The topic of the best player in snooker history seems to have never stopped, but no matter how the best player is judged, there are three options for judging the best players.
Born in 1969, Stephen Hendry won 36 ranking titles in his career, seven of which were world champions in 18 three-time tournaments, and in the 1990s Hendry pulled snooker back from the edge of a cliff almost single-handedly.
Born in 1975, Ronnie O'Sullivan has won 38 ranking titles in his career, including 6 world championships in 20 three majors, and the once-in-a-millennium snooker genius has gained countless fans since his debut.
Born in 1975, John Higgins has won 31 ranking titles in his career, nine three-time championships including four World Championships, and although the overall achievement is behind the previous two, it is undeniable that Higgins has not lost any players in terms of overall strength.
During the snooker game window, the major British media programs will always invite some players or celebrities to be guests to create a topic to earn attention, before the Gibraltar Open, a live program in the British media invited snooker star Joe Perry as a guest.
The program once again talked about the first person in snooker history, and joe Perry, a veteran who has just won the Welsh Open, is also afraid of the controversy that may be brought by the outside world, directly giving his own ranking of the best players in history.
Joe Perry said on the show: "My remarks may be insulted by Hendry fans, but I still think Ronnie O'Sullivan is a well-deserved first man in history, Higgins is second, and Hendry I will put him in third place.
O'Sullivan and Higgins have remained horribly aggressive after several periods, and their long careers (1992–present) have not in the slightest affected their continued titles, and perhaps I am one of the few people who put Hendry behind Higgins.
In fact, it is no wonder that Joe Perry will be opposed by some fans, because in the previous selection of the best player, Hendry is either first or second, and few people have put him in the third place in history, and it seems that in Joe Perry's mind Higgins has completed the surpass of Hendry.
In a subsequent interview, Joe Perry said that Mark Selby, Mark Williams, and Steve Davis would compete for the remaining five positions in history, and bluntly stated that Neil Robertson and Judd Trump were not qualified enough unless they could win a few World Championships.
While Joe Perry knows that his remarks will be refuted by some fans, in his mind Ronnie O'Sullivan's position as the first man in history will not change.
Joe Perry: I don't change my mind because of the outside world, and when I play against O'Sullivan he always gives me a different feeling that no player can give, and his influence on me is much more than just the game.
Objectively speaking, the ranking of the best players in Snooker's history has always been controversial, but it is precisely these controversial voices that further highlight the greatness of these players.