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http://tabletenniscoaching.com/node/2037 We can now add - GOAT of plastic ball era - Ma Long.

Some statements are puzzling. If ZJK was not in his prime in 2016, then Wang Hao was not in his prime in 2012. Come again? Prime is a relative word. By 2016 people were not even sure that ZJK should be playing Olympics. In 2012, WH was by any strength measure still one of the top players in...

My brain sometimes agrees with you but my body doesn't.

It is fun to debate people who are so sure they must be right that only idiots can disagree with them. Especially when you were once one of those people at a younger age and can reflect on the limited perspective of youth and how it can't see that the world is a much more interesting place than...

I value how he felt. But I also value the objective difficulty of the achievement.

So in other words, none of his achievements during the cell ball era impress you and you think he is partly a child of WH retirement, ZJK dropoff and the plastic ball? National Games and Asian Championships are just practice matches?

I think this is truly an internet limitation and there is really no way to address it. Punditry requires a big mouth and pen but no real knowledge. But I think it is clear that I think Ma Long is the GOAT, but that I can understand why others may disagree, with the biggest black mark being the...

And how long is his time?

I think when you look at something like GOAT, you take a broad perspective of everything and weight some things with relative importance. I think if you do, despite details and quibbles here and there, Ma Long is the greatest player of the modern era. I don't deny that I wish he had greater...

It is a sign of maturity to recognize that disagreement is inherent in the human condition given the subjective nature of life.

I think you should look at his ranking of the best players of all time. You might get a different perspective there.

I gave a definition. You are using yours. If XX and FZD had made the semis again this year by my definition, then we would have a conversation. ML is the great player of the plastic ball generation but he isn't competing against any others. In 2013, he was competing with many great players...

People know the relative difficulty of winning the events based on the draws and the number of great players etc. Even Waldner ranks Wang Liqin and Wang Hao over Ma Lin. World Cup is not a real slam to anyone.

Usually there is video after the match. Maybe they just didn't catch him and I missed it. Ask zeio.

Wang Liqin exists.

Well. People said similar things about Federer in the mid 2000s. Then what happened? Other great players showed up and he suddenly started losing more. How to define a great player? Someone who is consistently going deep in every event even if they are not winning the titles because another...

Because very often in sports you are judged at the margins by what you didn't do not what you did. Ma Lin had the Olympics gold and World Cups that Wang Liqin did not. But no one will confuse that with the difficulty of winning the stacked WTTC back then. And Ma Lin just lost to WLQ twice...

These are arguments I have made before. It is funny arguing with a past version of yourself. 1) This is a bit of mixing and matching. The records say nothing about when/where the matches were played or whether the opponents were at certain ages or points in their careers. In a few years, we...

I said it is overrated in assessing Ma Long's greatness. No, not generally overrated.

First rule of DerEcthe TT - if you return his serves reasonably well, you have a good chance of beating him. Did you ever try a Korbel?