ESPN: Most Dominant Athletes Past 20 Years (1999-2018)

[UcanUwill]

Michael Schumacher behind that Nascar dude?

[EH15]

It's Roger Federer for me and it's really not close. He's shattering conventional athletic human thresholds. He had a case for #1 without his last 15 months on tour. But with the run he's gone on since January 2017, winning 9 titles (9-2 in 11 tournaments he's played), including 3 more Slams, it's clearly him now. Who else is still dominating 16 years into their professional career? Not just dominating, but arguably the very best at his sport still. He's the oldest world number 1 at age 36. He claimed it last month. Before he claimed this record, Agassi at 33 was the oldest. Tennis players decline sharply and in the past retirement was near after age 30. He's still doing it at 36. It defies logic. It's nothing short of remarkable.

[kinste]

How the hell is Lionel Messi 11th? He should be #1. No one dominated his sport like Messi. Not even Tiger.

Messi has never won anything with the national team.

[alevirfe]

1) Federer
2) Tom Brady
3) Messi
4) Mayweather
5) Serena Williams
6) Tiger
7) Lebron

I didn't include Phelps, Bolt, or Schumacher

anyone agree?

[Monky15]

Michael Schumacher behind that Nascar dude?

This
NASCAR isn't even the peak of automotive racing.

[traax]

Michael Schumacher behind that Nascar dude?

This
NASCAR isn't even the peak of automotive racing.

And some people still think that Formula1/Nascar or Motorsport in general is not a "real" sport.
Watch this short interview with L.Hamilton:

Watch on YouTube

[koningcosmo]

How the hell is Lionel Messi 11th? He should be #1. No one dominated his sport like Messi. Not even Tiger.

what??? he doesnt even dominate Ronaldo every year.....

[Tomjas]

I assume that Tom Brady is a great with incredible longevity but his sport is dictated by a playbook and his position is one way (I.e. basically all offence)

It’s literally the equivalent of giving Shaq 10 minutes rest before being called upon to accept a pass under the hoop dictated by the coach and being subbed out for the +1 for a decent ft shooter

He’d still be playing if that was the case

Sorry but no

[Dupp]

Very dumb American heavy list. Woods isn’t close to number one. Federer for example dominated his sport more and for way longer.

[Koreandoo]

At first I thought the same about Messi but one thing separates him, he haven´t one any World Title let alone a Copa. The bestplayer on the World have won at least one Wolrd Cup (Pelé, Maradona, Beckenbauer),for sure he DOMINATE in the last 10 years in Barcelona but he had to much dissapoint trips with Argentinia.
I think I´m a bit biased but that Nascar racer over Schumacher smh ( I´m totally cool with 7th Place tho). Not sure if we find one million People outside of the USA watching Nascar, Formula 1 is very global.
Like Messi, I was first surprised with Serena but you have to say women tennis is quality pretty low *outside of Serena. I think this hurt the standing.
Where is Michael Phelps? Usain Bolt on 10? Tiger Woods on 1? This list is pretty crap.

[Monky15]

Michael Schumacher behind that Nascar dude?

This
NASCAR isn't even the peak of automotive racing.

And some people still think that Formula1/Nascar or Motorsport in general is not a "real" sport.
Watch this short interview with L.Hamilton:

Watch on YouTube

Never said motorsport isn't real. Was just saying NASCAR wasn't at the top of the motorsport ladder.
You wouldn't have Starbury on the list because he kicked ass in China.

[Franco]

How the hell is Lionel Messi 11th? He should be #1. No one dominated his sport like Messi. Not even Tiger.

No he shouldn't, and I don't even think he has a case tbh.

I don't really get how the hell Bolt, who broke records while joking around in the races and completely dominated his sport, winning everything and anything, can be so low.

[fwood]

Let me talk about Messi a little bit.

