Ranking the Top 10 New York Athletes of the Century

When you think about New York athletes, you think of greatness on the world's biggest stages.

From Babe Ruth and Willis Reed to Joe Namath and Lawrence Taylor, New York players have provided countless iconic sports moments.

But those four are from the distant past. We set out to find the top 10 Big Apple athletes since January 1, 2000. Anything an athlete did before that date was not taken into account.

The criteria that received the most weight were postseason performance and success. A close second in importance was how high the player's peak performance was, followed by how long they sustained their greatness.

We considered all New York players from the NFL, NBA, WNBA, NHL and MLB.

Honorable Mentions

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Former Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony

Knicks: Carmelo Anthony

Anthony was a six-time All-Star with New York and won a scoring title, but his Knicks teams went just 1-3 in playoff series.

Liberty: Sabrina Ionescu, Jonquel Jones, Tina Charles

Ionescu has a championship and four All-Star selections, but she's never made first-team All-WNBA. Jones (2024 Finals MVP) has only one All-Star appearance in three seasons with the Liberty, while Charles won just one playoff series in her New York tenure.

Mets: David Wright, Jacob deGrom

Wright made seven All-Star teams, but his postseason numbers (24 games, .198 batting average) kept him out of the top 10 here. If we extended this list to 11, deGrom would have made it with his two Cy Young Awards. The issue for him is that he pitched in only five playoff games with the Mets.

Yankees: Robinson Canó

Four Yankees made the top 10, so their fans shouldn't be too frustrated about Canó being left off. He hit just .222 in his playoff career.

Rangers: Chris Kreider

Kreider had a consistent 13-year tenure with the Rangers, but his peaks weren't high enough for serious top-10 consideration.

Islanders: John Tavares

Tavares finished in the top three of Hart Trophy voting twice in his Islanders tenure, but his team's lack of playoff success (one playoff series win) did him in.

Giants: Tiki Barber

Barber had 9,514 rushing yards with the Giants from 2000-06. If he was on one of their Super Bowl teams, he would have made the list.

Jets: Curtis Martin, Kevin Mawae

Mawae and Martin both spent just six seasons on the Jets this century. They were great for most of them, but they each had only one first-team All-Pro nod in that time frame.

10. Jets CB Darrelle Revis

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Seasons: 2007-12, 2015-16
Playoff Record: 4-2 (zero championships)
Accolades: 5x Pro Bowl, 3x first-team All-Pro, 2nd in 2009 DPOY voting

Darrelle Revis' first five seasons with the Jets were one of the greatest cornerback peaks in NFL history.

The numbers were great (95 passes defensed, 18 INTs), but they don't tell the whole story.

Revis routinely played man coverage against the best receivers in the NFL and totally shut them down.

Had Revis won a Super Bowl with the Jets, he'd be much higher on this list. He did have two AFC Championship Game appearances with New York, but that's not all that impressive compared to the playoff resumes of the players to come.

9. Rangers G Henrik Lundqvist

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Seasons: 2005-2020
Playoff Series Record: 11-12 (zero championships)
Accolades: One Vezina trophy, 10 top-six Vezina finishes

Lundqvist's lack of championships brings down his resume, but don't make the mistake of thinking he was a poor playoff performer.

Lundqvist's playoff save percentage was .921, which is in the top 20 all-time among qualified goalies.

But the bottom line is that the Rangers made just one Stanley Cup Final with him in goal. Overall, they went 61-67 in the postseason with him.

Lundqvist is in the top 10 all-time in wins and save percentage. If we weighted regular-season achievements more than playoff ones, he'd rank much higher here.

8. Knicks PG Jalen Brunson

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Seasons: 2022-Present
Playoff Series Record: 7-3 (currently zero championships)
Accolades: 3x All-Star, 3x second-team All-NBA

Brunson is tough to rank right now.

If the Knicks win the 2026 NBA Finals, he'll deserve to move up a few spots. If they lose, you could argue he should fall a few spots.

We're splitting the difference with this eighth-place ranking for the 2026 Eastern Conference Finals MVP.

One thing helping Brunson is his excellent playoff stats. He's averaging 29.2 points per game (on 51.7 eFG%) in his four playoff runs with the Knicks.

Only Kevin Durant, Allen Iverson, Luka Dončić and Michael Jordan have higher career postseason scoring averages.

That playoff dominance is what has him in over Carmelo Anthony (28.0 PPG, 43.3 eFG% in Knicks playoff tenure) and Sabrina Ionescu (15.3 PPG, 49.5 eFG% in playoff career).

7. Liberty F Breanna Stewart

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Seasons: 2023-Present
Playoff Series Record: 5-2 (one championship)
Accolades: MVP, 2x first-team All-WNBA, 3x All-Star

Breanna Stewart had an incredible first three seasons in New York.

In 2023, she won WNBA MVP for the second time in her career, but the Liberty's title-less drought extended to 27 seasons, as they lost in the Finals to the Las Vegas Aces.

In 2024, she helped lead the Liberty to their first-ever title over the Minnesota Lynx.

In 2025, her three-point shot fell off (24.1 percent), but she still finished ninth in MVP voting.

