ESPN top 100 athletes since year 2000

[John Mandalorian]

It helps when there’s 20 events for swimming.

I really think there should be separate ice hockey, 4 on 4 ice hockey, 3 on 3 ice hockey and shootout events.

On the other hand, the Olympics are every 4 years so there’s a lot of pressure to perform well in those events.

 

[CanadienShark]

Do you guys actually read what the list is about? It is from 2000 until today.

How in gods name would a dude that only has about 8 seasons with no international or NHL championships get above a dude with 3 Stanley cups, 4 appearances, 1 Olympic gold along with various other accolades. Who has been doing it for damn near 20 years now and was almost as dominant as McDavid in his prime…..

McDavid is too low but should not in any scenario be above Crosby on this list.

Yes I read it. He's already surpassed Crosby.

 

[NyQuil]

On the other hand, the Olympics are every 4 years so there’s a lot of pressure to perform well in those events.

I think what Michael Phelps did was outstanding but it's not like every athlete gets those kinds of opportunities.

Cross country skiing, speed skating, swimming, it's just the nature of those events to offer so many more medals.

Anyway, he's the least of the worries with this list really.

EDIT: Also, already raised in the thread and addressed anyway.

 

[Legend123]

This is a hilarious ranking for anyone outside of the United States.

Like, literally nobody gives a f*** about Tom Brady outside of the U.S. regardless of how many times he won the U.S. national sport trophy.

The list of best athletes should be about the Olympic golds and sports played worldwide

Brady is easily one of the greatest athletes of this century

What u talking about ?

It's like discounting rugby and cricket players because no one watches those sports in NA

 

[emptyNedder]

There is really no way to make such a list without having huge amounts of bias.

I remember outcry when John McEnroe suggested Serena Williams was not the best tennis player ever. The logic was that Serena was more successful against her competition than any male. That was true, but she wasn't the most successful woman against competition.

That is clearly Esther Vergeer--she didn't lose a match for something like six years. Should para athletes be included--probably.

But at some point you have to make a list, thus there will be huge amounts of bias.

 

[JoVel]

Two main reasons:
1) chess includes a direct skills competition, which is a sport by definition.
2) arguably the most important skill for any sport that includes an opponent's resistance (from hockey to wrestling) is game IQ. And chess is the pinnacle of competition in that skill.

I think competitive Alias or Twister would be a much better sport.

 

[Three On Zero]

The list of names is fine. It’s the order that’s trash.

Not really, all things considered

 

[Kairi Zaide]

The list of names is fine. It’s the order that’s trash.

The list of name is absolutely not fine given the American centrism - both in terms of names than in terms of sports represented.

 

[John Mandalorian]

Brady is easily one of the greatest athletes of this century

What u talking about ?

It's like discounting rugby and cricket players because no one watches those sports in NA

Meanwhile, there are 7 WNBA players, which is a league that no one has cared about for its entire existance until this year.

 

[RickyLafleur]

no "esports" nerds made the list?

good

 

[Siludin]

I didn't even think swimming was considered a pro sport.

 

[Peasy]

The fact that the greatest goal scorer in NHL HISTORY cant even break the top 50 tells you everything you need to know about the list lol.

 

[Lacaar]

Meanwhile, there are 7 WNBA players, which is a league that no one has cared about for its entire existance until this year.

Looks at who put out list.. ESPN.
Looks at who has television rights for WNBA... ESPN.

This isn't journalism, it's advertising.

 

[LeafGrief]

Mitch Marner in shambles right now, Shanahan and co doing major damage control in the Leafs dressing room.

 

[StreetHawk]

Looks at who put out list.. ESPN.
Looks at who has television rights for WNBA... ESPN.

This isn't journalism, it's advertising.

And espn also has the nhl. Just shows where the nhl is for ESPN.

1 title puts jokic/Gianni’s so high compared to where they put Ovy and his 1 title and he’s in the cusp of breaking Wayne’s goal scoring record.

If you are the nhl and you see this list you have to be shaking your head…. This is your TV partner? WNBA has been around for what like 30 years and they have more than double the number of nhlers?

