W
hen I’m doing Athlete of the Week interviews, I usually ask something along the lines of, “Who’s your favorite athlete?” It’s almost always an active player, like Steph Curry or Cam Newton or Kevin Kiermaier. But I’ve also had kids tell me about athletes such as Kobe Bryant, Mike Alstott, Allen Iverson, Jennie Finch and even Texas legend Earl Campbell, for example.
When a teenager tells me their favorite athlete is someone I watched when I was growing up, or even someone their parents watched way back when, it’s a nice surprise. Even if it’s someone like Bryant, who retired fairly recently, that still means the kids have to have gotten on YouTube to watch him play in his prime. Seeing “Prime Kobe” play in person in the 2009 NBA Finals remains one of my favorite basketball experiences ever. I’d say his older game clips are essential viewing for any young basketball player who wants to play shooting guard and get buckets.
I encourage all young athletes to do some research on the greats of the past. Go see exactly how Michael Jordan revolutionized basketball, how Wayne Gretzky’s hockey dominance is still unmatched in the sports world and how Kurt Angle really did win an Olympic gold medal on, as he’s always said, a “broken freakin’ neck.” YouTube is as much an educational tool as it is a resource to listen to music or watch videos of talkative people playing video games.
With that said, I can think of a handful of athletes from the past that every young sports fan should check out.
I have to mention Allen Iverson first because, in my opinion, he’s the greatest high school athlete of all time. Though he’s best known for what he’s done in basketball, Iverson’s football clips are fantastic. I believe he could have succeeded at the college level and made it to the NFL one day, though his height may have been an issue at the time. There’s at least one video on YouTube that combines both his basketball and football highlights out there — go watch it.
Every baseball fan around my age grew up with Ken Griffey Jr. “The Kid” is probably one of the five best players ever to step onto a Major League Baseball field, but the thing about his game that’s most worth watching is the swing. No one in baseball has ever had a motion as smooth and nearly flawless as his, as far as I know, and that’s how you hit most of your 630 home runs clean in the infamous “Steroid Era.” If any one swing in the game is worth studying and mimicking at the plate, it’s that one.
If you’re too young to remember prime Randy Moss, a trip to YouTube might make you think he was better than Odell Beckham Jr. There’s a good reason the term for making a difficult catch over a defensive back has been “Mossed” for probably two decades. But I’m going to direct readers to highlights from his college days at Marshall first, rather than start with the Minnesota Vikings teams he starred on. Moss was college football’s most unfair advantage in his day and, if you don’t believe me, see for yourself. Then, if you’re a Florida State fan, realize he almost did all of that as a Seminole.
Hockey may not be the most popular sport in the area, but I do think there are some players that anyone could appreciate. One that always stuck out to me is Pavel Datsyuk, who played for the Detroit Red Wings for seemingly forever and mastered the art of handles. Datsyuk could make people miss with a deke in the same way those guys from the And1 basketball mixtapes could do on the court, minus some of the flash. He hasn’t left the game yet, still going strong in Russia’s KHL, but his Red Wings years brought some world-class highlights.
There are plenty of other great things worth seeking out, like Vlad Guerrero’s ability to hit any bad pitch, Vince Wilfork’s beastly high school tape and Jason Williams passing basketballs like a wizard. This is all just the tip of the iceberg and there’s plenty of time for kids to learn more about their favorite sports this summer.