Top 10 Sports Icons - It’s really hard to measure greatness. Many say that it should be measured on ways that cannot be debated like numbers. For athletes, this will boil down to the
titles they have won for themselves or teammates and other game related statistics.
Then, there’s that other side that actually transcend the sports. For some people, this is the real measure of greatness. When you life the sport you are in to
something that is more than just about winning but about humanity.
I don’t know which way to go but I do know that on either measures, these ten will make it to the top 10.
10. Tiger Woods for Golf
Oh come on, you have to admit he was great… WAS. He still have a lot of time to recover too so let’s give our boy a chance okay?
The Numbers:the youngest ever to win the masters with 14 professional major golf championships the second highest of any male player (Jack Nicklaus leads with 18 but as I’ve said,
he is still young), and 71 PGA Tour events, third all time
the most number of career major wins and career PGA Tour wins than any other active golfer
the youngest player to achieve the career Grand Slam, and the youngest and fastest to win 50 tournaments on tour
only the second golfer, after Jack Nicklaus, to have achieved a career Grand Slam three times
has been awarded PGA Player of the Year a record ten times, the Byron Nelson Award for lowest adjusted scoring average a record eight times
the record of leading the money list in nine different seasons.
Beyond the numbers:He made the sports young. Before him, it was for old people or rich people. It’s like he came in with a key and opened the gates of golf to everyone who wants to play,
young, old, black, white. He has signed endorsement deals with General Motors, Titleist, General Mills, American Express, Accenture, and Nike, Inc. He has a $105
million contract with Nike, the largest endorsing deal ever signed by an athlete at that time. His endorsement resulted to Nike Golf becoming the fastest growing
brands in the sport, with an estimated $600 million in sales. Woods was endorsed Buick’s Rendezvous SUV that sold 130,000 Rendezvous units in two years which resulted
to $40 million contract extension.
Woods also helped developed the first professional golf watch with TAG Heuer. I can go on forever but there are nine more on the list.
9. Michael Schumacher for Car Racing
Have you ever met this guy? He is the only person I know who can exude that unbelievable humility and overpowering confidence. Geezuz. I don’t know how he does
that.
The Numbers:most famous for his eleven-year spell with Ferrari
seven-time World Champion
according to the official Formula One website is “statistically the greatest driver the sport has ever seen”
holds many of the formula’s driver records including most championships, race victories, fastest laps, pole positions, points scored and most races won in a single
season – 13 in 2004
the only driver in Formula 1 history to finish in the top three in every race.
Beyond the numbers:He was an era. Historically, we call events such as WWI or WWII or the Victorian times an era because it set the tone of a the world’s culture and economy. It is
global in nature. Sure, you can argue that journalists romanticized him but it was for a good reason. Formula One was barely looked at in so many country’s before he
came. Now, it is like the NBA of car racing. And everything about car racing is measured with the Schumi stick.
In 2004, Forbes magazine listed him as the 2nd highest paid athlete in the world. In 2005 Eurobusiness magazine identified Schumacher as the world’s first
billionaire athlete. His 2004 salary was reported to be around US$80 million. Forbes magazine ranked him 17th in their “The World’s Most Powerful Celebrities”
list.Deutsche Vermögensberatung paid him $8 million over three years from 1999 for wearing a 10 by 8 centimetre advertisement on his post-race cap. He donated $10
million for aid after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake.His donation surpassed th at of any other sports person, most sports leagues, many worldwide corporations and
even some countries.
8. Babe Ruth for Baseball
The Numbers:first player to hit 60 home runs in one season setting the season record which stood until broken by Roger Maris in 1961
lifetime total of 714 home runs at his retirement in 1935 was a record, until first surpassed by Hank Aaron in 1974
hit for average: his .342 lifetime batting is tenth highest in baseball history
in one season (1923) he hit .393, a Yankee record
.690 career slugging percentage and 1.164 career on-base plus slugging (OPS) remain the Major League records
led the league in home runs during a season twelve times, slugging percentage and OPS thirteen times each, runs scored eight times, and runs batted in (RBIs) six times
Beyond the numbers:named the greatest baseball player in history in various surveys and rankings
credited with changing baseball itself. The popularity of the game exploded in the 1920s, largely due to his influence. Ruth ushered in the “live-ball era”, as his big
swing led to escalating home run totals that not only excited fans, but helped baseball evolve from a low-scoring, speed-dominated game to a high-scoring power game.
the Associated Press reported that Muhammad Ali was tied with Babe Ruth as the most recognized athletes, out of over 800 dead or alive athletes, in America. The study,
conducted by Nye Lavalle’s Sports Marketing Group, found that over 97% of Americans over 12 years of age identified both Ali and Ruth
according to ESPN, he was the first true American sports celebrity superstar whose fame transcended baseball.He was ranked as the third-greatest US athlete of the
century, behind Michael Jordan and Muhammad Ali.
