Athlete of the Decade

LeBron James.  Runners-up: Tom Brady, Serena Williams


I've been doing a weekly list of the top athletes as long as I can recall; I've got the full documentation from 1990 forward; here's 3 decades of Athletes of the Year:

1990: Joe Montana  

1991: Michael Jordan

1992: Mario Lemieux

1993: Michael Jordan

1994: George Foreman  90-94

1995: Hakeem Olajuwon

1996: Michael Jordan

1997: Tiger Woods

1998: Mark McGwire

1999: Tiger Woods   95-99

2000: Tiger Woods

2001: Barry Bonds

2002: Barry Bonds

2003: Lance Armstrong

2004: Peyton Manning   00-04

2005: Reggie Bush

2006: Roger Federer

2007: Tom Brady

2008: Usain Bolt

2009: Manny Pacquiao  05-09

2010: Maya Moore

2011: Aaron Rodgers

2012: LeBron James

2013: LeBron James

2014: Madison Bumgarner  10-14

2015: Serena Williams  2015

2016: Michael Phelps 2016

2017: Tom Brady  2017 

2018: Breanna Stewart 2018

2019: Megan Rapinoe  2019

So - the nominees for Athlete of the 2010s:

Maya Moore

Aaron Rodgers

LeBron James

Madison Bumgarner

Serena Williams

Michael Phelps

Tom Brady

Breanna Stewart

Megan Rapinoe

The only two time winner is LeBron; he's likely fairly non controversial as Athlete of the Decade.  By my current metrics, he's now the greatest basketball player of all time.  Brady secured his spot as greatest QB of all time as he flourished in his 30s and who the greatest female athlete ever is feels above my pay grade but Serena Williams has a pretty good claim.  Those three are clearly a cut above the rest of the field.

30 years down and onto the next.  There will be a point where I stop publishing this (in truth, the publishing really just serves as my own way to keep the records, I understand how the next thing sounds, but it just doesn't matter to me at this point in my life if you're reading this or not - that wasn't always true, but now this is entirely just a way to keep my lists) but I'm likely to keep doing this on my own until I drift off into the sea.  

See you (or not, I don't know your life) in the Roaring (?...will we hand it a nickname?  Wilting?  Weeping?  Whining?...I'm sure something will catch on) 20s.