Greatness: Noun; the quality of being great, distinguished, or eminent
How do we define greatness? In a world were times are ever changing so must the definition of the word Greatness. There was the greatest Muhammed Ali, the great one Wayne Gretzky, but were they? How do we keep the word hallowed over years of change not only in our society but in sports? Certainly Gretzky was known as the great one but the way defense was played then and now in the NHL is quite different. What’s not to say that one day Jaromir Jagr or Sidney Crosby will be known as “The great one”? How can we measure greatness when our ruler for it isn’t fully developed?
Tom Brady has won 5 Super Bowls, is he the greatest? No one else has ever done that in pro football. What about Joe Montana though? When rules protected receivers and quarterbacks much less than they do today and defenses were bulkier and harder hitting. Does that up the stock of the championships Montana won? Who is the judge of when championships meant more? Micheal Jordan is the most decorated basketball player of all time. The game has changed though the league is no longer dominated by big men. The strategy of post-up and win has gone by the way side it’s all about the three now. How would Jordan in his prime fair in today’s NBA? Not as well as he did in the 90s that’s for certain. So once again greatness comes into question.
Ali was the Greatest. Why? His records have been broken there have been better athletes than him. Was it because of his maneuvers in the political world outside the ring? Do we even count that? When we are determining a definition for greatness in sports do we take into account an athletes endeavors outside of the sport they were involved in? If so there are much greater societal figures who are also phenomenal athletes than Ali so why should he be called the Greatest?
When you delve into the matter of Greatness in Sports its definition becomes shaky. Over time rules, body types, strategies change in sports. So the definition of Greatness is simply not appropriate. How can you say for certain someone is the greatest until the activity in which they are the greatest at ends? Maybe in 50 years people look back at Brady’s five rings and laugh. “Yeah that was a big milestone but player x won 8 in his career.” They might say. Therein lies the problem with the fallacy of the GOAT (greatest of all time) how can you crown a GOAT? The last three letters are where the problem lye. Of all time, all time hasn’t ended yet. We (unless a sport ends abruptly) cannot say with certainty who the GOAT is.
So where does that leave us? Answer: the most fatal flaw in Sport. It’s a fun debate to have but one you can’t dig into. Greatness is not a term that should be thrown around with sports. Greatest is one that should never come close to the stadium. It’s sad you can’t add a suffix to the word great is what it comes down to. Many players are great but when it comes to who’s the Greatest it’s a matter of opinion. The Hall of Fame won’t be happy to hear me say this but really there a bunch of bogus too. If you have no guidelines on how players get in it becomes subjective and all about opinion you can’t say as a fact that a certain player deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. It’s really too bad. It may be the fatal flaw sports has.
Why strive for anything if you can’t be the greatest at it? Why compete? As great as sports are as much as we hallow them at some point will people really delve in and say is this worth it? Why keep striving for an unreachable goal. Only to find out years after you retire you’ll be replaced by another by the Greatest.