Kingerski: ESPN Absolutely Disrespects Sidney Crosby, Hockey in Top 100
The top 100 athletes of the 21st-century list would have been difficult for any organization to compile, but the Mouseketeer network found a way to slip beneath even the barest of expectations. Of course, everyone would quibble with this pick or that one, how high or low this athlete was ranked. But ESPN, in its true colors, absolutely disrespected hockey to the point of ignorance, essentially disregarding the sport and the best player of the century, Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby.
Michael Phelps, Serena Williams, and Lionel Messi were first, second, and third, respectively. LeBron James and Tom Brady were the first primarily American team sports players and rounded off the top five.
Sure. Those make sense, as all were generational talents that amassed historical numbers of championships or individual awards. Roger Federer, once the most decorated male tennis player ever, was sixth.
And then the silliness started.
Gymnast Simone Biles was seventh. Ahead of Tiger Woods. Yeah, the most dominant golfer of the century, the man who single-handedly brought tens of millions of new fans to golf, extending the game well beyond the whitebread country clubs and, for the first time, truly into neighborhoods of color. The man whom tens of millions flocked to televisions on major championship Sundays to see. The player who mounted the first credible challenge to Jack Nicklaus’s major championships record, who was and still is a sports icon.
Biles is unbelievable at what she does, but let’s keep things in perspective. Gymnastics matters every four years, and Biles isn’t even the most decorated gymnast ever and has never set a significant record in her sport.
Where does Crosby rank? Oh, we’re getting to that hot garbage. Perhaps you will remember that ESPN, in fact, owns the broadcast and online rights to the NHL. You know they own the rights, but they seem to often forget that or delight in denying hockey fans marquee matchups, shoving them to online viewing only.
Surely, Crosby is in the top 10, right? He led Canada to a dramatic gold medal on home soil in 2010 and was the youngest captain to win the most difficult trophy in sports, the Stanley Cup. Crosby won three total Cups, including the first back-to-back of the salary cap era. He’s now in the top 10 all-time points leaders, chasing Joe Sakic for ninth this season and Mario Lemieux for eighth, probably next season.
Crosby has won Hart Trophies, Conn Smythe Awards, Art Ross Trophies, and Ted Lindsay Trophies, too.
There is no question that he’s one of the greatest hockey players ever and has set the standard for the 21st century.
Of course, his compatriots, Alex Ovechkin and Connor McDavid, were largely snubbed, too. McDavid barely made the list, finishing a pathetic 98th.
98th?!
Ovechkin finished 54th, behind … Adrian Beltre?!
The global voting weighted soccer and a high number of women’s basketball players.
We get it. Many sports journalists who don’t cover hockey know absolutely nothing about it. Every one of us who covers the game for a living has had to step around an obnoxious and self-important once-a-year hockey writer from a national outlet who drops in for the playoffs to aggressively ask questions that were asked and answered months ago and listen to them pontificate with the prudence of someone who just memorized a Wikipedia article.
We get it. American sports journalists wouldn’t know if a puck is stuffed or inflated. There were 10 basketball players in the top 35, but only three hockey players on the entire list.
But where is Crosby? We’re still getting to that.
Rounding out the top 10, the Sportscenter killing network wisely put Kobe Bryant 10th. It seemed a little bit of a slight at the expense of Olympic athletes, but at least it was in the top 10. Continuing the overvaluation of Olympic sports, Usain Bolt was ninth.
Tennis players Novak “the Joker” Djokovic and Rafael Nadal took the next couple of spots, which seems fair. They supplanted Federer and created the greatest trio of players since Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe, and Jimmy Connors dueled for majors 40 years ago. They set historical marks despite competing against each other and presided over the golden era of Men’s tennis.
Christiano Rinaldo was 13th.
Ok, where is Crosby? He could have been behind LeBron James and Tom Brady in the top 10. Hockey fans are used to getting the short stick compared to the NBA and NFL, so a sixth would have been acceptable. Maybe top 10.
Top 15 with Rinaldo? Nope. By the way, swimmer Katie Ledecky was 15th.
