I'm talking the 4 major sports. Obviously the lack of ball fields/weather reduce the amount of players who come from the region and there isn't the same "football culture" or hockey insanity of other regions. Gotta believe Kareem and Koufax are up there right? Who do you guys have?
Willie Wilson? He was a good baseball player for a while. He was never a star.
agree on Whitey and Phil but Dr J was not "NYC born" - he is from Hempstead on Long Island.
If my feet are held to the fire, I'll go with Gehrig and Rizzuto for baseball, and Kareem and Bernard King for basketball.
A guy from nearby Summit, NJ who was one of the best all-around athletes ever is Willie Wilson.
LaMotta was a much better all time middleweight than Tyson was an all time heavyweight.
Just for you, how about Lou Ferrigno?
I sort of wished they would have changed the name to "Willets Point-aShe Stadium."
Would have honored one of the greats of NY sports, rather than a second rate team in a second rate sport.
Oh well. Opportunity lost.
I think Brown belongs in the top 4 if you include the Pope's residence.
hmmm...
Ernie Davis (Elmira), Walter Hagan (Rochester), Johnny Podres (Port Henry), Carmen Basilio (Canastota), Daryl Johnston (Youngstown), Ron Jaworski (Lackawanna), Andy Van Slyke (New York Mills), Dave Giusti (Seneca Falls), Walt Patulski (Fulton), Marv Hubbard (Salamanca), Mel Hall (Lyons), Jim Boeheim (Lyons), Tom Coughlin (Waterloo), Dustin Brown (Ithaca), King Rice (The Bing), Gus Williams (Mount Vernon), Art Monk (White Plains.) Added Williams and Monk even though they're from the suburbs.
The top 4 athletes - Hagan, Davis, Basilio, ? If you include the suburbs, Monk's 4th imo.
So what we have after limiting the discussion to just the parameters listed in the OP: Gehrig, Jordan & Kareem are no-brainers, as they are without a doubt in the top 5 best baseball & basketball players.
The last is basically between Ford, Greenberg, ARod, Koufax, Palmer & Rizzuto. Oddly enough, FWIW (probably not much) among pitchers in the Fan EloRater on baseball-reference.com, Koufax is 23, Ford is 24 & Palmer is 26. For batters, Gehrig is 3rd (Ruth & Wagner are 1 & 2), Greenberg 24, ARod 47, Scooter 299. I'd go w/ Greenberg as an everyday player & 2 time MVP. His stats are actually much better than ARod's on a 162 game avg. basis.