All-21st Century Team for all Detroit pro athletes: Welcome to the top 10, at Nos. 10-6
This is the ninth in a 10-part series from the Free Press celebrating the top players and moments over the first 25 years of the 21st century. Go to freep.com/sports to catch up on any you missed, and check back here next Sunday for the final edition.
Welcome to the Free Press’ countdown of the 25 greatest Detroit pro athletes of the last 25 years!
Whether they’re cult heroes that captured imaginations, legends of the game that brought trophies to the city or superior players on subpar teams, these are the 25 athletes that fans are sure to agree defined the four Detroit major-league teams in the 21st century.
(Okay, maybe there’ll be a little bit of disagreement).
Read up in depth
Honorable mentions: Plenty of cult faves just missed the top-25 cut.
Nos. 25-21: Individual glory, but few championships.
Nos. 20-16: Two kings and a queen of the Palace.
Nos. 15-11: A Tigers hurler swiftly moving up the ranks.
Nos. 10-6: The Euro Twins and a member of Michigan hoops royalty.
Nos. 5-1: Perfection on the ice — and at the plate.
We're almost to the finish line on Detroit's All-21st Century Team, counting down Nos. 10-6.
10. Henrik Zetterberg (Red Wings, 2002-18)
It’s possible Zetterberg is an even bigger deal in Sweden, where he, Nicklas Lidström, Tomas Holmstrom, Mikael Samuelsson and Niklas Kronwall helped Sweden win just its second Olympic ice hockey gold ever at the 2006 Turin Games.
But he was a pretty big deal in Detroit, too.
Zetterberg played all 15 of his NHL seasons with the Red Wings, ranking fifth in career points (960), fifth in goals (337) and sixth in games played (1,082) for the franchise. (All those totals are also highs for the 21st century, despite being retired for seven years.) He also won the Conn Smythe Trophy in 2008 as Stanley Cup playoffs MVP as he led the Red Wings to their most recent title.
9. Ben Wallace (Pistons, 2000-06, 2009-12)
There are often disagreements when it comes to NBA superlatives, but there can be no denying this assessment: Ben Wallace was the NBA’s best defensive player of the 2000s.
The Hall-of-Fame center made his mark in the paint, leading the league in rebounds twice while with the Pistons and winning the league’s Defensive Player of the Year award four times, a record matched only by Dikembe Mutombo and Rudy Gobert. It could have been five in all – and five straight at that – had Metta World Peace not snagged the award in 2004.
But Wallace got a better trophy that year, leading the Pistons to their first NBA title since 1990 while shutting down Shaquille O’Neal, easily the most physically dominant offensive player of the era.
8. Pavel Datsyuk (Red Wings, 2001-16)
“The Magic Man” certainly lived up to his reputation as one of the most spectacular players in Red Wings history. Datsyuk was an all-around star for the Red Wings, scoring at least 25 goals in half of his seasons with Detroit and winning the Selke Award (as the NHL’s top defensive forward) in three straight years (2008, 2009, 2010).
Those seasons marked a high point for Datsyuk, as he played a key role on Wings squads teams that made the Stanley Cup Final in back-to-back years (2008-09). Internationally, he also represented a Russian team that won a world championship in 2012 and Olympic gold in 2018, becoming one of 30 players in NHL history with both medals plus a Cup. Soon after he returned to Russia to play in the KHL, Datsyuk was named one of the 100 greatest players in NHL history during the league’s centennial celebration in 2017.
And while that’s certainly a big achievement, there is one more Red Wing on this list we haven’t gotten to yet.
7. Deanna Nolan (Shock, 2001-09)
Nolan is Michigan basketball royalty, having won back-to-back state championships with Flint Northern High School in 1994-95 while being named the state’s Miss Basketball for 1995.
It’s only fitting, then, that she landed with the Shock, who made her the No. 6 overall pick of the 2001 WNBA Draft. And though it took some time for her to grow into her role, she grabbed onto it firmly, winning the 2003 WNBA title and leading the Shock in points and assists during the team’s second and third title runs (2006, 2008).
Nolan only played nine seasons in the WNBA, all with the Shock, but the five-time All-Star was still named one of the league’s 20 greatest players for the league's 20th anniversary in 2016.
6. Matthew Stafford (Lions, 2009-20)
Stafford owns every career passing record in franchise history, and it isn’t particularly close. Over 12 seasons in Detroit, Stafford threw for over 45,000 yards with 282 touchdowns and 144 interceptions; he leads all Lions quarterbacks with an average of 273.4 yards per game.
Detractors might point to Stafford’s win-loss record while in Detroit – the Lions were 74-90-1 overall in games that Stafford started – but his success while with the Los Angeles Rams suggests Stafford's lack of postseason success in Detroit was more the franchise's fault than his.
Experts might debate whether Stafford was one of the best quarterbacks of the 2010s, but he was certainly one of the most prolific. And in an era where there wasn’t much to celebrate at Ford Field, Lions fans at least knew they had a good quarterback at the helm for over a decade.
You can reach Christian at cromo@freepress.com
At the quarter-turn
June 1: Tigers.
June 8: Lions offense and defense.
June 15: MSU basketball.
June 22: U-M basketball.
June 29: MSU football offense and defense.
July 6: U-M football offense and defense.
July 13: Pistons.
July 20: Red Wings.
July 27: The best players.
Aug. 3: The best teams.