The Most Beloved New York Sports Stars in Derek Jeter's Lifetime

Derek Jeter has seen his last at-bat in front of the Yankee Stadium faithful. It's an awkward exercise that Yankees fans are putting themselves through these days. They're celebrating a man who's hindered the Yankees' playoff chances these past two seasons, and going through a process of remembrance as if he's dead or something. Born in 1974, Derek Jeter is only 40 years-old. And although his life as an active Yankee is done, the man still has the entire second half of his life to look forward to.

For generations of Yankees fans who don't know what the Yankees are without Jeter (a generation that also has no Yankee for Jeter to pass the baton to), this is a time to appreciate and reflect on where Jeter stacks up against his peers. Jeter's revered as a larger-than-life figure, but when compared to the likes of New York stars like Joe Namath and Willis Reed, how will Jeter be remembered? Ranked from "least beloved" (relative to this concept, of course) to "most beloved", find out where Jeter ends up in The Most Beloved New York Sports Stars in Derek Jeter's Lifetime.

Sport: Hockey

Team: Islanders

Years active: 1973-1988

The Islanders haven't had championship-level success since the 1980s, but when that organization was the toast of the NHL, Denis Potvin was their god. As the captain of those great Islanders teams, he led them to four Stanley Cups and six conference championships. From 1977-1984, the Islanders dominated the NHL, and Potvin dominated his position, winning the James Morris Memorial Trophy three-times en route to a 1991 Hall of Fame induction.

While Potvin is loved on Long Island, the remaining New York hockey fans hate the man. Over three decades after sending young Rangers forward Ulf Nilsson into the boards and ending his career, Potvin’s name is still hatefully chanted by Rangers fans to this day.

Sport: Baseball

Team: Mets

Years active: 1992-2007

Great players, even if they perform as advertised, don't always truly make it in New York. Dope individual stats and performances are nice, but if you're not winning titles or connecting with fans on a deeper level, you're just another Yankees mercenary. Mike Piazza hit a lot of home runs for the Mets and led them to a 2000 Subway Series, which on merit alone probably makes him the best franchise player the Mets have had since (for the sake of Mets fans, let's not answer this question). Yet no home run Piazza hit was ever as impactful as his 8th inning shot 10 days after 9/11.

Piazza’s home run is a prime example of what sports are supposed to do—they uplift and let you get lost in an awesome fantasy world of heroes and triumph. With the city reeling in the days after 9/11, Piazza’s home run—while it didn’t make a tangible difference for those sifting through the rubble at Ground Zero—it gave New Yorkers something to finally cheer about.

It was a moment New York needed badly, and Piazza answered the call.

Sport: Basketball
Team: Nets
Years active: 1971-1987

Although he’s best known for his high-flying Philly days, Dr. J still gets mad love in New York. From 1973-1976 he played for the New York Nets of the fledgling ABA. For an entire generation of young basketball fans in the 1970s (including many Knicks fans who were drunk with NBA title glory), Dr. J was the crosstown spectacle to catch while the Knicks were on the road.

His artistry and technique in dunking captivated New York at a time when the ABA was known as a hipper, more progressive alternative to NBA games. Unfortunately (and this is just another reason for Knicks fans to hate the Knicks), he was forced to move to Philadelphia in 1976. With the NBA-ABA merger going down, the Nets were charged $4.8 million by the Knicks over NBA territorial rights. Short on cash and unable to pay a promised raise in Dr. J’s salary, the Nets offered the Doctor to the Knicks as payment for the debt.

The Knicks declined (of course they did), and the Philadelphia 76ers bought Dr. J’s contract for $3 million.

Sport: Basketball

Team: Knicks

Years active: 1967-1977

It’s downright shameful that the only Knicks fans who can say they remember what an NBA title won in New York feels like are at least 50 years old. Imagine being a 10-year-old in 1970 or 1973 and thinking, “Wow, the Knicks are great! We’re going to win so much!” Well, over 40 years later, the Knicks still haven’t won shit, and that 10 year-old is now a fat bald dude who began balding as the Ewing Years winded down with no championship in sight.

