Current Sports Stars Who Are Chasing Ghosts
Every athlete concerned about his or her legacy chases the ghosts that are the accomplishments achieved by those who came before him.
Fans will compare current stars to athletes from prior generations so long as sports exist. We do so via lists, when talking about who would be on our imaginary sports "Mount Rushmores" and while speaking with friends at a pub. Such comparisons drive, and even haunt, athletes obsessed with cementing their legacies.
LeBron James recently spoke about chasing the ghost of Michael Jordan. Sidney Crosby is close to becoming the greatest player in the history of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Stipe Miocic is maybe a few victories away from being known as the greatest heavyweight to ever compete in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
Sometimes, an athlete cannot actually catch a ghost. Sports opinions are often formed off of emotional responses rather than facts and figures, and no amount of titles won changes that reality. There is no one objective factor for determining the greatness of any athlete.
That doesn't stop certain stars from looking behind them, as they chase ghosts from the past.
Adrian Peterson
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Some ghosts can't be caught.
Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson probably isn't catching Emmitt Smith. Smith rushed for 18,355 yards during his remarkable career. Peterson, per Pro-Football-Reference.com, trails Smith by 6,680 yards. Peterson needs to average roughly 1,113 yards each season over the next six years to break Smith's record.
Peterson turned 31 years old last March. Per Will Brinson of CBS Sports, only 11 players in NFL history rushed for over 1,000 yards in seasons after turning 32.
Peterson isn't only chasing Smith's ghost. If Peterson rushes for exactly 1,000 yards during the upcoming season, he will be ninth all-time in career rushing yards. At 12,675, Peterson would leap ahead of icons like Franco Harris, Marcus Allen and Jim Brown.
Only seven players in NFL history rushed for at least 13,000 career yards. Four gained beyond 14,000 yards.
ESPN's Kevin Seifert noted in June 2015 that it has been 32 years since a RB last rushed for 1,000 yards past his 32nd birthday. Peterson may be a special athlete, but he is not ageless. Time will eventually catch him.
How many ghosts will he catch before that happens?
Carlos Beltran
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Texas Rangers outfielder Carlos Beltran is chasing the ghost of every player inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Beltran is also attempting to flee from the ghosts of athletes who failed to win a single title during their careers.
We don't yet know if Beltran will have his day at Cooperstown in the future. Barry M. Bloom of MLB.com compared Beltran with Chipper Jones when writing about their chances of being elected to the Hall. Bloom wrote that Beltran "sizes up very well," and that both Beltran and Jones have "very good" chances of being elected.
Beltran isn't a lock, though. He's 75 home runs shy of 500. He is at 2,570 hits. Beltran is hitting the ball well this season, but he turns 40 years old next spring. Odds are he will fall short of 500 HRs and 3,000 hits.
Beltran's resume is also missing a World Series ring. That could change between now and the middle of November.
The New York Yankees traded Beltran to the Texas Rangers on August 1. Texas currently sits atop the American League West standings and has the best record in the AL. Along with adding Beltran, Texas acquired two-time All-Star catcher Jonathan Lucroy before the trade deadline.
Barry Bonds, Ty Cobb, Ted Williams and Ken Griffey Jr. are four of the greatest players in baseball history. All four failed to win a single World Series. All four had better careers than Beltran.
Will their ghosts forever haunt Beltran?
Serena Williams
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Serena Williams is chasing one last ghost.
Williams made history earlier this year when she won Wimbledon for the seventh time of her career. That tied her with Steffi Graf at 22 majors apiece.
Graf was great. Williams may be even better.
Williams doesn't just win. She often dominates.
Stephen Tignor of Wimbledon.com referred to Williams' serve, a serve that averages over 100 mph on first deliveries, as "the most important shot in tennis history."
She looked like a player in the heart of her prime while avenging her Australian Open loss to Angelique Kerber in the Wimbledon final.
You wouldn't know Williams turns 35 years old in September by watching her play.
The ghost of Margaret Court is the only one still outrunning Williams. Court won 24 major tournaments, the most in history among all players male or female, during her career.
Assume, for the sake of argument, that Williams remains healthy and motivated over the next three years. She will, in that scenario, play in 13 major tournaments over that time. Williams will break Court's record by winning at least 25 percent of those competitions.
Anybody out there want to bet against Williams?
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Stephen Curry
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Former Chicago Bulls star Scottie Pippen tweeted last March that he hasn't "seen anyone better" at shooting the ball than Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry.
