Ranking Recently Retiring Superstar Careers
Superstar athletes come, and superstar athletes go. It's the sports version of the cycle of life.
Ranking the careers of all-time greats is no easy task, as the debate is all a matter of opinion. What makes one athlete a bigger superstar than a contemporary? Do you care more about championships won or about personal records set by an athlete? How important, if at all, are relationships an athlete forged with teammates during his career? Does it matter if the athlete is considered a nice person?
A wide variety of superstar athletes called time on their playing careers over the past 18 months. The National Basketball Association, to begin with, lost a pair of legends to age and to Father Time. Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan shared an era in pro basketball history, and both men won multiple championships. The two also embarked on vastly different careers, both of which are worthy of first-ballot inductions into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
As with Duncan and Bryant, age finally caught up to National Football League quarterback Peyton Manning. Unlike Manning, however, running back Marshawn Lynch and wide receiver Calvin Johnson seemed to possess enough left in the tank to give it a go for one more NFL season. Both of those men hung their cleats up earlier this year.
Every great athlete competes with ghosts of those from prior generations as it pertains to legacies and achievements. Discussions of overall greatness arise whenever a decorated athlete retires. The majority of the athletes featured here completed journeys to the figurative mountaintops of their sports.
Who tops your list as the best of them all?
10. Torii Hunter
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Torii Hunter was a rarity of a Major League Baseball player during his career, in that we watched him for his play in the outfield and not only for his at-bats.
Kids felt cool pretending to be Hunter either on Little League fields or in their backyards. Young aspiring pros imagined themselves leaping over fences and robbing batters of home runs, just as Hunter did many times as a member of the Minnesota Twins and later while playing for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
Joe Posnanski of NBC Sports described Hunter as "for a time, an otherworldly defensive center fielder." We assume Posnanski meant during the best days of Hunter's career, during which the outfielder took home Gold Gloves in nine consecutive seasons. Hunter isn't known as an all-time great hitter, but he earned a pair of Silver Slugger awards.
Hunter never a World Series.
Posnanski listed Hunter in his "very good players but it looks like they will fall short of the Hall of Fame class" when evaluating different players. Joe Lucia of TheComeback.com wrote in October 2015 that Hunter's numbers simply fall short of the mark.
Hunter became a superstar because of defensive stops featured on shows such as SportsCenter. His offensive statistics and longevity are impressive. Any hall of fame should, however, be reserved for the absolute best of the best.
Hunter doesn't make the cut, and thus he kicks this list off.
9. Calvin Johnson
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Former Detroit Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson, who retired earlier this year, will one day be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Or he won't.
Or he definitely will.
Or he doesn't deserve that honor one bit.
Take numbers and statistical comparisons out of the equation—just for a moment—and remember watching Johnson play. No, Johnson wasn't the second coming of Jerry Rice. The man affectionately known as "Megatron" did not light up scoreboards as Randy Moss did while playing alongside Tom Brady during the 2007 NFL regular season.
Johnson nevertheless played at an elite level for the majority of his nine seasons in the NFL.
Opinions of Johnson's hall-of-fame credentials vary. Frank Schwab of the Yahoo Sports blog Shutdown Corner wrote in March of this year that Johnson is a "slam-dunk first-ballot Hall of Famer." Lynn Swann, a former WR in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, explained to Josh Katzenstein of The Detroit News this past February that Johnson may not receive that honor because he never won a championship. Carlos Monarrez of the Detroit Free Press made arguments for and against Johnson:
"The longevity question will be the major thing that hurts Johnson, for two reasons. His nine seasons leave him far from approaching the all-time glory stats. As it stands now, Johnson leaves the game 27th in receiving yards, 43rd in receptions and 22nd in touchdown catches.
Pretty good. But all-time great?
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Johnson never forced a move from the Lions, and thus he never came all that close to winning a Super Bowl. Does that hurt his cause? For what it's worth, each of the athletes mentioned ahead of Johnson in this list won titles.
Championships matter.
8. McKayla Maroney
3 of 10When gymnast McKayla Maroney retired earlier this year, she retired a reigning Olympic champion.
