The Greatest Active Player In Every Major American Sport Right Now

Despite what your father thinks or what older sports fans at work grouse about — "Back in my day, players were tougher blah blah" — we're in a golden era of sports. Across the gambit of all professional sports, we're looking at some of the greatest athletes of all time. With the large number of outstanding athletes in each sport, it is possible to really name the best in each sport? You bet it is.

The biggest thing that obscures greatness is fandom. It's the common fan that gets caught up in the "my team has the best player" talk, or even "the player with the best products" is the best. That's not always the case. You can have a shoe named after you or play in the biggest television market, but that doesn't mean you're actually the greatest. Are you going to agree completely with this ranking? Certainly not! But see what you think. Here are the greatest active players in every major American sport.

Regardless of the sport, players that begin together are always intertwined. Magic Johnson and Larry Bird barely even need their last names attached. Mike Trout and Bryce Harper haven't reached that status yet, but both debuted in 2012 and both won the rookie of the year award in their leagues. Sports Illustrated once called then-high school phenom Bryce Harper baseball's Lebron, while Trout seemingly came out of nowhere to outshine Harper in just about every way.

When old timers talk about great athletes like Mickey Mantle, Stan Musial, and Frank Robinson, they're referring to a player like Mike Trout. He's as much Ken Griffey Jr. as anyone — only better at this point than The Kid's career. Yet despite all that if you're not a hardcore baseball fan, Mike Trout's name is virtually unknown. The Washington Post says his Q rating is a 22 — about one in five Americans know who he is. He had the same rating as Kenneth Faried (who?). You can sleep on Trout all you want, but the stats back it up. Not only is Mike Trout the best baseball player around he's one of the all time greats — already.

Hang on. If you're thinking "Lebron James" is misspelled, well, it's not. More on James later. If you had to compare Kevin Durant to any player in NBA history, Magic Johnson is the best match. Magic played point guard despite his 6' 9" frame — the game never saw a player that tall with a skill set like that. Durant might be considered a small forward but he's truly a shooting guard. He's listed at 6' 9", but he's actually just under 6' 11" — with shoes on he's 7 feet tall. He has the silky shot of a Kobe Bryant but he's half a foot taller. His 2018 Finals performance cemented him as one of the best ever, and even Lebron has said Durant is worthy of being called an all-time great.

You still think it's Lebron? Let's take a look at the deep stats between KD and King James. Catch-and-shoot and pull-up jumpers — a crucial part to the outside game — are clearly for Durant. Lebron makes his money in the paint, which is easy to do because he's stronger than everyone so he just muscles his way to the basket. With mid-range jumpers, Durant has way more accuracy than James. Early in the year Durant got talk as the defensive player of the year — but as usual KD's name was seemingly forgotten when charge came to block. KD never gets the love — he just does everything else.

Major League Soccer enjoys rabid fans and in some regions is very much a party atmosphere, but make no mistake about it, there's some legit talent in the league. Now, this isn't the Premier League or anything like that, but it's getting better. Part of that improvement is convincing the best players that it's worth it to stick around in the U.S. Sebastian Giovinco is going to do just that.

The Italian national came to the MLS in 2015 and made his impact felt immediately. He scored 22 goals his rookie season and keeps putting them in the net. He's also big on assists, getting 10-plus in all but one of his seasons. He was being called the best Major League Soccer player ever in only his second season, and importantly for the league, Giovinco says he's staying in the MLS for good now.

Golf is a funny sport. You can have an unbelievable year — like winning two majors as Brooks Koepka did — and still not really be the "best player" in the sport. It's not fair to Koepka (who is a tremendous golfer), but that's how golf is. Tiger Woods is still the most important player and always will be as long as people tune in to watch him play, but Tiger's not the best going now. Golf is a young gun game, with names like Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnson, Jason Day, and Rickie Fowler among them. But the guy with the most skill is Rory McIlroy.

McIlroy is on a bit of a Majors slump — through the 2018 season he last won a major in 2014 — but no one can hang with him when it comes to skill. He has the best swing in golf, and even his contemporaries are impressed. Fellow superstar Jason Day praised McIlroy's skill calling him "Tigeresque." It doesn't get much better than that. When McIlroy puts it together he's magnificent. Like in Orlando at the 2018 Arnold Palmer Invitational when he won going away. Rory will get back on track, and when he does, the PGA better watch out.

The LPGA has three superstar golfers: Shanshan Feng, Sung Hyun Park, and Lexi Thompson. Only an LPGA fan knows all three names. Feng hasn't had a great year, and Thompson — who will potentially be a nationally known athlete — hasn't won in 2018 as of this writing. That leaves us Sung Hyun Park. At the time of this writing she has three wins in 2018, and is once again the number one player in the world.

Truthfully, the LPGA is in a nice spot with some outstanding talent, but it lacks a "Tigeresque" dominant player to draw in viewers. Park is another of the disciplined South Korean golfers who takes the game very seriously. She might not be flashy — she sometimes pumps her fist with all the enthusiasm of making a perfect left turn — but sometimes you don't have to be flashy. You just have to be great. That's Sung Hyun Park.