Best Athletes of the 21st Century: Connor McDavid’s 98th place ranking sparks reactions

Over the past few days, the ESPN network has been engaged in an interesting exercise: ranking the top 100 athletes of the 21st century. This includes male and female athletes from all sports.

Basically, we’re casting a very wide net.

For the moment, only the top-25 remain to be revealed. And what we notice is that, at the moment, only two hockey players are on the list: Alex Ovechkin and Connor McDavid.

You might think Sidney Crosby is in the top-25… but you can bet he’ll be the only one.

But what’s really getting people going is McDavid’s position in the rankings. While Ovechkin is ranked 54th, you have to go all the way down to… 98th position to find the Oilers forward.

Who are the 100 greatest athletes of the 21st century?

Presenting ESPN Top 100, a list of athletes across sports voted on by ESPN experts.

Check out athletes 100 through 76 here: https://t.co/akcJK5nu5J pic.twitter.com/yPuYe3Re6c

– ESPN (@espn) July 15, 2024

It’s all a bit of a shock considering McDavid has dominated the league for several years now. He may not have the longevity of some of the athletes ahead of him, but he’s so dominant that some people can’t believe how low he’s sunk.

And some can’t believe how few hockey players there are, considering that hockey is one of the hardest sports in which to excel.

In Edmonton, it’s all the talk, given that he’s the local star. In an article for the Edmonton Journal, David Staples can’t believe there are seven WNBA players (so far) among the many athletes ahead of McDavid.

ESPN stinks it up with Connor McDavid near bottom of list of Top 100 athletes of this century.

It’s named #25-to-100 so far.

Guess where ESPN had McDavid?

Behind no less than 7 WNBA players! Who knew?https://t.co/6XPZ5SCPtQ via @edmontonjournal

– David Staples (@dstaples) July 17, 2024

Of course, such a ranking will never be unanimous, and I imagine that fans of every sport feel that their sport is underestimated in the list…

But regardless, it seems to me that 98th place for a generational athlete who’s been destroying the league for nearly a decade is a bit low… and I wonder if he would have been higher on the list if he’d won the Stanley Cup last month.

Overtime

– Maybe he’ll be on the list in 15 years or so.

Looking back on his Rookie season, at just 18 years old, Connor Bedard did the absolute most.

Happy 19th Birthday Connor! pic.twitter.com/MxT06om68i

– BarDown (@BarDown) July 18, 2024

– Great read.

My column on former Canadien Paul Byron earning rave reviews for job he’s now doing as a player development consultant with the #Habs. That shouldn’t come as a surprise. #HabsIO: https://t.co/mJ3JiONe38

– Stu Cowan (@StuCowan1) July 17, 2024