Cricket 1. Nasser Hussain, current England captain. 2. Ian Botham, the greatest. 3. Courtney Walsh, record wicket taker. Rugby 1. Neil Jenkins, Welsh kicking genius. 2. Laurence Dallialigo, dynamic forward. 3. Jonny Wilkinson, Peledre in disguise. Athletics 1. Jonothan Edwards, triple jump record holder. 2. Halle Gabrisallasie, awesome. 3. Michael Johnson, roadrunner on speed.
Cricket: 1. Ian Botham 2. Sir Viv Richards 3. Shane Warne Rugby: 1. Serge Blanco 2. David Campese 3. Zinzan Brooke Athletics: 1. Michael Johnson 2. Colin Jackson 3. Carl Lewis
Marcelo Rios, Nicolas Kiefer and Pete. Ivan Rodriguez, Barry Zito, Craig Biggio and Randy mudafuckin Johnson. reDirkolous (or 'irk', no D), Stevie Nash, the Fin, Eduardo 'The Mexican Corn Ball' Najera, Raef (no nickname needed), Van-Ex, Shawn the poster child, Wanger, Neeewman! (ala Seinfeld), 'Riq, Evan Injury; Don, Donnie and Del; the best franchise owner in the world, Mr Mark Cuban. oh, and Desmond Masson. Theo Fleury, Pavel Bure and Peter Foresberg...gotta love the nut cases in the NHL. Taj Mihelich and Ruben Alcentera. and the great Iron Mike Tyson.
I'll add Lance Armstrong, Lennox Lewis, Steve Collins(boxing), Joe Calzaghe (you Americans may hear more of this super-middleweight soon), Scott Quinnell, Ronnie O'Sullivan (snooker), Phil 'the power' Taylor (10 times darts champion ) and eric Rush.
AAAAAAALLIIIIIIIII!!! The rest, in no particular order: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Chris Evert. Tennis' toughest mental athlete, period, and possibly the toughest in all of sport. Mark Spitz Daley Thompson Wayne Gretzky Hank Aaron Michael Jordan Kerri Strug (but not Mary Lou Retton) Arthur Ashe John McEnroe (don't laugh- he refused to play in South Africa) BJORN BORG. The greatest ever, when the men's game had talent from 1 to 128. Tiger Woods John Havlicek John Wooden Patrick Roy- impeccable pedigree (Habs and Avs), and another greatest ever.
Everyone who likes Tennis in Britain loves McEnroe, and he's a very good commentator on the sport as well. Burahmi would be another Tennis player I really think highly of.
Are you kidding? I'm actually asking because I figured they hate him. Any list such as this isn't complete without Ted Williams. He flew for the Marines in two wars while horse-face DiMaggio played baseball for the Army, flew with John Glenn in Korea, where he nursed his wounded Saber to the ground where it promptly exploded, almost single-handedly started the Jimmy Fund to fight leukemia, used his Hall of Fame Induction speech to campaign for the recognition of Negro League ballplayers when no other prominent player of his race concerned himself. There's so much more but you get the point.
Tennis fans here remember John's efforts with fondness because he was such a good player, and they all loved his tantrums. He's seen as a great player who had a strong personality. That's partially why we're split 50/50 over Tim-he doesn't seem to have any such fire and guts that the likes of John had. Being from such a strongly middle-class background doesn't help his image either.
I just can't believe that Henman means it when he does the fist pumping stuff. It's not really him is it? When McEnroe was pumped up you knew that the emotions you were seeing were really him.
I know it's popular to rip American Football on Big Soccer, but the athlete that I always was the most admirable, both on and off the field, was Walter Payton.
Listen here MORON A recent publication ranked a number of quarterbacks from 1 to 10. 1. Otto Graham Ten Championships in twelve years. and 2. Joe Montana 4 SB rings baby finished AHEAD of Elway - 2 SB rings.
Well that list, though I do like Notre Dame Alumnus Joe Montana, is in error. To me, Dan Marino has to be considered the best quarterback of all time. If you're only going by championships, then you might as well try to claim that Andy Petitte is a better pitcher than Pedro Martinez.
In no particular order: Kapil Dev (Probably the best all rounder India has ever produced) Daley Thompson (Incredible all round ability combined with drive & competitiveness) Jonathon Edwards (Combination of sporting excellence and religious belief) Sebastian Coe (I grew up watching him run) John Mackenroe (The most inspiring tennis player ever) Martina Navratilova ( Again in my opinion the best womens player over a long period of time ever) Linford Christie (Consistently showed the US that they could not expect to dominate in sprints. Every british sprinter since , and even at the same time as him, owes him a dept for the attitude he took that we were the best.)
Troy Aikman has as many (World Championship)rings as Starr and Unitas combined. Would you pick him over either of these two? Montana's results were better, no doubt, but he had a supporting cast Elway couldn't even dream about.
Michael Jeffrey Jordan-Brought basketball to the main stage along with Larry Bird and Magic Johnson in the 80's and 90's.He's probably made billions for the league,David Stern should kiss the ground Jordan walks on.The guy is almost 40 years old and he still sells out stadiums all across the league.Without Jordan,basketball players would not have any major shoe deals or big endorsements contracts like they do now.Not to mention this guy is the greatest basketball player ever,and one of the toughest competitors in sports history.Nuff' said!
NFL: Walter Payton Dick Butkus Barry Sanders John Elway Jerry Rice coming soon: Brian Urlacher Cycling: Lance Armstrong NHL: Steve Yzerman Mario Lemieux Saku Koivu MLB: Sammy Sosa Jim Abbott Multi-sport: Bo Jackson NBA: nobody I can think of.
NFL Joe Namath Bruce Harper Wesley Walker Mark Gastineau Lance Mehl Billy "White Shoes" Johnson Earl Campbell Walter Payton Baseball Mookie Wilson Keith Hernandez Hockey Tomas Jonsson Denis Potvin John Tonelli Mike Bossy Pat LaFontaine Tennis John McEnroe Martina Hingis Cycling Greg Lemond Lance Armstrong Olympics 1980 Us Hockey Team Kerri Strug Sarah Hughes
Muhammad Ali Julius Erving Magic Johnson Ivan Lendl (though McEnroe was the best ever) Martina Navratilova Jim Rice Barry Bonds (back when I cared about baseball) Grant Fuhr Lynn Swann John Stallworth Carl Lewis Iron Mike Tyson pre 1988