5. Derrick Rose, basketball

We had vigorous debates about most of the names on this list. We had almost no debates about the top five. Take Rose. Seven of the eight voters had him in the top five — and one voter had him second.

How is that possible, given that Rose averaged 14.9 points a game as a Tiger compared to 18.1 for Chris Douglas-Roberts? Rose wasn’t the leading scorer on that team and he wasn’t the consensus All-American.

Derrick Rose walked into Elliot Perry’s house to learn about art. He left with a mentor and inspiration.

But here’s the thing about greatness. You know it when you see it. Yes, the stats matter. The awards matter, too. But the five greatest Memphis athletes of this century were just different. If you saw them play, you knew.

Rose was the final piece on the 2007-2008 Memphis team that came within seconds of winning the title. He was a soft-spoken wrecking ball. The other players on the team didn’t begrudge him anything. Because they recognized his genius as soon as he stepped in the gym.

And when the Tigers got to the NCAA Tournament that season, Rose was emphatically unleashed. In successive games, he destroyed Michigan State, Texas and UCLA. In the process, he outscored the opposing point guards — Drew Neitzel, D.J. Augustin and Darren Collison —by the score of 73 to 24.

Rose’s legacy in Memphis is complicated for all the reasons you know. He only played one year for the Tigers. The NCAA later vacated that Memphis season because it suspected — but never proved — that someone else took a standardized test for Rose. The decision was bogus. That seems even clearer with the passage of time. And now Rose is back in Memphis and serving as a mentor for someone even higher on this this list. There is sweet symmetry in that.

But once up a time, Rose was every bit as unstoppable as the man he now counsels. He brought Memphians out of their seats in much the same way. If you saw him play, you didn’t have to be told Rose was special. You watched and you knew.

The greatest Memphis athletes of the century: Nos. 6-10

4. Zach Randolph, basketball

Let me refer you to two Grizzlies playoff series, maybe the two most raucous and triumphant in franchise history.

In 2011, Randolph and the Grizzlies met the top-seeded San Antonio Spurs. The Spurs were led by Tim Duncan, maybe the best power forward in the history of the league. The Grizzlies won anyway, four games to two. And in all four of the Grizzlies wins, Randolph outscored Duncan. He was better than the best in history.

In 2013, Randolph and the Grizzlies met the Los Angeles Clippers. The Clippers were built around Blake Griffin. Indeed, the Clippers had traded Randolph to the Grizzlies so Griffin could be the star. The Grizzlies won that one, four games to two. And in all four of the Grizzlies’ wins, Randolph outscored Griffin. He was better than the guy who was supposed to take his place.

Randolph may not be the most accomplished Grizzly. That’s Marc Gasol. He may not be the most incandescent Grizzly. That’s Ja Morant. But at the peak of his powers — carrying the franchise through those playoffs — he was better than any Grizzly that has ever been.

I’ll always remember Game 6 in that Spurs series. Antonio McDyess hit a jumper to give the Spurs the lead with four minutes and 40 seconds left. A pall settled over FedExForum. A loss would send the series back to San Antonio. The Grizzlies PA guy tweeted: “We can’t panic!!! WE GOTTA KEEP OUR COMPOSURE!!!”

Calkins: A raucous celebration of Z-Bo — and Memphis

Or, just get the ball to Randolph in the post.

The big guy went to work. The Grizzlies went on a 12-2 run — with Randolph scoring 10 of those 12 points.

“He carried us on his back,” Gasol said. “He hit some shots that almost hit the Jumbotron.”

Randolph had bounced from Portland to the New York Knicks to the Clippers before winding up in Memphis. Now he had finally found a home.

“I feel like I’m from Memphis,” he told me after that game. “It’s never been like this anywhere else.”

The greatest Memphis athletes of the century: Nos. 11-15

3. DeAngelo Williams, football

A crowd had gathered in the old Athletic Office Building for the occasion. DeAngelo Williams — fresh off a 1,948 rushing season with the Memphis Tigers — walked to the lectern and delivered the news.

“I have decided to forgo ...”

Well, shoot, he was going to forgo his senior season.

Too bad. But what did anyone expect?

DeAngelo Williams first Tiger player voted into College Football Hall of Fame

“I have decided to forgo my NFL career,” he said.

Which was just like DeAngelo, wasn’t it?

Feinting left and going right.