Curry won the National Basketball Association MVP award for the second straight season this past spring. He also, per Sean Gregory of Time magazine, put together an all-time great campaign. Curry made history by becoming the first player to average at least 30 points per game while averaging less than 35 minutes per contest. He broke his own record for converted three-point attempts.
Is Curry really the greatest shooter in NBA history? The numbers indicate he is not.
Beginning in the fall of 2012, Curry produced back-to-back good seasons. He followed that up with a pair of historic campaigns, during which he set records. That's four years.
Michael Jordan dominated the 1990s. LeBron James is unquestionably the best player of the past decade. Curry, meanwhile, is still adding to what is admittedly an impressive resume.
Per Basketball-Reference.com, Curry sits at 19th in career three-pointers made. Curry also has only a single NBA title to his name. Ray Allen is nearly 1,400 three-point buckets ahead of Curry, and Allen is a two-time champion.
Curry is 28 years old. His best days may be ahead of him. He still has a lot of three-pointers to make over the next decade before he earns the label of the greatest shooter in history.
Curry is chasing Allen's ghost at the moment. He can't even see James' or Jordan's ghost at this point of his career.
J.J. Watt
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New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick compared Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt to New York Giants legend Lawrence Taylor when speaking with reporters last December.
Kevin Patra of NFL.com did the same. Patra also referred to Watt as "the most dominant defensive player of this generation."
Watt has won NFL Defensive Player of the Year honors three times in his first five pro seasons. Via Pro-Football-Reference.com, Watt averaged 17.25 sacks per season over the past four years. Watt will be recognized as one of the greatest pass rushers in history if he maintains that pace over the next five or six years.
Watt isn't Taylor just yet, though.
Back in 2014, the New York Daily News put together a 15-person panel to decide the greatest players in NFL history. Taylor finished second behind only Cleveland Browns running back Jim Brown. The panel voted Taylor as the league's greatest defensive player.
Taylor is a two-time Super Bowl champion. He won the NFL MVP award for 1986. He is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Watt has a lot to accomplish if he is to even flirt with catching Taylor's ghost.
Watt didn't ask to be compared to Taylor. That doesn't matter anymore. The comparison was made in public by one of the greatest coaches in NFL history. It's now on Watt to live up to it.
Stipe Miocic
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Stipe Miocic is possibly a few wins away from being the greatest heavyweight champion to ever fight in the UFC.
Miocic became the promotion's heavyweight champion this past May, when he knocked Fabricio Werdum out in the main event of UFC 198. The 33-year-old who fights out of Cleveland caught Werdum with a crunching punch as he was backing up. That punch landed perfectly, and it shot Miocic to the top of the division.
Miocic is now chasing a ghost no heavyweight before him ever caught.
As Jordan Newmark of UFC.com pointed out earlier this year, no UFC fighter has more than two title defenses of the heavyweight championship. Brock Lesnar, Randy Couture and Andrei Arlovski are three fighters who fell short of successfully defending the title a third straight time.
Miocic's first title defense is scheduled for this September. He will face Alistair Overeem in Cleveland at UFC 203. A win over Overeem would put Miocic within reach of making history in 2017.
It would cement himself as, statistically speaking, the promotion's greatest heavyweight champion.
Remember when Miocic fought on UFC Fight Night cards in 2015? That same man is now closing out pay-per-view shows.
Chase your dreams, kids.
Cristiano Ronaldo
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Cristiano Ronaldo is the greatest footballer I've ever seen.
No disrespect meant to Lionel Messi. Ronaldo is just a better overall player.
Messi is arguably the greatest playmaker of his generation. As Guillem Balague of Sky Sports pointed out in April 2015, Messi is capable of featuring at multiple positions. A manager would not start Messi at center back, however, due to Messi's lack of size.
Ronaldo is taller than Messi by several inches. The Real Madrid superstar is a phenomenal athlete capable of rising above defenders and winning headers inside of the box. Ronaldo is incredible on the ball, and he possesses a rocket of a shot. He could dominate while playing anywhere in the outfield.
Talent means only so much as it pertains to legacy. Footballers are judged by the trophies, particularly the European cups, they win.
Ronaldo won the Champions League for the third time when Real defeated Atletico Madrid this past May. That, per TransferMarkt.com, put him in an elite category. Ronaldo still has a ways to go, though, before he catches up with Francisco "Paco" Gento.
Gento won six European cup finals while with Real.
Ronaldo turned 31 years old last February. His best days on the pitch will be lost to Father Time sooner than later. Ronaldo remaining elite for even the next four years would not guarantee Real winning another Champions League competition during that time.
