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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 1782292, member: 289"] When ESPN was doing it's "Sport Century" series and naming the 100 greatest athletes of the 20th Century in reverse order, (they started with 100 and worked their way to #1), they wound up with Michael Jordan as "The Athlete of the Century": [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SportsCentury"]SportsCentury - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/URL] I disagreed. I felt he was more the athlete of the moment and would be well-remember but I felt like he was sort of this generation's Joe DiMaggio: a great player, maybe the bets in his post, with a favorable public image but who hid behind that image, avoided controversy and had a dark side that eventually would come out. I felt that if they did another list in a few decades, Jordan would still be ranked highly but not close to #1. (DiMaggio was #22 on the Sports Century list). I felt that, to Americans, (the Sports Century list was limited to North Americans), there were two athletes of the 20th Century, one of the first half of the century, one of the second half. They had these things in common: - The were both arguably the GOAT of a major sport. - They were both public extroverts but brooded in private. - They were both great showmen. - They both had an affinity for children. - They were both symbols of their time and... - It was time devoted to youth. - As time past, they were a reminder to that generation of the time of their youth. - They both were afflicted with serious illnesses that robbed them of being a lengthy presence in society after their sports careers were over. - Both were highly controversial in their playing days and not universally admired but... - They came to be as the years passed and were mourned nationally when their lives ended. I posted this at time and said that the proof that they were of the prominence I suggested was that i didn't have to identify them because you already know who I am talking about. The two difference between Babe Ruth and Muhammed Ali are these: - Ali used his prominence to take courageous, against the gain stands on issues that mattered to society. Ruth, aside from some broadcasts he made to the troops during WWI and his famous comment about why he was paid more than Herbert Hoover, "(I had a better year than he did."), Ruth was apolitical. Incidentally, he didn't fight in World War I because he "gained exemption from the war draft by accepting a nominal position with a Pennsylvania steel mill" per Wikipedia, which gave him a deferment for being employed in a vital industry. - Ali was champion of the world, not just of an American sport. He fought all over the world and became the most famous person on the planet. As such, he is being mourned world-wide by people in all cultures who related to him. . So if you have to pick a #1, it would have to be "The Greatest" [/QUOTE]

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