9 Greatest Champions Of All Time In 9 Biggest Sports

Sports don’t only give us something to look forward to on a Sunday night. It can often leave us on the edge of our seats. The drama in games are real and not just some script that was written beforehand.

But sports alone do not arouse inspiration. It is players, particularly champions, who inspire us to dream and achieve.

In no particular order, here are the greatest champions to have graced some of the biggest sports in the world today.

1) Michael Jordan – Basketball

I wouldn’t challenge you if you say that there are many great players in basketball. But if you feel that someone else other than Michael Jordan is the greatest of them all, I’d suspect that you must have some unhealthy rivalry tendency skewing your sanity.

In his prime, which stretched out about 7 years, any other player who wanted a Championship ring had to be in his team. It was an unwritten rule in the NBA and there was no way around it.

How he is able to twist and turn in mid-air, and even somersault, which looked like slow motion is just unbelievable.

Such is his athletic ability and love for sports that he “retired” halfway into his prime years and pursued a career in professional baseball. This endeavor did not go as well as his basketball.

So he went back into the NBA and did it ALL OVER AGAIN!

The way he plays and the way he hangs in the air truly seems gravity-defying.

Michael is a true champion and almost single handedly brought the NBA to a worldwide audience.

Even those who were not fans of basketball were in awe of what he could do.

He has a complete combination of speed, power, grace, and technical ability.

There may never be another player like him.

2) Roger Federer – Tennis

His 17 Grand Slam titles speak for itself.

But Roger Federer is more than just a results oriented tennis player with a wicked serve.

This is a man who plays with so much grace that you could think that you were watching ballet rather than a tennis match.

He is what the game is all about. The perfect role model in videos when coaching kids to play the game.

Roger does not have a famous armor-piercing forehand, or a deceptive spin on his backhands. He is just a complete player who does everything well in a majestic graceful manner.

The French Open was the one Slam that eluded him during his years of dominance. But he eventually won it and put that issue to rest.

Because of his friendly image, even hardcore fans of his opponents will not hate him and willingly make him their second-favorite player.

His love for the game is undisputed. Even though his knew that his time at the top of the food-chain had passed he still continued to take part in competitions after competitions to play.

A lesser champion would have walked away from the game that made them.

Not Roger.

3) Diego Maradona – Football (soccer)

In terms of superstar sportsmen with an attitude, Diego Maradona must be one of the originals.

Many footballers make a name for themselves for being able to excel in different abilities. Some were able to score an obscene amount of goals, some were able to make beautiful long passes, some were even famous for breaking legs.

Maradona’s specialty? He runs circles around opponents with the ball… with devastating effect.

He was the type of player that made football the beautiful game.

Such was his charisma that he had the whole home nation on his side. You can’t help but be drawn to his personality and celebrate with him when he won. It was like witnessing David beating Goliath against all odds.

His greatness was stamped at the World Cup in 1986. And his exhilarating solo goal against England in the semi-finals was later voted as the “Goal of the century”.

Such was his influence that he also led the Italian club side, Napoli, to it’s only 2 league titles in the Serie A.

His love for the game was so deep that he made numerous comebacks from retirement to play again. He knew that he was not in peak condition, yet continued to play to inspire the next generation of youngsters who dream of football.

4) Michael Schumacher – Formula 1

There was a period in F1 when you didn’t need to watch the race or read the newspapers to learn who won a race.

It was going to be Michael Schumacher by default.

With records such as:

• most titles ever
• most wins ever
• most fastest laps ever
• most poles ever

It is hard to argue any racer but his is the greatest of them all.

Statisticians will be quick to point out that he did not have the best percentages. That is a fact.

But his long period of dominance and longevity is what shades it for me.

Michael was not just a driver of a supercar. He was a true racer. A real competitor. And also a great ambassador for the sport.

The only way you could get past him was via the curb or into the wall.

5) Jim Brown – American Football

With a deadly combination of size, power, speed, balance, agility, and technical ability, Jim Brown dominated the NFL as a running back during his professional years between 1957 to 1965.

It was indeed a punishing experience for tacklers who found Jim running towards them. Because once he gets into beast-mode, there is no stopping him.

Some of his electrifying runs should be made illegal as it made him look like a bully playing against school kids.

A holder of multiple records in the NFL, he retired at the peak of his carrier at tender age of 29.

But the end of his NFL career only marked the beginning of a film career. He has amassed roles in more than 30 movies. That’s more than most professional actors do in their lifetime.

6) Babe Ruth – Baseball

How great would it feel to hit a ball out of the park? What would you give to do it in front of a stadium with thousands of spectators in your corner?

Babe Ruth did not just did it. He hit over 700 home runs in his MLB career spanning over 20 years.

That amazing swing he had was literally out of this world.

Home runs are not just restrained to baseball. Anyone, whether they like sports or not, will be able to appreciate it. It is the one play that is like the arrival of a Guardian in Warcraft. And this is the vehicle that Babe took to bring joy to millions of people all over the country.

A darling to the media, he used his public profile to help garner support for America’s role in World war 2.

7) Muhammad Ali – Boxing

Although Muhammad Ali is a controversial figure, there is little doubt that he is the greatest boxer of all time.

Never has a boxer treated the boxing ring as a playground the manner that Ali did. His dancing feet and turbocharged heavy punches made “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” more than just a fancy tagline.

His extraordinary speed especially, is the type of stuff you can only see in CGI movies these days.

At the youthful age of 25 when his boxing license was suspended, he was already a living legend.

When he eventually returned to the ring 4 years later in 1970 after his brush with the draft, he had the heavyweight title in his crosshairs. It took him 4 years to finally regain his title.

Hey 4 years out of the game is a lot of time to make up for an athlete.

Muhammad Ali became the only boxer to win the heavyweight title 3 times when he won it again in 1978.

8) Sir Don Bradman – Cricket

Sir Don Bradman singlehandedly dominated every match he played.

The only blot in the books of sports historians is that he never won the world cup. But you can hardly blame him as the first world cup was only held in 1975… more than 25 years after his last test.

His outstanding achievement in the game is his “god-like” record of 99.94 career test batting average.

During his heydays, he was like the Elvis Presley of Cricket.

9) Sir Gareth Edwards – Rugby

Gareth Edwards is often referred to as the complete package in rugby.

Unlike many sporting greats who had weak elements to their games, Gareth had everything.

Not only does he possess power and pace to bulldoze through players, he was immaculate with his passing and kicking. Add to that, a rugby brain that can see the game almost with a bird’s eye view.

In the golden age of Welsh rugby, he was the golden boy with the golden touch.

What was more astonishing was that in a team full of talent, he consistent stood out as the outstanding player. Not many athletes can lay claim to that no matter how good they really were.

If consistency is the measuring stick to world class, he had it in abundance.

His contribution to the sport was so inspiring that he was knighted in 2015.