The summer months are the slowest part of the sports calendar, which gives plenty of time for thought exercises. ESPN expended the free time by ranking the top 100 pro athletes of the 21st century.
It’s an ambitious project with a flawed formula. It’s impossible to compare athletes from different sports and compare achievements. That aside though, it’s a fun activity to do with ample free time.
The Oklahoma City Thunder had a sole representative among the 100 selections. Kevin Durant was ranked the No. 39 best athlete since 2000.
“‘I’m Kevin Durant. You know who I am. Y’all know who I am.’ That was Durant’s conclusion to a lengthy answer about pesky Patrick Beverley’s defense against him (with a whole lot of help, as Durant noted) early in a 2019 playoff series. Durant’s point: He had proved himself as one of the best scorers to ever play the game, a four-time scoring champion who had won the previous two NBA Finals MVPs, a blend of size and skill that had never been seen before. Then he averaged 41.5 points the rest of that series as the Warriors finished off the Clippers. As he has bounced from team to team, there has been one constant about KD’s identity: When he’s healthy, he has always been impossible to guard.”
Even though Durant’s departure left a sour taste for Thunder fans, there’s no denying his impact during his nine seasons in OKC. He’s one of the best players of his era.
The 35-year-old has been a mainstay in the NBA discourse since he was drafted in 2007. He won MVP in 2014 and is a 14-time All-Star. He’s won a pair of NBA championships with the Golden State Warriors.
Arguably, Durant should have a higher ranking. After all, he was a consensus top-two player for most of the 2010s. But his inclusion was a given considering how his career has played out.
