I thought the article in Sports Illustrated about who professional athletes would pay to see was very interesting. I thought there were a few things that everyone could see coming, like athletes being narcissistic and wanting to see athletes they considered to be like themselves, or flat out picking themselves or athletes picking female athletes just for their physical appearances. But I also thought there were some interesting selections like Michael Schumacher or John Force, who many casual sports fans may never have heard of or even considered athletes.
I wonder how the article would be different if the same athletes were polled today. I feel like Carmelo Anthony may have answered a little more diplomatically after an additional 8 seasons as a professional in addition to two Olympics where he may have gotten to see some athletes that could've changed his mind. LeBron would probably be the top response if the poll were taken today, although Mike Trout, Adrian Peterson and Calvin Johnson probably would have gotten some votes as well. I think it would be interesting to see how many athletes picked Trout. Although he's a baseball player which wasn't that frequent of a selection in the 2004 poll, the way he plays the game hasn't been seen since Ken Griffey Jr. The pros tended to pick explosive and exciting athletes and Trout brings that to the baseball field in a way most baseball players can't.
Another interesting aspect would be how many more soccer players would be selected. It seems that soccer's popularity in the U.S. has been growing steadily and I think that there's less of an inclination of American athletes to write soccer off as something "european" or "foreign" and more willingness to accept soccer players as fellow athletes as they should be acknowledged.
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