This is the most accurate comment I’ve seen this morning and it’s not even close

Or “this is the only correct/acceptable answer” yeah that’s why there’s an entire thread of people debating it 🫠

E.g. Kobe and Duncan lol

The only player where it’s not too close, or at least undisputed, is Wayne Gretzky in the NHL.

LeBron James is

1st in points generated

1st in playoff points

1st in All NBA Selections

1st in All Star selections

1st in wins

1st in playoff wins

1st in playoff steals

1st in playoff win shares

1st in MVP shares

1st in playoff game winners

1st in clutch playoff efficiency of top 50 players all time

1st in vorp

1st in playoff vorp

1st in 30point playoff games

1st in 40point games in a post season.

1st in finals triple doubles

1st in to play every position for a full season

1st in points rebounds and assists led playoff series

1st in player of the month and week awards

Youngest to average 30ppg

Oldest to average 30ppg

Youngest to every 1k point milestone

Only player w/ 10k points 10k reb 10ast, with 43k, 11k, 11k

79,000 combined points rebounds and assists, which is 8k more than Kareem at the No. 2 rank.

He’s the clutchest player of all time, the most versatile player of all time, the best player maker of all time, the greatest scorer of all time, is going to play a quarter century still as an allstar in his 40s, and is the greatest player of all time, and unfortunately, it’s not particularly close.

The GOAT isn’t about really being better than anyone as much as its the greatest career

Worth noting that everyone has their own opinion about what a GOAT is, and everyone will weigh the different aspects (peak, longevity, individual stats, team accomplishments, impact on the game, etc.) differently

The GOAT is the combination of it all.

And Jordan is talking about ability when he says what he says about the debate.

Any of the upper echelon has moments in their career that other players didn’t accomplish.

And accolades are difficult because it’s era dependent. Jordan most likely isn’t winning 5 MVPs in today’s NBA. That’s not a knock against today’s great players that they won’t reach that…it’s a testament to how much greater the talent pool is around the world.

Wilt wasn’t even the greatest player of his era.

How many rings did Wilt win? Compare that to Gretsky. It’s not even a strong argument. If you look up crazy stats on Gretsky it dwarfs Wilts stats. Do you even hockey, bro?

Why? Wilt only tops rebounds all time. He doesnt top scoring, assists, blocks, steals, championships, MVPs, scoring titles, DPOYs.

He has less of the important acolades than MJ or Lebron.

Except Gretzy has dominated hockey in a way that no other athlete has dominated their sport. Hes in a GOAT tier of his own.

Nah what makes Gretzky the goat is how uncontested it is without argument. You can at least argue MJ vs. LeBron. You can also argue LT or Jerry Rice vs. Brady. Hell, Manning was enough of a challenge for Brady during his career.

It would have been even better

Not marketing wise but it’d be fun

Usain Sloth

No there’s not. Shoes and tracks have improved more in the last 10 years than in the 50 years before Bolt retired and nobody has gotten close to Bolt to this day.

Medium distance isn’t sprinting. 100m and 200m are the only two purely running olympic events where athletes are sprinting the entire time. A human being is scientifically incapable of sprinting for 400m.

Bolt is the GOAT of sprinting. Saying otherwise is just being contrarian.

He holds the world records in 4 events 100, 145, 200 and 4x100.

Seems like since he’s got records in multiple sprint events then he’s probably the GOAT sprinter…

Since when were we talking about jumping? Hell even if you do Bolts dominance is so absurd that he is still the GOAT over Carl Lewis. And no one that could run the 100, 200, 400 is even close.

Or just doesnt want to be witchhunted by a closed minded group

There’s no one anywhere close besides maybe lemueix but his career was derailed by injuries

Was Gretzky that good at swimming?

The argument against Gretzky is the modern game has taken such a leap in overall talent that mcdavid is truly the most talented player ever. Drop mcdavid in the 80s and he becomes mcjesus, the father and the Holy Ghost

If they were all broken by the same person, you might be on to something.

But it was 5 different guys. Because swimming is an ultra specialized sport at the highest levels.

Him holding world records in 5 individual events, on top of his Olympic dominance, makes him the GOAT of swimming.

And, sorry to people in this thread, ‘it’s not even close’

He has the greatest record ever. And it will never be broken.

well said always an interesting point to bring up about Michael Phelps

He wasn’t a fisherman

sachin or lara over bradman would hardly be a controversial opinion

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He won 9 MVPs. His PPG and total points are unmatched. Both peak and longevity are unmatched.

Karelin went unbeaten in 887 matches, 13 years, won everything. He’s even more dominant than either Phelps or Gretzky.

