ESPN Top 100 Athletes of the 21th Century

[GirlySports]

These list are always going to be subjective (and this one was voted on) but this one is really weird.

https://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id...s-21st-century

Serena too high, Venus too low.
Tiger at 8?
There are only 4 Canadians

Beefs:
How can Marta be on the list at 22 but Sinclair not on the list at all?
McDavid at 98 nullifies the entire list

[troutman]

Phelps? No - there are too many events in swimming that award medals.

Brady has to play 19 games to get one ring.

[flamingred89]

Serena at 2 is absurd. Actually 4 Tennis players in the top 12 is too. Can't really argue with Phelps as the number 1 from an accomplishments standpoint. Although Bolt should be up there with him. Track and Field just doesn't have the shear volume of events that swimming does. Tiger Woods really does need to be #1 though. He single handedly revolutionized a sport and carried it on his shoulders. He still garners so much attention even though he is a shell of a player. And my final gripe would be...how the hell are there 8 WNBA players and only 3 NHL'ers?!?

If I were to take a stab at a quick top 10 I'd have:

1. Woods
2. Phelps
2b. Bolt
4. Federer
5. James
6. Messi
7. Brady
8. Crosby
9. Ronaldo
10. Serena.

Or something like that.

[trackercowe]

Garbage list. Not even worth discussion. How is Serena higher than Nadal/Federer/Djokovic when she has less major titles against inferior competition?

Also as much as we harp on McDavid if anything he's too low on this list. Of course titles matter, but many on that list haven't won a thing. Is Mike Trout (30) better than McDavid?

Where is Verstappen? Am I on crazy pills, or is he not on the list. Hamilton and Schumacher are ranked highly, but Max doesn't even make the top 100. Joke list made by a company with an axe to grind, pushing their own agenda.

[Nadal Fan]

If Djokovic was born in San Diego instead of Serbia he would have been #1

[Cecil Terwilliger]

It’s clearly a rage bait list. It’s also based heavily on accomplishments not greatest all around athlete.

[dash_pinched]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

It’s clearly a rage bait list. It’s also based heavily on accomplishments not greatest all around athlete.

Yes sir. As a pretty avid tennis fan (my avatar gives it away), while we can argue about positioning on the list, we are talking about the greatest female tennis player of all time and the three greatest male tennis players of all time. Perhaps four in the top 12 is a little much, but I think all four deserve to be in the top 25.

Regarding Cecil's point about accomplishments as opposed to greatest all around athlete also makes me wonder why Carlos Alcaraz isn't on the list as he's pretty high in both categories.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by troutman

Phelps? No - there are too many events in swimming that award medals.

Brady has to play 19 games to get one ring.

This is correct. Phelps is an incredible swimmer but greatest athlete is absurd really.

[Johnny Makarov]

Originally Posted by flamingred89

Serena at 2 is absurd. Actually 4 Tennis players in the top 12 is too. Can't really argue with Phelps as the number 1 from an accomplishments standpoint. Although Bolt should be up there with him. Track and Field just doesn't have the shear volume of events that swimming does. Tiger Woods really does need to be #1 though. He single handedly revolutionized a sport and carried it on his shoulders. He still garners so much attention even though he is a shell of a player. And my final gripe would be...how the hell are there 8 WNBA players and only 3 NHL'ers?!?

If I were to take a stab at a quick top 10 I'd have:

1. Woods
2. Phelps
2b. Bolt
4. Federer
5. James
6. Messi
7. Brady
8. Crosby
9. Ronaldo
10. Serena.

Or something like that.

Woods. hahahaha. Golf isn't even a sport when guys in their 50s can compete...

Ben Johnson should be #1 of all time. He ran 9.79 in 1988! Everyone was juiced back then but no one could touch him.

[Flabbibulin]

Id say any one of brady, woods, djokovic, messi at # 1 would be fair. Either way, thats the top 4.

[Beninho]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

It’s clearly a rage bait list. It’s also based heavily on accomplishments not greatest all around athlete.

It’s heavily biased towards Americans. It’s ESPN so journalistic integrity doesn’t matter to them. Meaningless list probably made by interns. I’m sure they spent tons of money on “research” on this.

So many issues with the list but I am personally offended with Mbappe being over Ronaldinho. Mbappe has never won a Ballon D’or or Champions league. Ronaldinho has both. Stupid ass list

[lazypucker]

Spoiler for size

NSFW!

One look at this graphics can tell you how inaccurate and biased this list is.

56 Americans made the Top 100 athletes? 0 from China? 0 from Russia? Wait, the US hates them, no wonder none of them made the list...

[Jiggy_12]

Hockey players definitely ranked lower comparatively.

Adrian Beltre a spot ahead of Alex Ovechkin? No chance.

One is many levels above the other in their respective sport

[Jiggy_12]

Lol. 17 baseball players and 3 hockey players. And we are talking best “athletes”? Ok

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Jiggy_12

Hockey players definitely ranked lower comparatively.

Adrian Beltre a spot ahead of Alex Ovechkin? No chance.

One is many levels above the other in their respective sport

Six basketball players on the list before Sidney Crosby, who is the greatest hockey player of his generation, won multiple championships professionally, and scored the winning goal in the 2010 Olympics.

[KelVarnsen]

I put as much stock into these kinda lists as I do any Bertuzzied post

[Samonadreau]

Seems to be really heavy on Female Basketball players.

[GirlySports]

I except the American bias but like for like there is no world where Marta is better than Sinclair.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Samonadreau

Seems to be really heavy on Female Basketball players.

Basketball seems overrepresented in general on this list (Kobe ahead of Novak? Really?). For a league that's only been around 25 years it's pretty hard to put a measuring stick on what is considered great relative to past generations. I don't follow the WNBA but I'm sure those women were absolutely amazing but I can't imagine the depth of the league is anything like other professional sports that have been around forever. Are A'ja Wilson's basketball accomplishments more impressive than Hayley Wickenheiser's hockey accomplishments? I don't think so. There's definitely a bias towards sports ESPN covers.

Serena Williams placement at 2nd is a tough one for me. They trot out her 23 time major championships as her biggest achievement and yet the player with 24 is ranked several spots below her which doesn't make a lot of sense. Novac accomplished that despite playing in an era with the 6th and 12th ranked athletes on the list which is crazy. Serena was absolutely dominant but it was at a time where there were no other greats to counter her as the next ranked female tennis player is Venus who also had a phenomenal career but gets dumped at the back of the list. I'm not sure some of these WNBA players ahead of her accomplished more when you consider the history of female tennis vs WNBA.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Still better than most Rolling Stone lists.