ULTIMATERANKINGS

Sports Statistician Bill James concluded 25 years ago that generally all the major sports team sports athletes hit their peak between the ages of 25-29. Today, because of improved nutrition, training, and medical knowledge, it is probably now ages 26-30. Let’s go with those ages to consider: When should an athlete be eligible to be accurately placed in GOAT discussions? To be clear, we are talking about football, basketball, baseball, hockey, and soccer and not individual athletes whose peak years vary widely (e.g., women gymnasts (15-19?), golf, endurance sports, shooting and archery, equestrian (40’s)). There are exceptions of course in team sports like the NFL quarterbacks or hockey goalies, which are both often a little later than 26-30. But generally, when do you start to include athletes in your voting or rankings in Goat discussions? I find it impossible to rank Patrick Mahomes, for example, since he has too many potentially great years left in his career. Same for Nikola Jokic. So for me, I don’t consider athletes under the age of 33 because it is too speculative. That way their peak years and a couple of post peak years (semi-peak?) are included in my evaluation of their careers. Obviously, there is no exact answer, but what do you do and/or think?