Ronnie The GOAT O'Sullivan picks his 5 best sportsmen of all time

NonP said:
When did I ever pretend otherwise? I still don't know a lick of difference between snooker and billiards/pool, and the only reasons why I'm somewhat familiar with the latter are cuz 1) I've briefly played it a few times with friends/relatives and 2) this comic book I once read (can't recall whether it was manga/Japanese or manhwa/Korean, let alone its title) would lay out the rules to help U understand its characters' Tsubasa/Danpei-like moves. I haven't even seen a pool table since.

BTW the best sports comic of any origin has gotta be the simply and aptly titled Slam Dunk, and I don't say that just cuz it's where I learned my Jordanesque (4 realz) shooting form:


Predictably the anime adaptation seems rather cheesy compared to the original manga (which I still own, at least in JPEG files), but U can see why teenage boys would be drawn to the series and then to the sport of basketball. Certainly worked its mojo on moi before I'd seen a single NBA/Jordan game in full.



Speaking of going out did U ever sign up for the MoviePass waitlist? If so how'd it go?
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Haha I absolutely love Slam Dunk - tensai is a word I still remember years after watching this one. Brilliant stuff.
 
From reading what he said in the past about tennis, don't think he likes nadal. Similar views as other athletes.
 
Roubaixcomp said:
Think you are confusing favourite to watch with greatest. Same with Tyson.
Nadal is statistically the greatest ever but by no means does that mean he is peopled favourite to watch.
Senna clearly not GOAT so I'm afraid that inclusion alone renders your attempt to troll Nadal fans a failure.
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Ultimate Tennis Statistics - GOAT List

Open Era GOAT List (a.k.a. GOATometer) compares tennis player career achievements expressed by GOAT Points
www.ultimatetennisstatistics.com

You're welcome. Nadal is statistically only third greatest player ever.

You seem to confuse tennis as a sport with Grand Slam titles.
 
AO13 said:

Ultimate Tennis Statistics - GOAT List

Open Era GOAT List (a.k.a. GOATometer) compares tennis player career achievements expressed by GOAT Points
www.ultimatetennisstatistics.com

You're welcome. Nadal is statistically only third greatest player ever.

You seem to confuse tennis as a sport with Grand Slam titles.
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1. That site is run by a Djokovic fan. Even if it wasn't a quick scan down shows how laughable it is overall anyway. If that is your best argument then you have no argument
2. The Slams are what define tennis. That's exactly why they are so important. Is that right? No of course not. But when Sampras had the slam record the American media which is all powerful in tennis made tennis all about slams and doubles down on that when their darling Roger had the record. Too late to change the goalposts now.
So yes Nadal is statistically the GOAT. I have said many times I consider Rafa Roger and Novak equals but the media don't get a free pass for past positions.
 
Roubaixcomp said:
1. That site is run by a Djokovic fan. Even if it wasn't a quick scan down shows how laughable it is overall anyway. If that is your best argument then you have no argument
2. The Slams are what define tennis. That's exactly why they are so important. Is that right? No of course not. But when Sampras had the slam record the American media which is all powerful in tennis made tennis all about slams and doubles down on that when their darling Roger had the record. Too late to change the goalposts now.
So yes Nadal is statistically the GOAT. I have said many times I consider Rafa Roger and Novak equals but the media don't get a free pass for past positions.
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Oh my God shut up and go to sleep junior. :-D :-D :-D
 
NonP said:
Speaking of going out did U ever sign up for the MoviePass waitlist? If so how'd it go?
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What's up buddy? Long time no speak (3 years?). I'm too involved in the regal unlimited to take a gamble on moviepass. I don't like their tier plans, I go 4+ times a month so it ain't worth it for me.
 
As an American who loves sports, I have no idea - as in I've never even heard the name - who this person is. But good on him for having his athletic heroes. We all do.
 
Kralingen said:
Disclaimer: there is no definition of greatest athlete, even in the same sport, that satisfies any consensus or stands up to any rigour. Let alone across sport, across discipline, etc. as we all know, these debates are ultimately pointless, and the framework for assessment is just guesses based on personal philosophy.

My view of it, and it’s just an opinion (a slightly facetious one) was that Phelps and Bolt are not candidates due to the nature of their sport. This is not to say they are not some of the most dominant, successful, outrageous athletes in human history; in truth, I agree with your point that they are genetic freaks and outliers combined with incredible success metrics gives them a great case.

On the other hand, my view of what the truly greatest athlete is rests on competition. Bolt and Phelps race others, but they ultimately race themselves at the end of the day; there is no physical contact, no strategy in match, nothing a competitor can do to slow them down.

And in kind, fighting the opposition human with both brain and brawn is the highest form of athleticism, with endurance, speed, explosiveness, reflexes, and vision necessary all at once.

