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Has Mark Selby become an All time great after winning the World Championship for a second time?

yes
19
59%
no
13
41%
 
Total votes : 32

Is Selby an All time Great now?

Postby TheRocket

2 World titles, 3 Masters titles and one UK title. 7 ranking titles. As of today.

In terms of triple crown titles he probably has done just enough. Like MJW. Only 7 ranking titles though are a big weak point but he still has time to do something about that.
So what do you think?

Re: Is Selby an All time Great now?

Postby vodkadiet

Anyone who talks about football in his winners speech is a loser. Selby has served his purpose.

Re: Is Selby an All time Great now?

Postby sas6789

My personal opinion, no not as yet, he only has 7 ranking titles. If he wins a few more then he could be in the discussion. Some facts to look at is Robertson and Ding have more ranking titles, centuries and 147's than Selby.

Re: Is Selby an All time Great now?

Postby TheSaviour

This is one of these cases similar to when the Mughal emperor Babur once called mango the "finest fruit of Hindostan." Where these days in India hundreds of varieties, with exotic names and pedigrees of mangos, are available.

Re: Is Selby an All time Great now?

Postby Clara8633

TheSaviour wrote:This is one of these cases similar to when the Mughal emperor Babur once called mango the "finest fruit of Hindostan." Where these days in India hundreds of varieties, with exotic names and pedigrees of mangos, are available.


:goodpost:

Re: Is Selby an All time Great now?

Postby V.V

He still needs to win at least 5 ranking tournaments OR two triple crown OR one WC in order to be concidered as one of the greatest. I think he seems to be some kind of a WC specialist these days. Other merits should be added to his CV. He has not won UK or Masters after the first WC. That seems odd to me. WC specialist, that is what he is these days.

Re: Is Selby an All time Great now?

Postby PoolBoy

Depends what "all-time great" actually means! Does it mean the top 5 players ever in the sport? Then NO.
Does it mean, a player who has won more than one World Championship in their chosen sport? Then YES.
Does it mean the top 15 players ever in the sport? Then YES.
I suppose it simply depends on how many "greats" are considered. People have different ideas - there was a debate about whether the player at number 6 in the World could be considered as being at the elite end of the game. Incredibly some thought not! But, that's because the player in question at the time was Mark Allen.
It's probably much the same here - if you don't like Selby, you won't vote YES and vice versa!

Re: Is Selby an All time Great now?

Postby V.V

I think that the number of players that can be considered as all time greatest is contingent matter: it depends on how many players achieve enough. For example, if there were ten players that have together won every possible tournament (no one else has won anything) then there could be ten all time greatest players (if the distribution of victories is even). Or there could be one, if only one guy has won almost all the titles.

Now there are five all time greatest in our actual world. These guys have done enough to be considered as greatests.

The point: It does not matter wether one is top5 or top15 player in achievments. The absolut amount of tournaments and triple crowns won matters.

Re: Is Selby an All time Great now?

Postby Andy Spark

If you ignore the small-fry best of seven minor rankers, then Selby has won only eleven professional tournaments in his life. Eleven! That's an average of less than one a season. Is this a sign of the future of snooker's number ones I wonder. It's not as if he hasn't played enough tournaments, he's played hundreds. And yet in tournament XYZ* we STILL get, "gosh, that's a shock, Selby loses his third round match".

I'll tell you what WOULD be a statistical shock...if he wins tournament XYZ*!

(* not a real tournament called XYZ, just an indication of any tournament.)

Re: Is Selby an All time Great now?

Postby Sickpotter

Ronnie79 wrote:Surely any player that wins the triple crown is an all time great imo. Jimmy only won 2 is lauded as one of the greats so why not he has won enough titles now


Jimmy is an all time great for more than his ranking wins. Longevity, entertaining style, the peoples champion, 6 time WC finalist, 10 ranking wins, 20 non-ranking.

Selby is no Jimmy but has time to make the list of all time greats.

Re: Is Selby an All time Great now?

Postby PoolBoy

Jimmy White. 0 World titles and never ranked no.1.
Mark Selby. 2 World titles and 5 times season-ending ranked no.1.

To suggest that Jimmy's an all-time-great, while Selby isn't, is preposterous!

Re: Is Selby an All time Great now?

Postby Sickpotter

PoolBoy wrote:Jimmy White. 0 World titles and never ranked no.1.
Mark Selby. 2 World titles and 5 times season-ending ranked no.1.

To suggest that Jimmy's an all-time-great, while Selby isn't, is preposterous!


