OT: Most influential U.S. athlete of the past 25 years?

[storrsroars]

Serious old man yells at clouds energy in this post.

Seems like he was an old man already when the ABA was created.

I owned an ABA ball and the Nets/Dr J were my team.

WNBA just broke the league's all time attendance record with 3 fewer teams and 30 fewer games - still three weeks to go. And that's mostly due to Clark with an assist from Paige. They're following the NBA by marketing their biggest stars.

 

[mauconnfan]

Tiger

 

[Deepster]

She influenced this whole generation of woman’s players and was responsible for changing the way the woman’s game is played.
There is no Caitlin, Paige or Sabrina without her.

I don’t think that’s true outside of CT. And I really like her a lot.

 

[NC_Uconn_Fan]

It's Tiger. He influenced a whole new generation to play the game, including me.

 

[thekollieman]

I don’t think that’s true outside of CT. And I really like her a lot.

I think that’s true but it’s still limited to the niche interest that has been women’s basketball. I recall Diana having a moment in college, getting props from Kobe and such, but she clearly didn’t break into the mainstream like Caitlin Clark. Part of that for Clark of course was being allowed to be in commercials and stuff as a college student.

 

[Scoe]

I think that’s true but it’s still limited to the niche interest that has been women’s basketball. I recall Diana having a moment in college, getting props from Kobe and such, but she clearly didn’t break into the mainstream like Caitlin Clark. Part of that for Clark of course was being allowed to be in commercials and stuff as a college student.

Twitter and today's social media, and the fact she went to Iowa, while Iowa isn't a top women's program the tale of Iowa being a nothing program before Clark is not true. Her accomplishments while deserved do come while false tales.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

I think we’re confusing talent with influence
Since viewership in the NBA is declining
Even though there are Great players it’s difficult to match the MJ surge or even the Magic:LB surge . I remember when the NBA was minor league .
A good example would be Jack Nicholson was a better golfer than Arnold Palmer but something about Arnie got a whole new demographic interested in the game..
it’s as much about
Rizz than talent
Catlyn Clark has had a huge influence on her sport so she is a great example .
Did Serena inspire a resurgence of US tennis? IDK . I can’t name a single US men’s or women player to replace them ,
but maybe that’s me
I know McEnroe and Connor’s although not as good were more influential than Pete Sampras .
I think the Steroid guys were hugely influential on the resurgence of baseball
that an
unavoidable irony
The game is different because of them
Depending on the success of the US in the next WC
Someone or even a couple may emerge to elevate thst sport to main stream .
It’s difficult to be influential when you sport is at it’s peak
Tiger should have been more influential
I think the PGA system prevents entry

 

[storrsroars]

A good example would be Jack Nicholson was a better golfer than Arnold Palmer but something about Arnie got a whole new demographic interested in the game..

I hadn't heard that before, but he did make the cover of Golf Digest

 

[Lafayette]

Hammering Hank. Many of us grew up with Hank as the HR king
Pete Rose
a dozen or so Yankees

• Let's be clear that everyone who started watching or playing a sport was influenced to do so and for me it was Bjorn Borg. He is nowhere near the top 20 All-time most influential list. But the catch here is was your person the reason 80% of people did? I think in Golf Tiger hit that for a period of time. Pete Rose broke Ty Cobb's record. Cool. A dozen other Yankees than Ruth did not. Though one influenced Marilyn Monroe plenty. I don't think Aaron necessarily qualifies but is probably close. So be a fan of a team or player but have the perspective to know how big their role is across the sport. Influence is not getting more Orioles fans to exist; It is getting more baseball fans to exist.
• If Chess were a sport, Magnus Carlsen would be in the list as kids are flocking to chess which lay dormant for a time.
• Jordan vs Tiger is a personal preference - you liked one more or started playing golf or watching NBA. Tiger is still ESPN's homer with any tourney he plays in they care less that he's 48th and plaster him on the front page. Jordan - my kid and his friends are a mix of not even knowing who Jordan is/was to knowing but never have watched yet they think Air Jordans are cool. That's some serious magician level influence!
• IDK if anyone in tennis other than Serena qualify. Everyone loves their player but you are Alcaraz or Sinner, Agassi or Sampras, Borg or McEnroe. Perhaps Federer grew the sport solely on his own as for a time he was without peer.
• You could make an argument for Christiano Ronaldo for futbol. But then it's him vs Messi vs Neymar vs Beckham vs on and on again.
• Caitlin because she captivated people for 2 years in the NCAA and made the WNBA a cooler sport to watch and go to. If you call the WNBA a "niche" sport well that's fine; my wife thinks every other sport than futbol is niche and unwatchable so everyone's opinion is valid. That means ours and others. Read this like Archer would.
• Taurasi and Bird? Mega, mega successful. To the moon with Diana and Sue. But that is success - not influence.
• Gretzky, if this were not bounded by 25 years (missed by 1), would be top 10 for sure. He revolutionized hockey, brought more viewership, ownership, and people don't even use his name much and refer to him as "The Great One".