If we remove the true competitive tussling part from sport, then it becomes, essentially, a genetic competition. Whose body can perform this movement the best? Bolt has the ideal sprinting biomechanics for the modern human, Phelps’ webbed feet, enlarged lungs, powerful wingspan all are basicaly perfect for swimming. But, and this is the problem with their athletic feats, all they do is move fast. And yet, if they were genetically gifted enough to be greyhounds or swordfish, they’d blow all of the records away. Do you see my point?

Also you and President don’t really make the zinger you think it is. Pickleball clearly doesn’t qualify as it requires next to no fitness and is a watered down version of tennis and ping pong (both requiring much more to be successful than pickleball). It is a minor league hobby.
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Your 1st sentence was super, but the rest remains shaky. I'm sure U already know there are many loudmouths that insist gymnastics, figure skating and the like shouldn't count as sports cuz they're too "subjective," but why is that uncertainty such a big deal when tennis for one is a game of inches where one shot w/a slightly different trajectory could decide a whole match? I see no reason to think why the latter is a clearly superior scoring system to team judging where luck presumably doesn't take on such outsized importance.

Same thing with this notion of competition. I don't see why competing in a way to disrupt your rivals is to be considered superior when we can verify without the shadow of a doubt that whoever wins a race is the one who runs/swims/skates/skis the fastest, jumps the highest/farthest, etc. Hell, taken to an extreme you've got short-track relays where it's hard to tell whether skill or pure luck is the bigger factor in winning the race. Mind U I love short track and its unpredictability is no doubt its biggest appeal, but that crosses the line even for me.

And pickleball is still very much in its infancy but its level of skill and athleticism required is really irrelevant to the point made by @President and moi: no nonhuman animal, no matter how smart, could learn to beat a human at this game, which goes against your notion of a pure sport where the winner isn't decided mostly by genetics. If anything U could say our superior brainpower is THE ultimate genetic advantage.

Azure said:
Haha I absolutely love Slam Dunk - tensai is a word I still remember years after watching this one. Brilliant stuff.
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Given SD's tremendous popularity in much of Asia - it's no hyperbole to say the series ushered in the basketball boom among East Asian teens in the '90s as there was no easy way to catch NBA games on TV then - I'm not surprised that its reach extended as far as India. But a young Indian millennial girl digging SD? I wasn't expecting THAT!

But maybe I shouldn't be surprised cuz it often feels more like a rom-com than a sports yarn. If the anime is the only version you're familiar with U should try the original manga (I'll try to share a link in our group chat) which also includes the final national-tournament arc. I just revisited the whole thing after who knows how many yrs and it left moi grinning like a schoolboy all the way thru. :D

victorcruz said:
What's up buddy? Long time no speak (3 years?). I'm too involved in the regal unlimited to take a gamble on moviepass. I don't like their tier plans, I go 4+ times a month so it ain't worth it for me.
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Haha I doubt it's been that long, but yeah long time man. If Regal is the only chain/theater U frequent then yeah you're good to go. Hell, it's prolly not worth it even for moi cuz I've got my AMC A-List and my local arthouses (I hardly go to DC these days so no more Landmark) have launched their own membership (50% off on Tuesday!) or ask for only $7-11 before 6 pm. Not sure exactly how MP's new tiered pricing works, but I doubt it'd save moi much if at all.
 
NonP said:
Your 1st sentence was super, but the rest remains shaky. I'm sure U already know there are many loudmouths that insist gymnastics, figure skating and the like shouldn't count as sports cuz they're too "subjective," but why is that uncertainty such a big deal when tennis for one is a game of inches where one shot w/a slightly different trajectory could decide a whole match? I see no reason to think why the latter is a clearly superior scoring system to team judging where luck presumably doesn't take on such outsized importance.

Same thing with this notion of competition. I don't see why competing in a way to disrupt your rivals is to be considered superior when we can verify without the shadow of a doubt that whoever wins a race is the one who runs/swims/skates/skis the fastest, jumps the highest/farthest, etc. Hell, taken to an extreme you've got short-track relays where it's hard to tell whether skill or pure luck is the bigger factor in winning the race. Mind U I love short track and its unpredictability is no doubt its biggest appeal, but that crosses the line even for me.

And pickleball is still very much in its infancy but its level of skill and athleticism required is really irrelevant to the point made by @President and moi: no nonhuman animal, no matter how smart, could learn to beat a human at this game, which goes against your notion of a pure sport where the winner isn't decided mostly by genetics. If anything U could say our superior brainpower is THE ultimate genetic advantage.



Given SD's tremendous popularity in much of Asia - it's no hyperbole to say the series ushered in the basketball boom among East Asian teens in the '90s as there was no easy way to catch NBA games on TV then - I'm not surprised that its reach extended as far as India. But a young Indian millennial girl digging SD? I wasn't expecting THAT!

