Have any of the people who would likely be considered the greatest of all time in their field been lazy? I can’t think of any current examples off the top my head, but maybe back in the day talent alone was enough to be the greatest fo all time? I’m interested in examples from any fields you can think of, athletes, entertainers, scientists, mathematicians, or any other fields you can think of. Let’s limit it to those who would likely be in consideration in the debate for greatest of all time in their particular field, not just everybody with talent.
First thing that came to mind: Iverson Practice! - YouTube
Not enough of a sports enthusiast to know if anyone would make the argument that he’s the GOAT.
Babe Ruth was notorious for not training and for loving his booze and women off the field. Rumor was that in 1925, when he was sick much of the season, it was due to alcohol/syphilis. In any case, he clearly spent most of his career not working at it.
I recall reading that a lot of great thinkers and doers had very erratic work habits. They would work feverishly when the muse was speaking to them, and goof off much of the rest of the time. Not sure that makes them lazy exactly, but it does speak to the idea of seizing the opportunity for productive work and not worrying about it when you’re not.
Cioran is one of the greatest writers within a certain niche of philosophy. The size of the niche he could be considered in is debatable. He once said in an interview he settled on writing aphorisms out of laziness, probably. Other than writing he never really bothered to much of achieve anything with his life.
I have read that Usain Bolt didn’t follow a strict diet regimen and ate pretty carelessly and also didn’t work out really hard. Apparently some people are gifted with such great genes that they can “whatever” and still top the world.
Procrastination isn’t exactly the same thing as laziness, but here’s a list of Famous Procrastinators.
I wouldn’t say he was lazy, but I’ve read Johnny Ramone never practiced playing the guitar.
Michelangelo lay flat on his back while painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling. 
I don’t know him personally of course but I always suspected the reason Darin Morgan (which has written several Genius level TV scripts) doesn’t write more is he is lazy.
Allen Iverson had his moments, but wasn’t even close to being the GOAT. His MVP Award was a bad pick; Shaq should have won it, and there were other more valuable players that year.
According to Basketball Reference Iverson is either the 44th best player ever (Value Over Replacement Player) or 89th best (Win shares.)
Anyway, I think RealityChuck nailed it. Theobvious answer to this question is Babe Ruth. Babe Ruth WAS the greatest baseball player who ever lived, but had a dreadful work ethic even by the standards of the time (which were WAY less stringent than they are today.) Ruth was an odd man who has essentially no discipline in any aspect of his life, and despised being told what to do in any respect by anyone. As a young player with the Red Sox his reputation for work ethic was pretty good, but from what I can tell it was not so much that Ruth liked working hard, or saw value in it, as it was that he just loved baseball so much that he was always around the ball diamond doing something. He became a two way player with Boston, both pitching and hitting, and was respected for how much he was playing without ever complaining about aches and pains, but it’s easy for a young man to do a lot of something he loves. As his star rose and he started to gain weight, his interest in losing it and working hard would wane; he’d have bursts of interest in training, but it never stuck as a true habit. He was prone to temper tantrums and juvenile demonstrations of fury, angrily walking away from his team entirely, or getting into wild brouhahas with umpires. Ruth was in many respects an overgrown child, and acted like one all his life, and chidren don’t really have a work ethic.
All the same, he was a hell of an athlete (I realize most pictures you have seen of him show him as being fat, but he was a hell of a specimen in his youth and even when he gained weight could do it all) and was just insanely talented at baseball. The numbers don’t lie, was was the GOAT.
I was totally expecting that page to say: “UNDER CONSTRUCTION - COME BACK SOON.”
The story goes that Rene Descarte developed the whole concept of cartesian geometry to make the math simpler.
Since 1996…
Maybe not lazy, but pretty laid back: Satchel Paige.
Any thoughts on Orson Welles? His Citizen Kane is considered one of the greatest movies ever made, but he had a huge number of unfinished projects.
In the world’s strongest man competitions there have been a few people who have won multiple titles. One of whom is mariusz pudzianowski.
From what I’ve heard while the other competitors were obsessed with their diets, he would eat a ton of candy. He didn’t take his diet seriously.
I’m just spouting my two cents here, but I am pretty sure Einstein could be considered lazy. I have no proof of this, but I like the guy. I’ve dwelt on his little intellectual quotes from time to time. I think I have a pretty good idea of his personality. I could be persuaded to google something informative, but likely it’d just be an opinion piece that I’d find anyways. He seems like he’d have been happy with a cat and a cup of coffee, wasting the day away talking about nothing with friends. He was intensely humble, and in my opinion, wouldn’t have been very worried about pace. Not sure if that directly counts as lazy, but… I can’t be the only one who picked up on this. I think he considered most of his breakthroughs happy accidents. He doesn’t really strike me as someone who would have neglected simple pleasures and personal happiness in his striving to figure out all the amazing things he figured out.
(I did google whether Einstein was lazy, actually, and there are quite a few articles in which others ask the same question. Pretty spiffy.)
Along those lines, Tom Edison couldn’t be bothered to walk across the room to light a candle, or get up off his ass to go to a theatre for a concert or a play…
I think Welles’ problem was a chronic inability to get funding rather than laziness.