Is ESPN Correct In Naming These Athletes As The Best Of The 2000s?

ESPN has had quite the week after deciding to do the impossible and rank the Top 100 athletes of the 2000s. 

As everyone knows, lists and rankings never go well these days - especially when the once-most trusted name in sports decided to go off the rails with some of its choices. Hell, even Pat McAfee ripped his own network for the mess that was the rankings of its 100-51 athletes.

"What a sh** show!" McAfee screamed about ESPN's rankings despite being actually on air on ESPN himself. 

PAT MCAFEE CALLS ESPN'S TOP ATHLETES LIST A ‘SH** SHOW’

"There is a top 100 list that is coming out from ESPN's people and I'll tell ya what, it is the epitome of everything that everybody hates about ESPN," McAfee continued. "What they chose to do about ranking the top 100 athletes of the 21st century… what a sh** show. What an absolute, terrible list."

Some of the more questionable choices included having Texas Rangers' outfielder Adrian Beltre at No. 52, ahead of Derek Jeter, Aaron Rodgers and even one of the all-time great hockey players, Alex Ovechkin. Say what?! How does THAT happen? 

Two days later, ESPN released the rest of the list - its top athletes ranked 50 to No. 1 of the 2000s and despite getting some more names completely wrong, like saying Kevin Garnett is the 23rd best player since 2000, I must hand it to ESPN for getting the Top 5 correct.

So, without further ado, here is ESPN's Top 5 Greatest Athletes of the 2000s List:

5. Tom Brady

4. LeBron James

3. Lionel Messi

2. Serena Williams

1. Michael Phelps

SURPRISINGLY, I DON'T HATE IT

When looking at the Top 5, you can see that, surprisingly, ESPN did not go with the most popular American sports. Instead, the list includes soccer, tennis, and swimming.

Although soccer's not nearly as popular here in the United States, the fact of the matter is, Lionel Messi is an absolute beast on the field. Messi has been named FIFA's best soccer player in the world 8 different times, while also setting a ton of goal-scoring records and more - he's literally the GOAT, so I have no issue with him being on it.

And whether you like tennis or not, to be fair, Serena Williams absolutely deserves to be in the Top 5 as well. Not only did she and her sister change the game of tennis, but Serena in particular did it in dominant fashion. She has 23 Grand Slam single women's titles, and was ranked the No. 1 female tennis player in the world for 319 consecutive weeks by the World Tennis Association. Yes, Serena Williams deserves to be there.

Love him or hate him, LeBron James has dominated the NBA throughout the 2000s. And Tom Brady? Well, out of 10 fingers, he has only three that don't have Super Bowl Championship rings on them, so yeah, I'd say he's worth that No. 5 spot!

Which leads us to No. 1 in Michael Phelps.

Some on social media had an issue with Phelps taking the top slot but I urge you all to watch my interview with Olympic swimming Hall of Famer and NBC broadcaster Rowdy Gaines - who called all of Phelps' world record-setting 28 medals including 23 Gold ones as well - something that very well may never be done again on the planet.

Rowdy Gaines told me that he absolutely believes that Michael Phelps is the greatest athlete of all time, and clearly the ESPN voters do as well. According to the media platform, "More than 75,000 votes were cast by ESPN’s reporters, analysts, producers, editors, and experts around the globe to whittle the initial list of 400 athletes to 100."

You can check out the entire ESPN Top 100 Athletes of the 2000s list here. (And yes, Tiger Woods is in the Top 10, rightfully so).

But let us know on Twitter - how do YOU think ESPN did with its list? Tweet us: @OutKick and @TheGunzShow with your choices!