Top 20 with Tim Duncan, Shaq, and Lewis Hamilton? Again, nope.
ESPN, which has been entrusted with the rights to the NHL, listed Crosby at 22nd, behind Aaron Donald and WNBA player Diana Taurasi, who won three league championships, only one MVP, and five Olympic gold medals.
No offense, but if an American basketball player doesn’t have a shelf of gold medals, it’s a major disappointment. The disparity in international basketball, especially in the Women’s division, has been extraordinary.
At No. 23 was Kevin Garnett, a fine player but not one who ranks anywhere near the Rushmore of his sport.
Crosby’s rank well behind other all-time greats is just sad. ESPN allowed over 70,000 contributors from all over the world to vote. Geez, next time just put a poll on Twitter. The global ignorance of hockey was on full display, even under cover of the ESPN Sports Century project.
I guess we should put a hockey player on the list, right? Who’s that guy who’s really good? He doesn’t talk a lot, but he works really hard and is from Canada.
In the sports pantheon, according to a horribly flawed system that clearly valued more things than sports accomplishments but nearly forgot the fourth major sport on the North American continent, Sidney Crosby isn’t one of the 20 greatest of the century.
Crosby is the type that won’t give it a second thought, and hockey fans know how to live with wanton disrespect. But for once, it would have been nice to see our best where they belong; Crosby deservedly ranked with players like Federer, Rinaldo, Kobe, and Brady.
Crosby isn’t just a great player. He’s one of the all-time greats. And ESPN once again told us hockey doesn’t matter. Here’s the list, if you must.
The list lost me at ESPN…..they are a comedy act, not one person over there has any clue about sports at all. Case in point….stephen a. Smith is their main guy….the most unathletic, idiotic human in sports…..they are clueless, never trust espn on sports that’s my number one rule in sports.
ESPN sucks. I hate that they have the NHL contract, since they don’t even promote the sport and it is an after-thought. Stephen A. is a huge racist and should not be on TV, but he ends up being the darling of the network. Says it all about ESPN.
You are right on about ESPN. Great read as always.
I’ve no idea how anyone could be surprised at this…? (I mean, it’s E-S-P-N.)
At least he wasn’t 101st.
(Then again, who really cares?)
And I’ll bet Malkin did not make the list!
ESPN is a joke.
LeBron is not better than Kobe, but at the same time I don’t like either one of them.
Durant is overrated.
Too many Shaq commercials.
Crosby should be higher.
I disagree with you in Biles. She is the most decorated gymnast of all time with 37 medals in world and Olympic and considered the best ever. She hasn’t just won she has dominated. She is 9th overall in Olympic gymnastics and tied with Shannon Miller for US all time medals. She will probably be top 3 of all time after Paris.
Biles quit on her team at the last olympics. She should have removed herself from the team and let someone else have the spot if she couldn’t handle the pressure.
Probably would have been better not to mention ESPN at all and definitely not link their article. We all know what ESPN is. it’s just there. It’s sad because i have such fond memories watching late night hockey on “The Deuce.” The mighty have fallen, indeed.
No, the Pittsburgh media and their fans overrated Crosby. Is he great? Yes but not a top 5 player of all-time and not a top 20 athlete of all-time. All they ever bring up are team achievements when comparing players but if they truly believe that he is in the top 5 of greatest NHL players of all-time they’d bring up individual accomplishments and when they do they cherry-pick. They love to claim that he is the greatest 200 ft player but where are his Selkes? They claim he is the greatest playmaker but there are at least a dozen… Read more »
Crosby is the most complete player ever to play the game. I thought Annika Sorenstam got robbed as well.
Crosby’s greatness is evidenced by both individual and team achievements, at every level and in both professional and international competition. Arguably most decorated hockey player ever. He is on pace to be top 10 in points, assists and goals, and with a little luck top 2 or 3 in points and assists and top 5 or 6 in goals. Back to back conn Smyths, two mvps, two art ross, two rocket Richards. Three Stanley cups, 2 olympic golds, world championships, World Cup championships, world junior championships, etc, etc.
