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Greatest Sports Icon or Dynasty in last 50 years or so

63dot

63dot

macrumors 603
Original poster
Jun 12, 2006
5,269
339
norcal
...version 2 of this thread

The top names that come to my head are the 60s/70s UCLA basketball team, The New York Yankees, 3 time heavyweight champ Muhammad Ali, the Great Gretzky, David Beckham, Jack Nicklaus and his 18 majors, the "Showtime" LA Lakers of the 1980s, Lance Armstrong with 7 consecutive Tour de France titles, and Madden's winningest Raiders.

Besides the short list, I would also include Navratilova (record 177 titles), Bonds (record 762 home runs), Tiger Woods (14 majors and probably more in the future), Shaun White and his dominance in snowboarding, swimmer Mark Spitz, and skateboarder Rodney Mullen who has more tricks/moves to his name including the most versatile (the "flatland" ollie, sans burm or ramp) + 38 other tricks.

Who would you pick? This thread is wide open for interpretation and may introduce names many of us have never heard of. I am biased so I pick Rodney Mullen since skateboarding is the only sport I do. :)
 

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Ummm...

This thread has many problems to start. As was acknowledged in the other thread: separating individuals, individuals that play for teams and now teams is key. Secondly, dynasty and icon are two separate things. I'll try.

Icon:
Individual – Lance Armstrong (Livestrong)
Individual for team – Michael Jordan
Team – Yankees (this is impossible, but they are the easiest recognizable globally)

Dynasty:
Individual – Lance, Schumacher, Phelps? This is impossible. Schumacher would get the edge if he gets another championship for me; but if Phelps were to get half as many medals doing different events then Beijing (which IIRC was the plan) – then he gets it.
Individual for team – I'm not really sure what this equates too
Team – Celtics, or dare I say it UNC Women's Soccer (20 out of 22 ACC Championships and 20 out of 28 National Championships)
 
Of course, the fact that an individual can be regarded as a great 'icon' doesn't necessarily mean that they've won more titles or trophies than anyone else.

As an example, 63dot's edited OP mentions David Beckham and I would certainly regard him as a great sporting icon due to his fame and popularity – but he's nowhere near being the greatest footballer of the last 50 years, let alone the greatest sportsman. Nowhere near at all. Besides, we all know Justin Whittle is the greatest footballer ever.

By the way, I'm probably just being thick but where's the original version of this thread? :confused:
 
thegoldenmackid said:
UNC Women's Soccer (20 out of 22 ACC Championships and 20 out of 28 National Championships)
Click to expand...

Besides the dart guy who I never heard of until now, it's phenomenal the UNC women's team has that type of record! Could you imagine if any other sport dominated three decades so heavily? I can't think of any that come to mind in the last 50 years in any sport or game.
 
Jaffa Cake said:
By the way, I'm probably just being thick but where's the original version of this thread? :confused:
Click to expand...

I was also Networkman and Jefhatfield from 2001 to 2006 (with 9,000 posts) and I made a ton of sports threads/posts and/or polls. :)
 
63dot said:
I was also Networkman and Jefhatfield from 2001 to 2006 (with 9,000 posts) and I made a ton of sports threads/posts and/or polls. :)
Click to expand...
Ah, I see... I knew about the second username but not the first – and I'd assumed the original thread was posted in the past few days and deleted or locked for some reason, probably after an uproar after Justin Whittle polled lowly or something. ;)

Thing is, after my previous post you've got me thinking about the greatest football team of the past fifty years – I mean as in if you could select any eleven players, rather than an actual club or national side. Hmm... interesting...
 
I never really got the buzz about Beckham. I wouldn't consider him to be a sports icon. A marketing icon who plays sports, yes, ok, but not a sports icon.

From American football, Joe Montana and Jerry Rice. Walter Payton.

From football: Maradonna, Pele, Ronaldo (? - not Christiano), Beckenbauer to name a few.
 
Jaffa Cake said:
and I'd assumed the original thread was posted in the past few days and deleted or locked for some reason, probably after an uproar after Justin Whittle polled lowly or something. ;)
Click to expand...

Who is Justin Whittle and what happened with him? :eek:
 
Well seeing somebody is bound to bring them up I believe there is a team of (originally) hairy-arsed farmers from down under who play a game with a egg shaped ball.Their record 341 games won out of 458 during the last one hundred years.The All Blacks.
 
Homer pick here :D but i'm gonna say mid-90's Nebraska football. From 93-97 four national championship appearances in five years winning three and coming a chip shot field goal away from the fourth. can't really pick out a specific player because they were all great, but coach tom Osborne is a god here
 
husker4 said:
Homer pick here :D but i'm gonna say mid-90's Nebraska football. From 93-97 four national championship appearances in five years winning three and coming a chip shot field goal away from the fourth. can't really pick out a specific player because they were all great, but coach tom Osborne is a god here
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Despite your obvious bias, I like Miami over them. Four actual championships under four different coaches.
 
miles01110 said:
Wait... I thought the thread title said "sports" ...
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I get a good workout doing street skating, even at my advanced age. :)

Some skateboarders don't even skate that much, but are very good at breaking the law as much as they possibly could. Their idea of skating is shoplifting then skating away, using alcohol, crack, and meth, and sometimes terrorizing innocent people.
 
Dynasty:
the Austrian Alpin Skiing team winning the yearly "Nation cup" from the FIS Alpin Skiing World Cup competition 19 times in a row since 1990

and since it's creation in 1967 winning it 30 times and finishing 2nd the remaining 13 times
 
thegoldenmackid said:
Despite your obvious bias, I like Miami over them. Four actual championships under four different coaches.
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yea both runs are impressive and losing to Miami actually made Osborne start recruiting speed from Florida with tommie Frazier being the key piece of the puzzle. I've always liked the U and watching that documentary about them on espn was interesting to say the least. Saying that, I would still take 95 Nebraska over any team in history.
 
In addition to my suggestion above I'd nominate British rower Sir Steve Redgrave who won a gold medal in five consecutive Olympics. So he was at the top of his game for 20 years :eek:
 
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