If you happen to be perusing this column, let me share some exciting news with you: You are the epitome of greatness! Yes, among those who have stumbled upon this space, I declare you to be the most exceptional reader of all time. Of course, if you are LeBron James, Serena Williams, or Nikola Jokic, with all your remarkable achievements and N.B.A. championship rings, you are already aware that you reign as the Greatest of All Time. Everyone has been bestowing this title upon you.
“Bahhh, bahhh, bahhh,” goes the sound of a goat’s bleating. It’s the same sound heard from James’s Los Angeles Lakers teammates when he enters the locker room. GOAT praises are practically the soundtrack of his life.
Driven by its widespread usage in the realm of sports, the term GOAT was officially entered into the dictionary by Merriam-Webster as an acronym and a noun five years ago. Defining the term as “the most accomplished or successful individual in the history of a particular sport or category of performance or activity,” a Merriam-Webster editor acknowledged the prevalent usage of Tom Brady’s name alongside GOAT in popular search engines as an example of why the acronym warranted inclusion in the dictionary.
I know, this whole GOAT phenomenon can be a bit perplexing. Doesn’t being the greatest imply uniqueness? Yet, nowadays, there are GOATs everywhere we look.
What other options do we have? Perhaps we should completely eradicate the use of this term in sports, following the lead of Lake Superior State University. This cheeky institution ranked the ambiguous and overused acronym as the number one word to be banished in their 2023 list.
“The many nominators didn’t have to be physicists or grammarians to determine the literal impossibility and technical vagueness of this wannabe superlative,” the university’s statement read.
However, banning the term doesn’t seem feasible when it has already burrowed deep into our collective consciousness.
Undoubtedly, being a goat is not what it used to be. In sports, it was once a terrible insult, a label assigned to athletes who snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Greg Norman, also known as the Shark, became a goat after squandering a six-stroke lead in the final round of the 1996 Masters, losing the tournament by five strokes. And before Norman, there was Bill Buckner, the Boston Red Sox player who famously let a grounder slip through his legs during a crucial World Series moment.
Do I need to elaborate further?
Muhammad Ali is often credited with popularizing the phrase “Greatest of All Time.” In the early 1960s, when he still went by Cassius Clay, he recorded a comedy album titled “I Am the Greatest.” After his upset victory over George Foreman in 1974, he took it a step further, boldly asserting his status as the greatest of all time, rebuffing doubters and critics.
But was Ali truly the originator of this egotistical flourish?
Some argue that the origins of GOAT actually trace back to a flamboyant, blond-haired wrestler named George Wagner, better known as Gorgeous George. In the 1940s and ’50s, Wagner leveraged his trash-talking skills to earn considerable sums of money.
In a prelude to the braggadocio commonly witnessed in WWE-style wrestling, Gorgeous George once proclaimed before a significant fight that if he lost, he would “crawl across the ring and cut my hair off!” He added, “But that’s not going to happen because I’m the greatest wrestler in the world.”
Ali claimed to have drawn inspiration from Gorgeous George’s boastfulness.
“A lot of people will pay to see someone shut your mouth,” the wrestler supposedly told Ali during a chance encounter. “So keep on bragging, keep on sassing, and always be outrageous.”
This week, the conversation surrounding the greatest of all time centers on tennis as the Championships at Wimbledon commence. Novak Djokovic, with 23 Grand Slam titles, is the favorite to win. If he secures victory this year, his passionate fan base will undoubtedly proclaim him as the GOAT, one Slam away from surpassing Margaret Court’s record of 24.
This will surely aggravate Rafael Nadal fans, who believe their idol would have already won 25 or more Grand Slam titles if not for injuries.
Roger Federer devotees will also join the debate. Despite having losing records against both Nadal and Djokovic, Federer’s exceptional finesse and 20 Grand Slam titles, along with his numerous epic final-round battles, place him in contention for the GOAT title.
But let’s not forget about Serena Williams. With 23 Grand Slam titles, including one earned while she was pregnant, she defied the odds in a predominantly white sport and left an indelible mark as both an athlete and cultural icon. Can any male player make that claim?
Then there are the ardent supporters of the old-school legends such as Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe, Martina Navratilova, and Billie Jean King. They protest against the unfairness of comparing outstanding athletes from vastly different eras.
Everything changes with time in every sport — equipment improves, training methods advance, and new rules emerge. How can we truly compare different eras? In 1980, before McEnroe lost to Borg in the Wimbledon final, neither player had the advantage of resting in a performance-enhancing hypobaric chamber like Djokovic reportedly does.
The argument goes on and on.
That’s the absurdity of it all. The foolishness and the enjoyment it brings.
So, who is the truly deserving GOAT?
Well, to be perfectly honest, I have four contenders in mind. Willie Mays, Joe Montana, Serena Williams, and Roger Federer. Each of them has achieved sublime victories, undoubtedly. But they’ve also experienced their fair share of stumbles. A 42-year-old Mays struggling in the outfield. A fragile Montana nearing the end of his career, playing not for the San Francisco 49ers, but for the Kansas City Chiefs.
I witnessed Williams’s struggles and disappointments as she pursued that elusive last Grand Slam. I sat just feet away from Federer as he held two match points against Djokovic in the 2019 Wimbledon final, only to crumble in defeat.
“It hurts right now, and it should — every loss at Wimbledon stings,” Federer remarked during the post-match press conference. But he vowed to persevere. “I don’t want to be depressed about such an amazing tennis match.”
No one is exempt from disappointment and vulnerability. But if we approach it with the right mindset, we can soldier on.
You know what that means? It means all of us have the potential to be GOATs!
So, continue to bleat, my friends. Bleat on!
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