Lemieux is much more a what-if though than the other three here

Gretzky is not the all time leading scorer anymore.

Outdated stat. Ovechkin passed Gretzky last year

how many 360 spin goals does he have?

Yup.

It’s just unreal.

And I’m not some hockey nut that has to pretend people care about the NHL.

I don’t care about the NHL.

I didn’t mark down the date, but I think it’s easily been than a decade since I watched any hockey game.

Gretzky’s dominance was just unreal.

I would pick Howe, because I am from Detroit and also fuck Wayne Gretzky.

Lemieux MIGHT have been more talented (I might even agree), but it’s really hard to actually take his career as is over Gretzky’s

1.92 ppg is pretty wild from Wayne

Don Bradman in cricket might have Gretsky beat. Batting average of 95 in tier 1 cricket whereas the second best ever is 71.

It’s not it’s really not. People just pick someone else to be contrary or because of his recent stupidity with regards to politics

Jean Beliveau won 10 cups as a player, but a good chunk of those were when the nhl only had 6 to 12 teams. He’s probably the closest thing the NHL has to Bill Russell, great leader and 2-way player but not really considered up there with Gretzky. He’s top 10 all time imo tho. Gretzky won 4 cups for comparison but the league had a good amount more teams by then.

Edit: Henri Richard won the most cups of any player with 11, but he was teammates with Beliveau for most of them

Sure. They do.

Wilt didn’t play in the current era.

Gretzky retired in 1999.

Ok but Gretzky was actually winning championships

Don’t rush to prove my point about the dorks part. I can fully believe one of the most respected names in the sport doesn’t care who you rank where.

Because most don’t have fun with it. They make defending their favorite player part of their identity. They come up with derogatory terms towards people that don’t agree with them. They appear mentally unwell in the lengths they will go to defend an athlete. Something fun shouldn’t be so aggressive and doesn’t require talking down to other people with a varied opinion on the matter.

Jerry rice is the goat of American football :/

Not even the best QB…

Mr 300 in a day would have dominated the format too.

It is like demoting Jerry West on an all-time list because he didn’t get to shoot 3 pointers. Despite him being a great shooter.

What a horrendous take

Running is objective. No one has ever run 100m faster than Bolt

To this day. 71 years old still pulling magic shots

Bruv, how could you leave Steven A Smith out of this nightmare roundtable?

No we’re not. You are trying to present a topic that is interpreted in many ways and constantly under debate, as a no-brainer. So you’re smug while uninformed. Fucking yikes

Kobayashi redefined the sport.

Johnny Sins.

and the goat of shaking it all about?

Rocco Sinfredi

Half the countries in the world don’t support women’s sport like the US

Swimming overall as a sport phelps is the goat

They should race sometime

I do think Messi is the goat but he’s a terrible example, every person this guy named is undisputed best ever in their field and there is a ton of debate around the best footballer ever

My brother in Christ he has more assists than Ovechkin has goals. His combination of goal scoring and passing was so absurd, even in the high-scoring 80s, nobody came close to him.

The context is he’s the goddamned Great One for a reason, he’s Crosby and Ovechkin and McDavid in one package.

I mean Gretzky has 6 more mvps and 2 more rings than Mario Lemieux

How many 200 point seasons does Lemieux have? Gretzky has four.

Longest career should be lebron.

Absolute highest peaks of dominance it should really be the unanimous mvp and best winning team regular season holder steph curry.

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Wayne Gretzky has stats so head and shoulders above everyone else that it isn’t even a conversation. He was split into two players in fantasy because he was too good: Gretzky (goals) ane Gretzky (assists).

Not sure there is a reasonable argument against Wayne Gretzky and I don’t even like the guy

Yeah Kellerman always goes on about why Ruth is greater than him. I don’t really care about the subject, but it certainly doesn’t seem settled or “not even close” as people say.

The guy who didn’t play with black people?

Babe Ruth plumber, or Ohtani once in a generation talent

Not even close you goofs

Jesus Christ how old are you, 20?

Can never take dodger fans seriously. Yamamoto isn’t even the best in the league today. What are you on about

Judge literally had higher WAR than him year in and out.

That’s just your opinion

He is 28 world championships ahead of 2nd

Feel Djokovic in tennis? anyone who actually follows agrees it’s undeniable, broke every single record and did it when hos competition was at peak too

Don Bradman is the clear GOAT of any sport. Cricket player from Australia. His test batting average, which is basically your batting average in tier 1 cricket is 95, which to put into perspective, the second highest ever is 71.