But for that 10-year-old kid, Bill Bradley was and is a revered and respected Knickerbocker. The NBA Hall of Famer and Princeton grad won two titles with the Knicks. Along the way, he parlayed the social opportunities that come with being a title-winning Knick into important relationships that would aide his run to eventually becoming an 18-year Senator from New Jersey.

Sport: Hockey

Team: Rangers

Years active: 1987-2003

One of the most popular players on the 1994 Stanley Cup-winning team, Adam Graves’ play on the left wing was electric. During that 1993-1994 season, Graves netted a then-franchise record 52 goals and was an NHL all-star. That same season, Graves won the King Clancy Memorial Trophy for his leadership qualities and impact in the local community. Based on that banner 1993-1994 season, Graves will always have a spot in New York hockey lore.

Sport: Tennis

Team: N/A

Years active: 1978-1992

John McEnroe grew up in Queens, still lives in New York, and whenever he does commentary work, his unmistakably tri-state accent and attitude rings true. Although McEnroe isn’t a “New York sports star” using the same criteria as the other athletes on this list, let’s not fault him for playing an individual sport. A Queens-bred New York guy who owns four U.S. Open titles (shout-out to Flushing Meadows) makes McEnroe one of the city’s greatest homegrown stars. There's nothing quite like growing up in and then winning in New York.

Sport: Basketball

Team: Knicks

Years active: 1985-2004

Charles Oakley was one of the most important players on those Pat Riley Knicks teams. Playing a simple, but effective brand of basketball called “Kill Every Opposing Player in the Paint,” Oakley’s reputation as a tough SOB pleased the Garden faithful. Oakley spent more time fouling any ball-handler who dared to drive to the paint than anything else, and for that, Knicks fans love him. A don’t-take-shit-from-anyone attitude is valued in New York, and Oakley best exemplified that for the Knicks during a historically physical time in NBA play.

Sport: Basketball

Team: Knicks

Years active: 1977-1993

Bernard King didn’t lead the Knicks to the NBA title, but from 1982 up until he tore his ACL in 1985, King was the most explosive scorer in the NBA. Talk to any Knicks fans who watched him at the peak of his powers, and every single one of them will go gaga talking about how King could ball.

In 1984, he became the first player in 20 years to score 50 points in back-to-back games. The following season, King would win the NBA scoring title with 32.9 PPG while shooting 53 percent from the field. He remains the most gifted scorer in Knicks history (sorry Melo), and the tragedy of his career (career-altering ACL injury plus substance abuse problems) makes him an even more appreciated New York star.

Sport: Baseball

Team: Mets, Yankees

Years active: 1984-2000

Similar to King, Gooden was a prodigious 1980s talent who was brought down in unfortunate ways. Drug addiction, a body that broke down too early because of a heavy workload at the beginning of his career, and depression (Gooden almost attempted suicide in 1995) completely derailed what could've been one of the greatest pitching careers of all-time. Despite his litany of troubles, Dr. K is still regarded as a New York great. His rise as a teenage phenom​ stole New York. As a 21-year-old Cy Young winner, he was already talked about as a future Hall of Famer. He had his own mural in Times Square. In a town that loves baseball so much, Gooden ruled as King and Conqueror through the 1980s.

Sport: Baseball

Team: Yankees

Years active: 1982-1995

Poor Don Mattingly. If there’s one famous Yankee to not hate with all your heart, it’s Donnie Baseball. Now, his antics as a manager are a different story, but his playing days as a Yankee were phenomenal. An American League MVP and Gold Glove winner, Mattingly hit his ass off for 14 years on a decade’s worth of terrible Yankees teams.

