i say rafa nadal

in past or present?
IMO, cars and cards are not sports...no offense to anyone....(I just consider cars, cards, fishing, shooting, pool, spelling bees, chess etc etc, not to be a sport...or whatever ESPN tried to make money off as labeling it a sport).....i just dont see a car driver waking up at 6am and running 5 times around his neighborhood...and I dont see last years Poker champ doing 200 situps...a chess player doing bench presses?.....nah. at least not as their normal routine. again, no offense to anyone.

so in REAL sports:

in past: Pele

in present: Pele

I'd say Tiger has to be up there, Jordan, Ali, Armstrong, I guess it really depends on how you define best, like who won the most championships or? I don't really think there is one single best ever period, there's to many sports and to many amazing athletes.

race car driving is a sport, believe it or not it does take a lot more than just sitting behind the wheel, those guys are driving at 3 times the normal highway speeds, for hours at a time in 100 degree plus temps w/o a/c or a big gulp for that matter. Those guys train insanely hard, it's just not as well known, just look at rally racing or some of these huge distance type races like baja and tell me they're not athletes. Now playing cards, yeah, no sport there, still don't know why poker is on a sports channel, every time I see that I get pissed and think about how they could be broadcasting a REAL sport instead, espn used to have all kinds of different things from all over the world, now it's mostly domestic sports and movies or some other garbage.

Michael Schumacher. 7 time F1 World Champion, highest payed athlete in the world during that last half of his active racing career, currently tutors drivers from beginning level Karting drivers to current Ferrari F1 drivers.

Still holds a lot of F1 records, including most drivers' championships, race victories, fastest laps, pole positions, points scored, most races won in a single season, and is the only Formula One driver to have an entire season of podium finishes.

He has even be recognized by F1 legends and sporting press as 'The best all around racing driver in Formula One'.

And I know you 'guys' may think Auto Racing is not a sport, but consider this:
http://www.formula1.com/inside_f1/understanding_the_sport/5298.html

and here:
http://www.f1technical.net/features/9468

and even here (google is so wonderful):
http://www.f1complete.com/content/view/2672/392/

Most of them are in better shape then 'Real' sport athletes (Seriously, a golfer is an athlete but not a driver. ). An average person would pass out from the forces encountered in an F1 car. If anything, the drivers are less like athletes and more like Jet Pilots......

I would say that it depends on the person who watched sports at the time and had made the biggest influence or the biggest excitement when watching.

For me personally I enjoyed the Dallas Cowboys in the 70s and 80s with Tony Dorsett, Randy White, Roger Staubach, Two Tall Jones.

I loved the rivalry between the Dallas Cowboys and the Washington Redskins. Those where great games back then to watch and I wouldn't miss them in the world.

As a individual I would say for me personally "Larry Bird".

I loved the game rivalry between Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics. Magic Johnson and Larry Bird where great on the floor and the games where intense.

In the end all stars in every sport should be admired for their tremendous effort of being the best at what they do and helped motivate young people to play sports even, regardless in what branch they are.

All sports are fun to watch! At least they are for me anyway.

Although I was too young at the time, I've watched films and games from the 80's and thought Walter Payton was just a beast on the field! Alot of those hardcore defensive guys from past Bears defenses are also on my list. Butkus, Singletary, Fencik...those boys hit as hard as the best of them, not sure many nowadays hit even close to the pain those guys caused!

heck yeah, "sweetness" was awesome, still have his football cards

Orlando Wilson

Not trying to knock anyone or anything and Im not trying to harm anyone but that first article...(i only read the first one, will read the others later..im at work)...hrmmm, that first article is just questionable...its almost like the author was out to prove something by pushing the limit, just to make sure people knew they were doing conditioning...

sorry, i still dont see it....those are the types of articles that just pushes a debateble subject. Actually, anyone could have written that just so people would start to believe it is a sport...

but if anyone believes its a sports, that is your right and your opinion...im just stating mine....again, no offense to anyone, seriously.

People may thing I'm a female and have no right to comment on sports but well, I have an opinion too (if anyone's listening). I find it extremely weird that people actually comment on the "all time greatest sportsperson". I think its unfair and not at all possible to judge a sportsperson when you havnt watched him play in your time.

I think we should just comment on the greatest sportsperson we've watched play and for me, the greatest sportsperson in my era has to be Roger Federer. He's the greatest cause of many reasons, but just to sum it up, he provides a joy for living for me. His style of tennis was and is an absolute joy to watch and provided entertainment, which is what sports is supposed to do.

I also dont think sports should just consist of physical involvement. Disgracing Chess as a non-sport is very rude, to say the least. Is pushups the sole criterion for determining whether an activity is a sports or not? Dont mean to be rude to anyone but just think that everything should be given its due importance. We should just focus on highlighting what we like and not disgracing what we dont :)

trying to call driving, chess, poker and eating contests a sport is also very rude and offensive to the real athletes who run 12 miles, spends 2 hrs a night in the gym and watches his/her diet in order to stay in tip top shape...then some donut eating poker player comes along and claims he is an athlete?....come on...be real...

mouhamed alli,roger milla,diego maradona

And I must add, Im actually pretty darn good at chess....in the 5th grade, i was undefeated . nowadays, im even better.

and I was the pie eating champion/king for our college greek contests.....""my gf loves me!!""

and I play poker (almost) every friday night at a dive bar, for the last 4 years....

should i consider myself an athlete?....no....

but after classes, i geared up and headed out to my soccer practice....thats when i felt i was a true athlete.

IMO, eating, chess, playing poker, driving races and whatever else etc etc....are activities, not sports