ESPN top 100 athletes since year 2000

[GMR]

No way Trout should be 30 and McDavid at 98.
Especially if both haven't won a champioship.

ESPN hates hockey. And their analysts don't know shit about McDavid or his status amongst his NHL peers.

 

[Voight]

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

& I dont want this to come off as misogynistic but while the WNBA players are great athletes, they aren't better than a good chunk of male athletes.

(Yes, some 350 pound Offensive Lineman probably isn't a better overall athlete, but there are plenty of other guys in both the NBA and other sports that are)

 

[GMR]

7 Norris Trophy wins since 2000 isn't enough? Add in a Gold medal in 2006 AND being the best player on the best team since 2000 (and some would argue a top 10 all time team).

Somehow Shaq and his post 2000 career gets him #17, while Lidstrom can't even get ranked.

Shaq is more of a celebrity and Lidstrom is too white.

 

[ColbyChaos]

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)

No they dont 1/4th of the list is NBA and WNBA. Even amongst other athletes there is too much NBA and it hit a point where any half decent player in the NBA was a guarantee to be listed

 

[Ace Card Bedard]

What do you expect from ESPN?

 

[ColbyChaos]

I mean Paul is one of the better defensive guards the league has seen and has been a terrific playmaker and court general throughout his career. The knock on him is obviously his inability to win, but outside of the Suns how many of his teams could really have been expected to win in what was always a pretty tough conference?

Still doesnt belong.

 

[Beukeboom Fan]

Bro, they have seven WNBA players in front of McDavid and Ronaldinho. It is a joke, an April Fool's joke in July fam.

It's ESPN. If you're just figuring out there "world view", not sure what to tell you.

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

75% of human population don't even know the sport exists , why are we up in arms about this? Its ESPN of course they will cater to their audience

 

[ColbyChaos]

Having a bunch of WNBA players no one has even heard of above GSP, Jones, Khabib (NR), and Mighty Mouse (NR) is a joke. WNBA shouldnt even exist it couldnt survive without being funded by the NBA and had 12 fans a night before Clark got actual attention to the WNBA

 

[Sheppy]

Why are there so many basketball players?

 

[John Mandalorian]

& I dont want this to come off as misogynistic but while the WNBA players are great athletes, they aren't better than a good chunk of male athletes.

(Yes, some 350 pound Offensive Lineman probably isn't a better overall athlete, but there are plenty of other guys in both the NBA and other sports that are)

It's not really misogynostic to say that league has struggled. Thats just pointing out the obvious. And its kind of daft to say the NFL and even college football should be ignored when each makes money hand over fist even if its appeal is mainly in the US. If you want to call the NHL and the WNBA niche sports, ok, fine. But the NHL supports itself and mostly fills its arenas.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Folks need to pay more attention to the 10th post in this thread, especially the bolded.

diana taurasi being right before crosby is perfect lol

way too many nba players in general (no one gives a f*** about kevin garnett), but for a espn generated list, this is about what i'd expect.

the methodology for this ranking is insane tho

Experts in individual sports were asked to vote to rank the top athletes in their sport since Jan. 1, 2000 (no accomplishments before this date were to be considered). Those votes pared down pools in each sport to lists of 10 to 25 athletes each, which constituted the overall candidate pool for the top athletes of the 21st century so far. Each voter was presented two randomly selected names and asked to pick which one has had the better career in the 21st century. Across repeated, randomized head-to-head matchups, more than 70,000 votes were cast at this stage, and using an Elo rating system, the list was pared down from 262 to 100. That list was then evaluated by a panel of experts for any inconsistencies or oversights, resulting in the top 100 ranking seen here.

So we have a situation where a bunch of people whose expertise is heavily concentrated in one sport would be asked to rank randomly selected players from other sports.

In other words, let’s say you the reader (assuming we’re all big hockey fans here) were asked to give a top-25 list of NHL players. Then in the next stage you are asked to compare the careers of Bernard Hopkins and Virat Kohli, or Tamika Catchings and Max Scherzer.

First of all, you just went from fully inside your expertise to dramatically beyond it. In no universe is a cricket expert the right person to compare a WNBA player to a swimmer. That’s how you get name recognition playing an outsized role in the results.

Second, there’s an inherent bias in choosing the voting panel. If we take women’s basketball as its own sport, then by introducing a women’s basketball expert we are putting it on the same proportionate plane as soccer. That’s how you end up with a really strange balance of sports on the final list — especially if you’re taking multiple experts from basketball but only one from cricket.

