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This sparked a question in my mind-- Which major sport has the least recency bias?
I think baseball is pretty good at respecting history. People still include Babe Ruth in the GOAT convo. I wouldn't give him that title because it was segregated at that time but it is reasonable to include him. A lot of people say Willie Mays. I don't think a ton of recent players are included in the convo outside of Bonds or maybe Shohei Ohtani, the modern Babe Ruth.
I think a clear majority say Tom Brady for football. Some old heads might say Joe Montana or Jerry Rice. It's the hardest sport to have the discussion because the positions do such different things. Most people only consider QBs. Patrick Mahomes is talked about as a challenger to Brady.
Gretzky still seems to be a runaway #1 for hockey and I think Alexander Ovechkin has worked his way into the conversation.
I have never been a hockey fan and stopped watching football and baseball years ago. So my ability to compare is limited.
But based on my understanding, I say baseball has the least recency bias and the most respect for history by far. Hockey would be #2 though I could be very wrong. I don't know which is worse between football and basketball.
It's wild to me that Wilt and Russell aren't #1 on anybody's list nowadays. They both have strong cases. As strong as Babe Ruth if not stronger. But basketball fans act like the sport didn't exist before Jordan outside of a token nod to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
He needs to work on passing the ball and not being Caitlyn Clark with the turnovers
Magic
Bean
Mj
Duncan
Shaq
Bron comes off the bench
Edit
Thought I saw Timmy, well PF would be Dirk
Besides track it’s basketball by far
Tony Gywnn doesn’t get the respect he deserves, neither does Kid Griffey and kids will never know the greatness of Rickey Henderson but they acknowledge the greats
Basketball its all about what have you done lately
And maybe boxing
The Pels are the other team in that picture
So you meant baseball by far, right? I thought about mentioning Griffey because I've heard him in the GOAT conversation even though he didn't have that longevity,
Good call on mentioning boxing... Though it isn't a major sport anymore IMO and that may be why it respects the past more-- because its glory days are in the past.
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Disagree! Baseballl is the least changed sport of all the major professional team sports. Therefore is it’s easier to compare players. It’s also the easiest team sport to quantify! So that’s why all the geek numbers started with that sport! Ken Griffey gets his props just like Mike trout gets his …
I admit I’ve Stopped caring about baseball but I can See your point
Nobody says Hank Aaron was batting against plumbers etc
Is strictly a basketball thing
Who in the NBA guarding prime Wilt?
Dr J would put up numbers
I agree they don’t say those things in baseball. I think basketball is the hardest sport to compare players. Because the game is completely different like every 15-20 years!! Therefore players are different and play different as well. That era after MJ left and teams barely scored 90 plus points, no thanks ! It’s completely different now! Hell 80s ball is completely different than 90s ball. It’s just hard to compare players and eras; so these debates become more bias than anything…
So how would you rank the recency bias vs respect for history among fans and analysts of each sport? Or are you saying it’s impossible because of the difference in the difficulty of making comparisons?
You can just watch how this nigga been playing and tell he’s fixing shit. He used to be a good player with good bball IQ.
Glad to see he’s in a good place
In football, Barry,LT, Jerry, Deion, etc get their respect
Baseball (already been discussed)
Basketball not so much imo
You think years from now people are going give Giannis his props? What about Dame? You rarely hear about anyone from that era besides MJ(I get it) but let’s not act like Dominique wasn’t a force, Barkley, Bird, Reggie, hell I had to put my son in game about Glen rice, Tim hardaway, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf , Kevin Johnson and Peja just to name a few
Same with boxing, imagine Ali, sugar Ray Robinson, George, even RJJ with social media and today’s exposure
Track kids don’t know about Michael Johnson being Bolt before Bolt but as far as comparisons no other previous era had the beef NBA does
Didn’t Jerry west go at current players?
In 2026, sure. Dame coming to the Blazers means absolutely nothing this upcoming season.
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