Who is the best basketball player of all time? The best quarterback? The best athlete?

These questions are some of the most heavily debated in sports. This year, ALLCITY set out to answer them.

Over the course of 10 days, we conducted polling of Diehard sports fans across the country on a number of different categories. The vote garnered 535 responses.

Every day this week, we’ll reveal top-five lists in the following categories:

• Monday: The best basketball player of all time
• Tuesday: The best quarterback to ever take the field
• Wednesday: The best overall athlete ever
• Thursday: The biggest, baddest villains in Arizona sports history
• Friday: The best uniforms ever worn by an Arizona team

We’ll also reveal how PHNX Diehards and staff voted on these categories and how they differ from the national results. For transparency, our methodology is listed at the end of this article.

So is the G.O.A.T. Debate officially settled? You be the judge.

Best basketball player of all time

The G.O.A.T. of basketball debate is seemingly settled…

Michael Jordan took the title in our vote by a pretty wide margin. He received 325 first-place votes while LeBron James earned just 67. At spots three and four, Kobe Bryant and Wilt Chamberlin were separated by just 0.2% of the point share, while Kareem Abdul-Jabbar rounded out the top five.

CHGO Diehards made up 37% of the entire voting pool, which could have swayed the result in Jordan’s favor. Did the voters get it right?

PHNX Diehard results

Diehards in Arizona saw the vote a bit differently. These were the results:

1. Steve Nash
2. Michael Jordan
3. Charles Barkley
4. Devin Booker
5. LeBron James

Jordan had the most first-place votes, but Nash earned a higher point share which placed him in first. Voters listed 47 different names, but the top-five rounded out in the above list. Is there some Southwest Bias at play there?

PHNX Staff results

The PHNX staff’s votes aligned with the national Diehard vote a little bit more than the local one. Here are the results:

1. Michael Jordan
2. LeBron James
3. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
4. Bill Russell
5. Magic Johnson

Jordan took home six first-place votes while James had five, a bit more neck-and-neck than the national ranking. The staff listed 22 different names overall.

Leah Merrall’s take: I had Diana Taurasi on my top-five list. Not only is she widely regarded as the best WNBA player of all time, she’s one of the best basketball players of all time, period. She’s a three-time WNBA champion, two-time Finals MVP, 11-time WNBA All-Star, five-time WNBA scoring champion, and the all-time WNBA leading scorer, to list just a few of her accolades. Yes, she’s a Phoenix legend who just last Sunday had her number added to the Mercury Ring of Honor, but Taurasi’s achievements in basketball transcend her team and her league. She’s not only the G.O.A.T. in the WNBA – she deserves to be on the top-five list of best basketball players of all time.

Best QB of all time

Diehards anointed Tom Brady at the G.O.A.T. quarterback, a title he earned in a landslide with 293 first-place votes. Joe Montana and Peyton Manning are separated on the list by the thinnest of margins – their point share percentage appears identical, but Montana earned three more points.

Patrick Mahomes and John Elway round out the list. In total, Diehards listed 231 different names on the best QB list, but these five rose above the rest.

PHNX Diehard results

Once again, the PHNX Diehards’ list had a local flair. These are the results:

1. Kurt Warner
2. Tom Brady
3. Carson Palmer
4. Jake Plummer
5. Joe Montana

Among PHNX Diehards, Warner received the most ballot mentions and the most first-place votes. The retired QB played five seasons in the desert that included a Super Bowl appearance. Carson Palmer led the Cardinals to a division title and NFC Championship game appearance in 2015. Jake Plummer spent the first six seasons of his career with Arizona after playing at Arizona State in college.

While Warner, Palmer and Plummer and undoubtedly the most notable Cardinals quarterbacks, are they the greatest quarterbacks of all time?

PHNX staff results

The PHNX staff curated a list similar to the national, with one local exception. Here are the results:

1. Tom Brady
2. Peyton Manning
3. Joe Montana
4. Patrick Mahomes
5. Kurt Warner

The top-four names matched the national results, with Manning and Montana flipped. The PHNX staff, like the Diehards, included Warner on the list, but in the fifth spot, rather than the first.

Does Warner believe he belongs on this list? He chimed in.

Appreciate the love… but just not a big enough body of work to enter that convo! Would have been fun had I come out or college like everyone else or I had stayed with 1 org my whole career… we can still dream right? Haha

— Kurt Warner (@kurt13warner) August 18, 2026

Espo’s take: While it’s hard to argue with the ALLCITY Quarterback GOAT ranking, I’m going to try anyway. When it comes to greatness I think there is some mythos that comes along with it. An aura, a swag, an undeniable “origin” story. With that in mind, I would have included Kurt Warner on the list. What player had more success from weirder beginnings than him and further more, how many have had a major motion picture made out of their story? The man led the Rams to championship captaining the best offense the league had ever seen when he wasn’t even supposed to be a starter. He resurrected his career in Arizona and took the franchise to heights it had never seen before. He threw for almost 33,000 yards, made the Pro Football Hall of Fame and did it all starting his NFL career at 27 after going undrafted and playing in Arena Football and NFL Europe. If that’s not greatness, I’m not sure what is.

