Your All-Time, All-Sports Mount Rushmore

[iacas]

Who is on your list?

[Indy-Archer]

Tiger for sure. Michael Jordan. Babe Ruth. Vince Lombardi

All influenced their sport well beyond just their playing careers. 

[flopster]

Tiger, Bill Russell, Jim Brown, Babe Ruth

[ChetlovesMer]

I'm going with Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Mohamed Ali, and (I was going to put Wayne Gretzky but instead I'm going with) Walter Payton... because it's my Mount Rushmore and I can put whomever I want on there. 

[iacas]

3 minutes ago, ChetlovesMer said:

I'm going with Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Mohamed Ali, and (I was going to put Wayne Gretzky but instead I'm going with) Walter Payton... because it's my Mount Rushmore and I can put whomever I want on there. 

Lemieux > Gretzky anyway.

😉

[ChetlovesMer]

2 minutes ago, iacas said:

Lemieux > Gretzky anyway.

😉

Now that I think about it, that's actually true.

[snapfade]

Maddux, Glavin, Smoltz and Tiger

[woodzie264]

Tiger, Jordan, Ali, Cael Sanderson (wrestling). Cael is one of only a handful of collegiate wrestlers to ever win 4 national titles and he is the only collegiate wrestler to ever go undefeated (159-0) being the sport’s Heisman equivalent 3 out of his 4 years. He went in to win Olympic Gold, and now has 10 National titles as a head coach (Penn State).  Like @ChetlovesMer said, it’s my MR so I can put him on there

 

[pganapathy]

No sport has truly had one name that would qualify as the GOAT.  The problem being there is no one metric to measure it.  For example Jordan has 6 championship rings but Bill Russell has 11.  Is he therefore better.? Possibly Rocky Marciano with his 49-0 record but is he truly better than Muhammad Ali who did lose a couple of times in his career.  In golf and tennis would a simple count of majors won be the defining factor

[ChetlovesMer]

29 minutes ago, pganapathy said:

No sport has truly had one name that would qualify as the GOAT.  The problem being there is no one metric to measure it.  For example Jordan has 6 championship rings but Bill Russell has 11.  Is he therefore better.? Possibly Rocky Marciano with his 49-0 record but is he truly better than Muhammad Ali who did lose a couple of times in his career.  In golf and tennis would a simple count of majors won be the defining factor

That's why its fun to discuss. 

There's no right answer. Unless you disagree with me. Then of course you are wrong. 🤪

49 minutes ago, woodzie264 said:

Tiger, Jordan, Ali, Cael Sanderson (wrestling). Cael is one of only a handful of collegiate wrestlers to ever win 4 national titles and he is the only collegiate wrestler to ever go undefeated (159-0) being the sport’s Heisman equivalent 3 out of his 4 years. He went in to win Olympic Gold, and now has 10 National titles as a head coach (Penn State).  Like @ChetlovesMer said, it’s my MR so I can put him on there

 

I met Cael back when I lived in Iowa. You're right he's a living legend. 

[iacas]

1 hour ago, pganapathy said:

No sport has truly had one name that would qualify as the GOAT.

That's not true at the individual level, and that's what this topic discusses. Your individual Mount Rushmore.

Tiger is clearly the GOAT in golf. I don't think anyone who understands basic logic doesn't see it that way. It's a miniature IQ test.

[ChetlovesMer]

51 minutes ago, iacas said:

Tiger is clearly the GOAT in golf. I don't think anyone who understands basic logic doesn't see it that way. It's a miniature IQ test.

I'm pretty sure Greg Norman disagrees.

Greg Norman's Mount Rushmore = Greg Norman, Greg Norman, Greg Norman and.... you guessed it... Greg Norman. 😁

[klineka]

2 hours ago, pganapathy said:

In golf and tennis would a simple count of majors won be the defining factor

That's not true, because Tiger is a better golfer and has had a better career than Jack even though Jack has more majors.

Rory has twice as many wins as Brooks (36 to 18) but Brooks has 1 more major. That'd be absurd to put Brooks on a Mount Rushmore over Rory.

So no, it's not just a simple count of majors. 

