many years. The work that goes into multidisciplinary athletics is nuts. But too niche to be known outside of the sport.

I wonder how many others exist in terms of athleticism in niche sports. Saying that I consider Squash niche and have never before this thread heard of Heather McKay.

[joeypots]

I think the best of type discussions come down to what we like. Bobby Orr was my childhood sports hero. Bill Russell was the winning-est professional athlete but was he the best athlete? Muhammed Ali was the most famous athlete of the 20 century, was he the best athlete? We could argue this stuff all year.