Every year our favorite athletes give us over 100% of everything they've got.
This year is no different.
As we take a look a look back at the year, we can see the athletes that continued to push towards greatness.
- Serena Williams
2. Max Scherzer
It seems like Nationals' pitcher Max Scherzer has reached the peak of his career. At age 33 he is a 5x All-Star. He won the Cy Young Award for the 3rd time in his career this year, and second year in a row. He also is a 2x NL strikeout leader. Those aren't your average stats. Though he hasn't been on a team that has won the World Series yet, we know that his time is coming.
3. Floyd Mayweather
The retired but not really retired boxer did it again. After coming out of retirement for the second time, he decided to accept MMA fighter, Connor McGregor's challenge. In August of this year, Mayweather didn't just fight the MMA champion, but he defeated him by TKO in the 10th round. Becoming the champion of that fight, he surpassed Rocky Marciano, and settled the record for the longest active unbeaten streak in a professional career at 50–0. Will there be another fight that will bring the champion out of retirement for a fourth time? Only time will tell.
4. Kevin Durant
After the DC native decided to leave his old team, the Oklahoma City Thunder, there were a lot of opinions going around. Some people couldn't understand why he would leave longtime teammate Russell Westbrook by himself. But the truth of the matter is, Durant wanted to win a championship. He knew that he could do that with Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors. He was not wrong. In his first season as a Warrior, he won a championship and was named NBA Finals MVP. No one can say for sure if this is the team that Durant will stay with, but for right now he seems to be doing exactly what he wanted to do. Winning!
5. Tom Brady
Tom Brady started out the 2016 football season with a 4-game suspension. The doubters and haters of the New England Patriots didn't hold back any opinions about how bad they thought the Patriots would be. Boy were they wrong. After coming back from being suspended, Brady led his team not just to the playoffs, but to the Super Bowl, where they would face the Atlanta Falcons. Again, they doubters were sharing their opinions because the Falcons had kept a pretty big lead on the Patriots from the start of the game. But somehow in the 3rd quarter, the Patriots came back to score 25 unanswered points to tie the game at the end of regulations. This took the game to OT, and would end in a victory for the Patriots with a final score of 34-28. No one would have guessed that the Patriots' season would have ended with a Super Bowl win. But then again, I'm sure Brady did.
6. Sidney Crosby
With a slow start in the 2016 season, many people might have assumed that Crosby would not have a great season. He had just 6 goals in 29 games to start! Things didn't start to pick up for the star hockey player until December 12th. He outscored every NHL player from that date to the end of the season. The Pittsburgh Penguins would go on to defeat the Nashville Predators in the Stanley Cup Finals 2-0. There was no doubt that Crosby would win his second consecutive Conn Smythe Trophy as the MVP of the playoffs.
7. Christian Ronaldo
There are just not enough accolades to give to this guy. Besides being the greatest soccer player alive, Ronaldo continues to win and break records every year. On April 12th of this year, he became the first player to reach 100 goals in UEFA club competition. On May 17th, he passed Jimmy Greaves as the all-time top-scorer in the top five European leagues. He doesn't quit! On October 23rd, he claimed his fifth FIFA Player of the Year award, by receiving The Best FIFA Men's Player award for the second year in a row. With this pace, he'll be breaking his own records soon.
8. Steph Curry
It's a little unusual to have two players on the same team in a list like this, but you have to give credit where credit is due. Steph curry continues to shine and play ball like his life depends on it. With the addition of Kevin Durant to the Golden State Warriors, Curry now is able have a little bit more help on the court against big teams like the Cleveland Cavaliers. In Game 5 of the championship game against Cleveland, Curry helped the Warriors clinch the series with a triple double! He finished with 34 points, 10 assists and six rebounds, as Golden State claimed their second title in three years!
9. Antonio Brown
In late February, the Pittsburgh Steelers decided they wanted to keep Brown on the team long term by signing him to a five- year contract. The contract is a four-year extension worth $68 million, and making Brown the highest paid wide receiver in the NFL. So that means he must be good right? I'll let you decide. During the first week of the 2017 NFL season. Antonio had 182 receiving yards on 11 receptions against the Cleveland Browns. With those numbers, he led all other NFL receivers. This year, he became the sixth player in NFL history to record three 150-yard receiving games in the first six weeks of a season. Yea, he can catch. As of now, he's having a great 2017 football season as the Steelers are bound for the playoffs, and we can only imagine that it will get better.
10. Sylvia Fowles
Fowles has been a member of the Minnesota Lynx WNBA team for two years now. Her record in the WNBA speaks for itself, and we couldn't have this list without her on it. Almost a 10 year veteran in the league, she is a 6x member of the WNBA All-Defensive First Team. She is a 3x All- WNBA First Team. A 4x WNBA All- Star player. 2x WNBA Finals MVP, and 2x WNBA Champion! Can we say greatness? She led the Lynx to their second championship in three years last season! Whatever the future holds for this WNBA veteran, we know it will include more wins!
