Greatest athlete of the modern era is prolly Jordan or Ali (i picked 2). I'm a C.Barkley fan in baskteball , Walter Payton in football, and De La Hoya in boxing. Those 2 brought the most excitement to their sports in my opinion.
Jim Thorpe was prolly a great athlete back then but theres no way he could do it in todays era. Football he would get hurt, basketball he would get dunked on, and boxing he would get knocked out.