All-21st Century Team for all Detroit pro athletes: Meet the top 5 this century!
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 Detroit's 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.
And we've made it! We count down the top five athletes that have defined Detroit sports in the 21st century.
5. Justin Verlander (Tigers, 2005-17)
If Verlander isn’t the greatest pitcher in franchise history, it’s only because he didn’t spend as much time in Detroit as Tigers pitching greats such as Mickey Lolich, Hal Newhouser or Jack Morris. At his peak, however – which included a pair of no-hitters and American League Cy Young and MVP awards in 2011 – there was perhaps no more dominant pitcher to put on a Tigers uniform.
Among all Tigers pitchers with at least 1,000 innings, Verlander ranks second in strikeouts (2,373) and seventh in wins (183), an impressive feat in an era when starters pitched far less than they did throughout most of the 20th century. He’s also one of just two pitchers in Tigers history to win MVP and Cy Young in the same season, joining Willie Hernández (though Newhouser won a pair of MVPs in 1944-45, roughly a decade before the beginning of the Cy Young Award). If you throw in Verlander’s Rookie of the Year win in 2006, he’s the only Tiger to get all three awards.
The only thing missing from Verlander’s Detroit trophy case is a World Series win, but not for lack of trying. The fireballer made 16 career playoff starts for the Tigers, including three in the 2006 and 2012 World Series — though both Fall Classic runs ended up in disappointment for the ace.
4. Chauncey Billups (Pistons, 2002-08, 2013-14)
Despite going No. 3 overall (to the Boston Celtics) in the 1997 NBA Draft, the future Hall of Famer didn’t really get his career going until landing with the Pistons in 2002. But it didn’t take long to make his mark once he got here.
Billups averaged a career-high 16.2 points per game in his first season with the Pistons, the year before the team made its most recent championship run. He was arguably the best player on that 2004 title team, playing lockdown defense against a tough Los Angeles Lakers squad and earning Finals MVP honors while leading the Pistons to their third-ever title. The hardware didn’t stop there. He made two All-NBA teams, three All-Star teams and two All-Defensive teams while with the Pistons, which represented the most decorated part of the point guard’s career.
Now the coach for the Portland Trail Blazers, Billups has become not just Detroit’s, but one of the NBA’s key figures of the 21st century.
3. Calvin Johnson (Lions, 2007-15)
Johnson’s 2012 campaign is unquestionably one of the greatest seasons in football history. His 122 catches set a franchise record, while his 1,964 yards is an NFL record (despite the league adding a 17th regular-season game in 2021). And yet he didn't receive a single MVP vote, finishing tied for third in Offensive Player of the Year voting.
The six-time Pro Bowler and three-time All Pro was one of the most dominant receivers in NFL history. He made the Pro Bowl in each of his final six seasons, retiring near the top of his game at the age of 30 in a move reminiscent of Barry Sanders’ sudden retirement in 1999 (albeit with slightly more advance notice).
But considering how much losing the Lions were doing at the time (despite Johnson’s greatness), many NFL fans don’t blame Johnson for calling it a career so early, and he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2021 on the first ballot.
But if he had hung on for just a few more years, we might be talking about Johnson as the greatest wide receiver of all time, regardless of all the losing he experienced in Detroit.
2. Nicklas Lidström (Red Wings, 1991-2012)
It’s a testament to Lidström’s virtual perfection that only the back half of his career we're considering in this century still qualifies as one of the greatest runs for any Detroit athlete in the 21st century. But could you expect anything less from The Perfect Human?
One of the greatest defensemen of all time, Lidström’s career is overflowing with accomplishments: four Stanley Cups, 11 All-Star games, seven Norris Trophies, a Conn Smythe Trophy during the Red Wings’ 2001-02 Stanley Cup-winning season (the first true European to win the award) and, of course, the most perfect nickname in hockey history. Lidström was so good for so long that he made All-Star teams in three different decades and won his last Norris Trophy at age 40 – in 2011, a year before his retirement.
His greatness also blazed a trail for European hockey players today. After his Conn Smthye win, Lidström became the first European-trained player to captain a team to a Stanley Cup win and the first European to play in 1,500 NHL games. As a Hall of Famer, a member of the NHL’s 100th anniversary team and a bona fide Red Wings legend, he easily qualifies among the top three best Detroit athletes of the 21st century.
1. Miguel Cabrera (Tigers, 2008-23)
When The Athletic released its MLB All-Quarter Century Team on May 22 (if we’re being honest, it's the whole inspiration the Freep's summer-long series) it featured two former Tigers – Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer – but snubbed Cabrera ... who was better than both of them in his 16 seasons with Detroit.
And that’s because Cabrera was better than just about everyone in baseball during his career, winning two MVP awards, four batting titles, seven Silver Slugger awards and garnering a historic Triple Crown (tops in the AL in batting average, homers and RBIs) in 2012, the only MLB player to have done so since 1967.
Miggy is also just the seventh player in MLB history to amass 3,000 hits and 500 home runsand has an argument as one of the two greatest hitters of the 21st century (Albert Pujols being his only real competition). As a hitter, he was singular and pure, the definition of a slugger feared for over 20 years.
What makes Cabrera especially beloved is that he chose Detroit, twice, signing sizable extensions and spurning the free-agent market after the trade from Florida in 2008. But Cabrera stayed loyal to the Motor City, and he was rewarded to wind down his Hall of Fame career on his own terms.
He is one of the greatest Detroit athletes ever — no 21st-century qualifier needed.
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.