Surely, Crosby is in the top 10, right? He led Canada to a dramatic gold medal on home soil in 2010 and was the youngest captain to win the most difficult trophy in sports, the Stanley Cup. Crosby won three total Cups, including the first back-to-back of the salary cap era. He’s now in the top 10 all-time points leaders, chasing Joe Sakic for ninth this season and Mario Lemieux for eighth, probably next season.
Crosby has won Hart Trophies, Conn Smythe Awards, Art Ross Trophies, and Ted Lindsay Trophies, too… … there’s a couple individual achievements in there buddy
You obviously don’t know hockey if you don’t think he is one of the top 5 greatest, and one of the greatest athletes. You think he is overrated? Lol You should be on espn with that garbage take.
I was both saddened & shocked when ESPN got the NHL rights. It was almost like they were trying to raise the bid at an auction to make NBC overpay but then NBC dropped out and ESPN got stuck with it. ESPN clearly doesn’t value the NHL.
ESPN+ is hot garbage. Took them two years to figure out that, when streaming, people would want a start from the beginning option. Any idea if the new Sportsnet app and subscription will allow us to avoid ESPN for Pens games completely this coming season? Will there be local blackouts (I live in NC)?
This story could be written in one paragraph. We’re talkin’ Woke ESPN here, right? #Irrelevant
Just wanted to make sure you got your money’s worth
Do, uh… what number was Sid? 87? Maybe they were Respecting him with that ranking? 😉
Serena the 2nd best athlete?!? Amazing, unbelievable athlete. And she is sexy as heck BUT huge issue with her being above Federer who dominated the men’s circuit for so long and she herself squashed all that nonsense about her besting pro men. But any tennis player, male or female, being above Lebron or Kobe is just unbelievably disingenuous. If you are a sports junkie and watched these sports and these players, Serena or any tennis player being above them never crosses your mind.
Saying Crosby deserves to be ranked with Tom Brady is not a reasonable take. He should have been higher than 22, but probably somewhere between 15-20. Most of these other individual athletes were the clear most dominant in their sport. It’s not possible to be that dominant in hockey. Or football… unless you’re Brady. Floyd Mayweather was #25 and he is 50-0 all-time. How is he not top 10?
Well, Crosby should be top 10. I disagree with you about Simone Biles. She is an amazing talent and there is gymnastics happening outside the Olympics, but no one pays attention. I’ve watched Katy Ledecky since High School and I can tell you, she’s better than Michael Phelps. These lists are like the ones from Rolling Stones magazine. Good for conversation, but not worth a damn.
Sid? Sid Crosby? He’s probably better at those other sports than they are. He just didn’t bother to commit to them.
Not one single mention of me. I am better at all of these sports than all of the players mentioned. Not even joking. I don’t play professionally, because I don’t like the spotlight, but I am better than Gretzky at hockey, Jordan at basketball, Brady at football, and everyone else at all their respective sports. All of them. This list is embarrassing in its omissions.
ESPN? Maybe if Sid identified as black lesbian…..
This article would have been ok… If you didn’t say LeBron and Brady were the first team sport athletes. Messi plays soccer, no? Really, all you did was embarrass yourself, Crosby and Pittsburgh.
Well, you got the Messi part correct. It should have said American sports. But I hope that bit of self aggrandizing vitriol made you feel better.
Most of the world knows the game that Messi plays as football.
ESPN – Erratic sports programming network
ESPN is a total joke. I have no respect for their opinion on anything.
And what about Kevin Martin? Key Stats: Four Briers, One World Championship, One Olympic Gold Medal, 18 Grand Slams. Hands down the best curler since Ken Watson in the 30s and 40s.
Does anyone remember that the E in ESPN is for entertainment? They care more about that than they do Sports.
No surprise. The sports media has never cared about hockey. Unless they had to.
Seriously it’s been said many, many, times ESPN is a joke. Everyone knows it but them. How they are still in business is one of the great mysteries in life.