Having saw the thread on the sin bin regarding the death of snooker legend Alex Higgins, I got the impression people thought he was one of the true greats of sports.

There has been some great sportsmen over the years. If you had a favourite top 5 (on performance, personality, what they have done for their sport etc), what would yours be?

Muhammed Ali
Pele
Valentino Rossi
Phil Taylor

And I'm not a big follower of cricket, but from what I've read and been told by friends and family who are, as well as looking purely at his record of achievements, Garfield Sobers.

I'm not old enough to have seen many of the "greats" that usually crop up in these sorts of lists but anyhoo, the best five that I've had the pleasure to have watched:

Lance Armstrong: Even if you ignore the whole "cancer thing", the guy won the world's toughest endurance event seven times.
Phil Taylor: You simply cannot argue with his success record. Very few get close to comparing to him in his sport.
Valentino Rossi: "Mr MotoGP". An outstanding rider on the track and a great character off it.
Tiger Woods: As with Taylor, you have to be bloody good to dominate a sport like he has.
Shane Warne: Something about him that I always seemed to like. A very good bowler and always seemed to enjoy a laugh with the crowd.

Miguel Indurain - 5 times Tour de France winner, inspired me to get into cycling
Tiger Woods - Revolutionised golf, dragged it kicking and screaming into the 21st century.
Ayrton Senna - Greatest F1 driver of all time imo, got me into watching F1
Valentino Rossi - As above but with motorbikes.
Steve Redgrave - Britain's greatest Olympian, someone we should be proud of.

well am going to do them from my life time, so some of the 80's and backwards sports men i never got to see so i will go for.

1. Phil Taylor
2. Leo Messi
3. Ricky Ponting ( running low on ideas now)
4. James Dean ( Halifax town fan, halifax town player)
5. Scott Phelan ( Halifax town fan, Halifax town player)

Great idea for a thread.

I thought that been a massive sports fan, that I would struggle to narrow my list down to 5, and I did. So after giving it a bit of thought over the last couple of hours, here goes.

Michael Jordan = Just unbelieveable to watch and an outstanding athelete.

Lance Armstrong = Although there is a constant drugs cloud hanging over cycling generally and many question wheather Lance is/was clean. I cannot help but feel nothing but admeration for what he has achieved. Even though it was a decent Tour de France this year, it wasn't nearly as exciting for me not having Lance in contention.

Phil Taylor = Simply dominating for so long.

Ayerton Senna = A total magician who would do anything, and often did, to win.

Wayne Gretzky = See Michael Jordan.

I decided on these 5, not just because they were so good at what they did, but because their individual brilliance and skill no doubt attracted many new fans to their sports.

Giacomo Agostini - the greatest motorcyclist who has ever lived.
Diego Maradona - a bloody genius
Phil Taylor - the greatest darts player there ever will be
Wayne Gretzky - a one in a lifetime player on the ice
Ayrton Senna - another genius.

Diego Maradona
Tiger Woods
Steve Redgrave
John McEnroe
Steve Davis

1. Muhammed Ali
2. Sir Gordon Richards
3. Sir Don Bradman
4. Pele
5. Eddy Merckx

1. Muhammed Ali
2. Ian Botham
3. Elleray Hanley - Its was watching his Wigan side that got me into RL in the first place
4. Gareth Edwards - just watch his try for the barbarians against New Zealand on a well known video sharing site to see why
5. Roger Osbourne - Purely for scoring the winning Goal in the '78 FA cup final

With a 48th Test century under his belt, Sachin Tendulkar must be up there

1. Muhammad Ali, Great fighter, great showman.

2. Wayne "The Great One" Gretzky, who was so good the NHL retired his number 99 shirt number from the entire league.

3. Eddy "The Cannibal" Merckx, 11 grand tour victories, 19 one day classics. Won all 3 jerseys in the same race at the Tour de France and Giro D'Italia.

4. Phil "The Power" Taylor, won everything there is to win in Darts at least 10 times over, taken the standard and professionalism of the sport to new levels.

5. Sir Donald Bradman, test match batting average of very nearly 100.

Phil Taylor dominates His sport
Usain Bolt dominates His sport
Wayne Gretski Dominated His sport
Steve Redgrave Dominated His sport
Mark Spitz Dominated his sport.

There are a few more but I will stick with these 5.

One person that no one mentions is Haile Gabrasalassie (sp). To me, he has got to be one of the top five. He was/is the king of Ethiopia. Growing up, if you didn't know distance running, you'd have heared of him. He dominated the the track for so many years and then goes on and smashes world records at Marathons. On top of that, no room for sentiment, but all the things he has done for charity etc. But as a sportsman, I remember as a little kid all the tussles he had with the Kenyans, and all the world record attempts he did (it seemed like one every few weeks at one point)

I'm going to do this from around 1990 onwards. In no particular order:

Freddie Flintoff- Purely for the way he lifted the country with those mammoth displays in the 2005 ashes. How good could he have been if injuries hadn't ruined his career.