 

[superjohn]

If there's a list, it looks like this:

1) Tiger

big gap . . . . .



2) Jordan
3) Messi
4) Lebron
5) Serena
6) Brady
7) Clark
8) Ohtani
9) O'Bannon
10) Pick any of Ronaldo, Phelps, Federer/Nadal/Djokovic (as a group), Peyton Manning (mainly for post-athletic career stuff)

Tiger isn't even close to Jordan. He doesn't have anywhere near the global influence, marketing influence, cultural influence, fashion influence etc. that Jordan has.

And one of the major ways he's credited with growing the game never even happened.

 

[Tyler2Rings]

Im a baseball guy and it hurts to say but there's no way a ballplayer is sniffing the top ten of this list

 

[Kolumbo]

Joey Chestnut got to be on the list.

 

[Lafayette]

Tiger isn't even close to Jordan. He doesn't have anywhere near the global influence, marketing influence, cultural influence, fashion influence etc. that Jordan has.

And one of the major ways he's credited with growing the game never even happened.

Not arguing closeness to Jordan, first or second. This is refuting "And one of the major ways he's credited with growing the game never even happened."

Superstar effect - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The Tiger Effect

Tiger Woods impacts the game of golf more than any other athlete impacts any other sport. When Tiger plays, people watch. Take a look at the numbers from the years where Tiger was not playing compared to 2018 when he played a full schedule.

www.samford.edu

 

[Spaceman213J]

If Ed O'Bannon is on the list for what's going on in college now, then even though he didn't play in the last 25 years, Curt Flood has to be on there as well. Just about every sport has some type of free agency and a lot of the multi-millionaire athletes who can leverage their skills now owe him a thanks. Before Flood, players were looked at as property or assets by many owners.

I'll admit I'm not a big LeBron fan, but I don't think he's even ahead of Kobe or Shaq for influence. I would even say AI should be mentioned. When we have jersey day, there are still more Kobe and AI jerseys than LeBron on the kids here and about half of all the jerseys are Jordan, along with the shoes, shorts...etc.

It's hard to add Ohtani since he still hopefully has a good chunk of his career left, but as far as influence, Ichiro has had a greater impact in the last 25 years.

Jordan is the guy if the man didn't have to play. Tiger's impact can be felt worldwide. I think there was hope he'd bring more interest from black youth, but golf is still an expensive game for the most part, so it was impossible to really expect that without an economic shift. His impact on the game is undeniable. Golf courses began "Tiger proofing" to help offset his dominance.

And if we look at it worldwide, Messi, Ronoldo and Beckham have to be at least honorable mention.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Tiger.

Not even sure who would be second.

Messi if this is global. He might even be first. For U.S. Tiger clearly.

 

[HuskyHawk]

She influenced this whole generation of woman’s players and was responsible for changing the way the woman’s game is played.
There is no Caitlin, Paige or Sabrina without her.

And there's no her with Lobo and no Lobo without Cheryl Miller. Come on. The sport doesn't matter.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Tiger isn't even close to Jordan. He doesn't have anywhere near the global influence, marketing influence, cultural influence, fashion influence etc. that Jordan has.