And, yes, I have told that story before. I will almost certainly tell it again. Because as great as our memories of Williams might be, he was even greater than that.

The Tigers have had a series of excellent running backs in this century. Darrell Henderson, Tony Pollard, Antonio Gibson, Kenneth Gainwell, Patrick Taylor and Blake Watson could have played anywhere.

But Williams was something else again. I used to watch the reaction of visiting reporters when they saw Williams run for the first time. They might gasp. Or laugh out loud. The guy was hard-to-believe good.

He finished with 6,026 rushing yards; Henderson had 3,545.

The greatest Memphis athletes of the century: Nos. 16-20

Williams had 10 100-yard rushing games in a single season — three different times!

He finished second to Reggie Bush in the voting for the Doak Walker Award his senior season — but ran for nearly 200 yards more Bush did that year.

He ended his career as the all-time leader in NCAA all-purpose yards — that’s the best, ever — and as the NCAA’s fourth-leading rusher, behind only Tony Dorsett, Ricky Williams and Ron Dayne.

But my favorite moment may have been that press conference. When Williams — who had broken his leg in the bowl game the previous year — had to decide whether to go pro.

“It’s the NFL vs. the city of Memphis,” he said. “Hands down, the city of Memphis won.”

The greatest Memphis athletes of the century: Nos. 21-25

2. Marc Gasol, basketball

These last two were tough. How do you pick between the most accomplished Memphis athlete and the most breathtaking Memphis athlete? How do you pick between the center who was at the heart of the greatest Grizzlies teams ever and the point guard who is the franchise’s first superstar?

Gasol is a Memphian from way back. He told a charming story when his number was retired earlier this year. It seems that when Gasol first arrived in Memphis — when he was just the little kid moving to the city along with his big brother, Pau — he thought the city’s area code was 9-1-1.

He would try to call his father and get a strange woman on the phone.

He would try again and get a different stranger on the phone.

“Eventually, enough cops showed up to the door that I thought, ‘Maybe I’m not doing it right,’” he said.

Calkins: For Marc Gasol, home is where the Memphians are

And so began his journey as a Memphian. It would take him to the high school state championship game with Lausanne. It would take him to three All-Star Games, to the Western Conference Finals and to last season’s celebration at FedExForum, where Gasol’s number 33 was retired.

Of the 25 players on this list, 14 of them went to high school in the Memphis area. That’s a development we didn’t necessarily expect. For those local athletes, we have considered not just the things they did in high school but the things they did beyond. But Gasol is the only athlete whose beyond — whose greatest moments — came when he returned to Memphis as a pro. So he was forged here and he reached his zenith here. He’s unique among all the athletes on the list. He moved to Memphis in 2001 and had his number retired in 2024. His greatness was both undeniable and homegrown.

1. Ja Morant, basketball

Again, we say: Trust your eyes.

Recall Morant’s return from suspension this season. It was Morant’s first game in 235 days.

All Morant did was score 34 points in 35 minutes, including 25 in the second half. And, with 9.6 seconds left, he took the ball, waited, drove left, spun, spun back again, elevated — and dropped the ball into the hoop for the win.

Calkins: Only in the movies and in Memphis? It was that kind of night for Morant.

We can debate greatness all we like. We can argue over the criteria. But then Morant does something else that is hard to believe — something that requires slow-motion replay just to get the mind around — and the conclusion is undeniable. That’s what greatness looks like.

Morant has the numbers, too. The numbers and the awards. In 2022, he was All-NBA. In both 2022 and 2023 he was selected for the All-Star Game. Morant has been named the NBA’s Rookie of the Year (2020) and the NBA’s Most Improved Player (2022). He has the two highest scoring seasons in Grizzlies history (27.4 points per game in 2021-2022 and 26.2 points per game in 2022-2023).

Morant has five of the seven top-scoring playoff games in Grizzlies history (including all of the top three) and three of the four top-scoring regular-season games in Grizzlies history (including the only one to crack 50, which Morant did against San Antonio, when he scored 52).

But those are just the numbers. And the numbers don’t begin to describe Morant. There is a reason Morant got that shoe deal. Think Nike knows a little bit about great?

And, yes, he has a lot to prove going forward. He needs to stay healthy — and out of the news. If he can do that, he’ll remind the universe exactly why he was once considered the face of the NBA. The next part of this century should be fun.