Pretty cool that they have Damian ranked higher than Russell Westbrook, Russell Wilson, Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, JJ Watt, etc etc
He'd probably be top 20 if you eliminated all of the soccer stars that no real Amurrican gives a crap about.
I know we are all US-centrist and this is worldwide, which is why Jeremy Lin was so high. I confess I've not heard of some of the football and cricket stars. But how does Serena fall so far, while Federer and Nadal are top 10? 25? Her whole career has been international. Steph Curry behind Derrick Rose? I think the point of these lists is that no one agrees and it gets people stirred up and talking.
Patrick Robertson's group has a news broadcast and newsletter. Like most media outlets they subscribe to the international news feeds. But their software is programmed to auto-replace "gay" with "homosexual" since "gay" gets a better response (happy rather than clinical) and they hate gay people. This landed them with a hilarious gaffe when sprinter Tyson Gay won the 100 meter race and was named in consequence "world's fastest man". The antigay group;s software goes into action with sports headline: "Homosexual is world's fastest man" and story lead "Tyson Homosexual won the 100 meter race and was titled world's fastest man..." They quickly took it down but you know nothing dies on the internet, the original made the rounds. We all laughed gaily. Every time I hear of Tyson Gay I start laughing.
Their formula includes salary, and uses Dame's 2015-16 season salary. I wonder how high he'd jump if his new max salary were factored in. As for Serena, the "formula" also involves endorsement dollars, and her overall annual endorsement dollars of $13M is far less than Federer's 58M, Rafa's 28M, or Djokovic's 31M.
Derrick Rose still has some pretty popular shoes, that's the only reason I can think of as to why he's so high on that list. Heck, I have a pair.
87. Deron Williams 91. Rudy Gay Lolwat? Also find it funny that Kevin Love is here but Kyrie Irving isn't.
Kyrie probably lost a lot of Twitter followers after that creepy NBA.com commercial. "That must be my duvet..."
Between his music and his 17 million salary increase next year....he might make top 20 eventually regardless of the soccer stars.
http://www.nba.com/blazers/overtime/espn-lillard-among-worlds-most-famous-athletes "Taking in factors such as NBA salary, endorsements and social media following, ESPN has ranked Lillard the 45th most famous athlete in the world among professionals in all sports. While Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo, Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James and FC Barcelona's Lionel Messi lead the pack, Lillard ranks ahead of fellow NBA superstars Russell Westbrook and James Harden as well as NFL quarterbacks Russell Wilson, Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers. In all, he's one of 20 NBA players in the top 100, ranking 11th among the league's most famous athletes." I'm telling you, he will be the reason that Portland is able to lure a premier FA. Edit: Can a mod fix the thread title to say 45th please? Lol
