I've been enjoying the discussion here and this is perhaps my first post ever. I'm Indonesian and certainly a TH fan. But I give my utmost respect to this man, datok LCW. He's for sure one of the all-time greats considering his SS achievements (and some silver medals in Olympic and WC), the way he plays and the way he maintains his top level of competitiveness. Not considering him as the great just because he hasn't got golds from the so-called "major" tournament: Olympics, WC, and Thomas Cup, would be cruel. Also, I don't think winning >30 SS titles is less worthy than 1 gold in Olympic/WC. His hard-work (probably the most hardworking badminton player ever), perseverance, tenacity, combined with intelligence, are unmatched. In football, I think he's a CR7-like sportsman --that the talent is not the most important factor-- from whom everybody can imitate (not limited to sport domains) to achieve great successes, while perhaps not everybody can imitate the prodigious TH or Lionel Messi. Wish LCW for the best and getting a gold in Rio !
For the same reasons, no one in China consider Chen Long "great" despite World Championship titles, etc... People obsessed with the titles can just count the no. of people in the sport who have personal sponsorship deals like Lin Dan, Victor Axelsen, etc...Don't scoff at this "commercial value", it is a more accurate reflection of how much/many people actually want to watch them play (LCW's sponsors didn't even flinch during his ban)-- true sports fans value the actual "competition" and how you play/win/lose, rather than the number/weight of titles you have. I wish for LCW to stay in form (& even up his game) to give us a good run in Rio! The badminton MS Finals had the 3rd highest viewership in the 2012 Olympic Games-- with LCW's scintillating build-up in the past year, I hope it becomes the 2nd (provided Chen Long loses before the final-- nobody actually wants to WATCH him play).
