ESPNTheMag.Com Presents: All-World Power Rankings

What's the best athlete animal nickname ever?

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Roar.

BEST ATHLETE ANIMAL NICKNAME? HARD TO AVOID TIGER, ALTHOUGH THERE ARE OTHER OPTIONS FOR YA

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Tiger Woods has been in the news a bunch recently, eh? He's even on the cover of this week's Sports Illustrated. Got us thinking about athletes nicknamed after animals, which is a fun topic to mull over when you're trying to avoid thinking about the crushing realities of your mid-20s. There are actually a bunch of top-tier athletes with animal nicknames, and we ain't talking about "Spider" for John Salley. Let's investigate.

TOP 5
RANK (YESTERDAY)		WHAT	WHY
	1 (14)	TIGER WOODS	Real name is Eldrick. If you didn't know that, you're probably living under a rock. This guy basically defines an entire sport and might be the best ever at something before he's 35. Unless you're really good at Guitar Hero, you probably can't say that. Side note: "Through the Fire and Flames?" Totally hard.
	2 (410)	KOBE BRYANT	"The Black Mamba," which is apparently one of the most dangerous snakes in Africa. Another dude that is helping define a sport right now, although let's be honest: you put Michael Jordan on last year's Lakers team, they don't lose that series in six. Argue with us if you want.
	3 (21)	JACK NICKLAUS	"The Golden Bear." If there's anyone else in the "best golfer ever" discussion aside from No. 1, it's this dude. Two golfers on one list? Did our dad write this? Just kiddin. Our dad actually abhors golf. Why would you possibly care about that?
	4 (127)	DENNIS RODMAN	"The Worm." This guy was a presence. You can ask Madonna or Carmen Electra (HEY-O!) or you can just ask guys who he D'ed up in the mid-1990s. Or that cameraman he kicked. Frankly, the world is your oyster in terms of who you can ask.
	5 (899)	JIM HUNTER	"Catfish," and honestly, how many people between 14 and 30 right now even know his name is Jim? We saw a similar list to this on SI's website once and one of the comments was, "YOU IDIOT! CATFISH'S NAME IS JIM!" Yea. We get it. It's a list of nicknames. Ha.

HONORABLE MENTION
RANK (YESTERDAY)		WHAT	WHY
	18 (144)	ANDRES GALARRAGA	"The Big Cat," or—love this!—El Gran Gato. We loved this guy growing up. Absolutely loved him. He returned to baseball after battling cancer and won Comeback Player of the Year. How cool is that?
	28 (701)	ADAM DUNN	"Donkey," which seems oddly befitting. Whaddup with taking money from the Nats, as a side note? The Nats? We're bitter because our ex-girlfriend has season tickets, so you can ignore us. The Nats actually have a halfway decent lineup. Dunn's good for 40 HR, albeit with 400 strikeouts. Ha. That's not even possible.

RISING AND FALLING
MOVEMENT		WHAT
		FRED MCGRIFF (Sure, he's retired, but "Crime Dog" was always fun to say to people.)
		GLENN ROBINSON (Did he really do anything worthy of "Big Dog" status, when you think about it?)

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