that brings up the massive difference in the sports themselves. Boxing was huge at the time and Ali was the biggest name, but how many of his fights were truly global events? Maybe a half a dozen? Jordan had exponentially more games, and even if you just count things like series clinching games, his comeback, finals games, dunk contests and olympics, he was out there for world wide consumption far more often. I think Jordan competes simply on the globally famous question. He may not be as popular or beloved or respected, but those are different questions. But the dude is quite famous. I don't know what tell you; I was out of the country for most of that, and it was definitely popular, but nowhere near that "holy [expletive], everyone stop what you're doing/did you see what Jordan did last night?" I mean, I'm obviously not arguing that Jordan wasn't global famous; he clearly was and is. Ali just was on a crazy different level. Yeah, that is hugely influenced by the difference in their sports and the eras they were at their peak; Jordan's arguably the reason that basketball started spreading globally like it has, whereas Ali benefited by being the greatest at a sport that was already cemented as a global phenomenon and was basically at its peak in popularity. Whatever the reasons, Ali somehow ended up on a level you usually just see for religious figures or world leaders. I think it's really tough because we're judging it based on reports of folks (old sportswriters and reporters) that are inclined to glamorize Ali's fame too. I sure wasn't around to see any of Ali's fights.