7. Lance Armstrong for Cycling
The Numbers:won the Tour de France a record seven consecutive times, after having survived testicular cancer
Beyond the numbers:He proved to us all nothing can beat human spirt. It was just not about transcending sport, he transcended death.
6. Michael Phelps for Swimming
The Numbers:16 Olympic medals—six gold and two bronze at Athens in 2004, and eight gold at Beijing in 2008
twice equaled the record eight medals of any type at a single Olympics achieved by Soviet gymnast Alexander Dityatin at the 1980 Moscow Summer Games
Olympic medal total is second only to the 18 Soviet gymnast Larissa Latynina won over three Olympics, including nine golds.
Sports Illustrated magazine’s Sportsman of the Year award for 2008
Beyond the numbers:Throughout the 2008 Olympics, Phelps was questioned by the press if perhaps his feats were “too good to be true”, a reference to unsupported rumors that Phelps may
be taking performance enhancing drugs. Phelps noted that he had signed up for Project Believe, a project by the United States Anti-Doping Agency in which U.S.
Olympians can volunteer to be tested in excess of the World Anti-Doping Agency guidelines. During the Games, Phelps was tested nine times, and passed all of them
proving you can be clean and great. He also set a new bar for young people to try and reach. It was a bar that extended beyond the air of swimming. When he won his
eigth medal, it was like he stood in the middle of the earth and told everyone, “Aight, it’s equally as exciting to be live a clean and healthy lifestyle. It’s cool to
be clean so let’s go.”
5. Tony Hawk for Skateboarding
The Numbers:has 9 X-Games golds, 3 silvers, and 2 bronzes
the first to do the 900 or 2 and a half spin on mid air
Beyond the numbers:Skaters, bikers, and all other exteme games were nothing but sports for those who can’t play a sport qualified in the Olympics. X-Games were for troublemakers or
outcasts. Then Tony Hawk came and made the sport cool. Really cool, in fact. It is to sports what rock is to music. There are probably more skaters out there who have
won more medals than he did but no one has more influence than he did, does and will always do.
4. David Beckham for Football/Soccer
The Numbers:Beckham made his England debut on 1 September 1996 and made captain from 15 November 2000 until the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals
he played 58 times
earned a hundredth cap against France on 26 March 2008
the all-time outfield player appearance record holder surpassing Bobby Moore’s total of 108 caps.
Beyond the numbers:This is probably the most controversial inclusion on the list. Soccer/Football (depending on what country you are from) fanatics will raise hell to see him here but
you have to take it from the perspective of those who don’t know the sport. Those who only took interest in the sport because he came around. Sure you can argue it is
because of his looks but from those attention, many other players benefitted. They started getting noticed by advertisers more paving the way to a better life for
them. Now, more funds are being directed to programs that could give kids a better future as athletes… and the ripple effect goes on.
3. Bruce Lee for Martial Arts
The Numbers:founder of the Jeet Kune Do
known for repetitions of two-finger pushups (using the thumb and the index finger of one hand)
also known for the one inch punch
defeated three-time champion British boxer Gary Elms by way of knockout in the third round in the 1958 Hong Kong Inter-School amateur Boxing Championships by using
Wing Chun traps and high/low-level straight punches
knocked out Uechi, a Japanese black belt Karateka, in 11 seconds in a 1962 Full-Contact match in Seattle. He arrived in his street clothes and simply took off his
shoes. The opponent arrived in his gi (uniform), complete with black belt. Bruce had hit the guy something like 15 times and kicked him once
Beyond the numbers:His Hong Kong and Hollywood-produced films elevated the traditional Hong Kong martial arts film to a new level of popularity and acclaim, and sparked a major surge
of interest in Chinese martial arts in the West in the 1970s. The direction and tone of his films changed and influenced martial arts and martial arts films in Hong
Kong and the rest of the world as well
2. Michael Jordan for Basketball
The Numbers(I don’t think this is necessary but fine):6 rings
five MVP awards
ten All-NBA First Team designations
fourteen NBA All-Star Game appearances
three All-Star Game MVP awards
ten scoring titles
three steals titles
1988 NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award.
led the NBA in scoring in 10 seasons (NBA record) and tied Wilt Chamberlain’s record of seven consecutive scoring titles
NBA All-Defensive First Team nine times (NBA record shared with Gary Payton)
holds the top career regular season and playoff scoring averages of 30.1 and 33.4 points per game,
1998, the season of his Finals-winning shot against the Jazz, he was well known throughout the league as a clutch performer
Jordan’s total of 5,987 points in the playoffs is the highest in NBA history
retired with 32,292 points in regular season play, third on the NBA’s all-time scoring list behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone
Beyond the numbers:What the hell do you think?
1. Muhammad Ali for Boxing
The best there was, the best there is, the best there ever will be
Big Bud 747