And one of the major ways he's credited with growing the game never even happened.

Jordan played two seasons with the Wizards in the last 25 years. He wasn't that influential from 2000-2025 other than selling sneakers. The 25 before that, sure. But then he'd be in a real close race with Ali.

 

[superjohn]

Jordan played two seasons with the Wizards in the last 25 years. He wasn't that influential from 2000-2025 other than selling sneakers. The 25 before that, sure. But then he'd be in a real close race with Ali.

He falls under the 25 years as an athlete and his influence is all over the sports world, marketing, culture, fashion etc. to this day.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

Jordan played two seasons with the Wizards in the last 25 years. He wasn't that influential from 2000-2025 other than selling sneakers. The 25 before that, sure. But then he'd be in a real close race with Ali.

Not a ton of influence outside of the Jordan Brand. Has stayed out of the media for the most part, which I respect. The Last Dance was really good, though.

Infamously a pretty mediocre Owner/Exec. Golfs and seems to mostly keep to himself. I even think the Shoe influence is waning a bit, not because interest in them has fallen, but there are so many good basketball shoes and players with their own signature shoe now. Giannis’, Way of Wade’s, Ja’s shoes are great, etc.

 

[Windham4th]

The stats would suggest you’re wildly off. Tiger started an absolute boom of the game, which outside of the recession, has pretty much continued ever since. He’s still the biggest draw in golf, even when he was limping around the course not making cuts.

So COVID is the greatest golf influence of the past 25 years.

 

[Lafayette]

If Ed O'Bannon is on the list for what's going on in college now, then even though he didn't play in the last 25 years, Curt Flood has to be on there as well. Just about every sport has some type of free agency and a lot of the multi-millionaire athletes who can leverage their skills now owe him a thanks. Before Flood, players were looked at as property or assets by many owners.

I'll admit I'm not a big LeBron fan, but I don't think he's even ahead of Kobe or Shaq for influence. I would even say AI should be mentioned. When we have jersey day, there are still more Kobe and AI jerseys than LeBron on the kids here and about half of all the jerseys are Jordan, along with the shoes, shorts...etc.

It's hard to add Ohtani since he still hopefully has a good chunk of his career left, but as far as influence, Ichiro has had a greater impact in the last 25 years.

Jordan is the guy if the man didn't have to play. Tiger's impact can be felt worldwide. I think there was hope he'd bring more interest from black youth, but golf is still an expensive game for the most part, so it was impossible to really expect that without an economic shift. His impact on the game is undeniable. Golf courses began "Tiger proofing" to help offset his dominance.

And if we look at it worldwide, Messi, Ronoldo and Beckham have to be at least honorable mention.

The issue in general with influence in the last 25 years but if not an active player during then (e.g., the player was earlier but we feel the effect today) is one of grandfathering.

The Jordan Rules were circa 1988 leading to the league changing defensive rules. Today the same defensive rules are in play but they have been that way for longer than 25 years. Do we deduct that form Jordan's influence in the last 25 years?

Curt Flood should be remembered for free agency (even though he never got to be one), but at this point in 2025 it's just business as usual. I don't know that many people outside fairly studios baseball fans really know much of Curt Flood.

Ed O'Bannon's effort led to finally players getting paid. That happened 2 months ago so maybe that has more weight here.

Let the OP decide if "effect of athlete" had to be in the last 25 years, or did he want just athlete's play and if you retired < 2000 you don't make the list.

 

[Windham4th]

If Ed O'Bannon is on the list for what's going on in college now, then even though he didn't play in the last 25 years, Curt Flood has to be on there as well. Just about every sport has some type of free agency and a lot of the multi-millionaire athletes who can leverage their skills now owe him a thanks. Before Flood, players were looked at as property or assets by many owners.

I'll admit I'm not a big LeBron fan, but I don't think he's even ahead of Kobe or Shaq for influence. I would even say AI should be mentioned. When we have jersey day, there are still more Kobe and AI jerseys than LeBron on the kids here and about half of all the jerseys are Jordan, along with the shoes, shorts...etc.

