Ranking Kobe Bryant, Shohei Ohtani and 10 Best Los Angeles Athletes of the Century
Los Angeles has been home to some of the brightest stars in sports, especially since the start of the 2000s. Kobe Bryant, Shohei Ohtani, Mike Trout, Clayton Kershaw, LeBron James and Aaron Donald have been among the most dominant in their respective sports during their time in L.A.
Meanwhile, the Dodgers have built a dynasty with three World Series titles in the last six years after coming out on top in an epic Game 7 against the Toronto Blue Jays.
With the Dodgers epic Game 7 win still fresh in the minds of sports fans, we've combed through the last 25-plus years of sports to select the 10 best Los Angeles athletes of the century.
Individual accolades, postseason performance, impact on their respective sport and recognition on a national level were all part of what went into comparing players across multiple sports.
The focus was solely on what players accomplished while playing in Los Angeles. For players who were active prior to the year 2000, only what they produced after that cut line was considered.
Trimming the list to just 10 athletes was extremely difficult, so let's start with some worthy honorable mentions.
Honorable Mentions
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Honorable Mentions
Lonzo Ball, UCLA
Mookie Betts, Dodgers
Anthony Davis, Lakers
Landon Donovan, Galaxy
Drew Doughty, Kings
Freddie Freeman, Dodgers
Pau Gasol, Lakers
Paul George, Clippers
Ryan Getzlaf, Ducks
Blake Griffin, Clippers
Justin Herbert, Chargers
Matt Kemp, Dodgers
Anže Kopitar, Kings
Cooper Kupp, Rams
Matt Leinart, USC
Kawhi Leonard, Clippers
Lisa Leslie, Sparks
Candace Parker, Sparks
Chris Paul, Clippers
Corey Perry, Ducks
Matthew Stafford, Rams
10. Mookie Betts, Los Angeles Dodgers
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Mookie Betts had already compiled quite the resume prior to joining the Dodgers, with a World Series ring, MVP award, four All-Star selections, four Gold Gloves and 42.5 WAR in six seasons in Boston.
Acquired prior to the 2020 season along with David Price in exchange for Alex Verdugo, Jeter Downs and Connor Wong in a trade that will still make any Red Sox fan cringe, Betts then signed a 12-year, $365 million that ensured he would be sticking around for the long term.
He now has three World Series rings in six seasons with the Dodgers, with a pair of runner-up MVP finishes, four All-Star nods and 32.6 WAR to continue building a first-ballot Hall of Fame resume. He also made a seamless transition from right field to shortstop this year, finishing as a Gold Glove finalist in an unprecedented show of defensive versatility and athleticism.
The 33-year-old hit just .229 during this year's playoff run, including .138 in the World Series, but he still made his mark with a huge two-run single in Game 6 to help propel the Dodgers to a 3-1 victory in an elimination game.
9. Jonathan Quick, Los Angeles Kings
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One of the best goalies of the last 25 years, Jonathan Quick anchored the Los Angeles Kings as they won two titles in a span of three years.
Quick led the league with 10 shutouts and had a 1.95 goals-against average during the 2011-12 season. He took home the Conn Smythe Trophy after going 16-4 with a .946 save percentage and three more shutouts during the Kings' march to the Stanley Cup.
Quick was not quite as dominant during the 2013-14 season, but he still did more than enough to help bring home a second cup in three years. He posted a .911 save percentage in the playoffs while logging two more shutouts.
Anže Kopitar and Drew Doughty deserve a mention as key contributors to those same championship teams, but it all started with Quick's consistent presence in net. All told, he spent 16 seasons with the Kings before he was traded during the 2022-23 season.
8. Reggie Bush, USC
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In August, Bleacher Report put together a list of the 25 best college football players of the century. Reggie Bush checked in No. 3 on that list, behind only Tim Tebow and Cam Newton.
After spending his freshman season third on the running back depth chart, he racked up 2,330 all-purpose yards and 16 touchdowns as a sophomore, starring alongside Heisman Trophy winner Matt Leinart on a Trojans team that finished 13-0 after steamrolling Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl.
The following year, it was Bush who took home the hardware, as he upped his production to 2,890 total yards and 19 touchdowns to edge out Vince Young in the Heisman balloting.
Bush had to vacate the Heisman in 2010 because he received impermissible gifts during his time on campus, but it was reinstated in 2024, properly honoring one of the most electric players in college football history.
7. LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers
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Let's start with a quick reminder that we are only considering what players did during their time in Los Angeles. If we were looking at his whole body of work, LeBron James would be ranked several spots higher.
As it stands, he has seven seasons in a Lakers uniform under his belt. During that time, he has averaged 26.6 points, 7.9 rebounds and 8.1 assists while leading the team to five playoff appearances.
Those five trips to the playoffs resulted in one ring during the NBA's famed Orlando "Bubble" in 2019-20. James was named Finals MVP after averaging 29.8 points, 11.8 rebounds and 8.5 assists in the six-game series against the Miami Heat.
The Lakers will likely always come third in the LeBron James story behind the Cavaliers and the Heat, but he has made his mark on the legendary franchise while continuing to be one of the faces of the sport.
6. Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels
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Although the GOAT talk has died down in recent years while he has battled injuries, Mike Trout has firmly established himself as one of the best players of his generation and a sure-fire, first-ballot Hall of Famer once he decides to hang up his spikes.
