I grew up watching Mike, Nick, Steve, Buddy, Jim, Jim, Kim, Keith, David, Earl, Efren Jean, Loree Jon, Ewa all when they were playing during the time when ESPN was doing the filming from Caesars.
Steve Mizerak would help commentate and give the score cards before the matches as to who he thought would win based on Experience, Break and a couple other areas.
In my area, we used to get what was called a Green Sheet in the Saturday paper which gave the TV line up for the whole week. I would immediately go through the week and then set the VCR to record EVERY billiard match. It should be noted at this time that I did this without the express written consent of ESPN or its sponsors.
I remember being gravitated towards Mike Sigel and Nick Varner.
Now looking back and hearing Mike doing all his talking while others are shooting and his general attitude and changed my opinion a little bit.
I think Efren is the GOAT (of my life time) but there is no way I would bet on him during any given match between Earl, Mike or Nick all in their primes. I just thought all of those players were so great.
When you think of overall GOAT, you have to take into consideration all aspects of the game including attitude towards the game and towards the other players and if I do that then it is certainly Efren and then Nick as 1B...IMO