I am spanish, and I am a Real Madrid fan. That means, I want Real Madrid to win everything, and I want Barcelona to lose everything. And trust me, anyone that is not a homer knows that Messi is, not only better than Ronaldo, but on another completely world. In fact, the difference between Messi and Ronaldo (2º best in the world, most likely) is bigger than the difference between Ronaldo and the 20th best player in the world, whoever he is.

And people who shows numbers to try to argue about this rivalry, they really don't understand how football (soccer) works. This is the sport where numbers explain less from all sports I know.

I used to hate Messi in his beginnings, trying to convince myself "he is not that good", "he is walking almost the entire game in the pitch", etc. Man, with the years I realized that I've never seen anything like that in my whole life, and I'm even conviced that I will never see anyone like him even if I live 50-60 more years (I hope I'm wrong)

I'm a big NBA fan too, since post-Jordan I follow the league daily (and from lot of years I lurk here daily too). I'm saying this because I agree with lot of people here calling LeBron a top 2 GOAT. And I agree too that LeBron James has more impact in an NBA game than Leo Messi in a football game. But Leo Messi is better at football than Lebron James at basketball. Period. I watched tons of games (not highlights) of each one and nobody is going to make me think twice about this. But the thing is that one man in basketball has MUCH MUCH MUCH more power to decide games than in football.

The ones arguing about Messi not winning a World Cup, I suppose they say it because they simply don't like soccer, or they don't follow it, or simply they don't know what Argentina's teams looked like over the last 10 years. The impressive things is that this guy led a team with scrubs like Gago, Biglia or Enzo Perez playing in the middle to 2 America's Cup and 1 World Cup!! And the difference between James and Messi in a final, is that LeBron can put James Jones in the corner 3 in every play, while Messi can't put Biglia in the corner.

For those who don't follow soccer regularly, I understand that it is difficult to believe. But for those who watch him play, I'm almost sure they agree with me. Messi is the best TEAM SPORTS guy from all time.

Now, if you want to argue anything about Bolt or Phelps being #1, it is about personal preferences. I fully understand if one of them it is called the #1.

But this guy made me post this. I have been lurking around here for many years, and I created an account maybe one year ago. A Real Madrid diehard fan, who wants Barcelona and Messi lose every game they play, wrote this. Think about it.

[Johnny Tomala]

I would have it something like that:

1. Phelps
2. Federer
3. Bolt
4. Serena Williams
5. Messi
6. Woods
7. Schumacher

I didn't check this list, but if this is ESPN, they probably put a lot of people from two sports than none cares outside of USA - NFL and MLB. No, some MLB player is not more dominant than Messi, and for the rest of the world football is a game played by Messi, Pele and Cruyff, not some players on steroid playing in NFL. Europe only cares for NFL to watch SuperBowl Half Time Show, not a lot people give a damn about game itself.

[Side beard]

Michael Schumacher behind that Nascar dude?

This
NASCAR isn't even the peak of automotive racing.

And some people still think that Formula1/Nascar or Motorsport in general is not a "real" sport.
Watch this short interview with L.Hamilton:

Watch on YouTube

No, people think Nascar is a phony sport. No one have issues with other motorsports.

[RCM88x]

Michael Schumacher behind that Nascar dude?

It's a dominance ranking not a "how hard core the sport you played is" ranking.

Relative to other drivers of the past 20 season Johnson is more dominant than Schumi. Not by much but it's not assnine to rank him higher.

[UcanUwill]

This
NASCAR isn't even the peak of automotive racing.

And some people still think that Formula1/Nascar or Motorsport in general is not a "real" sport.
Watch this short interview with L.Hamilton:

Watch on YouTube

No, people think Nascar is a phony sport. No one have issues with other motorsports.

I have seen Plenty of people who said F1 is not a sport. You need to be an athlete to spend 2 hours in a cockpit that heats up to 50 degree celsius while driving a car at 200 miles an hour.