Thirteen of his 14 years in the majors were spent outside of the playoffs. For 13 straight seasons after losing the 1981 World Series, the Yankees missed the playoffs. Mattingly came up in 1982 and had to wait until his last professional season to get a sniff of postseason baseball. The Yankees won the World Series the season after he retired, cementing Mattingly’s career as the ultimate “I was born too early” Yankee great.

Sport: Baseball

Team: Mets

Years active: 1974-1992

For Mets fans, that 1986 team is really all they have. One can only imagine the commercialized love and remembrance the organization is going to show that team in 2016. Gary Carter was the captain of the '86 Mets, and although he’s in the Hall of Fame as a member of the Montreal Expos, it’s easier to picture him in those Mets pinstripes than any other uniform. That’s all off of the strength of his play in the 1986 playoffs.

Carter slapped a 12th-inning walk-off single against the Astros in the NLCS, and in that fateful World Series Game 6 against the Red Sox, it was Carter’s single that sparked the rally that eventually took down Bill Buckner. Carter gave Mets fans genuine championship-level joy—a feeling that the Mets have been chasing for nearly 30 years since.

Sport: Football

Team: Giants

Years active: 1979-1993

Before Eli Manning came around (and later fucked around to win two Super Bowls), Phil Simms was the only competent Giants quarterback in recent memory. A career Giant, Simms was a legitimate franchise quarterback who performed like one in big games. As suggested, Simms saved his best for the biggest stage possible: the Super Bowl. In Super Bowl XXI, Simms and the Giants took down John Elway's Broncos with one of the finest passing performances in the game's history. Simms completed 88 percent of his passes (two of the three incompletions were drops) and threw for three touchdowns en route to a 39-20 victory.

Sport: Basketball

Team: Knicks

Years active: 1964-1974

Willis Reed is a two-time NBA champion for the Knicks, but so are a dozen other guys. What separates Reed from Bill Bradley or Earl Monroe wasn't just his dominant forward play, but his signature moment. Like Piazza, Simms, and Carter, Reed has a singular game to point to that makes his legacy whole. It wasn't even a game he played that much of, either. In Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals, Reed hobbled onto the court at MSG and scored two early baskets while playing on a broken leg sustained in Game 5. Inspired by his courage, the Knicks and the Garden crowd willed themselves to their first NBA title over the Lakers.

Sport: Baseball
Team: Yankees
Years active: 1995-2013

If he wanted to, Mariano Rivera could still be, at age 44, the Yankees' closer. His dominance spanned across three different decades on four World Series winning teams. Outside of his lost 2012 season due to injury, Rivera never once finished with less than 30 saves. As a 43-year-old in 2013 coming off of a torn ACL, Rivera racked up 44 saves and a 2.11 ERA—remarkable numbers for an even more remarkable athlete and human being. His total ownership over the closer role during those dynasty years (and beyond) and humanitarian and philanthropic efforts in his native Panama adds up to a truly wonderful career as a New York star. On the mound, nobody in New York kept it as cool as the Sandman did.

Sport: Basketball

Team: Knicks

Years active: 1967-1980

A fellow member of those 1970s Knicks teams with Willis Reed, Walt Clyde Frazier doesn't get enough credit for what he did in that Game 7 against the Lakers. While Reed may have been the game's martyr, Frazier was the one who was actually putting in work against Jerry West and Co. Stepping up in Reed's stead, Frazier finished that game with a 36-19-7 line. Every Knicks fan under 45 (and basically every Complex reader ever) may know Frazier best for his wacky commentating on MSG and his copious amounts of swag-lord stylings, but in his day, Frazier was a Knicks hero.

Sport: Football

Team: Giants

Years active: 1981-1993

This verbiage might get tossed around without much care, but in terms of “players who changed the game,” Lawrence Taylor is right up there. He was so good at his job that NFL coaches and talent evaluators had to redefine other positions on the field just to wrap their heads around what Taylor was doing. Without LT's 20.5 sack 1986 MVP season, pass-rushing in the NFL might not be the same.

