This July 4th, let's celebrate athletes who revolutionized the game

Steph Curry didn’t start the 3-point revolution, but he proved that a “jump shooting” team could reach the pinnacle and stretched the meaning of “shooting from distance” to levels never imagined. Modern teams are designed to replicate Curry’s prowess behind the arc. None have succeeded

Whereas slick handling guards of yesteryear used to dream of yoyoing their way into the paint to finish above the rim, Curry uses his dribbling to create space to launch 25-footers. Or he’ll launch from 30 before even reaching the defense’s perimeter shields. Curry’s cottage industry from distance has into a higher volume of off-the-dribble triples and shots from beyond 28 feet have become a source of frustration for opposing defenses and sometimes even the offensive players that take them.

Defensive ends are one threat, but playing the edge linebacker position in the Big Blue’s 3-4 defense gave Taylor a running start to put his brand of extra hurtin’ on ball carriers in the backfield. Over the course of his career, Taylor recorded 132.5 sacks, but his blindside hit on Washington quarterback Joe Theismann was the catalyst in turning left tackle into a premier position. As the NFL crept out of the dead ball era, it became imperative to have a left tackle protecting the heart of the offense. Left tackles getting paid more handsomely than anyone outside of quarterbacks can thank LT.

Before the advent of the Fosbury Flop, elite high jumpers used a slew of techniques that involved runnings leaping head first over the bar. Fosbury’s back-first leap, which he revolutionized at the 1968 Olympics earned him a gold medal in the high jump event. But that’s almost secondary to the long-term impact he left on the sport. Not long after, the Fosbury Flop became the norm and over 50 years later, it has stood the test of time as the standard for high jumpers.

Being a quarterback is about more than just throwing tight, accurate spirals. That’s only half the equation. Peyton Manning’s eccentric audibles at the line of scrimmage are as much a part of his legacy as his exploits after the snap. From, “Omaha” to “apple, apple,” Manning’s gift for getting out of a bad play was legendary. His pre-snap looks, play changes and offensive mastery were leaps and bounds ahead of what other teams were doing. These days, Manning’s audible-heavy mold has trickled down to younger quarterbacks, the offensive level and even high school throwers.

Until Bannister ran the first record mile in under four minutes, middle-distance running figures believed it was an impossible feat. Then, on May 6th, 1954, Bannister ran 3:59.4 in Oxford, England. A few weeks after Bannister’s 3:59.4 mile, the record was broken by John Landy. The pair faced each other at the Empire Games that summer, with Banning setting a new record on a time of 3.58.8 while Landy also ran under four minutes. Today, the record stands at 3:43.13.

Mike Vick made scrambling quarterbacks en vogue. While he wasn’t able to perfect the craft, he was the lab petri dish for zone read offenses in the NFL, Cam Newton, RG3, Vince Young, Russell Wilson and Lamar Jackson. Vick wasn’t the improvisational quarterback, but his jaw-dropping athleticism and improvisational ability came along at the right time to spawn a rise in dual-threat quarterbacks.

Before the formation of the WNBA, Cheryl Miller was the LeBron James or Michael Jordan of women’s hoops. She went 132-4 in four seasons at Riverside Polytechnic High and stepped into the college game like a boot to a colony of ants. In four seasons at USC, Miller won the women’s Naismith Player of the Year award three times and won the national title twice. The GOAT was also the first woman to dunk in an organized game. Miller didn’t have the benefit of building upon her legacy in the WNBA, but her role in the early years after Title IX should never be forgotten.

Simone Biles isn’t on this list because of her unprecedented reign over gymnastics or in her establishing herself as the GOAT. Biles’ peers aren’t just unable to match her execution, they don’t even have the skills to attempt her most daring moves.

Most famously, Biles perfected the Yurachenko double pike, an aerodynamic maneuver that is named after a Russian gymnast who pioneered the roundoff-back-handspring approach. However, no one had ever attempted adding a double flip in a pike position (body folded over straight legs) that Biles pulled off throughout 2021. The Yurachenko double pike will probably be incorporated into the routine of future endeavoring gymnasts, but in the meantime, the international federation has actively avoided giving her higher scores for the double pike in an attempt to prevent others from trying it and to keep her from trouncing the competition.

Billie Jean King’s most known for her win over Bobby Riggs in the Battle of the Sexes, but her fight began years earlier, King was instrumental in kick-starting the fight for pay equality for women’s tennis players by being one of the Original Nine to sign with the newly formed Virginia Slims Circuit. King and others were upset with the disparity in prize money between male tennis players and female tennis players. In 1973, Virginia Slims became the Women’s Tennis Association, which King founded the WTA, which still flourishes today. In 1984, she became the first women commissioner in pro sports when she assumed the commissioner role of World Team Tennis. Today, the pay gap between women’s and men’s tennis has closed thanks to King and the women who followed in her footsteps.

When Curt Flood’s contract expired in 1969, a clause that allowed teams to retain the rights to players after the expiration of their contracts was still standard operating procedure for the front offices. Influenced by the Civil Rights Movement, Curt Flood filed a lawsuit against Major League Baseball accusing these reserve clauses of violating antitrust law and in 1972, Flood vs. Kuhn was argued before the Supreme Court. The court invoked stare decisis in a 5-3 ruling against Flood, which cited a 1922 case as precedent. Flood was blackballed from baseball in the aftermath, but the player’s union continued its push against the reserve clause until it was finally struck down in a 1975 ruling, clearing the way for modern-day free agency.

Gibson was the ringleader of a pitching coup that seized MLB hitters by 1968. From his castle atop a 15-inch mound, Gibson won 22 games, earned a 1.12 earned run average and won the NL MVP honor. In response, the league lowered mounds by five inches and shrank the strike one and peace was restored to the batter’s box. In one season, the average ERA and no pitcher won NL MVP until 2014. The changes became known as the “Gibson Rules.”