ESPN top 100 of the 21st century. what a mess...

craig44

oh boy, where do I start...
they rank Serena Williams 2. she shouldnt even be the top tennis player listed.
they rank Lebaby 4. good grief
They dont even get to a baseball player until number 24!?!?!
They rank Quitter Simone Biles number 7. A quitter for crying out loud. and before Tiger.
I guess the most egregious sin is that they didnt list my Tommy number 1 where he belongs. We all know he is number 1 in my heart...

what do you guys think?

Darin

So it’s 2024 and they’re doing a list of greatest athletes since 2000?
I think we as sports fans get too caught up in greatest lists and HOF etc.
Who cares? Let’s see a greatest list of cancer researchers or surgeons or teachers. That would be some worthwhile lists.

stevek

Of course with ESPN, any top sports list from them is going to include certain factors other than sports in their selections. It's a given.

stevek

https://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/40446224/top-100-athletes-21st-century

Ranking the top 100 professional athletes since 2000

JoeBanzai

I don't even bother with these lists anymore, people are placed on them because of political correctness (or just plain stupidity).

perkdog

Any ESPN list or ranking isn't worth taking the the time to even glance at it

craig44

man, tough crowd. place is dead when there isnt football. thought i would try and liven things up a bit.

stevek

The Caitlin threads livened things up, but i think except for one, the rest got shut down. 😂

Darin

@craig44 said:
man, tough crowd. place is dead when there isnt football. thought i would try and liven things up a bit.

Sorry about that Craig I just thought a 24 year time span was kind of odd.
I looked at the list, didn’t see Aaron Judge, he’s played almost 1,000 games now so I would definitely have him on the list. I think most bb fans would agree he’s one of the best hitters in the last 24 years.
As far as Brady it’s kind of subjective when it’s many different sports involved. He was the first football player listed so they got that right.

bgr

What is the ranking based on?

Through the top-5 I was thinking "Most disturbing facial expression", but then I got to 7 and Simone Biles is ranked way too high. Aaron Donald gets cut because I can't see his face well enough with helmet and mouth-guard.

DocBenjamin

Tommy gets downgraded for the cheats.

Not fair maybe, but part of his otherwise superb legacy.

craig44

@Darin said:

@craig44 said:
man, tough crowd. place is dead when there isnt football. thought i would try and liven things up a bit.

Sorry about that Craig I just thought a 24 year time span was kind of odd.
I looked at the list, didn’t see Aaron Judge, he’s played almost 1,000 games now so I would definitely have him on the list. I think most bb fans would agree he’s one of the best hitters in the last 24 years.
As far as Brady it’s kind of subjective when it’s many different sports involved. He was the first football player listed so they got that right.

oh, no problem at all man. I think they are including 2000 so it is the first 25 years of the century. I think they are trying to be controversial or edgy.

Darin

@craig44 said:

@Darin said:

@craig44 said:
man, tough crowd. place is dead when there isnt football. thought i would try and liven things up a bit.

Sorry about that Craig I just thought a 24 year time span was kind of odd.
I looked at the list, didn’t see Aaron Judge, he’s played almost 1,000 games now so I would definitely have him on the list. I think most bb fans would agree he’s one of the best hitters in the last 24 years.
As far as Brady it’s kind of subjective when it’s many different sports involved. He was the first football player listed so they got that right.

oh, no problem at all man. I think they are including 2000 so it is the first 25 years of the century. I think they are trying to be controversial or edgy.

Okay 24.5 years. 😆
I was thinking after I went through the list that I might have Usain Bolt higher. This is a guy who quite possibly is the fastest person who ever lived on Earth. But who knows.

DocBenjamin

@Darin said:

@craig44 said:

@Darin said:

@craig44 said:
man, tough crowd. place is dead when there isnt football. thought i would try and liven things up a bit.

Sorry about that Craig I just thought a 24 year time span was kind of odd.
I looked at the list, didn’t see Aaron Judge, he’s played almost 1,000 games now so I would definitely have him on the list. I think most bb fans would agree he’s one of the best hitters in the last 24 years.
As far as Brady it’s kind of subjective when it’s many different sports involved. He was the first football player listed so they got that right.

oh, no problem at all man. I think they are including 2000 so it is the first 25 years of the century. I think they are trying to be controversial or edgy.

Okay 24.5 years. 😆
I was thinking after I went through the list that I might have Usain Bolt higher. This is a guy who quite possibly is the fastest person who ever lived on Earth. But who knows.

Could be. PEDs were not around tens of thousands of years ago.

Darin

@DocBenjamin said:

@Darin said:

@craig44 said:

@Darin said:

@craig44 said:
man, tough crowd. place is dead when there isnt football. thought i would try and liven things up a bit.

