Allen Iverson. That man played basketball like he thought he was getting paid by the basket.
Out of sports I’ve ever had interest in watching:
Football: Barry Sanders
Hockey: Patrick Kane
Soccer: Zidane, Thierry Henry, Messi. Erling Haaland was also pretty fun to watch at Dortmund, but we’ll see if his career lives up to it.
He was pretty much the exact opposite of Kerry Kittles: A total glory-hound, at the expense of his teammmates. There was one tournament game where we lost to Georgetown, because Iverson was pulled for too many fouls: Suddenly, instead of facing one strong player, we were facing four of them.
Troy Polamalu. And I say that as a lifelong Browns fan. He was nominally a safety, but he played like he thought he was also a cornerback, linebacker, and DE, at the same time. Watching him fly across the field, trailing that mane of dark curls, it seemed like he was in on every tackle, like he thought his assignment was “cover everything on our side of the line of scrimmage.”
^ Good answer! Good answer!
I’d swear that guy had harnessed teleportation. Never seen anyone cover ground like that.
If I can add Gaol Monfils.
Mine - Ken Tekulve. Only MLB game I’ve seen - Montreal in '85 - when he strode out to the mound at the top of the 7th, a very noticable pall went over the crowd. The sound of dread and awe - unforgettable.
And then watching that Giger-like thing going to work. 
Mine: Albert Pujols. Aside from being a hitting god, also shows the odd bit of humour/clowning.
Darryl Porter - had the widest stance while doing this weird little hop from foot to foot, back and forth, seeming ready to explode or something. Well, hopped up, anyway.
Occasionally Prince Fielder was fun to watch.
What is the definition of “fun to watch”? Because they are good players doing things others can’t? Fun for how they play? Entertaining? Strictly baseball fan here so my list is just baseball players.
Fidrych was fun because he “talked” to the ball and he was really good in his rookie season.
Never saw Willie Mays play in person (I assume most of us have not) but he was one of the best ever judging by stats and comments by those who did see him play. Is being the best make you fun? Sure when you make plays like The Catch.
Bill Lee was fun for his off-the-field antics, I don’t recall doing anything fun on the field. I did see him in 2019 at age 72 in an independent league game, mostly for entertainment. He had hurt himself so didn’t pitch but he did come to bat right-handed and actually hit the ball to third base, that was worth the price of admission. He also told a story between innings about his first spring training with Montreal involving Tim Raines who by the way was fun as he seemingly could steal a base anytime he wanted.
Pascual Perez was fun seeing his antics on the mound, mostly as long as he was pitching for your team, not against it. He also was the guy who couldn’t find his way to the stadium in a game he was supposed to start.
Ken Griffey Jr was fun to watch because he was good and did, like Mays, things other players couldn’t do. Also great personality which helps.
Bo Jackson I guess was fun to watch because he would climb walls like Griffey.
Post up there reminded me of Al Hrabosky. That was kind of fun watching him.
Today’s players, I guess Mookie Betts and Manny Machado are fun because they are good players, especially Betts who appears to have fun playing the game.
Ozzie Smith doing the flip before a game and somehow getting to balls.
Kent Tekulve and Dan Quisenberry, just because they threw submarine.
Managers Earl Weaver and Tom Lasorda kicking and screaming was entertaining. Lasorda even managed to get a mascot thrown out of a game.
Javier Baez, definitely fun and a really smart player, that’s fun.
Miguel Cabrera is one that is obviously having fun playing the game and interacts with fans
Ellis Valentine had the best arm I’ve ever seen, that was fun to watch. Dave Winfield too and one time they played against each other, there was a power outage and they entertained the fans with their arms, throwing from deep in the outfield to home plate on the fly.
Other than baseball and seeing others’ responses, Ussain Bolt and I remember John McEnroe’s antics which I found entertaining as a kid.
Sheesh - still gotta add…
Only squash players wil relate to this: Jonathan Power.
Connor McDavid: just watching him skate - the most rudimentary of undertakings in hockey - utterly fascinating, how no one, in all histories of planet earth, has his surreal accelaration. One of the most unnatural things to see in the game. Freakish scary.
Steve Nash - especially around the mid-2000s, every game there were at least four or five “I absolutely don’t believe he just did that” moments.
I’ll second this. Remind me why the Kings got Bibby instead?
reads his Wikipedia article
Oh. He was acting out.
Tiger Woods
Tony Gwynn
Larry Fitzgerald
Steven Gerrard
Frank Shorter (1972 Olympic marathon gold medal )
Charlie Ward (my own bias as FSU alum)
Mohammed Salah
Did he ever recover from the gigantism brought on by drinking that brain and nerve tonic?
Mark McGwire was a huge draw. Look at all these people showing up for batting practice because he’s there!
But he was into some really shady stuff…
Poor fella.
USC era Reggie Bush
Kimi Raikkonen
Marc Marquez. This guy… I’ve never seen a guy fall off a motorcycle at 150 mph and manage to get back on before I watched this guy.
Kevin Schwantz and Wayne Rainey. Same shit. Rear Wheel steering and braking so hard they were on only the front wheel going into corners. Amazing!
Them Olympic Mogul guys…
I never cared for him at the time (he was, after all, a star player on a rival team), but St. Louis Cardinals fans tell me that no one could energize a crowd like Ozzie Smith could, espeically the way he gamboled about and hopped around and did flips and such.
To be fair to him, he was brand-new to Atlanta when that happened, didn’t speak English, and the highway he got lost on, I-285, is a bypass that encircles the city. We call it “the Perimeter”, which is why he was “Perimeter Perez” for the rest of his stint with the Braves. I remember seeing it on the news; one of his teammates taped a map of the city to his locker, with a big black circle around the appropriate exit.
In terms of “stop what you are doing, he’s on”?
Federer, by an absolute country mile.
Imagine what Barry Sanders would have done had he played for good teams.
Bo Jackson while he was at Auburn looked like a man among boys.