Rob Bradsher

Top 100 Athletes of the 21st Century, ESPN 1. Michael Phelps, Swimming 2. Serena Williams, Tennis 3. Lionel Messi, Soccer 4. LeBron James, Basketball 5. Tom Brady, Football 6. Roger Federer, Tennis 7. Simone Biles, Gymnastics 8. Tiger Woods, Golf 9. Usain Bolt, Track 10. Kobe Bryant, Basketball 11. Novak Djokovic, Tennis 12. Rafael Nadal, Tennis 13. Cristiano Ronaldo, Soccer 14. Stephen Curry, Basketball 15. Katie Ledecky, Swimming 16. Tim Duncan, Basketball 17. Shaquille O'Neal, Basketball 18. Patrick Mahomes, Football 19. Lewis Hamilton, Auto Racing 20. Aaron Donald, Football 21. Diana Taurasi, Basketball 22. Sidney Crosby, Hockey 23. Kevin Garnett, Basketball 24. Albert Pujols, Baseball 25. Floyd Mayweather, Boxing 26. Peyton Manning, Football 27. Randy Moss, Football 28. Nikola Jokic, Basketball 29. Michael Schumacher, Auto Racing 30. Mike Trout, Baseball 31. Clayton Kershaw, Baseball 32. Marta, Soccer 33. Miguel Cabrera, Baseball 34. Tamika Catchings, Basketball 35. Dwyane Wade, Basketball 36. Maya Moore, Basketball 37. Ichiro Suzuki, Baseball 38. Barry Bonds, Baseball 39. Kevin Durant, Basketball 40. Justin Verlander, Baseball 41. Dirk Nowitzki, Basketball 42. Giannis Antetokounmpo, Basketball 43. Alex Rodriguez, Baseball 44. Mikaela Shiffrin, Skiing 45. David Ortiz, Baseball 46. Max Scherzer, Baseball 47. Jimmie Johnson, Auto Racing 48. Thierry Henry, Soccer 49. Aitana Bonmati, Soccer 50. Zinedine Zidane, Soccer 51. Steve Nash, Basketball 52. Adrian Beltré, Baseball 53. Derek Jeter, Baseball 54. Alex Ovechkin, Hockey 55. Luka Modric, Soccer 56. Alexia Putellas, Soccer 57. Calvin Johnson, Football 58. J.J. Watt, Football 59. Mariano Rivera, Baseball 60. Candace Parker, Basketball 61. Ray Lewis, Football 62. Shohei Ohtani, Baseball 63. Allyson Felix, Track 64. Mia Hamm, Soccer 65. Kylian Mbappé, Soccer 66. Jon Jones, MMA 67. James Harden, Basketball 68. Phil Mickelson, Golf 69. Jason Kidd, Basketball 70. Andrés Iniesta, Soccer 71. Manny Pacquiao, Boxing 72. Shaun White, Snowboarding 73. Mookie Betts, Baseball 74. Lisa Leslie, Basketball 75. Xavi Hernandez, Soccer 76. Georges St-Pierre, MMA 77. Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce, Track 78. Bernard Hopkins, Boxing 79. Bryce Harper, Baseball 80. Andy Murray, Tennis 81. Sheryl Swoopes, Basketball 82. Kohei Uchimura, Gymnastics 83. Chris Paul, Basketball 84. Lauren Jackson, Basketball 85. Kawhi Leonard, Basketball 86. Venus Williams, Tennis 87. Ronaldo Nazário, Soccer 88. Roy Halladay, Baseball 89. Annika Sorenstam, Golf 90. A'ja Wilson, Basketball 91. Aaron Rodgers, Football 92. Pedro Martinez, Baseball 93. Rory McIlroy, Golf 94. Ronaldinho, Soccer 95. Zlatan Ibrahimović, Soccer 96. Darrelle Revis, Football 97. Virat Kohli, Cricket 98. Connor McDavid, Hockey 99. Ed Reed, Football 100. Charles Woodson, Football

Novak Djokovic and the rest of the players remaining at Wimbledon

When I was accepted to med school in 2008 I told my mom, a life long tennis fan, that I would take her to Wimbledon one day. Last year, she was diagnosed with a high grade liposarcoma, which raised the Wimbledon urgency a bit. Radiation, multiple surgeries, and my own cardiac arrest later, here we are at Wimbledon, happy and healthy.

Novak Djokovic says tennis is endangered at the club level, ‘If we don’t do something about it globally, they’re gonna convert all the tennis clubs into paddle or pickleball’ “In terms of innovation in our sport… other than Slams, we have to figure out how to attract a young audience. Tennis on one hand is in a good place, but at the same time, when we look at Formula 1 for example and what they’ve done in terms of marketing, in terms of growth of the sport, in terms of the races around the world and how popular they are.. I think we need to do a better job on our respective tours. The grand slams are always gonna do well. But I think our tours need to do better. We are lucky to be very historic and a very global sport. But I think one of the studies that was done by PTPA 3 or 4 years ago showed that tennis is the 3rd or 4th most watched sport in the world along with cricket. Number 1 is football or soccer as you call it in the states. Second is basketball. Then it’s tennis and cricket. But tennis is number 9 or 10 on the list of all sports in terms of using its popularity, commercializing or capitalizing on that. I think there’s a huge space for growth. We’re quite fractioned as a sport. There are quite a bit of things for us to collectively look at and try to improve it. We need to grow the number of players that live from this sport. Very rarely do I see in the media that you guys are writing about the fact that you have only 350 to 400 players both men, women, singles, doubles across the board that live from this sport on this planet. That’s deeply concerning for me. Yes, we talk about the grand slam winner wins this or that. The focus is always on the grand prize but what about the base level? We’re still doing a very poor job there… very poor job. Tennis is a very global sport and it’s loved by millions of children that pick up a racquet that wanna play, but we don’t make it accessible. We don’t make it so affordable. Especially in countries like mine that doesn’t have a strong federation, that has Grand Slam or history or big budgets.. so I think collectively we all have to come together or create a new foundation, a corner stone of really what tennis is about.. which is the base level. The club level. Now we have paddle that is growing and emerging. People kind of have fun with it and say ‘Yeah but tennis is tennis. Tennis is the king or queen of all racquet sports.’ That’s true. But on a club level, tennis is endangered. If we don’t do something about it, globally or collectively, paddle, pickleball in the states, they’re gonna convert all the tennis clubs into paddle and pickleball. Because it’s more economical. You have one tennis court… you can build 3 paddle courts on one tennis court. Do the simple math. It’s just much more financially viable for the owner of the club to have those courts. These are some of the things I wanted to share. In the grand scheme of things, we need to address all these challenges and issues. Because they’ve been out there for a while. I don’t think we’ve been addressing it in the proper way.” (via Wimbledon Press)

I have watched this so many times and I am WHEEZING 😂😂😂