Top 5 Athletes who changed their Sport forever

[Madmick]

Indeed. Another argument for how Oscar Robertson changed the game is that he averaged a triple double for an entire season. Not sure if anyone has done that before or since.

I wouldn't say that's a good indicator of influence. That's an arbitrary statistic.

Cousy was the original innovator of dribbling.

Russell was the father of the shot block.

Kareem moved the game above the rim (even Wilt didn't really play an ATR game despite that he could).

Jerry West, despite his lousy shooting by today's standards, convinced the world you could actually win by scoring from the outside.

Pistol Pete showed the Hardens of the world that you don't have to play defense to be a star.

Dr. J made everyone want to slash & dunk.

Magic broke mental barriers around rigid positional theory, shattering the prejudice that big men couldn't bring the ball up the floor, while also ironically inspiring all guards to be pass-first players. He and Bird saved the league.

Danny Ainge, catching the light bouncing off Bird, was the first true, dedicated sharpshooter in the league.

The Detroit Bad Boys as a team duped everyone into believing that defense was more important than offense to winning championships. More than one generation of high schools boys was raised on this misguided belief (mine among them).

Olajuwon, the first foreign-born Hall of Famer, or Sabonis before him, who played his prime outside the league, can be credited with ushering in the era of foreign-born superstars (though really it was Jordan and the Dream Team).

Garnett pioneered the youth recruitment culture that plagues the league with its controversy to this day.

They changed rules and rims because Shaq was so dominant.

Lebron spearheaded the superstar-shops-for-a-team-that-wins-rings which has become the norm. This legacy is defined by "The Decision".

Curry raised 3-ball madness to a fever pitch.


I'd nominate any of these players above The Big O, but nominating any is silly in the shadow of Jordan. He upended the entrenched belief that the game belonged to big men overnight. He spread the game beyond American borders. He embedded the perception of basketball as a game defined & dominated by an individual, not a team, which thrives today when ESPN talking heads obsess over teams not being able to win championships because they don't have "the guy" who can get it done.

He's the reason we play: to be like Mike.

 

[PurpleStorm]

off top of mi cabesa:

NFL
Offense - Joe Montana. Demonstrated the effectiveness of limiting turnovers & remaining cool under pressure.
Defense - Lawrence Taylor. Made every team concentrate on murdering or protecting the qb's blind side.

Basketball
Offense: Kareem. The Dream. Lots of rules changes due to this man's dominance
Defense: Dennis Rodman. Showed that rebounding is an art less related to size than to hustle & skill & art

Baseball
Offense - Babe Ruth. Made everyone aware of stats like rbi's, slugging percentage and intentional walks.
Defense - Bob Gibson. So dominant they had to lower the mound to give hitters a better chance.

Football / soccer - Pele. Made defenders have to watch out for banana kicks.

Cycling
Positive: Eddie Murks. Decent chap who helped bring it worldwide attention.
Negative: Lance Douchstrong. Equated it in the public's eyes with doping and bullying.

MMA
Some Gracie and Fedor. Because smart folks here say so.

UFC:
Khabib. You've now gotta be decent in all phases of mma to be successful

 

[PurpleStorm]

I wouldn't say that's a good indicator of influence. That's an arbitrary statistic.

Cousy was the original innovator of dribbling.

Russell was the father of the shot block.

Kareem moved the game above the rim (even Wilt didn't really play an ATR game despite that he could).

Jerry West, despite his lousy shooting by today's standards, convinced the world you could actually win by scoring from the outside.

Pistol Pete showed the Hardens of the world that you don't have to play defense to be a star.

Dr. J made everyone want to slash & dunk.

Magic broke mental barriers around rigid positional theory, shattering the prejudice that big men couldn't bring the ball up the floor, while also ironically inspiring all guards to be pass-first players. He and Bird saved the league.

Danny Ainge, catching the light bouncing off Bird, was the first true, dedicated sharpshooter in the league.

