Redefining Sports: The Athletes Who Reshaped Their Games

(Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

There are many "Top Ten" lists and "Favorite Player" lists on Bleacher Report and other publications devoted to sports and their players. 

Most of the articles talk about upcoming drafts, championship teams, best stats etc.  Very few are devoted to what I would call, "The Redefining Character" of the players who shaped the leagues around them. 

Much like a good team is often shaped around a central player, one player can make the difference in a sport as a whole.

I do not want my selections to be deemed as "the only" players who had such great effects on their sport, but I do believe my choices will be agreed upon as favorites—at the very least, in what made these sports into what they are today, or at least set a new prototype for their sports.

Lastly, please keep in mind that this article is not a "Who's Who" of the greatest statistics in sports. 

I am not talking about the greatest players ever, in some cases I am, but just the ones with the biggest impact.

Basketball: Magic Johnson

Earvin "Magic" Johnson wowed the world with his playmaking and natural abilities on the basketball court.  His gigantic, charming smile helped him become a media darling in the crazy 1980's, a decade dominated by his Los Angeles Lakers and Larry Bird's Boston Celtics.

Every second of Magic's court time seemed to vibrate with tension, and when he had the basketball in his hands, time briefly stood still. 

We watched him with our teeth biting our lips, anticipating, waiting, and wondering.  As we rose to our feet, awaiting the "magic trick," Magic would flip the ball behind his back to Kareem Abdul-Jabar, lob it with one hand to James Worthy, or shoot a lazy hook shot from behind the free throw line.

Everything Magic did on a basketball court seemed effortless, never choreographed, and many times, never done by anyone else.  He was pure entertainment, the LA lights, the traffic and skyscrapers, and the lifestyle all wrapped into one basketball player, one point guard, one man.

At six-foot-nine, Magic was too tall for a point guard in the NBA, a position usually reserved for the shortest of players.  However, he dominated his position, throwing more assists and passes, looking or not, than any of his contemporaries; but, oh, Magic was so much more than a big point guard.

He played an entire championship game as a center.  While his height made him a monster point guard, Magic was a minuscule center.  He dipped, drove, hooked, finessed, and scored his way to another winning game.

Magic's Lakers won five championships in the '80's.  Magic also holds the record for assists in the NBA, with 10,141, a stark contrast to his 17,707 points.

Now, with the NBA dominated by bigger and stronger players, a quick look back shows where that transition began. 

Sure, Magic didn't have the athletic gifts of LeBron James—at his peak, Magic rarely even dunked—but he was an out-of-place, too tall guard, in an era when the NBA was beginning to hit its stride as quality entertainment.

There was nobody before Magic nor after as entertaining as he.  The name says it all.

Women's Basketball: Sheryl Swoopes

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