OT: longest stretch as the best player in their sport

[Brooky03]

The other team sports aren’t conducive to a ‘best overall’ player. Brady, for example has an argument that he’s had 13 years as one of the best QBs, but how do you grade that against other positions? Deion Sanders was the most athletic guy on the field for most of his career and historically the best at his position. What about years that overlap with Megatron’s prime? Rice? Moss? The list would go on. I’d argue there were more talented QBs in Brady’s career, anyway; he’s the most decorated, though.

Baseball is the same way, but maybe you could delineate to two categories, pitcher vs. fielder. Soccer is more like basketball, but still has some specialization between offensive and defensive positions (and goalie is a different ballgame).

You could certainly do this with the individual sports like, tennis, golf, many Olympic sports, etc. Serena Williams comes to mind. How long was Tiger’s run? Hogan is up there along with Nicklaus, of course.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

No mention of Usain Bolt? There were about 8 years where anyone in a race with him knew they were competing for second place.

 

[Shawn91111]

Fedor and Jon Jones for around a decade in MMA. GSP and Anderson Silva for 7'ish years

 

[grepal]

Sue Bird has been a champion since she was like 15 years old, she has to be near 40 now. High School, College, Olympics, World Championships and WNBA. Being a champion level point guard for almost a quarter century deserves some love. Hard to say she was the best overall player all that time but for sustained excellence...

 

[Newhouser]

Aleksandr Karelin. 887-2 in his career as a wrestler. Unscored on in something like 6 or 7 years before Rulon Gardner beat him 1-0 in the last match of his career. I think both his losses were 1-0.

 

[LetMeIn]

Carl Lewis won four consecutive Golds in the long jump and also had a 10-year period where he was undefeated in that event

 

[Doc5120]

From the 5 major team sports, the only guys that come to mind are Gretzky, Brady, Babe Ruth and maybe Ronaldo and Messi. I don't follow soccer all that closely, but it seems like they've been at the top of their game for years now.

 

[SU94]

Not a huge LBJ person, but acknowledge his immense talent and career accomplishments (both individual and team) are simply stupendous. I rarely root for "the best" player or team.

And this is absolutely a valid conversation to have as to best analyze LeBron's level of greatness/dominance.

That said, over 19 years (1962-80), Jack Nicklaus won 17 of 76 major championships. That's a winning percentage of 22%. All while besting HOF talents such as Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson, Johnny Miller, Billy Casper, Hale Irwin, Hubert Green Seve Ballesteros and Ben Crenshaw.

In that same prime 19-year span, he finished runner-up (or T-2) 15 more times in majors. So, for nearly two decades, he either won or finished second in 45% of the majors he played in.

Breaking it down a bit further, in 44 majors from 1970-1980 Nicklaus missed just one cut. In that span he finished inside the top 10 38 times, and 30 of those were in the top five. He won 10 of those events.

These numbers are why i give Nicklaus the slight edge over Tiger, too.
So, LBJ should not feel so alone.

I'd also give Wayne Gretzky the nod over LBJ for many reasons. I'd like to remind everyone reading this that #99 had more career assists than any hockey player has career points, which is likely the most dominant individual stat fact in sports history.

 

[LAOrange]

Richard Petty was the best race car driver in America from 1964 to 1980.

 

[creatorsgam]

Richard Petty was the best race car driver in America from 1964 to 1980.

This thread is about sports though.

 

[SU94]

Not a huge LBJ person, but acknowledge his immense talent and career accomplishments (both individual and team) are simply stupendous. I rarely root for "the best" player or team.

And this is absolutely a valid conversation to have as to best analyze LeBron's level of greatness/dominance.

That said, over 19 years (1962-80), Jack Nicklaus won 17 of 76 major championships. That's a winning percentage of 22%. All while besting HOF talents such as Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson, Johnny Miller, Billy Casper, Hale Irwin, Hubert Green Seve Ballesteros and Ben Crenshaw.

In that same prime 19-year span, he finished runner-up (or T-2) 15 more times in majors. So, for nearly two decades, he either won or finished second in 45% of the majors he played in.

Out of context, Jack being Jack. Fun.

 

[moqui]

This thread is about sports though.

that's funny, but let me say: my son races karts competitively. i got into a kart & raced him for the first time last weekend. 14 laps and i was exhausted at the end. it is highly stressful even at ~45 mph. can't imagine 4x that speed for 500 miles

i would also point out to LAOrange that petty was the king of nascar, but foyt, unser and especially andretti would have something to argue about who was the best in america at that time

 

[JarHeadJim]

Out of context, Jack being Jack. Fun.

That's Awesome!!

 

[creatorsgam]

that's funny, but let me say: my son races karts competitively. i got into a kart & raced him for the first time last weekend. 14 laps and i was exhausted at the end. it is highly stressful even at ~45 mph. can't imagine 4x that speed for 500 miles

i would also point out to LAOrange that petty was the king of nascar, but foyt, unser and especially andretti would have something to argue about who was the best in america at that time

Yeah I wasn’t being entirely serious. Auto sports aren’t really my thing but I understand the physical demand it places on the body. The mind, too... once lapse of concentration could have devastating results.

 

[LAOrange]

that's funny, but let me say: my son races karts competitively. i got into a kart & raced him for the first time last weekend. 14 laps and i was exhausted at the end. it is highly stressful even at ~45 mph. can't imagine 4x that speed for 500 miles

i would also point out to LAOrange that petty was the king of nascar, but foyt, unser and especially andretti would have something to argue about who was the best in america at that time

I actually thought about that, but as great as those three drivers were, they didn't dominate their style individually the way Petty did. The sheer number of wins alone was phenomenal. And to the person who doesn't think it's a sport, try driving a Volkswagen at 65 in a circle for 500 miles much less 3000 lbs at 150 mph with 30 other guys trying to kill you. It's a lot more exhausting than golf. Those guys have someone to carry their bags while the saunter and stop for 4 miles.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

For the only season that mattered, Secretariat (to pick the SI wound). BTW - I am not sure how they did it, but I found the movie to be totally captivating and I watch it, in pieces, whenever I happen to see it on again. Of course, maybe it's just Diane Lane?



At autopsy, his heart was weighed at 22 lbs. The heart of the average thoroughbred is 9 lbs. It wasn't deformed, it was just bigger than all of the others.

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

youtu.be

 

[moqui]

muhammad ali, 16 years or so

and, as much or more so, joe louis

 

[realorange]

Tiger Woods was the man in golf for at least 12 years or more.

 

[orangefog]

Not sure how long she has been in the national spotlight; but Simone Biles has been dominate. It is surprising if someone is even close to her.

Also not sure how long Edwin Moses dominated 400 meter hurdles.

Simone Biles is ridiculous. Women’s gymnastics isn’t set up for a young woman to be “the best” for more than 2 years. She has been the best for 8 years and still going.

 

[Eric15]

Another candidate is Jack Johnson. I recently watched the Ken Burns documentary "Unforgivably Black" about the rise and fall of his career. He was just unstoppable in the early part of the 20th century.

 

[althea]

Yeah I wasn’t being entirely serious. Auto sports aren’t really my thing but I understand the physical demand it places on the body. The mind, too... once lapse of concentration could have devastating results.

I refer to auto racing as organized cheating. That being said, it's definitely a sport.