Focus on that for a second or two. Maroney, per USAGym.org, is one of roughly three-dozen Americans gymnasts to ever win a gold medal during an Olympic competition. Her place in history is cemented, and she does not need to add anything else to her resume to strengthen her legacy.
Maroney is not a superstar today because of the gold medal she owns, nor is she because of the silver medal she won at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Maroney remains famous four years later because of the "not impressed" face she flashed at the 2012 Olympics that launched Internet memes. It made her a star beyond the world of sports.
In the summer of 2012, Maroney could have gone one of two ways: She could have either ignored her sudden fame and allowed those 15 minutes to expire, or she could have embraced it. Maroney brilliantly embraced it.
She famously posed for a picture with President Obama, as the two displayed their "not impressed" faces. Maroney then grew her social media presence to the point that her official Instagram page currently has over 1 million followers. Earlier this month, Maroney explained to Hannah Orenstein of Harpers Bazaar that she is now pursuing careers in music and acting.
Maroney may, for all we know, become a bigger superstar after gymnastics.
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7. Abby Wambach
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Not many American athletes retire as world champions.
We don't mean a world champion like Peyton Manning is currently a "world champion." We are talking about a champion of a worldwide competition, such as United States women's national team star Abby Wambach. Wambach called time on her playing career late last year following the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup won by Wambach and her American teammates.
It was a fitting final act for such a historic career. Wambach, as explained by the official U.S. Soccer website, retired as the leading scorer in international soccer history. In total, Wambach won two Olympic gold medals, and she hoisted the World Cup a single time.
Wambach won the FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year award for 2012. She's one of three Americans to ever earn that honor. Wambach retired as her country's all-time leading scorer in World Cup and Olympic play.
In a way, Wambach is similar to Ronda Rousey, as it pertains to legacy and comparisons of greatness. As the Ultimate Fighting Championship women's bantamweight division continues to improve, there will eventually come a better overall fighter than Rousey. The same can be said about women's soccer, particularly at the club level.
Wambach once played for the Washington Freedom of the Women's Professional Soccer league. Neither entity exists today. As the women's game grows and expands around the globe, Wambach should, theoretically, become more of a pioneer than one of the greatest to ever lace up a pair of cleats.
Odds are that the woman considered to be the best American player in the world 20 years from now will say she was inspired by Wambach and by Wambach's teammates.
6. Marshawn Lynch
5 of 10There are several reasons why we'll remember former Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch a decade from now.
We'll chuckle as we recall Lynch offering non-answers to reporters during Super Bowl week. We'll envision Lynch snacking on his favorite candies after scoring touchdowns. We will take to websites such as YouTube or whatever version of it exists in 2026 to relive that famous "Beast Quake" run Lynch completed against the New Orleans Saints in January 2011.
Those are all nice memories, but they overshadow the fact that Lynch retired as one of the greatest rushers in postseason history.
Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk explained in January 2015:
"But that game, in which Lynch carried 19 times for 131 yards, was far from Lynch’s only big postseason game. From that postseason debut through his 157-yard day against the Packers in the NFC Championship Game, Lynch has topped 100 yards in the playoffs five times, and topped 130 yards four times. Only former Broncos running back Terrell Davis, with five 130-yard playoff games, has reached 130 yards in the postseason more often than Lynch.
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One play changes a lot. Had the Seahawks opted to hand the ball off to Lynch from the one-yard line late in Super Bowl XLIX and had Lynch scored on that play, Lynch would be a two-time Super Bowl winner with a championship-winning run on his resume.
Retiring a two-time champion means more than walking away with only a single ring. Just ask Peyton Manning about that.
5. Tim Duncan
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"The Big Fundamental." Does any other all-time great player have such a backhanded compliment of a nickname?
Air Jordan. Black Mamba. Magic Johnson. Sir Charles. These are strong and impressive nicknames bestowed upon some of the greatest players in NBA history.
Yet, the best we do for Tim Duncan is "The Big Fundamental."
It's a fitting label for Duncan, as it adequately describes a player who wasn't the best at any one thing. The greatest power forward in NBA history isn't the game's best rebounder. Duncan will never top the list of the greatest all-time scorers. Duncan never evolved as an elite three-point shooter.