 

[Yorkshire Leaf]

Well, this ranking is something.

My first impressions:

The ranking is of course highly biased towards North American athletes. Which shouldn't surprise as it was ESPN that has created it.
There are some good and some horrendous takes, and some that are highly debatable.

Michael Phelps being #1 is somewhat understandable considering that he has won the most Olympic medals. But it's a great advantage being responsible only for yourself and having the chance to win multiple medals within the same sport and the same Olympics. That's an advantage most athletes simply don't have.


Serena Williams at #2 is highly debatable. While she is certainly the most dominant female tennis player of all time, she might be the person in the top 20 or so with the easiest path to excellence, because tennis itself is an expensive sport with a relatively low number of participants, but female tennis in general isn't a sport of the masses. Probably 1/2 of the female world population will never have the chance to play tennis even as a simple hobby, let alone competitively. There are like 40-50 countries where women have the resources to play tennis on a high level, and maybe 10 where they have the opportunities similar to those in the US, which makes for a small field of competitors.


For this reason as well, Messi at #3 is rather laughable. He dominated the most played, most competitive sport for a decade and is considered by many to be the greatest player of all time.

To stay on topic: Henry definitely shouldn't be ahead of Zidane, Modric and Iniesta.


Hamilton ahead of Schumacher is insofar correct as Schumacher's success goes back to the 90s. However, if they evaluated Schumacher as a whole, I don't think there should be any F1 driver beating him.


McDavid at #98 is hilarious, though. There hasn't been a player since Lemieux and Gretzky who has been so superior to his peers and put up numbers like he does. Crosby ahead of McDavid is plausible if cups are taken into consideration. But there shouldn't be a gap of 66 spots.

Swimming is a funny sport, they award medals for swimming in a way that is slower than you could swim if your fastest.

It’s like running a 100m but insisting that you wear your shoes on the wrong feet or have to run in wellington boots.

 

[x Tame Impala]

Mayweather, Barry Bonds, and Jon Jones should be higher. McDavid should be higher as well. No comment on the WNBA star's being ranked where they are.

Dumb list from ESPN looking for some summer clicks

 

[SannywithoutCompy]

Crosby is too high lol, there are athletes on the list who are best of all time in tougher sports to excel and/or with larger participation base who are either omitted overall (Bjorndalen, Fourcade, Fedor Emelianenko, Magnus Carlsen) or much lower (Jon Jones). He shouldn't also be dozens of places ahead of Ovechkin and McDavid.

As for the rating overall... People can try whatever spin they want on the question, but deep inside they all know what the entire world knows (including ESPN writers). The greatest athlete in the world is the best player ever in the world's biggest sport.

>chess player
>athlete

Pick one (1)

 

[Fataldogg]

I disagree. When you take every sport into account, there's a shitload of athletes out there. The names above Crosby all make sense (well, almost all of them)

There are not 97 other athletes who have dominated their sport the same way as McDavid. At #98 he is criminally underrated.

 

[Video Nasty]

Yes I read it. He's already surpassed Crosby.

This forum collectively has an issue acknowledging McDavid as better right now. ESPN and whatever this voting system was, can’t be expected to do better.

That being said, the list is full of head scratchers and while I spend less time with the other sports as the years go on, I am very well versed in the NBA, NFL, and MLB.

Garnett was a terrific player, maybe even one of the more underrated sure fire Hall of Famers at one point, but the fact that he is the 6th NBA player on this list and all within the top 23 is a bit much. Devoting 1/4 of the beginning of the list to just one league is also a bit much.

For all the time I spend debunking aspects of Crosby’s career, Garnett has no business slotting in a mere spot behind Crosby, who is the first of just three hockey players mentioned overall. Garnett is perhaps one of the best two-way players ever, but his legend spun a bit out of control with the Celtics championship, if I’m being honest (I lived in Massachusetts for the first thirty years of my life).

But again, it’s ESPN related and the NHL, so I don’t expect much. But the overrating of certain players from other sports is still perplexing.

