Top 10 Greatest Players of All Time Regardless of Sport
(Photo via theguardian)
It’s summertime and sports news is slow, so here is my list of the ten greatest players ever. You’re gonna love it and if you don’t, fight me on Twitter about it @elijahspanns. Here we go!
#10 Barry Bonds
Yeah he was juicing, but do you know who else was? Every other player in his era, and no one else could even come close to his numbers. Also, steroids don’t help your pitch selection so some credit is given where credit is due.
Career Accolades:
7x time NL MVP
14x All-Star
2x NL batting champion
762 Home Runs
73 Home Runs in a single season
Only member of the 500 HR 500 Steal club
#9 Lionel Messi
Lionel Messi has been the face of soccer for about 15 years now, and is one of the most recognizable people (not athletes, people) in the entire world. That is for good reason, the Barca forward is the storied franchise's most iconic player, and carries the most individual awards for any soccer player ever. The only real caveat to his career is his underachievement in international play.
Key Accolades
6x Ballon D’or
6x European Golden Shoe
10x La Liga champion
4x UEFA champions league
Most goals in La Liga history
#8 Kobe Bryant
You could argue that Kobe doesn’t deserve a spot on this list, but he is on here because of two words: Mamba Mentality. Kobe’s mental toughness steered the Lakers to five championships, and inspired a generation of future stars (see: Booker, Devin). Also, I don’t think any other player has meant as much to the Lakers franchise as Kobe has, with both his number 8 and 24 jerseys retired by the franchise.
Career Accolades
5x NBA champion
2x Finals MVP
11x All NBA 1st team
9x NBA all defensive first team
18x NBA All Star
4th all time in scoring
#7 Hank Aaron
Hank Aaron is baseball’s true (no PED’s) home run king with 755 bombs. Hammerin Hank was not only the best slugger of his generation, he also had a career .305 batting average, an almost ungodly number for today's game.
Key Accolades
25x all star
1x World Series champion
1x MVP
MLB leader in:
XBH (1,477)
RBI (2,297)
Home Runs without PEDs (755)
#6 Jerry Rice
Jerry Rice is the NFL’s greatest receiver of all time, and will probably remain that way for, well, forever. His 1,549 career receptions is a record that will remain untouched for a very long time even in today’s pass happy game. Rice wasn’t just a stat sheet stuffer either, he helped lead the 49rs three times and almost won another with the Raiders in his twilight years.
Key Accolades:
3x Super Bowl champion
Super Bowl XXIII MVP
13x pro bowler
NFL all time leader in:
receptions (1,549)
receiving yards (22,895)
All-purpose yards (23,546)
receiving touchdowns (197)
Total touchdowns (208)
#5 LeBron James
Here’s where things are going to get controversial. If my Co-Host of the Going Distance Podcast Ryan Bunnell were writing this list he’d no doubt have LeBron at the top, he arguably deserves it. But this is my article, and in my opinion LeBron is #5. Yes he made it to eight straight finals, but he also played in an extremely weak Eastern conference that pretty much gave him a free pass to get to those finals. Sorry LeBron stans he’s my #5 *cough* 4-6 *cough*
Key Accolades:
4x NBA champion
4x NBA Finals MVP
4x NBA MVP
13x All-NBA first team
5x NBA all defense first team
Leader in NBA playoff points
3rd all time scoring
NBA all time leader in turnovers
#4 Tom Brady
It really hurt me to put Brady only at 4, but the other guys you’ll see on this list just deserve it more in my opinion. What held me back is that a lot of Brady’s all time spots on the record books are due to his longevity, which people could argue is a valuable enough trait to merit the position. The 7x Super Bowl winner is the greatest competitor in the sport of football, and no other player has a bigger chip on their shoulder than Brady. Don’t believe me? Watch this short documentary of him crying about being the 199th pick. Also, to all you Pat Mahomes truthers out there, he will never have as many chips as Brady.
Key Accolades
7x Super Bowl champion
5x Super Bowl MVP
3x NFL MVP
NFL comeback player of the year (2009)
3x First team all pro
NFL all time leader in:
Wins (230)
Touchdown passes (581)
Passing yards (79,204)
Married to Gisele
#3 Michael Phelps:
Greatest Olympian of all time. Period. Greatest swimmer of all time. Period. Biggest pothead of all time. Maybe? Michael Phelps is a goddamn American hero. I’ll never forget watching him show why America is the greatest country on earth every four years, and my favorite sports memory is watching him win by 1/100th of a second in the 2008 olympics. Sorry if you don’t think swimmers belong on a list like this, but Michael Phelps didn’t win 23 gold medals to not be on this list.
Key accolades:
28 olympic medals (most decorated olympian of all time)
23 Olympic gold medals
An ungodly amount of Gold medals in Swimming competitions outside the olympics
#2 Michael Jordan
If you’ve seen The Last Dance or are old enough to remember Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time. The only reason why he isn’t higher on the all time scoring list is because he retired too early (do the Wizards years even count?), and he took a year off in his prime to play baseball. Speaking of that, MJ wasn’t an awful baseball player just to let you know. But his sideshow act isn’t why he’s on this list. MJ is on this list because all he did in the second half of his career was win championships, and was the best player on each of those squads.
Key Accolades
6x NBA champion
6x Finals MVP
5x MVP
10x all NBA first team
14x all star
9x first team all defense
Highest PPG in NBA history
Honorable mentions:
Ben Simmons if basketball didn’t involve scoring
Diego Maradona’s coke dealer
Spider-tac
The chick who sucked off the entire Suns team
Lance Armstrong’s right ass cheek
Sue Bird
Aaron Rodgers family therapist
Peyton Manning’s forehead
Michael Jordan’s gambling addiction
Cole Beasley’s notes app
The guy that took the fall for Ray Lewis stabbing someone
#1 Tiger Woods
If you listen closely, you can hear people who don’t watch golf yelling in the distance. The fact of the matter is Tiger is #1 on this list because no other player matters to their sport as much as Tiger means to the sport of Golf. Not only was he the most dominant golfer ever, he transcended the game by being the first popular black guy on the PGA. Tiger brought a competitive edge to the game that was never felt before. Guys didn’t celebrate like they do before Tiger came along. If you don’t think Tiger should be at #1 talk to anyone who knows anything about golf and they’ll tell you just how great he was. Also, the 2019 Masters and won the US Open with a broken leg.
Key accolades
15x major champion
82 PGA tour wins (tied most all time)
Longest streak of being PGA #1 golfer