Among all players this century, only Stewart and Alex Rodriguez have a championship and an MVP in New York.

Aside from having such a short tenure so far, what's holding Stewart back from the top six is shooting just 32.6 percent in that 2024 Finals series against the Lynx.

It's not that she was totally ineffective, as she averaged team highs in points (18.6), rebounds (11.0), blocks (2.2) and steals (2.0). But she didn't dominate the biggest stage the way many of the players ranked above her here did.

6. Giants DE Michael Strahan

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Seasons: 2000-2007
Playoff Record: 6-3 (one championship)
Accolades: Broke NFL single-season sack record, 4x Pro Bowl, 2x first-team All-Pro, 2001 Defensive Player of the Year

The first seven seasons and 52.5 sacks of Strahan's career are not included here because they occurred before 2000.

That prevents him from making the top five of these rankings, but his final eight seasons were spectacular all the same.

In 2001, he broke the single-season sack record with 22.5. That record wasn't matched until 2021 (T.J. Watt), and it wasn't broken until 2025 (Myles Garrett).

It took him until his final season to break through with a Super Bowl. He had a sack, two QB hits and a pass defensed in the Giants' 17-14 upset victory over the then-18-0 New England Patriots.

5. Yankees RF Aaron Judge

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Seasons: 2016-Present
Playoff Series Record: 9-8 (zero championships)
Accolades: 3x MVP, 7x All-Star, most HR for an AL player in a season (62)

Statistically, Aaron Judge is the best New York athlete since 2000. So why is he ranked fifth here?

Everyone ahead of him in these rankings has a championship and has had iconic moments on the biggest stages.

Meanwhile, Judge's career postseason batting average is .236, and almost all of his most clutch playoff moments have come in the series before the ALCS and World Series.

If Judge won a World Series and played even moderately well during the run, he'd vault to No. 1 in these rankings. Until then, even as arguably the best hitter of his generation, it won't be clear if he belongs ahead of his fellow recent Yankees icons.

4. Yankees 3B Alex Rodriguez

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Seasons: 2004-2016
Playoff Series Record: 6-9 (one championship)
Accolades: 2x MVP, 7x All-Star, 3x Silver Slugger

Going into the 2009 season, Alex Rodriguez was a lot like Judge is today. He had incredible stats and accolades, but no World Series title.

Then he carried the Yankees to a World Series with a .365 average, six home runs and 18 RBI in 15 games.

His playoff stats were otherwise underwhelming, as was the Yankees' playoff series record with him on the field. Perhaps it's harsh to have him at No. 4 considering he hit 351 home runs in his New York tenure, but the three players ahead of him had major playoff magic.

3. Yankees RP Mariano Rivera

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Seasons: 2000-2013
Playoff Series Record: 12-10 (two championships)
Accolades: 11x All-Star, 2003 ALCS MVP

Mariano Rivera's career postseason ERA is 0.70. That's outrageous.

Even though the first five years of his career don't count for these rankings, his postseason ERA was 0.86 from 2000 on.

Rivera is perhaps the most clutch pitcher in baseball history, but his one career playoff loss came at the absolute worst time.

He entered Game 7 of the 2001 World Series with a 2-1 lead. He gave up two runs, handing the Arizona Diamondbacks the Fall Classic.

Still, one could argue that the rest of his playoff resume, including tossing three shutout innings in Game 7 of the Yankees' 2003 ALCS victory, could put him in the top two of this list.

But the fact that he was a closer ultimately hurt his cause when going up against the two athletes ahead of him, both of whom were more relied on by their teams.

2. Giants QB Eli Manning

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Seasons: 2004-2019
Playoff Record: 8-4 (two championships)
Accolades: 4x Pro Bowl, 2x Super Bowl MVP

Manning's playoff runs in the 2007 and 2011 seasons are stuff of legend.

The 2007 Giants beat the Buccaneers, Cowboys and Packers on the road before stunning the then-18-0 Patriots in the Super Bowl. Manning combined with David Tyree for one of the most iconic moments in sports history.

Their 2011 run was almost as dramatic, as they beat the 49ers in overtime in the NFC Championship Game before edging the Patriots again in the Super Bowl with another do-or-die fourth-quarter scoring drive.

Manning's stats in those two runs: 15 TDs, two INTs.

Outside of those seasons, the Giants made the playoffs just four times in Manning's tenure. He was never named to an All-Pro team.

But since playoff success was the most heavily weighted criterion, he has to be in the top two of these rankings.

1. Yankees SS Derek Jeter

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Seasons: 2000-2014
Playoff Series Record: 12-10 (two championships)
Accolades: 2000 World Series MVP, 12x All-Star

Derek Jeter batted .301 in the playoffs from 2000 through the rest of his career, but it felt like he batted .400 with how many clutch hits he had.

Among them was his 2001 World Series walk-off homer against the Diamondbacks that solidified his nickname as Mr. November.

Perhaps Jeter's most iconic play was in the 2001 ALDS when he flipped the ball to Jorge Posada to get Jeremy Giambi out at home to preserve a one-run lead.

Ultimately, the combination of Jeter's regular-season accolades and playoff success gave him the edge over Eli Manning for the top New York athlete of the century.