[ProfessorJM]

It's hard for me to rate different sports so easily but the best I can do myself is try to relate their dominance in comparison to their peers. The three that come to mind for me off the top of my head are Messi, Tiger, and Serena Williams. I have never seen a more dominant run in relation to other players in his sport than Tiger but that dominance was not over 20 years, but really only a strong five year window. I've never seen a more dominant player in relation to their peers in that type of window. His ability to always make cuts, win, and compete at a high level so consistently was so far beyond even Phil his closest rival during his peak.

But, Messi has been dominant for a longer period of time and really only has one player close to his level so there is a lot of separation for him too. Serena to me has separated herself from all other players in her generation more than Federer has from his closest rivals. Maybe that is because women's tennis didn't have another great player so I can see that argument too to be fair. I'm also thinking of Phelps for swimming and how dominant he was, but on some level I feel his skill is much more isolated versus multifaceted in these other sports and I am an avid swimmer and live in Hawaii part of the year and love to swim a LOT so I'm kind of admittedly trashing something I love to do a lot.

[kinste]

Let me talk about Messi a little bit.

I am spanish, and I am a Real Madrid fan. That means, I want Real Madrid to win everything, and I want Barcelona to lose everything. And trust me, anyone that is not a homer knows that Messi is, not only better than Ronaldo, but on another completely world. In fact, the difference between Messi and Ronaldo (2º best in the world, most likely) is bigger than the difference between Ronaldo and the 20th best player in the world, whoever he is.

And people who shows numbers to try to argue about this rivalry, they really don't understand how football (soccer) works. This is the sport where numbers explain less from all sports I know.

I used to hate Messi in his beginnings, trying to convince myself "he is not that good", "he is walking almost the entire game in the pitch", etc. Man, with the years I realized that I've never seen anything like that in my whole life, and I'm even conviced that I will never see anyone like him even if I live 50-60 more years (I hope I'm wrong)

I'm a big NBA fan too, since post-Jordan I follow the league daily (and from lot of years I lurk here daily too). I'm saying this because I agree with lot of people here calling LeBron a top 2 GOAT. And I agree too that LeBron James has more impact in an NBA game than Leo Messi in a football game. But Leo Messi is better at football than Lebron James at basketball. Period. I watched tons of games (not highlights) of each one and nobody is going to make me think twice about this. But the thing is that one man in basketball has MUCH MUCH MUCH more power to decide games than in football.

The ones arguing about Messi not winning a World Cup, I suppose they say it because they simply don't like soccer, or they don't follow it, or simply they don't know what Argentina's teams looked like over the last 10 years. The impressive things is that this guy led a team with scrubs like Gago, Biglia or Enzo Perez playing in the middle to 2 America's Cup and 1 World Cup!! And the difference between James and Messi in a final, is that LeBron can put James Jones in the corner 3 in every play, while Messi can't put Biglia in the corner.

For those who don't follow soccer regularly, I understand that it is difficult to believe. But for those who watch him play, I'm almost sure they agree with me. Messi is the best TEAM SPORTS guy from all time.

Now, if you want to argue anything about Bolt or Phelps being #1, it is about personal preferences. I fully understand if one of them it is called the #1.

But this guy made me post this. I have been lurking around here for many years, and I created an account maybe one year ago. A Real Madrid diehard fan, who wants Barcelona and Messi lose every game they play, wrote this. Think about it.

Yeah, Messi is great, but he just isn't really as dominant as other guys on the list. But if that's even possible as a Football player is another question.
In my opinion he really needs to win the world cup. He should have already won it. Those argentinian Teams were not that bad. Agüero, Veron, Higuain, Mascherano.
And i saw him in a lot of Champions League Games were he was absolutly not dominating and Barcelona got eliminated.

Sent from my Pixel XL using RealGM mobile app

[cereal3]

No Hockey players. One would think that Sidney Crosby would have made this list. Maybe not as dominant as other athletes in their respective sports but when a casual sports fan thinks of a hockey player, Crosby is the name that comes up.