When you think about this list through the lens of how it was created, it makes sense. It’s a trainwreck, but at least an explainable one.

 

[Double-Shift Lasse]

but for a espn generated list, this is about what i'd expect.

This.

 

[Canovin]

That's a ton of good athletes on that list. McDavid, Crosby and OV should be near each others whether it's 30th or 60th or 90th. They shouldn't be spread apart like the list tho

You can tell NBA is a little too popular on that list

 

[ClydeLee]

Having a bunch of WNBA players no one has even heard of above GSP, Jones, Khabib (NR), and Mighty Mouse (NR) is a joke. WNBA shouldnt even exist it couldnt survive without being funded by the NBA and had 12 fans a night before Clark got actual attention to the WNBA

Have anyone heard these names you just ranlmbled off? Because I have no idea who they are supposed to be. They're supposed to be very significant how? Like I really don't know or know what NR is supposed to mean

An espn list is going to be related to people who espn hires and showcases.

 

[Selanne00008]

Hate to be that guy (or, you know what, I don't hate to be that guy), but anyways, there are WAY too many WNBA players on this top 100.

 

[Three On Zero]

Hate to be that guy (or, you know what, I don't hate to be that guy), but anyways, there are WAY too many WNBA players on this top 100.

No issues with the amount of WNBA players on the lair, this is too 100 athletes and not too 100 decorated athletes. Quite a few of these female athletes could compete athletically against there male counterparts

 

[Selanne00008]

No issues with the amount of WNBA players on the lair, this is too 100 athletes and not too 100 decorated athletes. Quite a few of these female athletes could compete athletically against there male counterparts

Agree to disagree!

 

[JohnnyBerts]

I know these lists are just to generate attention but this list is so bad it makes me think less than I already did of ESPN which I didn't know was possible. I used to browse ESPN's site regularly now it's not even bookmarked. What the hell are they even doing over there?

 

[tarheelhockey]

Have anyone heard these names you just ranlmbled off? Because I have no idea who they are supposed to be. They're supposed to be very significant how?

I’m glad it wasn’t just me thinking this.

I did a bit of googling and it appears they are all MMA guys.

 

[Selanne00008]

7 Norris Trophy wins since 2000 isn't enough? Add in a Gold medal in 2006 AND being the best player on the best team since 2000 (and some would argue a top 10 all time team).

Somehow Shaq and his post 2000 career gets him #17, while Lidstrom can't even get ranked.

I see the point but Lidstrom would be way down the list. Another current Redwing would be higher than him if it included a few more hockey players..

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.

When this poll is done in the year 2030, McDavid may be the one that shoots up the rankings the most. Even one cup and he's into the top 50. ovechkin hitting the goal record should mean Ovie, Crosby and McDavid would all be top 50.

 

[ColbyChaos]

Have anyone heard these names you just ranlmbled off? Because I have no idea who they are supposed to be. They're supposed to be very significant how? Like I really don't know or know what NR is supposed to mean

An espn list is going to be related to people who espn hires and showcases.

Khabib combat sambo, MMA, greatest Muslim athlete of all time

Demetrius Johnson and Jon Jones are two of the greatest MMA fighters of all time along with George’s St Pierre. Khabib and DJ (also known as Mighty Mouse) weren’t even ranked on this list hence the NR. And before you mention it’s only associated with sports ESPN shows the UFC and the NHL yet both are under represented while we have 2nd tier athletes from the NBA WNBA and the MLB making up a majority of this list.

But my favorite part of this is the token Cricket Player

They are a lot more well known than some athletes from the Women’s National Bankruptcy Association whose only famous player before Clark was Brittney Griner (who is only known for a hilariously bad political trade deal with Putin rather than her play on the court)

 

[Sheppy]

Have anyone heard these names you just ranlmbled off? Because I have no idea who they are supposed to be. They're supposed to be very significant how? Like I really don't know or know what NR is supposed to mean

An espn list is going to be related to people who espn hires and showcases.

He's completely correct. They should be there over a ton of people listed there. Jones more so than anyone, and Khabib legitimately never lost an MMA fight going 29-0 - You can argue he's never ever lost a round. Complete dominance at the highest level.

 

[Tie Domi Esquire]

These are the folks that the NHL caters to.

 

[Pablo El Perro]

No poker players?