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CALLING SIGNALS With Us Since Jan. 19, 2004 |
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 An immortal moment for a living legend of sports ...Muhammad Ali |
Two years later, the stars
on his list are still immortal
of TheColumnists.com
Two years. I’ve
been on TheColumnists.com team that long.
All I have to do is recall one night two winters ago to realize the time difference.
It was early in that 2003-04 NBA season. My buddy Ken Anthony and I huddled at an L.A. sports bar for a Laker game. The place was hoppin’, and were we ever confident. This team was so loaded, we called it the Fab Four--starring Shaq, Kobe, Karl Malone and Gary Payton--and the fifth Beatle, Devean George.
While the Lakers hummed that night, Ken and I batted around other top sportsmen. Finally, we took a napkin and composed this list: the 10 greatest living athletes.
I still have that napkin. It’s stained and ragged. But those names linger. Here they are:
1. Muhammad Ali: Stung in the ring and on the world stage in heavyweight style.
2. Joe Montana: No one was finer than this 49er in the clutch, as his four Super Bowl titles attest.
3. Willie Mays: The Catch. The speed. The power. Say (Hey) no more.
4. Bill Russell: Eleven NBA titles. Period. Paragraph.
5. Michael Jordan: Six NBA rings. While playing with centers no one remembers.
6. Wayne Gretzky: The Great One froze a chunk of scoring records and four Stanley Cups for all time.
7. Jack Nicklaus: Champion of 18 majors. Tiger Woods might claim the title of greatest golfer one day, but not right now.
8. Hank Aaron: The home run king. He also stood No. 1 on the alphabetical list for half a century--until a pitcher named David Aardsma reached the majors in 2004.
9. Jim Brown: With that name, he was meant to play for Paul Brown’s Cleveland Browns.
10. Magic Johnson: Five NBA crowns. And that first one--with 42 points and 15 rebounds while standing in for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in Game 6 of the 1980 Finals--is still Magical.
Two years after compiling our list, Ken and I watched the Lakers at another sports bar. This time the place was dead. Kind of like the team, moribund under .500. They managed to win on a shot by a guy named Sasha Vujacic. Maybe one day you’ll pronounce it.
I pulled out that old napkin. We pondered the original top 10. I said we should consider other heavyweights: Carl Lewis, Pete Sampras, Steffi Graf, Mark Spitz, Lance Armstrong.
I especially campaigned for Brazil’s Pele, simply the greatest player in the globe’s No. 1 sport, soccer.
Ken said no, let’s stick with the original 10. I agreed. Better to be provincial than inconsistent. And off we went, happy the Lakers won.
Maybe I’ll be writing about a contender again in two years.
©2005 by Bucky Fox. The illustration is from IMSI's Master Clips Collection, 1895 Francisco Blvd. E., San Rafael, CA, 94901-5506, USA. This column first posted Dec. 5, 2005.
You can visit Bucky Fox's website at www.BuckyFox.com
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