White was never world number one but rankings weren't money based when he was a contender. If they had been I suspect Jimmy would've had the number 1 spot at least once.

White also had the pleasure of competing against the two most prolific winners/professional sportsmen the game has ever seen, Davis and Hendry.

Selby is still a ways back from Jimmy title wise, popularity wise, style wise and needs to play another 20 years to approach Jimmys longevity.

Selby's close but I just don't have him on my ATG list yet.

Re: Is Selby an All time Great now?

Postby PoolBoy

Sorry, but 'style' and 'popularity' have absolutely no relevance!
Selby has multiple wins of the tournament Jimmy admits he most wanted to win.

I find it very hard to see Jimmy White rated higher than Mark Selby in the all-time rankings!

Re: Is Selby an All time Great now?

Postby SnookerFan

sas6789 wrote:My personal opinion, no not as yet, he only has 7 ranking titles. If he wins a few more then he could be in the discussion. Some facts to look at is Robertson and Ding have more ranking titles, centuries and 147's than Selby.


Ding has two less World Titles. Could be considered a point against.

Re: Is Selby an All time Great now?

Postby sas6789

SnookerFan wrote:
sas6789 wrote:My personal opinion, no not as yet, he only has 7 ranking titles. If he wins a few more then he could be in the discussion. Some facts to look at is Robertson and Ding have more ranking titles, centuries and 147's than Selby.


Ding has two less World Titles. Could be considered a point against.

Now that's he's won all three triple crowns multiple times, he should be in the discussion IMO.

Re: Is Selby an All time Great now?

Postby Alex0paul

What does he need to do to go ahead of Williams in everyone's opinion?

Re: Is Selby an All time Great now?

Postby TheRocket

Alex0paul wrote:What does he need to do to go ahead of Williams in everyone's opinion?


Selby has won one more Masters title but Williams has won 8 more rankers. So atm they are like equal. Depends on what you think is the bigger achievement. I'd say 8 more ranking titles is more worth than one more Masters.

However. In the end there will be no debate anyway. Selby has many years in front of him. Many more titles including TC titles to come which will put him ahead of Williams for good.

Re: Is Selby an All time Great now?

Postby Alex0paul

I think Selby will win another 8 rankers easily. Would be good to see him have a good tilt at holding the 4 majors all at once

Re: Is Selby an All time Great now?

Postby Pink Ball

Alex0paul wrote:I think Selby will win another 8 rankers easily. Would be good to see him have a good tilt at holding the 4 majors all at once

He probably will, yes, but he has to actually do it first. Also, this is a much weaker era than the one that Williams had to carve his legacy in.

Re: Is Selby an All time Great now?

Postby TheSaviour

He reacts right when he gets beat by some on-song player. He feels humiliated and want´s to get it right immediately when the next tournament starts. He really fancies to go all the way. The runner-up is not good enough but to go all the way to bounce back. Can´t blame him for that. Only he can really do that. Obviously everything is based on of being a hugely skilled and resilient player.

Re: Is Selby an All time Great now?

Postby davisfan

Alex0paul wrote:I think Selby will win another 8 rankers easily. Would be good to see him have a good tilt at holding the 4 majors all at once


Nope. Not a chance. He's already at the high water mark (no pun intended).

Re: Is Selby an All time Great now?

Postby Cheshire Cat

Willie Thorne on 5 Live declares that Mark Selby is one of the top 5 players in the history of the game. That would turn my list into:

1) Stephen Hendry and Ronnie O'Sullivan
3) Steve Davis
4) John Higgins
5) ...Mark Selby?

Mark Selby above Mark Williams? Above Ray Reardon? Above Joe Davis? I don't think so.

Re: Is Selby an All time Great now?

Postby Pink Ball

Cheshire Cat wrote:Willie Thorne on 5 Live declares that Mark Selby is one of the top 5 players in the history of the game. That would turn my list into:

1) Stephen Hendry and Ronnie O'Sullivan
3) Steve Davis
4) John Higgins
5) ...Mark Selby?

Mark Selby above Mark Williams? Above Ray Reardon? Above Joe Davis? I don't think so.

Yeah it's nonsense, but it's Thorne.

Re: Is Selby an All time Great now?

Postby SnookerFan

TheSaviour wrote:This is one of these cases similar to when the Mughal emperor Babur once called mango the "finest fruit of Hindostan." Where these days in India hundreds of varieties, with exotic names and pedigrees of mangos, are available.


rofl rofl rofl rofl