[Alberta's Child]

In these discussions there are actually some players who are so dominant for certain reasons that I would leave them out of discussions about the greatest of all time. The reason for this is that they are "transformational" players who changed a sport so dramatically that their impact on the game is impossible to measure in a historical context. In other words, they were almost like superhumans or freaks of nature who burst onto the scene and changed their games forever -- but their impact seemed to diminish over time as the rest of the sport caught up with them.

Looking back over time, it's hard to figure out how much of their impact was a result of how WELL they played the game, and how much was really a function of how DIFFERENTLY they played the game.

Wilt Chamberlain might have been one of those players. Two others that immediately come to mind are Babe Ruth in baseball and Bobby Orr in hockey.

[Founding Father]

I concur with your thought process. What players had such an impact the rules were changed?
Baseball: Babe Ruth...balls bouncing over the fence became ground rule doubles; fly outs advancing runners to second or third no longer sac flies (not to mention Ruth hit more home runs than some teams).
Basketball: Wilt Chamberlain...lane width at least doubled, couldn’t follow your free throw shot until it hit the rim.
Hockey: tie...Gretzky...no 4 on 4, Orr oh, defensemen can play offense and still beat you up...

[the OlLine Rebel]

I say there is that tier of rarified air where EXTREMELY few ever reach, in any given sport.

To me, these are the players whom a dunderhead who doesn’t watch or care about the game, like me, sees, and somehow INSTINCTIVELY knows is “the greatest”. They truly transcend the sport. Even ignoramuses can tell.

The Babe would’ve been one, Gretsky, Jordan (now I think Bird too), Johnny U for games/humans. Man O’War and Secretariat were like that for horses.

These just are extremely rare individuals, and the Greatest is a tiny platform.