Truth wrote:I voted 8+ just to annoy lots of people.
Also, I'd love to hear all the reasoning for why Selby wouldn't be the GOAT. I'd expect:
Weak era.
Mind games.
Pockets larger than buckets.
All TCs are equal (ROS/Hendry still lead there).
In all seriousness though, Selby's win this year moved him above Mark Williams, Jimmy White and Ray Reardon in my mathematically ranked list of all-time World Snooker Championship Legends.
Prior to this World Championship there was quite a bunch sitting around the 200 points mark:
Ray Reardon 215.5 points
Jimmy White 212.75 points
Mark William 195 points
Mark Selby 179 points
The next lowest would be John Pulman, quite a way back on 154.25 points, and quite a bit further back is the nearest still currently playing player Shaun Murphy on 122 points.
Selby's win adds 37 points to his historical legacy, just squeezing past Reardon by half a point @ 216 points.
However, he's still got a long way to go before he reaches the next on the list, Fred Davis on 274.875 points & that will take more than just one more win, but he could also do it just with lots of runner-ups and semis and etc.
So he's currently 7th on the all-time World Snooker Championship Legends. Which is pretty good going all things considered and, as you say, some time left in the career yet.
As you can see, if Murphy had won, it still wouldn't have been enough to take him into the top 10.
For Selby to challenge the top 4 he'd have to get at least 100+ more points from his WSC career, which is 3 wins or 1 or 2 wins and lots of runner-ups. Which is possible.
But don't forget, 2 out of those top 4 are still playing and competing for titles themselves, so who knows how many more he'll need come 4 or 5 years time.