Page 2
As ESPN celebrates the past 25 years in sports, Page 2 celebrates those athletes who transcended their teams and sports, who amazed us with the greatest individual seasons over the past 25 years.
The concept? Simple. Which athlete had the best season? We spent hours checking the numbers, analyzing their value, adjusting for the context of their stats (for example, NBA games see fewer points scored now than in the 1980s while baseball games see more home runs and higher ERAs). We factored in playoff heroics as merited. We jigged and jimmied, knocked a few athletes off at the last minute and added more deserving candidates.
And we arrived at our list of the 100 greatest individual seasons of the past 100 years.
Enjoy -- and let the debate begin.
(Note: Sports considered include NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, college football, college basketball, golf, tennis and NASCAR. One rule: no athlete could have more than three seasons on the list.)
Complete list: 1-25| 26-50 | 51-75 | 76-100
| ESPN25: 100 GREATEST INDIVIDUAL SEASONS | |||
 2-3, 1.20 ERA, 55/55 saves, 82.1 IP, 37 H, 20 BB, 137 K's |
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31.1 ppg, 4.6 apg, 3.8 rpg, NBA MVP (32.9 ppg, 6.1 apg in playoffs) The 42 percent shooting is mediocre, but Iverson was a one-man show in leading an undermanned Sixers team to the NBA Finals. He twice topped 50 points in a playoff win over Toronto and torched the Lakers for 48 in the Finals. |
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Won 7 tournaments, one major (British Open), POY He won just one major, but only Tiger Woods has won more tournaments in one year during the ESPN era than Watson's seven. |
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 .304, 56 HR, 147 RBI, .646 SLG, Gold Glove, MVP |
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12 wins in 31 races, overall points title After Petty and before Earnhardt, Waltrip was the NASCAR king for a few years. He won the first of his three points totals by winning 12 races and starting from the pole 11 times. |
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1,773 yards, 4.7 per carry, 25 TDs The yardage total isn't historically spectacular, but Smith is here for finding the end zone 31 times -- 25 times in the regular season and six more in the playoffs as the Cowboys won the Super Bowl. |
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79 points, playoff MVP (34 points in 23 games) One of the NHL's premier defensemen of the past 25 years, Leetch earns a top-100 spot due to a spectacular Stanley Cup playoffs when he tallied 11 goals and 23 assists as the Rangers ended their 54-year Cup drought. |
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27.6 ppg, 14.7 rpg, 5.0 bpg You may think Ewing, Sampson or Olajuwon was college basketball's most dominating big man of recent vintage, but none of them approached Shaq's 27 points per game. |
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 3 Grand Slam wins, won 8 of 13 tournaments, 56-5 record |
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24-5, 2.32 ERA, 260 IP, 197 H, 71 BB, 334 K's Before turning 30, he was just one game above .500 in his career. And then he learned to pitch. Still overpowering at age 38, the Big Unit captured his fourth straight Cy Young Award with a career-high 24 wins. |
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28.1 ppg, 9.2 rpg, 7.6 asp, 52.5 FG% Larry Legend had his best all-around numbers in '87, even if his three-year reign as NBA MVP ended. Downgraded for losing the NBA Finals, when he shot a combined 20 for 53 the final three games. |
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23.5 ppg, 8.4 rpg, 2.8 spg, 39-0 record The first women's college basketball player to win back-to-back AP player of the year honors, Holdsclaw led the Lady Vols to a perfect season in 1998. |
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 1,855 rushing yards, 5.1 per carry, 18 TDs, Heisman |
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65 goals, 90 assists, 155 points How good was Yzerman? Before he joined the Red Wings, they had made the playoffs once in 13 seasons. His fellow players voted Yzerman the best player in '89, when he established his career-high in points, goals and assists. |
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40 HRs, 124 RBI, .362 average, .431 OBP, .638 SLG Piazza had the greatest hitting year ever for a catcher and somehow finished second in the MVP vote to Larry Walker. Let's get a recount. |
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1,927 yards, 5.9 per carry, 25 TDs, 47 catches, Heisman winner Also included in George's spectacular season: a school-record 314 yards against Illinois and 200-yard games in wins over ranked opponents Washington and Notre Dame. |
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6 tournament wins, two majors (British Open, PGA), POY The greatest PGA tour year by a golfer not named "Tiger." |
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27.4 ppg, 9.9 rpg, 4.5 asp, 55.0 FG%, MVP (26.0 ppg in playoffs) After 10 straight years of averaging more than 25 points per game, the Mailman was finally rewarded with an MVP in '97 as the Jazz made the Finals for the first time. |
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 3,521 yards, 26 TDs, 8 INT, 9.1 ypa, 112.4 QB rating, MVP |
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45 goals, 84 assists, 129 points, MVP (31 points in 22 playoff games) Who needed Gretzky? Not Messier, who proved he was one of hockey's greatest players of all time by being named the NHL's MVP and leading the surprising Oilers -- sans the Great One -- to the Stanley Cup championship. |
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3 Grand Slam wins, won 14 of 16 tournaments, 86-2 record At her peak in from 1988 to 1990, Graf reached the finals of 11 of 12 Grand Slam events and won eight of them. |
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31.1 ppg, 14.7 rpg, NBA MVP Do you kids out there know Moses Malone? Know that he was a three-time MVP? That he was one of the most tenacious rebounders ever? That he was The Man there for a couple of years? |
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4,571 yards, 47 TDs, 18 INT, 6 rushing TDs Collegiate QBs put up gaudy numbers these days, but McMahon was the trend-setter (the first to throw for 4,000 yards and those 47 TDs still rank second all time). Amazingly, he finished just fifth in the Heisman balloting. |
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Schoenfield