[mcanadiens]

2 hours ago, pganapathy said:

No sport has truly had one name that would qualify as the GOAT.  The problem being there is no one metric to measure it.  For example Jordan has 6 championship rings but Bill Russell has 11.  Is he therefore better.? Possibly Rocky Marciano with his 49-0 record but is he truly better than Muhammad Ali who did lose a couple of times in his career.  In golf and tennis would a simple count of majors won be the defining factor

Like @ChetlovesMer, it is the never ending debate that some people love to engage in.

It is probably reasonable to think that closer-to-modern-day athletes have both a lot of competitive advantages over the more historical standouts, but also a lot more high-level competition at the same time.  The field that Nicklaus, Palmer and Hogan won all those titles against isn't the same sort of field that Tiger dominated. Jordan and his Bulls had to win their 6 titles against tougher competition that what Russell and the 60's Celtics ever had to face. ... Less of a boxing authority, so I could be wrong, but I think it can be argued that Ali's competition was tougher than Rocky's. 

I think the spirit of the question is more about who is on your personal Mt. Rushmore. Not really who the Greatest of All Time is. 

[saevel25]

Just thinking of dominance. 

Golf: Tiger
Basketball: Michael Jordan
Swimming: Michael Phelps
Tennis: Roger Federer

Honorable Mention: Nadal when playing on Clay. 

[Elmer]

4 hours ago, pganapathy said:

No sport has truly had one name that would qualify as the GOAT.  The problem being there is no one metric to measure it.  For example Jordan has 6 championship rings but Bill Russell has 11.  Is he therefore better.? Possibly Rocky Marciano with his 49-0 record but is he truly better than Muhammad Ali who did lose a couple of times in his career.  In golf and tennis would a simple count of majors won be the defining factor

I dont know, in 1927 Babe Ruth hit more homeruns than any team in the American league.
"In 1927, Ruth's record-setting season in which he hit 60 home runs, American League teams, excluding the New York Yankees, averaged 50 home runs"

Sounds like a GOAT to me?

While other players in the NBA skipped college and are running up stats, Jordan just got it done. Final shot of a game, you know he had that shot! He elevated the game.

Surprised no one has mentioned Tom Brady. The guy produced and won more than anyone. Of course I would like to bring up that were it not for my NY Giants, Brady would have 2 more championships than he has.  

Yogi Berra- 10 world series championships. More that any other baseball player ever. 

[saevel25]

12 minutes ago, Elmer said:

I dont know, in 1927 Babe Ruth hit more homeruns than any team in the American league.
"In 1927, Ruth's record-setting season in which he hit 60 home runs, American League teams, excluding the New York Yankees, averaged 50 home runs"

It is hard for me to put a Ruth up there because he played in the 1910's and 1920's. 

20 minutes ago, Elmer said:

Yogi Berra- 10 world series championships. More that any other baseball player ever. 

Product of the team he played for. I do not count World Series as a useful stat for baseball players. He was lucky enough to play for the Yankees, the best MLB Franchise of all time, good for him. 

22 minutes ago, Elmer said:

Surprised no one has mentioned Tom Brady. The guy produced and won more than anyone. Of course I would like to bring up that were it not for my NY Giants, Brady would have 2 more championships than he has.  

Tough for me to put a QB up there. Team sports, I do not like championships as a stat. 

It helped that Brady won at TB, but still that team was pretty stacked. 

Is Marv Fleming the best TE because he has 4 SB rings? Is Charles Haley the best LB of all time because he has 5 SB rings? 

Being apart of a winning franchise is more luck than anything else. If you drafted by the 49ers in the 80's and 90's, you were extremely lucky. 

[ChetlovesMer]

37 minutes ago, Elmer said:

Surprised no one has mentioned Tom Brady. The guy produced and won more than anyone. Of course I would like to bring up that were it not for my NY Giants, Brady would have 2 more championships than he has.  

I wouldn't have any problem with putting Brady on a Mount Rushmore. 
I think football is such a team sport and there's a lot of "right place, right time" aspects to football. 

But if any football player would be a legit Mount Rushmore candidate, I guess it would be Brady.