Greatest Athletes

   While listening to the Humpty, Canty, and Rothenberg Show a couple of weeks back, something they talked about clicked in my head. They were talking about how Serena Williams is such a great athlete, possibly one of the greatest of all time. Personally, I do not follow tennis but I could certainly agree with them. On a previous post I’ve written, years ago, I wrote an article about “What makes an Athlete?” Here my question is more, “If you had to choose a top 10 greatest Athletes of All Time, of any sport, who would be on this list?” All day I was thinking of who I would put on the list and not in any particular order.

     As much as I am not into hockey, if Wayne Gretzky was not on my list of top 10 athletes of all time I would be that stupid. The great one just had it all. He was able to score and maintain greatness through different decades and generations of players. He is the all-time goals leader for a reason.

   Michael Jordan helped to transcend the sport of basketball. Every year he played, he only got better. The competition he played against was by far some of the greatest competition of all time, whether it was the Bad Boys Pistons, the 90’s Knicks and Heat team just to name some. When all aspects of your game are elevated, it truly shows how good of a player you can be. Not only was MJ clutch on the end of games, but he also knew how to defend the ball and make the ball handlers sweat.

    Muhammed Ali showed me really how great an athlete can be. He beat a bigger and better Sonny Liston in 1964 held the World Heavyweight Title for quite some time. Then his boxing license was suspended for 3 years due to his unwillingness to be drafted in the army. To come back after 3 years at beat the likes of Joe Frazier 2 times and George Foreman shows someone’s true athleticism. A lay off like that makes you think that the body is used to inactivity, not Ali.

   You may think I am crazy here, but I think that both Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays are better athletes than Babe Ruth. “ATHLETES” not “Baseball players.” I would actually put both of them in my top 10 athletes of all time. They both played the position in baseball that probably requires the most athleticism, centerfield, for quite a long time. You have to cover so much ground and put your body in so much pain. Willie Mays was able to defend centerfield like he was out in the wild. Last I heard, Mickey Mantle was the one hitting baseballs outside of the stadium, not Babe Ruth.  Home run bashing is not an easy feat, it takes a lot more strength to hit home runs.

    Serena Williams is up here as well. First and foremost, for anyone that knows me I DO NOT think golfers are athletes. On the other hand, even though I do not follow tennis, I do believe tennis players are athletes. If Serena wins Wimbledon, it will be her 24^th major. She is doing this run less than a year after giving birth. She even won a major WHILE SHE WAS PREGNANT. If that is not athletic and freaky, then I don’t get that. She has to be up there. 

  These are just some of my top 10 athletes of all time. You may disagree with me, but to dispute the validity of even some of these athletes as the greatest of all time is crazy. Over the course of time, things may change, but let’s not forget that these athletes work hard to get where they are just like the working class. There is no reason to not celebrate their greatness.