Ronaldo's legacy is already set. He is, at worst, second on a list of the best players of the 2000s. Ronaldo is nevertheless chasing Gento if he wants to be known as the most successful Real player in history.
Sidney Crosby
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Mario Lemieux will forever be the most beloved player in the history of the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Lemieux, statistically speaking, is the best player in franchise history. Per the official website of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Lemieux still holds numerous team records. No Pittsburgh player scored more goals, notched more assists or accumulated more goals.
Lemieux's on-the-ice accomplishments are only part of his legacy.
As ESPN's Elizabeth Merril wrote back in 2007, Lemieux saved the Penguins as part of an ownership group that kept the team in Pittsburgh. We don't know where the Penguins would be today without Lemieux's efforts. Maybe they'd be in Kansas City. Perhaps they'd be in Las Vegas. Lemieux saved hockey in Pittsburgh more so than any other player.
Don't look now, but Sidney Crosby may be better than Lemieux when all is said and done.
Like Lemieux, Crosby possesses a pair of championship rings as a player. Crosby may never catch Lemieux in goals, assists and points, but Crosby recently turned just 29 years old. He theoretically has a lot of hockey left in the tank, as long as his body does not betray him.
Remember that things change quickly in the National Hockey League. Pittsburgh didn't look like a team capable of winning the Stanley Cup back on January 1. The Penguins changed head coaches during the season, and the club entered 2016 more likely to miss the postseason than win a title.
Crosby and his teammates then caught fire during the second half of the campaign, and the rest is history.
Crosby added a Conn Smythe Trophy along with the second Stanley Cup of his career to his resume this past spring. If he ever matches his feats from Pittsburgh championship run of this past NHL season, Crosby will surpass Lemieux in titles and match the team's owner in Conn Smythe awards.
Crosby is closing in on Lemieux's ghost, even if some Pittsburgh fans don't want to admit it.
Tom Brady
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A lot of players won four Super Bowl rings during their careers.
You may be surprised to learn that. Charles Haley won five Super Bowl titles, the most of any player, according to NFL.com. That same source doesn't even bother listing all of the men who won four Super Bowl championships as players. It merely says "many players" achieved that feat.
New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is one of them.
Whether or not Brady is the greatest QB in NFL history is a matter of opinion. Brady likely will fail to break many records before he rides off into the sunset. What we do know is that Brady will retire with at least as many Super Bowl rings as legends such as Terry Bradshaw, Joe Montana and others. Brady still has time to become the first QB in history to ever win five titles as an active player.
History suggests Brady better do so soon.
As Alec Nathan of Bleacher Report explained, Peyton Manning became the oldest QB to start in and win a Super Bowl this past February. Manning did so as a 39-year-old and roughly six weeks before turning 40.
Brady turned 39 years old on August 3.
No QB ever won a Super Bowl past his 40th birthday. Brett Favre didn't do it. Manning isn't doing it unless he stages an unexpected comeback. Brady has one season left to make history and hoist the Vince Lombardi Trophy a fifth time before hitting the invisible wall for QBs that is the age of 40.
Then again, we have no reason to believe Brady is retiring after the 2016 NFL season. Perhaps Brady will make history in multiple ways at some point after August 2017.
LeBron James
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LeBron James could retire today and be known as the greatest basketball player of his generation.
James' resume is now complete. He is a three-time champion who has won multiple regular season and NBA Finals MVP awards. James brought a title to northeast Ohio and ended the supposed curse that hovered over Cleveland sports for over 50 years.
As Clay Travis of Outkick the Coverage pointed out, James may be the best player ever:
"LeBron is so good that he could play four positions if we put together the greatest starting squad in NBA history. Think about how crazy this is, LeBron could start at the 1 the 3, the 4 and the 5 on any collection of the best five players in NBA history. He's the most versatile and talented player in the history of the game. Jordan may have more accomplishments, but LeBron can do more things on the basketball court. Shouldn't that actually be the standard for the greatest of all time? Can you do more at your chosen craft than anyone else has ever been able to do?
"
That's not enough for James. He wants more.
James recently explained to Lee Jenkins of Sports Illustrated that he is chasing the ghost who "played in Chicago," the ghost of Michael Jordan's career. Jordan won six NBA titles in the 1990s. He likely would have won even more had he not halted his NBA career to play Minor League Baseball for a period of time. James, meanwhile, owns three NBA rings.
James is a 31-year-old who entered the NBA back in 2003. His window to win three more championships is closing.
"I’ll have peace when I’m done," James told Jenkins when talking about pursuing ghosts from the past. That drive helps shape a man who is an all-time great in his sport.
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