Shane Warne - Superb bowler and a hell of a character! His performances in 2005 added to what is the greatest test series I have ever seen.

Roy Keane - A players player. Led the most succesful team of the 90 and noughties to success with battling displays. His performance against Juve in 1999 was all the more incredible that he knew he wouldn't take part in the final.

Tom Brady - Top class NFL performer for the last 10 years. Will walk into the hall of fame with ease having broke numerous records.

Cristiano Ronaldo - Love him or hate him he is, in my opinion, the best footballer we have seen on these shores. Will go on to become one of the greatest of all time.

Honourable mentions to Murali, Beckham, Maradona, Messi and Tyson. O'Sullivan and Taylor would be up there but if you can play it it in a pub it doesn't really feel like a sport to me.

Will have missed out a ton of people and will probably change all of these at a later date!

Eric Cantona
Phil Taylor
Sir Chris Hoy
Sir Steve Redgrave
Sachin Tendulkar

Usain Bolt
Muhammad Ali
Aryton Senna
Pele
Lance Armstrong
All of the above dominated/dominates in Bolt's case, their sport throughout their career.

Lance Armstrong - not a cycling fan but read his book in 2 days when I had a broken leg. Nothing but admiration for him. (the fact he used to date Sheryl crow gives me more admiration)

Ricky Hatton - Not going to go down as the best ever but certainly an exciting boxer to watch. Real bloke out of the ring too.

Ayrton Senna - completely ruthless will to win and be the best.

Bryan Robson - I know he had booze problems off the field but a great leader and someone who would play through the pain barrier. (and I'm a City fan)

Mike Gregory - great player, great captain, loyal bloke and somebody who carried himself with great dignity right to the end.

1. Ali - The Greatest
2. Maradona - Forget the misdemeanours, hasn't been a player to touch him
3. Woods - Took golf to a different plateau
4. Lance - A man, a pushbike and them fooking mountains
5 Hagler - Complete fighter, he beat Sugar Ray, even though he didn't

The five men I look at who simply have extra levels than their competitors.

1 - Phil Taylor
2 - Lance Armstrong
3 - Roger Federer
4 - Tiger Woods
5 - Usain Bolt

Mentions: Lockyer, Phelps, Mayweather, Zidane

I was born in 1988 so going to stick to people I have a good enough memory of.

Phil Taylor - the man is a machine. must be as dedicated in practice as anyone in any sport and continues to pile up the titles season after season.
Floyd Mayweather - if there is a better pound-for-pound boxer on this planet then I would love to see them. Can't see the man ever getting beat. I will never forget his fight with Hatton where he gave him a boxing lesson of all boxing lessons. Shame it doesn't look like we'll ever see him and Pacquiao but I reckon Floyd would do him.
Tiger Woods - had never knew much about golf until i'd heard of Tiger but even got me watching a little bit
Lance Armstrong - not a cycling fan but his record speaks for its self.
AP McCoy - champion jockey on so many occasions takes massive commitment and dedication especially with all the knocks and falls. not my most favourite jockey personally, but as a sportsman he is right at the top.

Mentions to:
Frankie Dettori - gave horse racing a lot of excellent publicity and attracted a lot of new people to the sport over the years, and winning every race at one of the meetings at Royal Ascot one year aint bad either.
Stephen Hendry - miserable bugger but his record speaks for its self.
Usain Bolt - can only get better at such a young age which is frightening.
Alan Shearer - for his dedication to Newcastle United and scoring so many goals for a mediocre team.

wrong topic

Strange that Andy as I was born 12 years earlier but having thought about it for a while 4 of my 5 are the same as yours....

Floyd Mayweather - An absolute master at his trade. Difficult for me having been a huge Hatton fan who followed him for years and in the States many times, but feel absolutely priveleged to be able to say 'I was there' to see Mayweather beat Hatton that night. Definitely go down as the greatest sportsman (IMO) that I've seen in the flesh.

Phil Taylor - Doesn't really need an explaination...

Tiger Woods - As above....

AP McCoy - Passion, commitment, desire, ability etc, etc....second to none. A great ambassador for racing and under-rated by so many people both inside and outside of the sport IMO.

Ian Botham - My sporting idol as I was growing up. Was a very keen cricketer when I was younger and I always wanted to be like 'beefy'. Great, great player...

Jack Johnson
Michael Johnson
Phil Taylor
Zidane
Roberto Duran

I'm amazed it took someone so long to mention Tony McCoy very few people are dedicated to their job like he is, he has racked up the champion jockey titles year on year and after finally winning the Grand National it puts him up their as the greatest ever IMO.

In no particular order:

AP McCoy
Phil Taylor
Tiger Woods
Lance Armstrong
Diego Maradona