Your most entertaining sports stars ever | Vital Football

Your most entertaining sports stars ever

thefacehead

Vital Football Hero
Not who you think is the best but who has entertained you the most over your life watching sport. You can have 2 for football, one for Villa and one from elsewhere, but only one for the other categories!

Choose your own categories, here's mine -

Football - for Villa Mark Bosnich, his penalty saves give me my fondest memories. Eric Cantona, never a dull moment when that guy was playing!

Snooker - Ronnie O'Sullivan, no explanation needed.

Golf - Severiano 'Seve' Ballesteros Sota, if any sportsman had an aura then this was the man. People also forget how prolific the guy was, 91 professional wins, 5 Majors, 5 World Match Plays, a record 50 European tour victories, to put it in to prospective, those who think Faldo was better because he won an extra Major, Faldo won 40 professional events. But Seve could play on his knees, out of car parks, around tree's hit drivers out of bunkers, the trickery, the finesse and the way he played with a smile on his face, take note Monty! RIP Seve.

Cricket - Brian Lara, not a sport I follow too much, but I remember this guy breaking record after record when I was growing up, the guy was incredible!

Tennis - Tim Henman, stick with me here, he never won a Grand Slam, but the sheer entertainment of watching him try was too much to resist. The year that he lost to Goran Ivaniševic sticks out, if it hadn't rained he would probably have lost in the final, pmsl, but that year Ivaniševic was given a wild card by the All England Club, talk about shooting yourself in the foot!

Rugby Union - Jonny Wilkinson, again not a massive Rugby fan, just doesn't float my boat, but I love my country and would be jumping around if we won the World tiddly winks. Single-handedly (or footedly) made England world beaters. Yes it was a good team but without Jonny's golden kicking foot, we'd never have been World Champions! He was that good that the Australian wanted a rule change to take points away from penalty kick scoring. Him getting underneath the Aussies skins is also a big factor in the entertainment!

Darts - Phil Taylor, arguably the greatest English sports person to ever walk the Earth! Without Taylor Darts would still be exclusively played on the BBC once a year in front of grannies, instead it's a huge public spectacle with football size crowds paying to watch (and get pissed).

Athletics - Usain Bolt, you sit around for ages to watch a man sprint across your telly faster than any other man has ever done it, why? Because it's bloody entertaining!!

Olympian - Steve Redgrave, he can't win another one can he? Oh yes he can! 2, 4's 8's? Redgrave doesn't care! Just put the guy in a boat and he will turn it into gold! FIVE OLYMPIC MEDALS IN FIVE DIFFERENT OLYMPIC GAMES!! ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED????

Boxing - Prince Naseem Hamed, okay the guys a bit of a cock, but you can't argue with the entertainment factor, just check out some of his walk on's on Youtube. Someone who stands openly in the middle of a boxing ring and invites people to smack him in the face while he prances around with his guard down, now that takes some balls (or stupidity) but it was priceless entertainment we are unlikely to ever see again. You could argue Eubank got there first but Naseem flipped 360 degrees to enter the ring, Eubank loses points for me!

And the least entertaining sports person I have ever witnessed - Graeme Dott, how that guy ever became World Champion, boring everyone to death I suppose, if it was a choice between watching him play and watching paint dry, well I do enjoy the smell of fresh paint!
 
I ain't old enough, but I can imagine he was the man, greatest sportsman ever, of that there is no doubt!
 
I realised as I read your post, an outstanding entertainer, if you can find his interviews with Parkinson amongst others, well worth that watch, his brain was as quick as his feet and hands, truly the greatest.


 
I will have a think but I will only deal with sport therefore golf darts and snooker will be omitted
 
Footie = Dwight Yorke/Deano
Snooker = Jimmy White
Darts = Eric Bristow
Boxing
 
Footy - Eric Cantona,
Tennis - John McEnroe
Snooker - Alex Higgins
 
thefacehead - 25/1/2014 15:36

Trekker - 25/1/2014 15:33

I will have a think but I will only deal with sport therefore golf darts and snooker will be omitted

WTF is 'golf darts'?

Rather obviously it's "golf" and "darts".
Hope that helps.
 
