'You're not in the conversation mate' – Ronnie O'Sullivan on snooker GOAT debate ahead of World Championship
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Updated 15/04/2022 at 13:10 GMT
Ronnie O'Sullivan explains to Desmond Kane what he feels a player must achieve to be considered a snooker GOAT. Ahead of the 46th World Championship in Sheffield, O'Sullivan has revealed he feels only two other men have won enough majors in the modern era to make the historical "cut-off" point: fellow six-time world champion Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry, the record seven-time Crucible winner.
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Self-praise is no praise. Ronnie O'Sullivan has listened to various self-proclamations of greatness over the past 30 years, but feels his foes from yesteryear and the modern day must achieve a unique longevity and level of dominance to support their right to be taken seriously.
When it comes to the ongoing GOAT debate on the old green baize, O'Sullivan is wary of placing himself at the top of the pack insisting that the "experts and fans will decide that" and that a professional sportsperson should be "humble" enough to accept the wisdom of others.
The record 38-time ranking event winner is even more unconvinced when his fellow protagonists go public to give themselves a self-congratulatory pat on the back.
Neil Robertson enters the 46th World Championship at the Crucible Theatre as 4/1 favourite, narrowly ahead of O'Sullivan and 2019 champion Judd Trump (5/1) as the unremitting road to potting perdition and paradise begins in earnest on Saturday morning with defending champion Mark Selby (7-1) facing Jamie Jones at 10am.
Despite having only once lifted the sport's ultimate event in 2010, Robertson considers himself to be one of the greats of the game.
“I don't think you can really dispute that,” he said during the Gibraltar Open. “I'm the only person in the history of the game that has been able to do what I've done.
You know, the only world champion to come from the southern hemisphere. Nobody's achieved what I've achieved in the game.
“So I'm in a different sort of category than a lot of other people.”
John Higgins also described Selby as possibly "the best player ever to pick up a cue" after he equalled the Scotsman's haul of four world titles with an 18-15 victory over Shaun Murphy in last year's final.
"Is he the best player ever to pick up a cue? You have to ask that question now," said Higgins. "With the standard as tough as it is, for him to win four is fantastic. He is so hard to play over that amount of frames."
We seem to live in a land of make believe where everybody is quick to take to social media to tell every man, his dog and the dog's cat, the "great" goings on in their lives whether it be taking a bog-standard beach holiday or landing a new job.
This fascinating element of the human condition is only too quick to talk up personal success in modern times, but never highlights failure. It hints at insecurity. O'Sullivan warns of false prophets.
He feels people are too quick to bestow greatness upon players without considering the rich tapestry of the sport since Sheffield first staged the World Championship in 1977.
The world No. 1 feels he is one of only three men alongside Stephen Hendry and Steve Davis, who have won enough of the game's 'Triple Crown' series, the debatable modern metric of success, to justify their major status in the wider GOAT narrative.
O'Sullivan turned professional in 1992 and has so far won six world titles, seven Masters and seven UK titles (1993-2020).
Hendry claimed seven world titles, six Masters and five UKs (1989-1999) with Davis hardly a poor third boasting six worlds, three Masters and six UKs (1980-1997).
Higgins (four worlds, two Masters and three UKs – 1998-2011) and Selby (four worlds, three Masters and two UKs – 2008-2021) share third place on nine 'Triple Crown' titles with Robertson lifting one world, two Masters and three UKs (2010-2022).
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Ronnie O'Sullivan prepares for a 30th straight year at the Crucible.
Image credit: Eurosport
There has always been a fine line between self-belief and arrogance in sport, but some might argue you need a timely concoction of both to be a contender in such a cut-throat environment as snooker's World Championship, the sport's most coveted event by a country mile.
For large swathes of the field, it is a tortuous experience that can leave you imprisoned in your own chair for hours on end.
At least in the venerable game of golf, you are not relying on another bloke's mental misstep before you take your next shot.
Like the good sense of golf, in which Jack Nicklaus (18 majors) and Tiger Woods (15) are widely regarded as the two finest in history, O'Sullivan feels there must be a natural cut-off point for prolific winners.
"Sometimes this word greatness gets bandied around so easily," O'Sullivan told Eurosport. "So if they start calling certain golfers a great golfer, then they need to invent a new word for Tiger Woods.
And if they start saying certain snooker players are great snooker players then they need to invent a new word for Stephen Hendry, Steve Davis and probably myself.
"So it's a tricky one, isn't it? Where does it end? There has to be a point where only one or two people can be classed in that bracket.
"You've got Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus in golf. After that, that you can't have any more.
"No one should be allowed in that conversation unless they dominate the sport for 20 years, and get at least 15 majors. And it should be done in that sort of way.
"So I think you then have to say there's another tier and then you can maybe put them in that bracket. But it's very difficult. And I don't think it's always up to you to decide whether you're in that bracket.
I think that's a conversation for other people to be had and for the sportsman to be humble enough to just go 'no, that's not a conversation for me to have'.
"That should be something that the experts do and the people that have watched sport over the years will then decide whether you have earned that right."
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Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry in 1986.
Image credit: Eurosport
O'Sullivan has described Robertson as the best player in the world on form ahead of his latest attempt to solve the Crucible conundrum.
The Melburnian has lifted the English Open, Masters, Players Championship and Tour Championship and lost to O'Sullivan in the World Grand Prix final over the past six months to justify his outstanding status as pre-tournament favourite.
"I get it. A lot of people say: 'oh, he's a great player'. Well, no, he's a very, very good player but to be a great, great player, you have to at least achieve two decades of domination, being there year in, year out," commented O'Sullivan.
"You probably have to have at least 12, 13 major tournaments or even more.
You'd have to say Davis is the cut-off point with six worlds, six UKs and three Masters. So yeah, 15 majors I would say you need to win to be classed as a great. Otherwise you're not in the conversation mate.
O'Sullivan begins his record 30th straight year at the sport's blue-chip event against the 2019 semi-finalist David Gilbert on Saturday afternoon before they play to a finish on Sunday afternoon with the first player to reach 10 frames progressing to the last 16.
O'Sullivan will overtake Hendry as the tournament's most prolific match winner if he reaches the quarter-finals this year.
Hendry won 70 matches from 90 played at the Crucible between 1986 and 2012 when he appeared 27 times and lifted the trophy on seven occasions in 1990, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996 and 1999.
Rocket Ronnie stands on 69 wins from 92 matches played between 1993 and 2021.
"I didn't know that, but that would be a nice one to tick off," said O'Sullivan. "I'm not driven by records, I'm there for the enjoyment, the pleasure and just to have fun with it really.
I love playing, I enjoy it more than I probably ever have so while I'm enjoying it, while I'm still competing and while I'm able to still perform at a certain level, why not?
O'Sullivan was accused of "disrespecting" the sport by Iranian qualifier Hossein Vafaei on Wednesday and urged to "retire" in an astonishing and unsubstantiated outburst, but he is not one for listening to criticism as he attempts to add to his world titles carried off in 2001, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2013 and 2020.
"When I was younger, I just wanted to get there and experience it on one occasion, but to go there year after year has been quite something," he said.
"There was a time in 2012 when I thought I might have to qualify for the World Championship and I managed to win it that year. Obviously, the Crucible delivers drama. You know it can turn your year around and your career around.
It can turn a bad year into an absolutely fabulous year. Someone in another three weeks' time is going to be on top of the world so hopefully that guy is going to be me.
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