Best athlete of all time

Once again, Michael Jordan tops one of our G.O.A.T. lists, this time for the honor of best athlete. Jordan received the most first-place votes among ALLCITY Diehards.

In total, voters listed 529 different athletes. The top-five on this list earned 2,680 points, which is 33.7% of the total point capture.

PHNX Diehard results

PHNX Diehards stuck with the trend of highlighting local athletes. Here is their list:

1. Larry Fitzgerald
2. Randy Johnson
3. Michael Phelps
4. Shane Doan
5. Michael Jordan

If you’re putting together an Arizona sports Mount Rushmore, Fitzgerald, Johnson and Doan have strong arguments to be on it. They’re some of the most notable athletes in Arizona history, not just for their on-field and on-ice product but for their contributions to the community as well.

That said, are they the best athletes of all time? Michael Phelps and Michael Jordan, meanwhile, appeared on both the national list and ALLCITY staff voting list. Their records and reputations in their respective sports speak for themselves as strong arguments to be part of the top five.

PHNX staff results

The PHNX staff took a more national approach. Here are the results:

1. Michael Jordan
2. Michael Phelps
3. Wayne Gretzky
4. LeBron James
5. Muhammad Ali

Four of the top five votes aligned with the national Diehard vote, just in a slightly different order. The only difference is Ali on the list instead of Bo Jackson.

Leah Merrall’s take: It’s an impossible task to narrow down all of the incredible athletes in our history to a list of five. You could ask 100 people and all 100 could have entirely different lists, each with strong cases. That said, there are some glaring omissions on all three lists presented above. Where are the women? Serena Williams has 23 Grand Slam titles and was dominant across three decades. Simone Biles has skills named after her that other professional gymnasts can’t even attempt. Katie Ledecky holds World Records unheard of in modern swimming. The pool of great athletes in incredibly deep, but the achievements of these women shouldn’t be disregarded so easily. That said, Williams did finish fourth on the ALLCITY staff list.

Biggest Arizona sports villains

Arizona sports doesn’t exactly have a winning track record. A lot has gone wrong over the years, from championships lost, to years of irrelevant teams, to an entire professional franchise relocated. So there are a lot of villains to choose from.

According to PHNX Diehards, in fact, 80 people could be considered. Robert Horry, Santonio Holmes, Kobe Bryant, Alex Meruelo, and Michael Jordan rounded out the top five.

Horry makes a strong case for top spot on the list. His hip check against Steve Nash in Game 4 of the 2007 Western Conference Semifinals had devastating consequences. Amar’e Stoudemire and Boris Diaw left the bench to see what was happening with Nash, which violated the NBA’s rule against leaving the bench during an altercation. The league suspended both of them for Game 5, which the Suns lost without two of their best players. Phoenix went on to lose in six games, and the Spurs went on to win it all.

Holmes is another player who made one play that helped cost an Arizona team a championship. The Cardinals faces the Steelers in Super Bowl XLIII, the closest the franchise has ever come to a title. Arizona trailed 20–7 entering the fourth quarter, then surged back to take the lead with just two minutes to play. With under a minute left, Ben Roethlisberger drove the Steelers 78 yards down the field and found Holmes in the end zone. But did Holmes get both feet down? It was ruled a touchdown on the field and again after review, but the controversy of whether or not it should have counted persists to this day. The Cardinals haven’t come close to a Super Bowl title since.

Bryant’s villain status in Phoenix doesn’t come down to one moment; rather, he was the guy who kept ending the Suns’ best chances at a title year after year. Plus, he blatantly said that he hated the Suns because they were the team between him and championships, and even went so far as to single out Steve Nash and Raja Bell among others. He was a devastatingly effective rival who openly reveled in being a Suns villain.

Meruelo is the only non-athlete on this list, and for good reason: he’s the reason the state of Arizona lost a professional sports franchise. Even before Meruelo purchased the Arizona Coyotes in 2019, the team’s tenure in the desert was anything but smooth. But after years that included bankruptcy and numerous relocation rumors, Meruelo’s ownership offered a blank slate. Yet at every turn, Meruelo failed. He moved the team from Glendale to Arizona State’s Mullet Arena, a 5,000-seat arena not suitable for an NHL team long-term. He zeroed in on land in Tempe, only to drop the ball on campaigning and ultimately lost the public vote that would have moved the project forward. His plan B of a site in North Phoenix failed after a series of fumbles. The NHL lost patience, and Meruelo agreed to sell the team to Ryan Smith in Utah. Meruelo retained the rights to the Coyotes in Arizona if he could secure land and an arena in a five-year window. He relinquished those rights less than three months after losing the team.

