Part of the difficulty of GOAT debates is how much sport moves on.
There so much more competition and professionalism now that it’s very difficult to say if older generations would be competitive now.
Even more relevant in smaller sports that didn’t have exposure decades ago, and particularly in women’s sports where I wonder if average speeds are falling faster than men’s (with the exception of obviously doped events from 1980s/90s). Certainly seems it watching women’s pool swimming.
On the contrary though, MA swim run splits are still phenomenal today. Debate of how much is due to technology, or whether people are riding much harder today and not saving themselves as much for the run. The comparison of times at least allows an easier objective debate without as much influence of the depth of field they competed against.
Not much talk of the ladies here either, I’m going out on a limb as its pre Olympics but Erin Baker gets my vote, she got a Comm Games win IIRC , world titles at short course, duathlon, 3 at middle maybe and two IM. PNF an honourable second, CW didnt do it at short course, or even really half but is possibly an IM GOAT
Larry Bird was a redneck.
Magic was the better rookie, by miles.
Unfortunately for him, he got poor advice and went with Converse for $100,000 over a shoe + stock deal offered by, a then fledgling, Nike.
That offer would now be worth €5.2bn. Yes. That’s billion.
You’ve also got Kareem, Shaq (7ft 1in and 365lbs!) the late Kobe Bryant (Shaq and Magic have both declared him the better player)
Modern era there’s Kevin Durant, LeBron James or Steph Curry.
By the time LeBron hangs his shoes up, he’ll be the GOAT - as he’s doing more outside of basketball than MJ did
Watching some clips the other day, slam dunks it, just stands on his feet with his hand on the rim
The rim is 10ft high, FFS.
I can’t even touch the bottom of the net
yes LCB hasnt really done much at all if you look at her palmares, seems harsh saying that but shes currently not in the class of the others. Ryf wasnt really top level ITU either but has dominated 70.3 and IM for 5 or 6 years now
Not sure who it was on the Inside Tri podcast, maybe Ruth Astle, but one of them was certainly seeming a bit jealous/annoyed at how much attention LCB gets. Bigging up Kat Matthews (before sub 8) and others, saying it shouldn’t come down to instagram profiles.