It's hard to add Ohtani since he still hopefully has a good chunk of his career left, but as far as influence, Ichiro has had a greater impact in the last 25 years.

Jordan is the guy if the man didn't have to play. Tiger's impact can be felt worldwide. I think there was hope he'd bring more interest from black youth, but golf is still an expensive game for the most part, so it was impossible to really expect that without an economic shift. His impact on the game is undeniable. Golf courses began "Tiger proofing" to help offset his dominance.

And if we look at it worldwide, Messi, Ronoldo and Beckham have to be at least honorable mention.

But the change he impacted was like 50 years ago. Free Agency in baseball was largely the same in 2000 as it is in 2025 (not including value differences)

 

[superjohn]

Not a ton of influence outside of the Jordan Brand. Has stayed out of the media for the most part, which I respect. The Last Dance was really good, though.

Infamously a pretty mediocre Owner/Exec. Golfs and seems to mostly keep to himself. I even think the Shoe influence is waning a bit, not because interest in them has fallen, but there are so many good basketball shoes and players with their own signature shoe now. Giannis’, Way of Wade’s, Ja’s shoes are great, etc.

24% of sneaker owners in the US own Jordans. Dude made $350 million from Nike last year.

 

[storrsroars]

Jordan played two seasons with the Wizards in the last 25 years. He wasn't that influential from 2000-2025 other than selling sneakers. The 25 before that, sure. But then he'd be in a real close race with Ali.

An interesting exercise would be to parse the last 125 years into 5 periods of 25 years each.

I don't think Ali wins the 1976-2000 period. His win over Foreman was in '74. But he'd crush the 1951-75 period, even over Jackie, IMHO.98 Jackie would win 1926-50 because it was just that big a thing. And Ruth wins 1900-25 as baseball was pretty much the only popular pro sport and he ushered in the live ball era with a bang.

And if we did it by decades, Ali might be the only one to win two.

 

[Deepster]

An interesting exercise would be to parse the last 125 years into 5 periods of 25 years each.

I don't think Ali wins the 1976-2000 period. His win over Foreman was in '74. But he'd crush the 1951-75 period, even over Jackie, IMHO.98 Jackie would win 1926-50 because it was just that big a thing. And Ruth wins 1900-25 as baseball was pretty much the only popular pro sport and he ushered in the live ball era with a bang.

And if we did it by decades, Ali might be the only one to win two.

And Ali wins most influential ever.

 

[Kolumbo]

And there's no her with Lobo and no Lobo without Cheryl Miller. Come on. The sport doesn't matter.

It depends. If you are talking most influential overall and reach, it probably has to be from a popular sport. If you are talking like percentage influential for their sport, then sure, you can sink down to women's basketball. This thread is about U.S. Athletes so I think the author meant American athletes. Otherwise Messi would certainly be up there. Every kid playing soccer knows who Messi is.

I kind of feel like Jordan would only be included if we went back to the '90's. At the same time, how is this for influence

 

[TheChamps990411]

In your opinion, who is the most influential athlete in America over the past 25 years? You define influential.

Tiger? Caitlin Clark? Brady? The only thing is their influence has to be directly felt, not tangentially. And they have to have been active in the 2ks.

Im keeping this confined to this country. If you are big elsewhere, even better, but for this post's purpose, like the pop music charts- you ain't a hit unless you're a hit here.

(They dont have to be American born)

Is Caitlin Clark a serious option?

 

[thekollieman]

It depends. If you are talking most influential overall and reach, it probably has to be from a popular sport. If you are talking like percentage influential for their sport, then sure, you can sink down to women's basketball. This thread is about U.S. Athletes so I think the author meant American athletes. Otherwise Messi would certainly be up there. Every kid playing soccer knows who Messi is.

I kind of feel like Jordan would only be included if we went back to the '90's. At the same time, how is this for influence


View attachment 111285

This feels like a checkmate post.

 

[Chin Diesel]

And Ali wins most influential ever.

A kid on Tapei's LL baseball team listed Ali as his favorite athlete.

 

[Deepster]

Is Caitlin Clark a serious option?

Not in my opinion. Almost laughable.