The storied histories of sports all around the world are
built upon the exploits of outstanding players, both past and present.
Every now and then an athlete emerges in sport that sits so comfortably above all others
that we can unquestionably refer to them as The Greatest of All Time or The
GOAT.
More often than not however it is a small group of players rather than
one individual that pulls away from the pack and bestowing such a title upon a
single competitor becomes a more difficult task. Today A View From the Top
returns to take on this task with a definitive list of sports GOATS from all around the world
Boxing
Muhammad Ali is the finest boxer of all time. In a sport
that is just as much about the box office as it is the boxing ring, Ali has no peers.
He is the prototype athlete from which seemingly all 21st Century
sportsmen are cast. The style, the showboating and the unquestionable ability
to bring it are the legacy of Ali’s career. Ali is elevated above all else for
the number of great opponents he was able to overcome - Frazier, Foreman,
Liston etc and for the fact that he did it all in the sports most popular
weight division. Tyson burned bright at a young age but burnt out before he
had given himself a fair chance at his own super fights. There are others like
Floyd Mayweather, Sugar Ray Robinson, Rocky Marciano and Jack Dempsey but no
one mounts a realistic challenge to Ali.
Sir Donald Bradman is the clearest example of a GOAT
in the sporting world. A statistical outlier whose record sits a comfortable
30% above his nearest rival, The Don was a run scoring phenomenon. His
outstanding career spanning an incredible 20 years at the highest level left
an incredible legacy on the sport of cricket. Bradman is unquestionably the
greatest cricketer of all time but West Indian Sir Garfield Sobers gets closer than
anyone else to matching him. Bradman, daylight, Sobers and more daylight.
Swimming
I want to say Ian Thorpe, mainly because he isn’t American
but Michael Phelps Olympic record speaks for itself and even if it didn’t we’d
be talking about Mark Spitz. 18 Olympic gold medals and 27 World Championship
first places for a total of 45 first place finishes is made all the more
impressive by the record of only eleven silver or bronze placements. Basically
in excess of 75% of the time Phelps placed, which was most of the time, he
emerged in the gold medal position. Incredible!
Baseball
I don’t pretend to know a lot about American sports except that
they take too long and somehow find a way to make awe inspiring feats of athleticism
boring, but one thing I do know is that Babe Ruth is the granddaddy of
baseball. Was that American enough for y’all?
That bit of knowledge boils down to a few things that have nothing to do
with me knowing anything about his ability to hit a ball out of the ballpark.
One is whenever a reference is made in pop culture to a valuable piece of
Baseball memorabilia it is usually some sort of Babe Ruth paraphernalia. I
notice these things and I know it doesn't happen by accident. The second is how damn
good Babe was in Triple Play Baseball 2001 which I played relentlessly in the
summer holidays of 1999. Yeah Triple Play Baseball 2001 in 1999, it confused me at the time as well.
Basketball
Another sport in which we have an undisputed GOAT. Michael
‘Air’ Jordan did not only dominate the NBA in two three-peat stints for the
Chicago Bulls but he also blew up the accepted notion of sports economics and transformed a sportswear company into one of the biggest international conglomerates of the
21st Century. Also the only basketballer to have ‘saved Earth’ on
his CV after he defeated a group of alien invaders in Space Jam. Impressive!
Cycling
Until recently Lance Armstrong was the undisputed GOAT of
cycling. In the wake of his doping revelations it is impossible not to question
his achievements and legacy. However elevating a rival to his position proves
just as hard. A sport whose entire history is tainted thanks to the doping
culture that so dominates the podiums of its history. Cycling has for too long
been less about the calibre of athlete and more about the quality of the chemist.
American Football
Apparently Tim Brady and Peyton Manning faced off in the
Super Bowl playoff game last year in a showcase to once and for all determine
American footballs greatest player. Someone forgot to tell Joe Montanna. Admittedly
my judgement here is based on much the same method as Babe Ruth and baseball.
In terms of Peyton and Brady however, it really isn’t even close. Peyton Manning, head
and shoulders.
Tennis
Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal? Bjorn Borg or Jimmy Connors?
Pete Sampras or Andre Agassi? What about
Rod Laver? Steffi Graf perhaps? The answer. Martina Navratilova. Navratilova is
the only player in history to occupy the top spot in both singles and doubles
tennis for over 200 weeks. She won 59 Grand Slam titles, 18 in women’s singles
singles, 31 women’s doubles and 10 mixed doubles majors. She played in the Wimbledon
final 9 years running, winning the event six times in a row and is one of only
three players in history to accomplish a career ‘boxed set’ Grand Slam of all
four majors in singles, doubles and mixed doubles events. Anyway it’s the 21st
Century, AVFTT had to appease the feminists out there and find a female on this
list somewhere.
Squash
When I described Sir Donald Bradman as world sports clearest
GOAT I was forgetting Jahangir Khan. Incredibly Khan was unbeaten for five
years, seven months and one day between 1981 and 1986. He won 555 consecutive matches
which Guinness World Records recognises as the longest winning streak in
professional sport. Khan won the World Open six times and the British Open ten
times and for over a decade was ranked in the world’s top two players. In that
ten year period he never once failed to reach the semi finals of a tournament.