Duncan won five championships across 15 seasons. Not one of those years, however, stands out as a historic achievement for Duncan or for the San Antonio Spurs.
Back in June 2007, basketball legend Bill Russell wrote the following about Duncan for a blog featured on NBA.com:
"If you go by conventional methods—points, rebounds and assists—Tim Duncan’s numbers never reflect the way he plays. He is one of the few guys that the way he plays, the other team has to pay for that. The other team is penalized by the way he plays with or without the ball. I’ve said before one of the most important skills is being a good passer. However, a good pass, doesn’t always result in an assist. Some people say, "Well the guy made a pass that resulted in a layup, so that’s a good pass."
But a good pass is a pass to make plays, not a pass to get rid of the ball. Duncan makes good passes to make plays. Not all of them necessarily go to making an assist. Many times his initial pass sets up the motion that the Spurs want for their offense. Usually he determines the pace of their game by his passing. If you notice, you see less one-on-one when he is playing. That is one of the good things about that team. With different guys on the floor, they play different. They don’t try to have the guy who checked in play like the guy that he substituted for.
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Casual fans who are not students of every sport need to read this type of information. We otherwise struggle to adequately explain Duncan's greatness. No, Duncan is not as physically gifted as Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant or LeBron James in their primes.
But Duncan made those around him better. Duncan routinely executed the little things usually ignored in box scores and game highlights.
Duncan also won more than most ever will during their careers.
4. Raul
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Passionate international soccer fans will likely remember Raul, who retired in the fall of 2015, for his 16 years spent with Real Madrid.
The striker referred to as "best player of all time in Spanish football" by Pep Guardiola back in August 2010 (per Goal.com) helped Real win the Spanish Primera Liga on six occasions. Raul left Real as a three-time Champions League winner. Per the official Real Madrid website, Raul retired as the club's leading goal scorer until Cristiano Ronaldo broke that mark in October 2015.
While Ronaldo prepared to leapfrog Raul in Real's scoring ranks, Raul played out the final days of his career with the New York Cosmos of the North American Soccer League. Raul officially joined the Cosmos in the fall of 2014, well after his ability to dart pass top-flight defenders and score world-class goals had subsided. The Spanish legend nevertheless scored several noteworthy goals during his brief stint with the Cosmos, and he notched an assist in New York's 3-2 victory over the Ottawa Fury at Soccer Bowl 2015.
Per Bryan Armen Graham of The Guardian, Raul treasured the final trophy of his storied career:
"Today was my last game to finish my career, and I’m very proud of everything I did. I’ve been lucky enough to play in World Cups, Euro Cups, Champions League, and to win them, but this is soccer to me. To play on artificial turf, in front of crowds, in front of no one. I’ve been able to live all the experiences before I was a professional and a nobody, and after when I had achieved a lot of things. I’ve always enjoyed and I think I will continue to enjoy things from this game, but no longer as a professional player.
I’ve lived very special moments. It would be an injustice to just name one because they were all so special. The most important thing I can think of now is the accomplishment today.
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Raul's greatness on the pitch leaves a legacy of its own. Nobody would have criticized Raul had he retired before October 2014. Raul instead served as a leader on the pitch, in the dressing room and in training sessions one final time as a member of the Cosmos. He also offered himself as an ambassador of the sport for the Cosmos and for the NASL, often times doing so in front of half-empty venues.
Raul went out a winner—an honor he deserved.
3. Floyd Mayweather
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Why isn't Floyd Mayweather unanimously thought of as the greatest pro boxer in history?
Mayweather owns the credentials for such a label. Assuming that he never again fight in a licensed and meaningful contest, Mayweather sits at a perfect 49-0. Mayweather competed in five weight classes. He won and defended multiple world championships. Even during the twilight of his career, Mayweather flashed the best defensive skills in the sport.
During Mayweather's prime, opponents struggled to touch him at all.
In April of this year, ESPN.com staff named Mayweather the top pound-for-pound fighter of the past 25 years. From Dan Rafael of ESPN:
"In (Mayweather's) era, he had no peer defensively and is perhaps the greatest defensive fighter in history. But he also beat a who's who of his era and usually did so with ease. His sublime skill and polarizing personality made him the face of boxing and the highest paid athlete in the world as "Money" broke every boxing box office record with one mega fight after another.
