The Top 10 Athlete Appearances on Sesame Street

In case you haven't been following the WNBA Playoffs...okay, since you haven't been following the WNBA Playoffs, you might have missed that the Atlanta Dream is getting kicked out of their own arena by Sesame Street.

Yep, in a situation that mirrors that of the WWE and Denver Nuggets affair earlier this year, Sesame Street Live has booked Philips Arena for the very same weekend that Atlanta is hosting their first home playoff game.

Except with the NBA, the WWE let the Nuggets have their arena back. In this case, Sesame Street is kicking the WNBA to the curb. It just goes to show, don't mess with The Street.

Not that Sesame Street and sports haven't enjoyed a nice relationship up to this point. In fact, the show has hosted numerous athletes over its long run. Here are the Top 10 Athlete Appearances on Sesame Street.

By the way, this slide show is brought to you by the letter M.

No. 10: Arthur Ashe

Arthur Ashe appeared on Sesame Street where he somehow helped children learn the alphabet by hitting a tennis ball against the wall.

Notice how enthusiastic Ashe is about being there. He looks like someone woke him up five minutes before they shot this.

Also, after we get to the letter Z, Ashe hits the ball against the wall one more time for good measure, but we're out of letters. Can you imagine how confusing this was for kids? Was there a letter after Z that we didn't know about? Don't toy with us like that!

No. 9: Terrell Davis

Super Bowl winner Terrell Davis stopped by Sesame Street to teach children a valuable lesson. He had a great game, but it turns out it wasn't complete until he said the alphabet.

I think this actually explains a lot. Maybe the Lions went 0-16 last year because none of them knew how to say the alphabet.

No. 8: Harlem Globetrotters

The Globetrotters made a very brief appearance on Sesame Street back in the 1970s, but I'm not sure the purpose it served. There was no introduction, just a couple of guys showing off some cool basketball moves.

You know some kids went out to imitate this and ended up breaking someone's nose with a fancy pass, giving up the game of basketball because they couldn't spin one on their finger, or getting into a fight when they tried to bounce the ball off their friend's butt.

No. 7: Joe Namath

There is no footage available of Joe Namath's appearance on Sesame Street. Reports are that he showed how to count down from 10 to 1.

We're almost sure that he was sober and did not try to kiss any of the Muppets.

100. 99. 98. 97. 96. 95. 94. 93. 92. 91. 90. We're 90 percent sure he did not make any advances towards Big Bird—although, by the looks of the picture, he was thinking about it.

No. 6: Keith Hernandez & Mookie Wilson

I don't know why Keith Hernandez or Mookie Wilson were telling us to "put down the duckie," but that doesn't make it any less awesome.

This may have been the mustachioed Met's first "I'm Keith Hernandez moment." He could do a random cameo simply because he was Keith Hernandez. Before Seinfeld, there was Sesame Street. Never forget that.

No. 5: Dr. J

Julius Erving starts his appearance on Sesame Street by dunking on a hapless little kid. Then he tries to make up for it by lying to the kid and telling him that he can dunk, and then watches as the kid humiliates himself trying.

Dr. J then explains that the kid just needs a little cooperation. He had the ball and Dr. J had the "tall." Unless that kid is constantly around someone with "the tall" for the rest of his life, he's going to need a jumper or something.

No. 4: Vince Carter

Here Vince Carter helped show kids the definition of "short" and "tall" with Grover.

You'll notice that they let Carter stick to his wheelhouse. They didn't try to teach kids about giving their best effort, sharing, playing defense, or making good shot selection.

Just "short" and "tall."

No. 3: David Beckham

David Beckham came on Sesame Street to teach a lesson about persistence. In actuality, this little skit just showed kids that they need to be annoying as hell and constantly bother people if they want to get their way.

It's not always a bad approach. That's how Beckham got Victoria—by pestering her until she agreed to go on a date with him. In the same voice as Elmo, too.

No. 2: Bo Jackson

Bo knows...COOKIE!

Well, we found out that Bo knows other things too, like letters, counting, up and down, near and far, etc. That's a lot!

I love the uniforms with the giant "BO" on them. As if we really could forget who we were talking about.

To be honest, I liked his appearance in Tecmo Sesame Street better.

No. 1: New York Jets

The unintentional comedy in the New York Jets' appearance on Sesame Street is off the charts.

First, Elmo (or his goldfish) actually pretends like they know who the hell punter Ben Graham is. Then Eric Mangini, in an "I hope this is slimming" black poncho, proceeds to torture Elmo with workouts.

What makes it all even funnier is that just a couple of years after this aired, none of those guys are still are with the Jets.

Kids, can you say "high employee turnover?"