Dominant!
Golf
Jack Nicklaus. For a long time it appeared inevitable that
Tiger Woods would surpass Nicklaus’ record haul of golf majors and assume the
GOAT mantle. But the reality is it just hasn’t happened yet. As Tiger’s life
has lurched from one disaster to the next he has failed to add to his
collection of majors and while he has managed to return to the sports number
one ranking position he will need to find a way to add to his list of majors
post divorce to challenge Nicklaus. Plus Jack Nicklaus Golf on Nintendo was a much cooler game than any of
the Tiger Woods incarnations.
Association football or Soccer
Association footballs’ GOAT is a man with the nerve to refer
to the sport as ‘soccer’, Pele himself. Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are
in the midst of careers that one day might rival the Brazilian for this title
but there lack of success at international level does them no favours. Diego
Maradonna had a spectacular World Cup but also left his team a talisman down the
next time around because he couldn’t keep his nose out of white powder.
Meanwhile Pele’s exploits as a 17 year old at the World Cup says it all for me
while his longevity in scoring over a thousand ‘unofficial’ goals in his senior
career says some more. In terms of players I have seen I think he Brazilian Ronaldo
was good enough, if not for an unfortunate bout of food poisoning and chronic
knee injuries while the Frenchman Zinedine Zidane and Patrick Vieira are the
best footballers I have seen.
Rugby League
I have left my most debated GOAT to last. Rugby League is a
game built upon the principles of evolution. It is game born from a poorer
sport that continues to embrace that heritage and maintains the same commitment
to change in the present day.
Rugby League is a fundamentally different game to
that which was played 10 years ago and that is different to the decade before
and so on. This, more than anything else, makes it extremely difficult to
compare players from different eras because they effectively played different
games.
In the history of the game a number of names stand out,
Dally Messenger, Clive Churchill, Andrew Johns among a select group of fellow
‘Immortals’. Each has a legitimate claim to being Rugby League’s GOAT. If you
read enough about Dally Messenger or Clive Churchill it is almost impossible to
deny their claims while in more recent times Andrew Johns career has been
eulogised again and again.
It is a different player however that I find it impossible to
even imagine there ever was a better Rugby League player. In
fact I find it impossible to imagine there ever could be a better player. That
player is Cameron Smith.
What is there to say about Cameron Smith?
How many times has Matt Scott walked off the
field for North Queensland as the best player on the field? If you said close
to none you’d be right. For Queensland, on the game’s biggest stage he has
often looked superhuman. The reason? Cameron Smith.
Ben Cross, Brett White, Antonio Kaufusi and
Adam Blair were all world beating representative forwards at Melbourne and
nobodies once they left. The reason? Cameron Smith.
When is the last time a
converted rugby union centre and rugby league backrower became the halfback for
Australia? If you said Cooper Cronk you would be right. A big part of the
reason is, you guessed it, Cameron Smith.
There isn’t a player that has played with Smith that he
hasn’t improved with his peerless ability to control every aspect of a game of
rugby league. His game management ability is second to none. He is the best
hooker in the world in terms of controlling the tempo of the ruck in both
attack in defence. In attack his ability to place front rowers into one on one
contact for a quick play the ball is peerless, while in defence he is the best
wrestler in the game. He is also the only player I have seen able to regularly
force goal line dropouts from a side with Greg Inglis at fullback.
The thing about Cameron Smith that sets him apart from other
hookers, say Robbie Farah for example, is that it doesn’t have to be him who
comes up with the match winning play.
One Origin game in particular sticks in
my mind. It was a few years ago and Queensland were chasing the game in the
final moments. Smith held up the markers in mesmerising fashion to release Matt
Scott for a barnstorming run and rapid play the ball. With New South Wales
skittled and scrambling all over the place I guarantee Farah or Luke run
the ball from the ensuing play the ball. Not Smith, instead he quickly releases
the ball to put Lockyer into a one on way situation with an isolated and
backpedalling defender. He turns it on the inside and Slater scores. If Smith runs the ball here the defence on the negative ties in, Slater's gap is closed and Queensland will be forced to go wide with a passing sequence (risking dropping the ball, a knock down or even intercept) to try and score a game winning try. Instead we have a straightforward game set
and later series Queensland.
Essentially I believe that if Cameron Smith was born south of
the Tweed New South Wales would be shooting for eleven straight series victories in 2014 instead of winning back the shield for the first time in 8 years.
After all of this if you need further evidence do yourself a favour and
watch the way in which Smith masterminded the Melbourne victory over Manly in
Round 1 of 2014 against the newly appointed king of the rugby league world and prince of halfbacks Daly Cherry Evans.
If Joey’s career wasn’t affected by injury so often
there’s no doubt he had more than enough ability to challenge Smith and from
all the reports I have read Messenger and Churchill revolutionised and
dominated Rugby League in their careers. But Cameron Smith is Rugby League’s
GOAT.
Agree or disagree? Did I miss any sports? Tell me what you think below..