OT: Most influential U.S. athlete 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