People are always referring to the Greatest Of All Time. It always seems to lead to many different paths & opinions. Why not change it to GOTE. Greatest Of Their Era? I just feel it would be more accurate.
Right on, fella. So often on the forum, we discuss the near impossibility of comparing players across eras.
Did Earl Strickland play better than 9-ball than Luther Lassiter? Noone will ever know. In fact, they played two different versions of the game. Neither seemed to ever miss, and both were dominant in their primes against their peers.
Eddie Taylor called Rags Fitzpatrick the greatest one pocket player he'd ever seen, and yes, Eddie saw both Ronnie and Efren. But how on earth can you compare them? They played the game so differently from each other. Rags, Ronnie and Efren are all the GOTE, but figuring out who is the GOAT sure is difficult.
In women's pool, it's even more difficult. Han Yu and Siming Chen have raised the bar higher than I'd have guessed possible in women's pool. In my opinion, both play better than Allison and Jean did at their best, but they are only the GOTEs, for Allison and Jean's domination of their respective eras is far beyond what we've seen from Siming Chen and Han Yu.
The only way to consider the subject of the GOAT is to consider the extent to which a player dominated in his/her own era. GOTE often makes for a more interesting discussion, but in the end both are extremely interesting.
Take a deep bow for a well judged and well considered post.