Taylor's dominance forced coaches to place more value on the left tackle and blindside protection for the quarterback. NFL tackles and pass-rushers are two of the most sought-after commodities in today's pass-happy game, and Taylor's Hall of Fame career for the Giants contributed greatly to that shift in roster-construction philosophy. (It's also worth noting that Taylor was a cocaine addict and is a registered sex offender/shithead, but that's done nothing to displace his football legacy.)

Sport: Baseball

Team: Yankees

Years active: 1969-1979

Thurman Munson was the Yankees first captain since Lou Gehrig (who would be Top 5 any “Most Beloved New York Sports Stars of All-Time” list). He was a consummate leader and professional—Munson held down the sanity fort during those “The Bronx is Burning” years when George Steinbrenner, Billy Martin, and Reggie Jackson were three walking Hindenburgs waiting to blow up at any given moment. A seven-time All-Star, Munson captained the 1977 and 1978 World Series-winning Yankees before he was tragically killed in a plane crash in 1979.

Sport: Hockey

Team: Rangers

Years active: 1978-2004

Mark Messier had no business playing in 25 NHL seasons. Really, no human does. That's a third of your life spent destroying your body. Unabashed, Messier holds the record for most NHL games played ever. Despite playing a record number of NHL games, Messier doesn't totally look like a beat-up meathead.

His leadership and play during the 1994 playoffs delivered an NHL title to New York. For ending that 54 year Stanley Cup drought, Rangers fans gassed Messier and began calling him “The Messiah.” If you earn the nickname The Messiah in New York City—a place where so many awful, awful and nicknames are birthed, and where Cyrus the Great is the only non-Jewish messiah—then you're a true demi-god.

Sport: Football

Team: Jets

Years active: 1965-1977

“The Messiah” is a dope nickname for a New York athlete, but there's only one Broadway Joe. Joe Namath was a force of personality at the one position in sports that calls for the brightest charmer in the room. New York, a city of arrogance whose inhabitants worship those at the top of the meritocracy​, was made for Namath.

As a New York Jet, he guaranteed a Super Bowl victory over Johnny Unitas' favored Baltimore Colts (any modern day Jet would get clapped by the media for saying shit like that. Oh wait, Rex did)—a guarantee that was part stupidity and ignorance and part supreme confidence. There's a little of both in Namath. Being Broadway Joe, he kicked ass and won that Super Bowl. And regardless of his battles with alcohol and on-air sexual harassment, Broadway Joe is still beloved across the boroughs.

Sport: Baseball

Team: Yankees

Years active: 1995-2014

I go to school for Sports Management in New York, and on Thursday, all of my classes were canceled either because of the Jewish holiday or because my professors were ducking out to see Derek Jeter’s last game. Grown-ass men with salaries were withholding responsibility to see Jeter play one last time.

On Wednesday, I had one professor (another adult male) seriously make an argument that Derek Jeter is our last great American hero. I think his assignment of that title to Jeter is full of shit, but his tone was so impassioned that I couldn’t muster the courage to rain on his parade. Still, it was another otherwise sensible adult—an academic no less—losing his mind after years of drinking the Jeter Kool-aid.

Yankees fans are drunk on Jeter at this point, and even the more reasoned Yankees fans who are annoyed by Jeter’s corny commercialized retirement will still be sad when Jeter walks off the field one last time.

I don’t know what a Yankees team looks like without Derek Jeter, and many more Yankees fans have no idea what a Yankees ticker tape parade looks like without Jeter (before the 1996 World Series Championship, the Yankees had gone 18 years between titles). Jeter's been am easily-accessible commercialized staple in our lives for so long–he's the dollar pizza slice of Yankees baseball, if you will. No modern athlete has conquered New York quite like Jeter has, and considering the fireworks of his last Bronx at-bat, it’s doubtful that another will.