To commemorate its 20th anniversary, ESPN The Magazine published earlier this week its list of the 20 most dominating athletes of the last 20 years.
Across all sports, backed by “foolproof math” and in order, this is the magazine’s list:
1. Tiger Woods, men’s golf
2. LeBron James, men’s basketball
3. Peyton Manning, football
4. Jimmy Johnson, NASCAR racing
5. Roger Federer, men’s tennis
6. Annika Sorenstam, women’s golf
7. Michael Schumacher, Formula One racing
8. Floyd Mayweather, boxing
9. Marta, women’s soccer
10. Usain Bolt, men’s track & field
11. Lionel Messi, men’s soccer
12. Serena Williams, women’s tennis
13. Lauren Jackson, women’s basketball
14. Cristiano Ronaldo, men’s soccer
15. Novak Djokovic, men’s tennis
16. Allyson Felix, women’s track & field
17. Barry Bonds, baseball
18. Mike Trout, baseball
19. Manny Pacquiao, boxing
20. Tom Brady, football
All these names merit consideration. I don’t believe anyone would discredit any one of them for their contributions to their respective sports.
Whether they’ve been positive role models or good, upstanding citizens is not part of this. The list strictly ranks each person on athletic merit, which is what it should do.
But, I don’t think this is a definitive list — far from perfect, actually.
Some names should be higher. Some names that should be on this list are not.
And to be clear, this list covers athletes from the past 20 years, so from 1998 to 2018. I’ve read comments mentioning Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Muhammad Ali, etc. (Read the story, people.)
Also, the piece states the list was dictated purely on statistics. While that makes for a compelling argument, there are some things you just cannot ignore based on the eye test.
Here’s some of my gripes with ESPN The Magazine’s “The Dominant 20”:
Snubs
Probably the most snubbed athlete is swimmer Michael Phelps.
Phelps is the most-decorated Olympian in history — 23 gold medals, 28 total medals, across five Olympic Games.
If that isn’t the dictionary definition of dominant, what is? The fact Phelps gets no mention is just absurd.
Other snubs I think should be considered are:
– Kobe Bryant, men’s basketball, five NBA championships, two NBA Finals MVPs, one NBA MVP, 18-time NBA All-Star (I admit I’m a Bryant fan, so I’m biased. But five championships and comparisons to Jordan? C’mon.)
– Tim Duncan, men’s basketball, five NBA championships, three NBA Finals MVPs, two NBA MVPs, 15-time NBA All-Star (If I’m going to make an argument for Bryant, I got to do the same for Duncan with those accomplishments.)
– Kelly Slater, surfing, 11-time World Surf League champion, 55 career event wins (ESPN said it took into account revenues, viewership and reach — choosing a $100 million/year threshold. Because of that, surfing — at $19M/year — and action sports in general fall below that threshold.)
– Shaun White, men’s snowboarding, three Olympic gold medals, 15 X Games gold medals (See above relating to action sports.)
Mayweather, Bolt, Williams, Bonds should be higher
In response to the ESPN list, Fox Sports’ Colin Cowherd created his own top 10. At the top of his list, while Cowherd said he personally does not like him, is Mayweather.
I don’t like Mayweather either. I don’t like his “Money” persona, and I don’t like how he got to 50-0 — particularly that 50th win against MMA’s Conor McGregor. And don’t get me started with the Pacquiao drama.
But regardless, you cannot argue against 50-0. While maybe not No. 1 (and that’s probably just me hating), he should be higher than No. 8.
Cowherd also makes similar arguments for Bolt, Williams and Bonds, and I agree.
– Bolt, eight Olympic gold medals (should be nine gold medals, but one was forfeited as well as a world record because of a teammate’s disqualification after the fact for doping), 11-time world champion, world records for 100-meter and 200-meter sprints (Simply put, Bolt is the fastest human in recorded history.)
– Williams, 39 total Grand Slam titles in women’s singles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles; 23 Grand Slam singles titles (and she was eight weeks pregnant when she won the 2017 Aussie Open.)
– Bonds, seven-time National League MVP, 14-time All-Star, holds records for most career home runs (762) and single-season home runs (73)
I understand the argument that Bonds shoudn’t even be considered because of the alleged steriod use, though he never tested positive. But consider this: In 1998, he was once intentionally walked with the bases loaded. That was before the alleged steroid use started around the early 2000s.
And consider he also holds the records for most career walks (2,558) and most career intentional walks (688). That’s how much he was feared as a hitter.
Manning No. 3 but Brady No. 20?
ESPN states Manning outmeasures Brady, among other reasons, because Manning has more MVPs (Manning has five, and Brady has three) and more first-team All-Pro selections (Manning has seven while Brady has three).
But, ESPN said it only considered regular season stats because “there’s no good way to compare playoffs across sports.”
Really? How can you just exclude the playoffs? (Insert Jim Mora “Playoffs?” soundbite here.) It’s during the postseason that athletes establish their dominance.
Brady has five Super Bowl titles and four Super Bowl MVPs. Manning has two SB championships and one SB MVP award.
The fact that Manning is ranked so high while Brady barely squeaks in the top 20 is outlandish. The fact ESPN said it did not take playoff games into consideration is even more outlandish.
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Nick Celario, sports writer, can be reached at 245-0437 or ncelario@thegardenisland.com.