Lastly, Jordan makes his third G.O.A.T. list this week, this time as an Arizona sports villain. The Phoenix Suns faced Jordan and the Bulls in the 1993 NBA Finals. Jordan averaged 41 points per game across the series, which is still the record for the highest scoring average in any NBA Finals. It was the Suns’ first Finals appearance since 1976, and their best chance up to that point given Charles Barkley’s MVP season and 62-win team. But Jordan’s dominance was too much to overcome, and the Suns lost to the Bulls. It took Phoenix 28 years to see another NBA Finals, and the team has yet to cross that final threshold.

PHNX staff results

The PHNX staff had two different names on the list, and a slightly different order. Horry still took home the top spot, and Bryant and Meruelo remain.

Whereas Santonio Holmes appeared on the PHNX Diehards’ list, James Harrison took the number-three spot in the staff vote. Harrison made the signature defensive play of Super Bowl XLIII. With the Steelers up 17-7 at halftime, Harrison intercepted a Kurt Warner pass at the goal line and returned it 100 yards for a touchdown as time expired in the first half. The play happened at the worst possible moment, and turned the tide of the game. As a result, the Cardinals had to claw back from a deficit, and their fourth-quarter lead was lost to Holmes in the final minute.

Tim Duncan is really the face of the Spurs teams that repeatedly blocked the Suns’ best eras. He also was at the center of the two most infamous events in the Spurs-Suns rivalry. Plus, Duncan kept beating the Suns year after year. San Antonio eliminated Phoenix from the playoffs in 2003, 2005, 2007, and 2008. And Duncan was the constant every single time.

In total, the PHNX staff listed 41 different villains. Did the staff and Diehards get it right?

Anthony Totri’s take: Herm Edwards is without a shadow of a doubt one of the biggest villains in Valley sports history. The disgraced coach set the Arizona State football program on fire with grotesque losses and NCAA violations that resulted in four years of probation, scholarship reductions, and self-imposed postseason bans for the Sun Devils. The violations were just a part of the Arizona State horror story. Year after year Edwards lost his sharpness during practices, media availabilities and on game days. He was nothing more than a walking mouth piece for Ray Anderson who robbed the program of money and the fanbase of hope. Edwards’ tenure in Tempe was nothing short of embarrassing and certainly worthy of being considered one of the worst Arizona has ever seen.

Best Arizona uniforms

Arizona sports has a history of great logos and uniforms. PHNX Diehards ranked 66 different uniforms to be considered the best, but the Coyotes Kachina, Suns 90’s sunburst, Suns Valley, D-backs Serpientes, and D-backs 2001 home jerseys made the top five.

The Coyotes Kachina took home the most first-place votes. The iconic logo was first unveiled when the team arrived in Phoenix in 1996. In 2003, the Coyotes switched to the howling head logo on red and white jerseys. In 2018, the Kachina came back as a third jersey due to demand, and in 2021 it made a full-time return as the Coyotes’ official primary jersey until the team’s relocation in 2024.

PHNX staff results

The PHNX staff put the D-backs purple and teal jersey in the top spot. It tied with the Coyotes Kachina with most first place votes, but took home slightly more points based on ballot mentions.

The staff also included the Suns purple jersey and left off the D-backs Serpientes and D-backs 2001 home uniforms. In total, staff listed 37 different options.

Who got it right? What uniform is missing?

Methodology and quality controls

• Rankings used a 5–1 points system: five points for first place through one point for fifth place.
• Spelling, capitalization, obvious shorthand, and name variants were normalized before scoring.
• Team, color, era, alternate, and home/away uniform descriptions were consolidated into consistent market-specific labels.
• When the same final answer appeared more than once within one ranked question, it counted once at its highest placement; lower repeats were discarded.
• In a published uniform Top 5, a general team-only bucket was omitted when a specific uniform for that same team was also listed. If a general bucket stood alone, it displayed as the team name without “Unspecified.”
• Tied point totals share the same numerical rank. Display order then uses first-place votes, ballot mentions, and alphabetical order.
• ALLCITY point totals reconcile exactly to the sum of the five markets, with zero formula errors in the final workbook.

Agree with the results? Disagree? Let us know on X, Instagram, or Facebook @PHNX_Sports.