![\"Pel\u00e9,](\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/12\/varush2.jpg?w=1024\")
<\/p>\nPel\u00e9 passed this week, at age 82, and though it probably was no news bulletin that he enjoyed fame beyond belief in his time, it was still humbling to read some of the reactions to the column I wrote about him. Mostly, I hear from folks in the boroughs, in Jersey, on Long Island, in Connecticut, in Westchester and Rockland.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Sometimes we hear from New York\u2019s satellite sister provinces in Florida and L.A. and Vegas. But with Pel\u00e9, the addresses were as varied \u2014 .uk, .au, .fr; on and on \u2014 as the praise for him was universal.<\/p>\n
Which does get the imagination whirling.<\/p>\n
The concept of building Mount Rushmores in pop culture is not a new one, and the subject has carried many from happy hour to last call over the years. Usually we have modest parameters \u2014 the Mount Rushmore of the Yankees. The Mount Rushmore of the NBA. The Mount Rushmore of guitarists. The Mount Rushmore of sit-coms.<\/p>\n
Because he and Muhammad Ali were far and away the most famous athletes on the planet in the 1960s, and 1970s, and that was a time long before cable TV and satellite TV and 24\/7 news cycles and social media and the kind of instant access we have now. A soccer player scores a goal in Croatia, you can see it in Copiague two minutes later (if you didn\u2019t already see it live).<\/p>\n
Pel\u00e9, Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali and Tiger Woods are Sports Mount Rushmore because of their global impact on their respective sports.
\nPel\u00e9, Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali and Tiger Woods are Sports Mount Rushmore because of their global impact on their respective sports. N.Y.<\/p>\n
Wasn\u2019t that way for Pel\u00e9.<\/p>\n
Wasn\u2019t that way for Ali.<\/p>\n
And yet it didn\u2019t matter where you lived \u2014 North Dakota or Nepal, Kansas City or Kazakhstan, Boston or Beijing \u2014 you knew who Pel\u00e9 was. You knew who Ali was. And no matter where either of them traveled, even long after their retirements, they were mobbed by admirers and fans.<\/p>\n
Pel\u00e9, left, and Muhammad Ali had unmatched influences. Bongarts\/Getty Images
\nSo Pel\u00e9 and Ali are the first two faces on the Mount Rushmore of Sports, Earth Division.<\/p>\n
This is where it gets tricky. Soccer and boxing are sports with worldwide appeal, which is something that, say, baseball doesn\u2019t have. So as iconic as Babe Ruth was \u2014 and remains \u2014 in the United States, it\u2019s difficult to imagine that he has the same appeal elsewhere. The same standard applies to American football. Thanks to modern media a lot of people outside the U.S. may know who Tom Brady is, but few have ever actually seen him do what he\u2019s famous for.<\/p>\n
Golf is worldwide. And though Jack Nicklaus\u2019 record of 18 majors has seemingly survived Tiger Woods\u2019 early speed, and though Nicklaus is certainly well known and beloved in places well beyond the boundaries of his native country, he never approached the global fame that Tiger did. There isn\u2019t a country on the planet that isn\u2019t familiar with Woods now \u2014 when he was winning a couple of majors a year it was even more of a fury.<\/p>\n
So I will put Tiger\u2019s face up there, too.<\/p>\n
![\"Pel\u00e9,](\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/12\/GettyImages-52926998-1.jpg?w=1024\")
<\/p>\n
The fourth? Hockey is a global sport, and Wayne Gretzky certainly had a career worthy of consideration since he\u2019s the best to ever do it (and yes, I know Bobby Orr fans feel differently). Tennis has just as much global appeal as golf does, and Roger Federer\u2019s dominance, along with his gentlemanly bearing, have made him iconic just about everywhere.<\/p>\n
But I have Michael Jordan as the fourth. Basketball may have started out as a strictly American game, but a quick glance at NBA rosters in 2023 reminds you that it isn\u2019t ours alone anymore, not by a long shot. And though it is a fair argument to ask if Jordan or LeBron James deserves the title of GOAT, the fact is that Jordan\u2019s fame supersedes LeBron\u2019s: Which of the two has a silhouette of himself as one of the most recognizable logos in international marketing, after all?<\/p>\n
Pel\u00e9. Ali. Woods. Jordan.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s find a few pickaxes and get started, shall we?<\/p>\n
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