Sorry about that Craig I just thought a 24 year time span was kind of odd.
I looked at the list, didn’t see Aaron Judge, he’s played almost 1,000 games now so I would definitely have him on the list. I think most bb fans would agree he’s one of the best hitters in the last 24 years.
As far as Brady it’s kind of subjective when it’s many different sports involved. He was the first football player listed so they got that right.

oh, no problem at all man. I think they are including 2000 so it is the first 25 years of the century. I think they are trying to be controversial or edgy.

Okay 24.5 years. 😆
I was thinking after I went through the list that I might have Usain Bolt higher. This is a guy who quite possibly is the fastest person who ever lived on Earth. But who knows.

Could be. PEDs were not around tens of thousands of years ago.

Yeah but saber toothed tigers and all kinds of other ferocious predators were, possibly making the general population faster as the centuries went by.
Remember the old joke, you don’t have to outrun the bear, just the person you’re with.

Basebal21

@DocBenjamin said:

@Darin said:

@craig44 said:

@Darin said:

@craig44 said:
man, tough crowd. place is dead when there isnt football. thought i would try and liven things up a bit.

Sorry about that Craig I just thought a 24 year time span was kind of odd.
I looked at the list, didn’t see Aaron Judge, he’s played almost 1,000 games now so I would definitely have him on the list. I think most bb fans would agree he’s one of the best hitters in the last 24 years.
As far as Brady it’s kind of subjective when it’s many different sports involved. He was the first football player listed so they got that right.

oh, no problem at all man. I think they are including 2000 so it is the first 25 years of the century. I think they are trying to be controversial or edgy.

Okay 24.5 years. 😆
I was thinking after I went through the list that I might have Usain Bolt higher. This is a guy who quite possibly is the fastest person who ever lived on Earth. But who knows.

Could be. PEDs were not around tens of thousands of years ago.

They may or may not have been that long ago. Theres natural stimulant plants that are basically amphetamines. PED usage of stimulants/hallucinogens can be traced back at least as far as 700BC with the ancient Greeks and the Roman gladiators were also known to use them

DocBenjamin

Probably what finished off Pheidippides.

coolstanley

ESPN has been a woke joke for years.

Novak Djokovic should be #1 on this list.

Mistlin

The comments here are hilarious.

Anyone giving this list serious consideration is falling into their trap. There is NO way to rank athletes this way and this list only exists for clicks and engagement.

bgr

It worked. I have Thor at #1 anyways.

Mistlin

It's clear the list is ranked according to how dominant they were in their respective sports.

Serena has dominated women's tennis unlike any other woman in history, hence her ranking. Phelps is the most prolific summer medalist in history. LeBron is now either #1 or #2 in NBA history. So on and so forth.

Attempting to say Serena shouldn't be on this list because she couldn't compete against men's players completely misses the point. She's even said as much! She famously said in an interview on Letterman should she play Andy Murray, she'd lost 6-0, 6-0.

Look at these athletes' dominance in their own sport and it will make a lot more sense.

bgr

I thought this was an official list.

DocBenjamin

Not an official sport I suppose, but if most dominant is the criteria, top of the list should be Joey Chestnut.

Dude owned the Nathan's hot dog eating contest for most of the quarter century.

And it was not just as simple 20 pounds of food capacity, the skill was getting it consumed in ten minutes.

coolstanley

@Mistlin said:

Serena has dominated women's tennis unlike any other woman in history, hence her ranking.

Not true.

DocBenjamin

Martina was spectacular.

bgr

@coolstanley said:

@Mistlin said:

Serena has dominated women's tennis unlike any other woman in history, hence her ranking.

Not true.

Seems pretty accurate though. If I was forced to answer the simple question "Who was the most dominant female tennis player of all time?" and I wouldn't clarify anything else. I choose right and the Earth is saved - I choose wrong and the Earth is destroyed. I have to pick Serena Williams based on her fit for the majority of perspectives. But now I want to know how to answer this critical question correctly so who was the most dominant female tennis player in history?

Darin

@bgr said:

@coolstanley said:

@Mistlin said:

Serena has dominated women's tennis unlike any other woman in history, hence her ranking.

Not true.

Seems pretty accurate though. If I was forced to answer the simple question "Who was the most dominant female tennis player of all time?" and I wouldn't clarify anything else. I choose right and the Earth is saved - I choose wrong and the Earth is destroyed. I have to pick Serena Williams based on her fit for the majority of perspectives. But now I want to know how to answer this critical question correctly so who was the most dominant female tennis player in history?

Prudent to always be on the look out for a Bond villain that may pose that question so cheers to you. 🍺

coolstanley

Margaret Court was the most dominant female player of all time, and its not really remotely close.

bgr

@coolstanley said:
Margaret Court was the most dominant female player of all time, and its not really remotely close.

Oh. I would have court outside my top 5. I would bet on her to lose badly to Serena if they both played at their respective peaks.

But I also wouldn’t care if ESPN said Court was the greatest athlete in the galaxy.

coolstanley

I have Serena outside my top 5