But maybe I shouldn't be surprised cuz it often feels more like a rom-com than a sports yarn. If the anime is the only version you're familiar with U should try the original manga (I'll try to share a link in our group chat) which also includes the final national-tournament arc. I just revisited the whole thing after who knows how many yrs and it left moi grinning like a schoolboy all the way thru. :D



Haha I doubt it's been that long, but yeah long time man. If Regal is the only chain/theater U frequent then yeah you're good to go. Hell, it's prolly not worth it even for moi cuz I've got my AMC A-List and my local arthouses (I hardly go to DC these days so no more Landmark) have launched their own membership (50% off on Tuesday!) or ask for only $7-11 before 6 pm. Not sure exactly how MP's new tiered pricing works, but I doubt it'd save moi much if at all.
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Ha! I wouldn’t have known had my good friend not introduced it to me… he actually opened my eyes to anime world. That is why it is said to choose friends wisely :)
 
For anyone unaware, Ronnie is a genius with a cue in his hand, but his ''hot takes'' off the table shouldn't be taken too seriously, imho.

He has a history of saying mildly controversial things to gain attention.

In this case, his comments aren't particularly controversial, but let's just say that I doubt that they were the product of any kind of deep analysis...
 
Yeah, Ronnie said he could have won the world championship in Hamilton's car.

This week had another one of his ''I can't be arsed with snooker'' statements, after his tournament exit. ''Lovely venue, tremendous atmosphere'' though. (y)
 
It is amusing when he was saying there aren't enough tournaments and he's absolutely devastated season is over. Then this week he's all, ''too many tournaments, meh.'' :love: Ronnie for ya, take it or leave it.
 
Poisoned Slice said:
Yeah, Ronnie said he could have won the world championship in Hamilton's car.

This week had another one of his ''I can't be arsed with snooker'' statements, after his tournament exit. ''Lovely venue, tremendous atmosphere'' though. (y)
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Did he? :-D :-D

Why does this forum care about snooker lol
They aren't athletes.
 
Backspin1183 said:
As someone once said, "Any 'sport' which can be played while smoking is definitely a 'game'."
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By that trite saying, then is sport shooting also a ''game''? Even within sports, this idea would apply to a goalkeeper in football, a quarter-back in American football, an outfielder in cricket, etc.

The difference between the terms ''sport'' and ''game'' are extremely arbitrary. There's no actual meaningful demarcation between the two terms.

Tennis, itself, can be interchangeably referred to as either a sport or a game.
 
hoodjem said:
Please. Not snooker again.
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Booger said:
I went to an exercise science talk given by a Duke professor, about their lab where hundreds of pro athletes were tested. NBA/NFL guys blew everyone away, real freaks of nature those guys. VO2 max, HR recovery, lactic acid threshold, lean body mass ratio, etc.

But then he zoomed way out on the graph and there was a single dot about 3 standard deviations away from the pack, and said, "Lance Armstrong is possibly an alien."

And officially, he's never won a bike race. Total loser.
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Any random NFL cornerback is likely to be significantly more athletic than Federer or Djokovic. Or exponentially more than a snooker player lmao. But that’s not the same thing as greatness
 
triforce defender said:
Maybe it's bc I'm American, but people actually care about the sport of snooker? Never watched it.
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I think it just depends on culture as you said. People outside of America care as much about American Football, Ice Hockey and Baseball as much as you care about Snooker.

If they read those American greatest athletes of all time lists they'd be confused who Brady, Babe Ruth or Gretzky are.
 
Dennis Peterson said:
It is ridiculous that you are undermining Phelps/Bolts, their bodies are a marvel of nature, your fav Big 3s and that Sampras dude from 1990s all pale in comparison to Bolt/Phelps as pure athletes, sorry to tell ya mate. The dogs/fish analogy given by you is anti competition in general, you don't realize how hard Usain/Michael train to be the GOATs in their field where they actually stretch the limits of human benchmark ahead, they are not ballet dancers or servebots or grinders who may not necessarily be better than their predecessors, they actually are ahead of any human till now in their field by an unfathomable distance.
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Olympic athletes (sprinters, swimmers, weightlifters, gymnasts, etc...) define the athletic peak of human species. However there are strongman contests, endurance sports like cycling and combat sports like boxing that all push humans to their highest physical limits. Furtheremore the mental, technical & tactical aspects of Olympic sports simply pale in comparision to popular sports. In tennis you must be technically good when you are just 10 years old or you wont make it. You also have to face the pressure of saving break points in a game or saving set points in a tie break. And if you make a mistake, thats it. There is no other teammate who will have your back. Then there is the complexity of point contruction. Its what helped a guy like Ferrer who had no big serve, no big forehand stay in the top 10 for so long.

Olympic athletes beat tennis players only in physicality but in other 3 departments (technicality, mentality & tactics) tennis is more demanding than olympic sports.
 
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