The Goat of all Goats?

Those are the three but I just think that basketball by its nature where one player can impose his will on the game gives it to Michael Jordan- Ruth could hit 3 home runs and have no impact just like Brady could throw 5 td's and still lose

If I'm building a TEAM, give me Magic Johnson over Air Jordan any day of the week.

I can't speak to football, as I don't watch it. Frankly , it bores the crap out of me.

If I’m drafting a team, give me Shaq over anybody.

If I’m drafting a team, give me Shaq over anybody.

He was quite a force lol

Find me someone else who is on the short list for the best player ever in two different sports. (... and enshrined in at least 3 Halls of Fame)

The GOAT of American sport? Jim Brown

1) Brown is arguably the best professional football player of all time. He is certainly in the conversation. Brown was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1971. He was named to the NFL 50th Anniversary All-Time Team, the NFL 75th Anniversary All-Time Team, and the NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time Team, comprising the best players in NFL history.

2) Brown actually has been named the best college football player of all time - so honored at the 2020 College Football Playoff National Championship as the greatest college football player of all time.

3) Brown played NCAA Div 1 Basketball at Syracuse where he was the team’s second leading scorer as a sophomore.

4) … and Brown also ran track - placing 5th in the decathlon at the USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships (the national championships)

5) … and then there was lacrosse. Brown is also arguably the best lacrosse player of all time,

From “Jim Brown’s Best Sport”. George Vecsey. The New York Times. March 19, 1984:

a) “The story is told of the Cornell football coach Lefty James who wandered out one fine spring day to watch a lacrosse game against archrival Syracuse back in the mid-1950's. But his day was ruined when he noticed Jim Brown, the all-America running back, performing with the Syracuse lacrosse team.
''Oh my goodness,'' he gasped. ''They let him play with a stick ?''”

b) “''I coached this game for 46 years, and Jim Brown was the greatest lacrosse player I ever saw,'' said Roy Simmons, the retired Syracuse coach, who was present yesterday when Jim Brown was inducted into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame. The ceremony was held at Manhasset High School, where Brown once earned 13 varsity letters in 5 sports.”
FWIW: Roy Simmons had some basis for comparison having coached 10 Hall of Famers and 70 All Americans during his career.

At least that's my take

If I'm building an NBA team give me LeBron over anyone else. He gives Michael Jordan a run for his money, who after all did not sniff a championship until Phil Jackson (one of the greatest coaches in NBA history) came along. Shaq was maybe the most dominant centers ever (except for perhaps Wilt) but his inabilty to hit free throws was a severe liability. Not a defensive force, either. I kind of think Olajuwon in his chamionships contributed more. LeBron is just an efficiency machine between rebuilding, defense, his own offensive efficiency and ability to set up players and thereby make them better players.

I have this impression of Brady as this efficiency machine. He has this ability to move his team up and down the field while committing a low amount of turnovers. This helps the defense as well. They get rested and the other team's offense constantly has a long field. And Brady is great is at winning the game in the fourth quarter.

That stats indicare Rodgers is also an efficiency machine, even better than Brady. He actually has a lower amount of turnovers and a significantly better adjusted net yards per attempted pass (this factors in sacks, tds and interceptions). But he only has averaged about one fourth quarter comeback a year while Brady has two. And Mahomes is just off of the chart efficiency-wise.

But it just feels like Brady never has a poor game in a big game like Mahomes did yesterday. That's just an intangible not reflected in stats. But Brady has always had good coaches (Ive never quite agreed with the notion that Belichick was a genius--he wasnt before Brady and he is an expert on defense not offense so it's a bit odd to give him so much credit--but there is no doubt that he is very knowledgeable about defense and game-planning; and Arians is a pretty savvy coach, too) and Rodgers has not.

Anyway, Brady is clearly has been the best player at the most important position in football. That sounds like GOAT to me. As for comparing across sports, I think it's the easiest in basketball to put your stamp on a team. Baseball is the most diffuse. The baseball player that I thought contributed the most to winning a world series was a pitcher--Orel Hershiser. Mike Scott also in 1986 almost single-handedly got the Astros to beat the Met. Ruth was the most dominant player ever (though Bonds might have a good argument) but there is only so much one hitter can do. A pitcher can flat-out dominate a series.

Anyway, it's sn impossible question but fun to talk about.

I thought of Brown too but decided that Brady did it for so much longer. The other two guys I considered were L.T. and Jerry Rice. Brown vs Brady is like the Mantle vs Mays comparison. Mantle had the greater peak value but Mays the better career value.

Brown was no slouch either in high school at Manhasset. My father's best friend, Clarence "Neph" Nephew was an assistant coach in the 50's and 60's for the Garden City High Lacrosse team and he said he never saw anybody close to as good as Brown. Still I think the multisport argument for Brown as GOAT is more an argument for greatest athlete. And there, Brown still has to contend with Jim Thorpe.

The free throw issue with Shaq, should also apply to Wilt since Wilt was worse than Shaq. Shaq was actually just good enough at shooting free throws to make the Hack-a-Shaq strategy not be very efficient strategy. Wilt wouldn’t have been nearly as dominant if he had played in Shaq’s era while Shaq would have been even more dominant if he had played in Wilt’s. I consider Hakeem to be the greatest all-around center of all-time and a top 5 player, yet even he could only somewhat contain Shaq. Shaq also wasn’t a very good rebounder. He got a lot of rebounds because of his size, but even he admits that he wasn’t great. What Shaq doesn’t get enough credit for is his passing ability. His ability to either beat the double team or pass out of it, often to Fisher or Horry for a corner 3 was very important to the Lakers. Shaq in his prime, plus four 3 and D wings would be a title contender every season in the modern NBA.

As far as player impact goes. for baseball, I think Ruth is the classic example that a great position player is more valuable than a great pitcher, given that Ruth was both but the best franchise in baseball history (and I hate the Yankees) converted him from pitcher to what he became in the outfield.