What Determines the GOAT For a Sport?

Find out how to determine the GOAT in a sport

One debate that occurs in every sport is determining the greatest player of all time in their respective sport.

In various circles, there are often a number of things that come into play when deciding on this individual player.

It is often factors such as statistics, championships and the evolution of the game over the years that people take into consideration.

Two things that have evolved over the last 20-30 years are that athletes have become more apt to switch teams, and they have become bigger, faster and stronger.

The reason for this is a combination of factors. Players are cashing in on a big pay day, and we have also learned more and more about fitness in the same time period.

In fact, pro athletes didn’t start lifting weights in pro sports such as football until the 1970s.

In this article, we will give examples of ways in which the Greatest Of All Time for a sport can be measured- focusing on American football, baseball and basketball.

We will also discuss some cases where many of the measurements can be inaccurate! Let’s take a look at each sport in turn.

American Football

Football is by far the hardest sport when measuring the GOAT, as there are lots of things to take into consideration.

There are very few players who have played on both sides of the ball in the last 40 years.

The only player able to do it at a high level was Deion Sanders. For Deion, both sides of the ball were pretty much the same position at cornerback and wide receiver.

In football, not only do you have to measure stats- you also have to measure how well each player played in their position.

This is because the stats measured on defense are completely different to the stats measured on offense.

One way you can look at this particular issue is where a certain player lies in relation to other players.

For example, at quarterback, you will see that Tom Brady has more than 50 records so you could quite simply call him the Greatest Of All Time, and you could also say it because he has seven Super Bowls. This is more than any other franchise in its history.

However, during those years, Brady also had superior defenses- none of which he was a part of.

The same can also be said for literally every quarterback in the history of the Super Bowl.

Each position also has its own set of statistics. For example, cornerbacks and safeties will often be measured by interceptions, and pass rushers will often be judged by the number of sacks they get in a game.

Offense is at least a little bit easier to judge because all quarterbacks, wide receivers and running backs are measured by yards.

However, even in that scenario, quarterbacks and wide receivers are naturally going to have more yards than running backs.

This is due to the fact that some balls will already be caught well past the line of scrimmage, whereas running backs usually get the ball behind the line of scrimmage.

Baseball

In most cases, baseball has similar issues to football when it comes to the Greatest Of All Time.

Certain players have entirely different sets of statistics, but there are far more opportunities for players to be strong as a hitter and as a defensive player.

For position players, it’s at least a little bit easier. This is because, although they are rare, you will sometimes find a five-tool player in baseball.

A five-tool player is someone who can hit for power, has good speed, can steal bases and can also play good defense by making good throws and getting to a lot of balls.

For pitchers, it’s even more complicated. It’s rare that a pitcher is actually a good hitter, and they often have much lower expectations when it comes to batting average.

A good batting average for a regular position player is pretty much anything north of 300, and for a pitcher, the expectation is much lower than that.

The only player who has consistently pitched and hit well at a high level in the early 2020s is Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Entering August of the 2022 season, Ohtani has .255 with 22 home runs and 62 runs batted in.

On the pitching side, he is 9-6 with a 2.81 earned run average which would be the best of his career if he can hold it.

The only other player to do this is Babe Ruth, who at one point held the record for most home runs in the history of the sport. He played the bulk of his career with the Red Sox and Yankees.

A baseball player can also be measured by how many World Series’ they’ve won.

It is similar to football in that most players don’t truly represent all facets of the game that is a harder thing to prove and since players often move around, it’s very rare that any one team wins a large number of world series in major league baseball.

As a matter of fact, the last time a major league team won three World Series’ in a row was at the beginning of the 2000s, when the New York Yankees won three consecutive World Series’ between 1998-2000.

To find the next time before that, you would have to go back to the Oakland Athletics when they did it in the 1970s.

Basketball

Basketball is at least a little bit easier in the sense that everybody plays both offense and defense. However, there is an expectation that certain players are going to excel in certain parts of the game.

For forwards and centers, there is an expectation that their strongest suits are going to be rebounds and blocked shots, while guards are going to be stronger when it comes to threes and steals.

The first part of that example has changed over the past 20 years, which is one of the reasons why it can be hard to measure the GOAT in basketball.

So how does the championship factor play in? Championships can be a greater, and at least somewhat of a more accurate, measure of success because it is common that a certain player can carry a team to win a championship.

However, in order to do so they still need a supporting cast.

In order to illustrate why this is the case, let's compare Larry Bird and Paul Pierce.

Pierce, who was considered the best player for the Celtics throughout the 1990s and 2000s, often had mediocre talent around him along with several coaching staff.

He was still able to average just under 20 points a game for his career.

While they both had a lot of similarities in numbers, there is no doubt that Bird had a much better supporting cast for a period of time than Pierce did.

Pierce only played with Garnett and Ray Allen for one year during the 2007-2008 season when they won the NBA championship.

On one hand, Larry Bird had the supporting cast of Kevin McHale, who was a low post force for the Celtics from 1980-1993.

Robert Parish also played for Boston from 1980-1994, and both of these players played for five years longer than Bird.

On the other hand, as Bird had such a great supporting cast, he averaged a double for his career at around 24 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists for his career.

What factors need to be added to determine the GOAT in American football, basketball and baseball?

Statistics and the rules at the time need to be taken into consideration- as well as their supporting cast!