Football - Ronaldo (Luís Nazário de Lima) and Ronaldinho

The most skillfull of all the Brazilians in my opinion and a joy to watch.

Boxing - Prince Naseem Hamed

Loud mouth but super talented with amazing knock-out power.

UFC - Wanderlei Silva

Not the greatest by any means but his fights were never boring, he came to bang or be banged.


 
If you are talking "entertainment" not the best

Football - Ian Wright, Boxing - Nigel Benn, Motor Racing - Nigel Mansell, Cricket - Botham, Tennis - McEnroe or Connors, Snooker - Higgins, Athletics - Boult

However, one person(s) who get overlooked. Sportsmen that completely made a minority sport watched by three eighty year old women become a sport that was watched by the entire nation, creating history as they did it.

My entertainers of all time for Great Britain are: Torville and Dean !

When you can get 27 million people watching two people dancing on skates, you know you have made it
 
Good shout, that documentary was priceless.

Regarding Ali, I have always been 50-50 on him. Was he the greatest ?, hmmm, he lost a lot of fights. Personally I think a Ali at his prime would lose to a Tyson at his prime. However, you then go down to the Hearns / Hagler / Leonard / Duran weights, and to me, they wipe the floor with Ali.

Entertainer - of course, but was he intelligent, or an arrogant bigot - again, open to interpretation. Remember, on one of those Parky interviews he said women should not show their faces, and it is disrespectful to the man if the woman shows off her face.

As I say, its a 50-50 for me.
 
holtelower - 26/1/2014 17:35

Entertainer - of course, but was he intelligent, or an arrogant bigot - again, open to interpretation. Remember, on one of those Parky interviews he said women should not show their faces, and it is disrespectful to the man if the woman shows off her face.



:10: Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhgggggghhh! A Muslim! How dare he express his religious beliefs on main stream television!

Really dude?



 
But if you watch the interview, he went A LOT further than muslim faith.

Anyway, just coz it is in religion doesn't make it right you know. I suppose homophobia is OK, it must be, the bible says it is !
 
With regards Football Gazza was the ultimate entertainer, a great player with a great attitude, a born entertainer. Villa's answer to him was Dwight Yorke. Both of them worth the entrance fee alone.

I remember the french rugby side of the late eighties/early nineties being great to watch - their talisman was a fella called Serge Blanco. As much as I hate to admit it about the frogs - they were a joy to watch.
Same could be said for Jonah Lomu and the All Blacks side that unbelieveably lost the world cup in SA. They looked unstoppable!

Some of the old tennis players were great entertainers, before the powerful 100mph serves and came into it. It's nice to see them playing in the senior matches. McEnroe, Connors, Leconte, Nastase etc... and Boris Becker and to a lesser extent the likes of Navratilova, King, Evert.

It's amazing how in so many sports the focus is now so much on success that the entertainment and lightheartedness has gone. The olympics I think provides a refreshing change fromt his, as many of the atheletes are unprofessional and there for the enjoyment and the experience. This is why characters like eric the eel, the jamaican bobsleighers and eddie the eagle edwards emerge as the peoples favorites over the actual medalists.

I'm not a boxing fan at all but Mohammed Ali was an arsehole - some of things he said were disgraceful - regardless of how good a boxer he was.
 
Footy- Brian Little/Maradonna horrible little twat but a genius with the ball.
Cricket-Botham
Tennis-Hate the game but McEnroe was always entertaining.
Darts-Bristoe just like the Ali of the darts world.
Snooker-Higgins
Olympian-Daley Thompson
Boxing-Muhammed Ali the greatest of all time.Holte now don't take this the wrong way because I'm not trying to rubbish your views but your obviously to young to remember Ali because I tell you now Tyson would have been beat before he even climbed into the ring.What a lot of people don't realise about Ali is he was stripped of his title and licence at the age of 25 and didn't fight again till he was 29.He fought Quarry on his comeback then he fought Bonavena and then he jumped straight in with Frazier in probably the greatest fight of all time and he lost on points not many boxers would be capable of that I tell ya.

 
Jim honestly mate it was all hype with Ali he loved to play the villain and it worked when ever he fought nations came to standstill he was that popular.If he was really this big bad guy he wouldn't get the recognition and admiration he does today.