The Detroit Bad Boys as a team duped everyone into believing that defense was more important than offense to winning championships. More than one generation of high schools boys was raised on this misguided belief (mine among them).

Olajuwon, the first foreign-born Hall of Famer, or Sabonis before him, who played his prime outside the league, can be credited with ushering in the era of foreign-born superstars (though really it was Jordan and the Dream Team).

Garnett pioneered the youth recruitment culture that plagues the league with its controversy to this day.

They changed rules and rims because Shaq was so dominant.

Lebron spearheaded the superstar-shops-for-a-team-that-wins-rings which has become the norm. This legacy is defined by "The Decision".

Curry raised 3-ball madness to a fever pitch.


I'd nominate any of these players above The Big O, but nominating any is silly in the shadow of Jordan. He upended the entrenched belief that the game belonged to big men overnight. He spread the game beyond American borders. He embedded the perception of basketball as a game defined & dominated by an individual, not a team, which thrives today when ESPN talking heads obsess over teams not being able to win championships because they don't have "the guy" who can get it done.

He's the reason we play: to be like Mike.

Great post. I worded mine poorly. Didn't mean to suggest OR was the biggest influence on the game. Just that he did something cool for an entire season.

Full disclosure when you read my picks, above. When I was most rooting for the Pistons and Knicks it was heartbreaking to watch them lose to the Bulls. You're correct MJ was most influential. And I still maintain Rodman's best days were with Detroit.

 

[Foppa21]

Tiger Woods - make it that guys actually trained for golf.

Right now, Bryson Dechambeau with pushing the long ball. It's still too early to tell but there's going to be a lot of bombers coming in

 

[Based and White Pilled]

Kurt Warner

I'm a fan of the Greatest Show on Turf, but I'm curious how Warner changed football forever?

 

[Cold187um]

Dantoni and the 7 second Suns were the genesis of the free flowing ball movement offense that the modern NBA is built around

 

[HockeyBjj]

Tony Esposito- First butterfly goalie
Patrick Roy then cemented the butterfly style, and every goalie since then has mimmicked it

Those two changed the way the game was played more than Gretsky or Orr

 

[Madmick]

Dantoni and the 7 second Suns were the genesis of the free flowing ball movement offense that the modern NBA is built around

The "5 seconds or less" offense was blissfully fun to watch, but it didn't change shit, and the NBA is incontrovertibly not built around that style.

 

[ripsta619]

Tony Hawk

 

[Bluehefner]

Who makes it to your list?

I got:
Muhammad Ali
Michael Jordan
Tiger Woods
Usain Bolt
Conor McGregor

Great list. I’d replace Ali with Floyd, just for relevancy speaking.

 

[Source]

What did Wilt do ?

They instituted 5 rule changes because of him. They widened the lane, O and D goaltending, one about I bounding the ball, and free throws.

 

[CodeBreaker]

Great list. I’d replace Ali with Floyd, just for relevancy speaking.

Cherry-picking opponents aside, I agree with you. Floyd did change the entire landscape of how the business of boxing is done. Tho he was never bigger than the sport itself. Ali transcended boxing.

 

[Bluehefner]

Cherry-picking opponents aside, I agree with you. Floyd did change the entire landscape of how the business of boxing is done. Tho he was never bigger than the sport itself. Ali transcended boxing.

I never liked how he ducked prime pac and his style of running and holding, but he was an absolutely defensive mastermind.

He changed boxing completely man.
No boxers slug it out with the best anymore. They all more focused on carefully managing their careers instead. It really ruined the sport, and it’s primarily due to Floyd’s influence. He changed the whole the entire approach.

Thankfully boxers like Teofimo are still keeping it old school.

 

[CodeBreaker]

I never liked how he ducked prime pac and his style of running and holding, but he was an absolutely defensive mastermind.

He changed boxing completely man.
No boxers slug it out with the best anymore. They all more focused on carefully managing their careers instead. It really ruined the sport, and it’s primarily due to Floyd’s influence. He changed the whole the entire approach.