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Championships, a perfect record and hundreds of millions of dollars. Mayweather did it all and he defeated them all.
That's not enough for all observers.
As Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports pointed out in September 2015, critics started to hit out at Mayweather for his selection of opponents as far back as 2003. Mayweather didn't fight Shane Mosley until Mosley's prime became but a memory. Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao took jabs at each other in the press for years before the two fought in May 2015.
Mayweather defeated Pacquiao in a boring and lackluster affair.
Evander Holyfield fought with more heart than Mayweather. Muhammad Ali's legacy will always outshine Mayweather. Mayweather is undeniably an all-time great.
He just maybe isn't as great as he would tell you he is.
2. Peyton Manning
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Peyton Manning only won the Super Bowl on two occasions. That is the criticism one may see or hear whenever Manning is compared with other all-time great QBs who also won multiple championships.
Think about that. The Super Bowl is technically 50 years old, as Manning and the Denver Broncos won Super Bowl 50 this past February. Of the thousands of quarterbacks who played pro football over the past five decades, only a handful won the Super Bowl more than once. Manning is on that list.
Manning also happens to be the greatest regular season QB in NFL history.
That last statement isn't opinion. As James Dator of SBNation.com pointed out in March 2016, Manning retired as the holder of over a dozen significant records. Most passing yards. Most passing touchdowns. Most wins. Single season touchdown passes. Most Associated Press NFL MVP awards. Manning holds all of those records, and those aren't all of the marks on Manning's one-of-a-kind resume.
One player alone does not win or lose postseason contests. Would Manning own an addition ring or two had the Pittsburgh Steelers, New England Patriots, New Orleans Saints or New York Giants drafted him back in 1998? We'll never know, and it shouldn't matter.
There's an argument to be made that his brother, Eli Manning, is a better playoff QB than Peyton. Both own a pair of Super Bowl rings. Eli, not Peyton, is a two-time Super Bowl MVP and notched two championship-winning drives over the past 12 seasons.
No reasonable person can say Eli's career is better than Peyton's. Nobody.
Any Mount Rushmore of NFL QBs is empty without Manning's face. At worst, Manning is one of the greatest athletes of his generation and one of the greatest football players in history. That's not too shabby, even if you would take Tom Brady over Manning.
1. Kobe Bryant
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Kobe Bryant may be responsible for the most complicated legacy among all-time great basketball players.
Let's start with what Sports Illustrated staff writer Ben Golliver referred to as the "easy part." Bryant won five championships during his time with the Los Angeles Lakers. He was named to 18 All-Star teams, he won All-Defensive honors on 12 occasions and twice earned the NBA Finals MVP award. Per Basketball-Reference.com, Bryant is third in total career NBA and ABA points scored.
Remember, also, that Bryant entered the NBA as an 18-year-old, well before his body fully matured and without any college experience on his resume. Bryant, a ruthless competitor, did well to evolve into a two-way player who, in his prime, ranks beneath only Michael Jordan on a list of the greatest shooting guards in NBA history.
So what's the issue?
To begin with, Bryant never dominated opponents to the same level as Shaquille O'Neal did during Shaq's prime. O'Neal, and not Bryant, won NBA Finals MVP for each of the three titles that duo won while with the Lakers. O'Neal is responsible for the "Hack-a-Shaq" strategy seen in the NBA to this day.
The NBA isn't changing rules because of Bryant in 2016.
Some of Bryant's doubters and critics lost ammunition after Bryant won a pair of NBA titles without O'Neal. Those championships are important for Bryant's legacy. We can't say how many championships Bryant could have won without Shaq and during Bryant's prime. We do know, however, that Bryant could and did win without playing alongside one of the greatest big men in NBA history.
So Bryant isn't Michael Jordan. Maybe you don't put Bryant in the top ten of your list of the greatest players in history. Perhaps you rate LeBron James ahead of Bryant. That's all fine. Bryant's credentials do all the talking for him these days, and they'll land him in the Hall of Fame less than a decade from now.
That is the only honor Bryant is missing these days.
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