9 athletes with Boston ties make ESPN's top 100 since 2000

With the MLB All-Star break being the slowest week on the sports calendar, ESPN.com has published a “top 100 professional athletes since 2000” list . And it won’t come as a surprise to anyone reading this, but the list doesn’t really make a ton of sense.

It’s all over the place. Sometimes athleticism matters more than resume, sometimes resume matters more than athleticism. Sometimes longevity matters, sometimes it doesn’t. For example, F1 driver Lewis Hamilton is ranked 19th on the list, in front of the likes of Floyd Mayweather (25), Mike Trout (30) and Connor McDavid (98). Former Red Sox third baseman Adrian Beltré is ranked 52nd, while Shohei Ohtani is ranked 62nd. The article says the list was put together based on “70,000 votes from ESPN contributors,” so I guess that can account for the randomness. But this list’s main goal is clearly to create conversation and clicks during a slow period of the sports calendar, so it’s doing its job.

Nine team athletes from the Boston sports scene appear on the list:

5. Tom Brady (Patriots, 2000-19)

17. Shaquille O’Neal (Celtics, 2010-11)

23. Kevin Garnett (Celtics, 2007-13)

27. Randy Moss (Patriots, 2007-10)

45. David Ortiz (Red Sox, 2003-16)

52. Adrian Beltré (Red Sox, 2010)

73. Mookie Betts (Red Sox, 2014-19)

92. Pedro Martinez (Red Sox, 1998-04)

96. Darrelle Revis (Patriots, 2014)

A few additional New England connections to the list:

- Two-time Olympic gold medalist and one-time New Hampshire resident Mikaela Shiffrin comes in at 44th on the list.

- Jon Jones, the legendary UFC fighter and brother of former Patriots defensive end Chandler Jones, comes in at 66th.

- Two former UConn women’s basketball players made the list: Diana Taurasi (21) and Maya Moore (36)

The top spot on the list went to Michael Phelps, who won 23 gold medals in his illustrious Olympic swimming career. The rest of the top 10, in order, was as follows: 23-time tennis major champion Serena Williams, soccer legend Lionel Messi, four-time NBA champion LeBron James, seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady, 20-time tennis major champion Roger Federer, four-time Olympic gold medalist in gymnastics Simone Biles, 13-time golf major winner Tiger Woods, eight-time Olympic gold medalist in sprinting Usain Bolt, and five-time NBA champion Kobe Bryant.

Thank you to ESPN for giving us this ridiculous list to debate on one of the deadest sports days of the year. Appreciate it!