 

[Lacaar]

And espn also has the nhl. Just shows where the nhl is for ESPN.

1 title puts jokic/Gianni’s so high compared to where they put Ovy and his 1 title and he’s in the cusp of breaking Wayne’s goal scoring record.

If you are the nhl and you see this list you have to be shaking your head…. This is your TV partner? WNBA has been around for what like 30 years and they have more than double the number of nhlers?

It's kind of interesting to see.

The NHL knows there's tons of growth potential in the states. It's why they won't give Quebec the light of day and kept a team in Arizona all those years losing money. They yearn desperately to grow in the states. I'm talking explosive growth. It's just business.

The Media in the states on the other hand has likely given up on the fact that for 30 years the game in the states hasn't broken out. Not saying hockey hasn't grown in the states. Just not the rate you'd want to invest a risk into. They likely see this potential in WNBA for explosive growth. So my guess is they were told to push WNBA like a mother f***er.

 

[SnowblindNYR]

This is a hilarious ranking for anyone outside of the United States.

Like, literally nobody gives a f*** about Tom Brady outside of the U.S. regardless of how many times he won the U.S. national sport trophy.

The list of best athletes should be about the Olympic golds and sports played worldwide

ESPN is an American media company for Americans. This post is assinine.

 

[Voight]

Well, this ranking is something.

My first impressions:

The ranking is of course highly biased towards North American athletes. Which shouldn't surprise as it was ESPN that has created it.
There are some good and some horrendous takes, and some that are highly debatable.

Michael Phelps being #1 is somewhat understandable considering that he has won the most Olympic medals. But it's a great advantage being responsible only for yourself and having the chance to win multiple medals within the same sport and the same Olympics. That's an advantage most athletes simply don't have.


Serena Williams at #2 is highly debatable. While she is certainly the most dominant female tennis player of all time, she might be the person in the top 20 or so with the easiest path to excellence, because tennis itself is an expensive sport with a relatively low number of participants, but female tennis in general isn't a sport of the masses. Probably 1/2 of the female world population will never have the chance to play tennis even as a simple hobby, let alone competitively. There are like 40-50 countries where women have the resources to play tennis on a high level, and maybe 10 where they have the opportunities similar to those in the US, which makes for a small field of competitors.


For this reason as well, Messi at #3 is rather laughable. He dominated the most played, most competitive sport for a decade and is considered by many to be the greatest player of all time.

To stay on topic: Henry definitely shouldn't be ahead of Zidane, Modric and Iniesta.


Hamilton ahead of Schumacher is insofar correct as Schumacher's success goes back to the 90s. However, if they evaluated Schumacher as a whole, I don't think there should be any F1 driver beating him.


McDavid at #98 is hilarious, though. There hasn't been a player since Lemieux and Gretzky who has been so superior to his peers and put up numbers like he does. Crosby ahead of McDavid is plausible if cups are taken into consideration. But there shouldn't be a gap of 66 spots.

Ehh debatable. Hamilton has won as many championships as Schumacher (realistically Hamilton should have 8 but they rigged it so he wouldn't beat the record), has more wins, podiums and pole positions.

Side note, I firmly believe if Senna hadn't died so young he would've been the unquestioned GOAT of F1. But here we are.

 

[Crow]

Two main reasons:
1) chess includes a direct skills competition, which is a sport by definition.
2) arguably the most important skill for any sport that includes an opponent's resistance (from hockey to wrestling) is game IQ. And chess is the pinnacle of competition in that skill.

To play devils advocate I do not define a sport as a direct skills competition devoid of any athletic prowess.

Dictionary.com defines sport as “an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess”.

Chess players do not rely upon athleticism as part of their game. Even esports or a thumb war with your grade school friend have chess beat in that regard.

 

[MrazeksVengeance]

Too much ladies soccer, too much ladies basketball. Too much basketball in general.
Too much baseball.

Not enough “southern hemisphere sports” - rugby, cricket Not enough ladies sports that are mostly about Olympic Games. not enough ladies tennis.