Is Crosby/Ovechkin the best player rivalry in big 4 sports leagues in the 21st century?

[LightningStorm]

When it comes to player rivalries in the history of the big 4 North American pro sports leagues, the one that still to this day stands out is Magic Johnson vs Larry Bird in the 1980's. They had already played against each other in a championship game in college, then got drafted by the 2 most successful franchises and their epic rivalry grew even further in 3 finals matchups. The biggest thing was they elevated the NBA to a huge rise in popularity. Even though Michael Jordan would elevate it even higher, Johnson and Bird dragged it out of the gutter. For these reasons the player rivalry is still widely talked about decades later, and considered the gold standard for a player rivalry in team sports.

Going into the 21st century though, is Crosby vs Ovechkin the biggest player rivalry to take place in the post Johnson/Bird era? I think it is. I don't need to say what has already been said a million times about this rivalry, expect that I think even today it has surpassed expectations for what it could've been following their mutual rookie season, especially with the longevity of both players. I can't think of any 21st century player rivalries that top this one.

In football, plenty will disagree, but the problem I have for quarterback rivalries (the best being Brady vs Manning) is the QB's are never on the field at the same time. Baseball is another sports difficult for players to have 1 on 1 rivalries. Greg Maddux pitching to Barry Bonds for about 20 years in the National League was probably the best 1 on 1 clash I've seen, but Bonds is only 1 of 9 in the lineup, and Maddux 1 of 5 in the rotation. For example, when they played against each other in the 2002 NLDS which went the full 5 games, Maddux only started once.

Basketball is the team sport most conducive to player rivalries, as shown by Johnson/Bird, but they haven't had one since. Kobe/Lebron suffered from a similar problem of Gretzky/Lemieux, in that they were too far apart in age. Lebron/Durant is in my opinion the best NBA player rivalry this century, but not as good of a rivalry as Crosby/Ovechkin.

What do you guys think? Is Crosby vs Ovechkin the best (team sport) player rivalry of the 21st century? Or do you have another one in mind?

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[heretik27]

Ronaldo vs Messi maybe? I'm not a soccer fan, but those two have been head to head for greatest footballers ever in any conversation I come across.

Oh sorry, I misread big 4 NA sports. That's a tougher one as I don't watch anything but hockey hehehe

 

[SquidNasty]

Lebron/Curry in the 2010s maybe but I think Crosby/Ovi was better

 

[Breakfast of Champs]

Lebron and curry going to 4 straight finals was a better peak rivalry but Crosby and Ovi have been rivals since day 1.

 

[Praetorian Caps]

No it's Tom Brady and Peyton Manning.

 

[LevelingSolo]

Nadal/Federer/Djokovic

EDIT: didn’t see that it was team sports, not sure if they are the best but Crosby and Ovechkin are up there

 

[LightningStorm]

Lebron/Curry in the 2010s maybe but I think Crosby/Ovi was better

Lebron and curry going to 4 straight finals was a better peak rivalry but Crosby and Ovi have been rivals since day 1.

Lebron/Curry (and Cavs/Warriors as a whole) was an epic rivalry in 2015 and 2016 that was an unfortunate casualty of Durant going to the Warriors. Curry was no longer the best player on his team when Durant was there, in spite of the revisionist history today, and 2017 and 2018 were predictable Warriors blowouts in contrast to the 2 previous epic finals.

Nadal/Federer/Djokovic

EDIT: didn’t see that it was team sports, not sure if they are the best but Crosby and Ovechkin are up there

Had I included all sports this would definitely be #1.

 

[Albatros]

 

[Gurglesons]

its not even the best rivalry in hockey.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

Brady/Manning...AINEC

 

[AvroArrow]

Lebron one is puzzling to me, there was no rivalry between him and Curry really. Lebrons rivals were Kobe, Wade, and later Durant.

Kobe > Lebron

Lebron and Wade were arguably the #1 and #2 basketball players in the world when Lebron decided to join his rival in Miami instead of playing through him and the Celtics.

As a result of that, Durant who emerged a bit later decided to team up with Curry and the dynasty Warriors to beat Lebrons super team that he later forged in Cleveland.



Brady vs Manning makes more sense, these were the true elite #1/#2 in the league that were leading their teams while playing the same position; and not joining rival teams to make super teams.

Crosby vs OV is a close second, to that. Two guys that emerged at the same time possessing different skill sets and both being true elite generational talents.