Growing up I was privileged to watch the most dominant players in their sports, in their eras. They were all-time greats, not just specialized greats. They were players who transformed their sports and made things look so simple and easy.

We are seeing the end of the era of dominance and transformation right now. With the retirement of Michael Jordan, Derek Jeter,  Jeff Gordon, Kobe Bryant, the death of Dale Earnhardt Sr. and the pending retirement of Tiger Woods, we are seeing the end of what was transformational dominance.  If you take each of these men individually in their sport you truly realize how amazing they were.

Now we have LeBron James, Jimmy Johnson, pick your baseball player, find a football player and no real tennis player, in my view, aside from Serena Williams, but she’s not retiring yet. All respect given to these individuals, but I’m sorry LeBron is not an all-time great to me. The era he plays in today is bitch basketball. Jimmy Johnson truly is the closest thing to revolutionizing NASCAR right now and Serena Williams, well is Serena and when she retires she will go into this pantheon of players I am speaking of.

I think it was such a treat to have been able to watch the greatest player in the game, Michael Jordan, his heir apparent, Kobe Bryant play the game of basketball for over twenty years. To have watched Derek Jeter and how he played the game and inspired so many players who were taller than the normal short stop to want to play the position as and excel. To watch how Dale Sr. before his passing was absolutely dominant and made NASCAR what it is today. And watch his heir Jeff Gordon dominate the sport for so long was truly awesome.

What more can be said about Tiger Woods other than during his prime he absolutely was the best player that ever existed. He won at a clip that was insane. He dominated the game like no one has ever done before. He made the prize money in Golf reach these crazy numbers that they are today. He was partly responsible for the inception of the Fed Ex Playoff system. He was the reason that all the Golfers of today have these major endorsement deals. Before Tiger, Golf was an old white man’s sport with very little notoriety beyond the old greats.

The truth is if you are lucky to be around to watch these players who transformed their sports you get to appreciate what athletic greatness is all about. One thing that I don’t do though with these players, is make them a deity. They are great athletes and they have helped to make many, many people very rich and famous and allowed for millions to live comfortable lives, but they are human just like the rest of us and when we forget that, that’s when we glorify them for the wrong reasons.

I’m sure that many may not agree with the group that I put together, but this 31 year old can only go off his own eyes and gauge of athletes he has seen in his lifetime. For me the folks listed above are in the Mount Rushmore of their sports and I’m sure at some point there will be someone else who joins that group as their always is, but I truly think we may have seen the end of that dominance in the sports that these respective players played and retired from.

My hats off to all of these folks for being the absolute best at what you do and the games you’ve played will not be the same without you, but undoubtedly they will go on and new legends will be made.