Opinions
Here's what AZ readers need to understand: It is impossible for a pool player to reach a level of play and achievement that would gain unanimous agreement from all audiences that they are the best ever. Even if a player ran 100 racks, 10,000 balls, 100 billiards, and won every tournament and money match for 10 years, someone would challenge the idea. Did he do it over 10 decades? Did he do it when he was 80 years old? Did he do it with a house cue? Did he do it on a 10 footer? Did he do it against Harold Worst or some other player that none of us have actually seen play or seen footage of?
My point is NOT that SVB is the greatest of all time.
My point is NOT that he ISN'T.
This isn't about SVB. This is about opinions.
Supporters of SVB, you need to realize that there is nothing he can do to get unanimous support for being best ever. Some of the posters on this thread may say "when he does xyz we will agree", but that is just them. There are others that still wouldn't. Don't let it bother you. This says more about them than it does about SVB. And it doesn't say they're wrong, just that they're entitled to their opinion.
And those that argue against SVB being the best ever because he hasn't won a world championship (or the right kind of world championship), or for whatever other reason, you need to understand that you individually don't get to dictate the measuring stick that others are allowed to use to form their own opinions. You can't say 'until he wins this tournament he can't be greatest ever'. That's your opinion. If you were the president of all things pool and had an official honorary best ever title, maybe. Let me know when you get that set up. Until then, you don't have to agree, but your opinions are no better than anyone else's.
In the end the way things are always decided is by popular opinion. What does the majority think. This might bother those that are hard on SVB because we in the US ARE a bit biased. It might bother people that are perfectionists, because they think having impossibly high standards makes them smarter or better. But in the end, votes count. Otherwise we don't have a working democracy and are getting in the way of a peaceful transition of power (too soon?).
My personal opinion is that SVB isn't the greatest pool player of all time, ever...because I don't think it's fair to award that to any one player. Particularly when I never saw Mosconi play straight pool, or Lassiter play 9 ball, and I HAVE seen Efren play enough to know it would be hard to say anyone played better than him playing his game on the old equipment, nor do I know all of the Chinese players' games as well as I know his. Besides, so much depends on format, what game, what equipment, cash or tournaments, etc. No one can dominate every game in every arena. But SVB is absolutely the best pool player to come out of the US post 2000, and one of our greatest players in history. And if we're talking about best evers, in my opinion he should be included in that conversation and sit at the table with these giants.