Thankfully boxers like Teofimo are still keeping it old school.

Yea like i said I agree with you. Floyd is the best of his generation, and as a filipino I'm a huge Pac fan.
Floyd is basically the reason why Spence/Crawford and Wilder/Joshua never took place, yet. All I hear from these fckers are 60-40 split to make the fight happen lmao

 

[Bluehefner]

Yea like i said I agree with you. Floyd is the best of his generation, and as a filipino I'm a huge Pac fan.
Floyd is basically the reason why Spence/Crawford and Wilder/Joshua never took place, yet. All I hear from these fckers are 60-40 split to make the fight happen lmao

Exactly.
Even Canelo, as good as he is, has been careful with his matchmaking. It’s why there’s no super stars anymore and why UFC has taken over. PAC is 43 years old and still the biggest draw in boxing next to Canelo...pretty sad.

 

[Shido4.20]

James Thompson ~ first fighter ever, to have a war wagon

~JTWW 4 life

 

[Naoya#1]

Exactly.
Even Canelo, as good as he is, has been careful with his matchmaking. It’s why there’s no super stars anymore and why UFC has taken over. PAC is 43 years old and still the biggest draw in boxing next to Canelo...pretty sad.

He isn't and it depends where you are from. For example Japan, the biggest combat sports are Boxing, Kickboxing and judo and this is one of the reasons why a midget like Naoya Inoue is a superstar there. The average number that watched his last fights was 10 million ad it was tape delay, lol. While this sound impressive, combat sports in Japan aren't that big anymore.

Canelo, even with a trash card, can sell at least 500k (only Conor can do that) and 30-50 million people in Mexico alone watch him regularly.

Hw boxin I semi ded in the states but the Fury fight sold 1. 2 million in the states. With a good card, it could have sold minimum 2 million.. Which is crazy.

There are only a handful of real global superstars in combat sports. Ballsports dwarf them viewer and talent pool wise so nvm, haha.

 

[Bluehefner]

He isn't and it depends where you are from. For example Japan, the biggest combat sports are Boxing, Kickboxing and judo and this is one of the reasons why a midget like Naoya Inoue is a superstar there. The average number that watched his last fights was 10 million ad it was tape delay, lol. While this sound impressive, combat sports in Japan aren't that big anymore.

Canelo, even with a trash card, can sell at least 500k (only Conor can do that) and 30-50 million people in Mexico alone watch him regularly.

Hw boxin I semi ded in the states but the Fury fight sold 1. 2 million in the states. With a good card, it could have sold minimum 2 million.. Which is crazy.

There are only a handful of real global superstars in combat sports. Ballsports dwarf them viewer and talent pool wise so nvm, haha.

PAC and Thurman did 500K PPV sales in US last year. That’s higher than all the competing welterweights currently active.

 

[Naoya#1]

PAC and Thurman did 500K PPV sales in US last year. That’s higher than all the competing welterweights currently active.

Honestly, I never cared about Ppv. Pretty much the only reason is used them .. This site is full of us guys, haha.

The Fury fight sold 1. 2 millions and both still didn't hit their prime poularty wise.

Spence/Garcia fght sold more than 250k but this fight was for super hardcore boxing fans only, had zero promotion, a utter trash level undercard and they wanted 75 dollars.. Tztz. But yeah, it's good for Pac. Pretty much the only 40 year old midget who can still sell that much.

Boxings model is the worst if you want big Ppv numbers. They do everything wrong, but as long as the money is good, nothing will change, lol. ,

 

[sampuncher]

Who makes it to your list?

I got:
Muhammad Ali
Michael Jordan
Tiger Woods
Usain Bolt
Conor McGregor

Michael Jordan
Ronda (Bring it Sherdog, I'm talking solely for a female sport to be put on the same stage as mens plus WMMA being popular, not that she changed all of MMA forever)
Muhammad Ali
Maradona
Tiger Woods