Boxing is a sport in perpetual chaos and decline, with sanctioning organizations and their multiple champions, calculating promoters, no transcendent stars or presence on broadcast television, and the whiff of corruption.

We chatted briefly, and he was a splendid torero of the solid middle group, never a transcendent star but always the man of dignity who faced the bulls as they came.

This otherworldly role has traditionally been hard to cast, though it has been turned into personal triumphs by transcendent stars like Eleonora Duse and Vanessa Redgrave, Ms. Richardson's mother.

His first complete game of the season improved his record to 2-0 and only further enhanced his status in his clubhouse as well as that of the Expos as one of the sport's transcendent stars.

There was once a transcendent star who had her suitors and lost loves inspected by tabloids, a young woman who had life outside of her sport knocking, all with phenoms constantly testing her tennis attention span.

Jordan's impact on television was huge - the transcendent star whose presence was guaranteed to lift ratings.

Taylor (25-0) has seized control of the middleweight division, and, with his Southern charm, good looks and athletic ability, appears poised to become a transcendent star in a sport that has struggled lately to find them.

There, Marion Jones was beating him to the medal stand, on her way to becoming a transcendent American star.

"We have evidence of great stars, but I don't think there are too many that we could call out as transcendent stars," Lanktree said, naming Jones as a prime example.

The N.B.A. has been in search of a transcendent star with staying power since Michael Jordan retired from the Chicago Bulls in 1998.