After struggling in his first taste of the big leagues in 2011, Trout exploded onto the national stage with one of the best rookie seasons in MLB history the following year. He hit .326/.399/.564 with 30 home runs, 49 steals and 10.5 WAR in 139 games as a 20-year-old.
That kicked off an epic eight-year run where he racked up 71.7 WAR and won three AL MVP awards while finishing runner-up in the balloting three other times. To put that 71.7 WAR figure into perspective, the next-highest totals during that same eight-year span were Max Scherzer (50.2), Clayton Kershaw (46.9) and Mookie Betts (42.5).
Unfortunately, injuries have limited Trout to only 396 games over the past five seasons, and he is still searching for his second trip to the playoffs. A quick ALDS exit in 2014 was his only taste of postseason baseball to date.
5. Shaquille O'Neal, Los Angeles Lakers
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Shaquille O'Neal spent eight seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers, but only four of them came after our 2000 cut line. However, it's also perhaps worth considering the Lakers' 1999-00 title run since they technically won that championship in the 2000 calendar year.
Either way, those four full seasons during this century are still more than enough to list O'Neal alongside the city's greats. He averaged 26.3 points, 11.5 rebounds and 2.4 blocks as one of the most dominant forces the sport has ever seen.
O'Neal won Finals MVP every year during the Lakers' three-peat. He averaged 33.0 points and 15.8 rebounds during the 2000-01 Finals and 36.3 points and 12.3 rebounds during the 2001-02 sweep of the New Jersey Nets.
The Lakers eventually traded O'Neal to the Miami Heat for a package of players and picks that included Lamar Odom, Brian Grant and Caron Butler. In their first season without him, they missed the playoffs for the first time in 11 years.
4. Aaron Donald, Los Angeles Rams
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In terms of sheer dominance at his peak, Aaron Donald stacks up to any defensive player the NFL has seen in the last 25 years.
The No. 13 overall pick in the 2014 draft found immediate success in the NFL, recording nine sacks and 18 tackles for loss as a rookie to win Defensive Rookie of the Year honors. He followed that up with seven straight first-team All-Pro selections, and he won Defensive Player of the Year in 2017, 2018 and 2020.
Donald's 2018 campaign was one of the ages. He racked up a league-leading 20.5 sacks, 25 tackles for loss and 41 quarterback hits.
During the 2021 season, Donald helped lead the Rams to a Super Bowl victory. After earning one final first-team All-Pro selection in 2023, he called it a career with 543 tackles, 111 sacks and 260 quarterback hits in 10 seasons.
3. Clayton Kershaw, Los Angeles Dodgers
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Even the most promising high school pitching prospect is still more or less a crapshoot when it comes to how they will develop between the time they're drafted and the time they finally reach the majors.
Clayton Kershaw was a hyped Texas high schooler with elite raw stuff and the frame to develop into a workhorse starter, which led the Dodgers to select him with the No. 7 overall pick in the 2006 draft. Two years later, he made his MLB debut just a few months after his 20th birthday.
By 2011, Kershaw won his first Cy Young Award. That season kicked off a seven-year peak where he went 118-41 with a 2.10 ERA and 1,623 strikeouts in 1,452 innings. He won five NL ERA titles, three Cy Young Awards and 2014 NL MVP honors during that stretch, establishing himself as the best pitcher of his generation.
Kershaw announced his retirement September, but not before adding one more World Series ring to his legendary resume. He was mostly a spectator this postseason, but he did get the Dodgers out of a bases loaded jam with two outs in the 12th inning of the 18-inning marathon in Game 4.
2. Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Angels/Los Angeles Dodgers
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It's difficult to decide exactly where Shohei Ohtani fits into sports history. There is truly no comparison for what he's doing as a two-way standout who is one of the best in the game on the mound and in the batter's box.
His exploits as a hitter have been the main story to this point. In 2024, he became the first player in MLB history to hit at least 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a single season, and he has a career 160 OPS with 280 home runs and 165 steals in eight seasons.
Ohtani also has 100 career starts on the mound under his belt, and with a 3.00 ERA, 1.08 WHIP and 670 strikeouts in 528.2 innings, he has pitched like a legitimate frontline starter when healthy.
All of Ohtani's tools were on full display during a performance for the ages in Game 4 of the NLCS when he struck out 10 batters over six shutout innings and launched three home runs.
He then hit .333/.500/.778 with three doubles, three home runs and five RBI in the World Series, while also starting Game 4 and Game 7 on the mound.
It feels premature to put him in the No. 1 spot on this list, but it also feels inevitable that he will wind up there in the not-too-distant future.
1. Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers
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The first four seasons of Kobe Bryant's legendary career came prior to the 2000 cut line. But what he did in the following 16 seasons is more than enough to make him one of the greatest players ever to step onto a basketball court.
The surface-level numbers don't do his full impact justice, but they're still worth mentioning. Starting with the 2000-01 season and going through the end of his career, Bryant averaged 27.2 points, 5.5 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game, was an All-Star every year, earned 11 first-team All-NBA nods and won two scoring titles.
Bryant won three rings playing alongside Shaquille O'Neal, two of which count for the purposes of this exercise, and then added two more during the 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons with Pau Gasol as his running mate.
He currently sits fourth all-time in NBA history with 33,643 points, and has a seat at the table in any conversation about the 10 greatest players in NBA history.
Shohei Ohtani is the story of the day, but for now, Kobe Bryant is still the most accomplished athlete the city of Los Angeles has seen this century.
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