Cleveland's GOAT Mountain of Sports - Bob Feller, Jim Brown, Joe Thomas, LeBron James voted best of the best

The Sporting News GOAT Mountain project named four pro athletes from the nine cities that have had three of the following four leagues represented for at least 20 years – NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL. Last summer, we looked at 13 four-sport cities. There were no hard-and-fast rules pertaining to the athletes selected. Our panels of experts considered individual resumes, team success and legacy within the sports landscape of each city. Not every franchise within a city needed to be represented. All sports fans have an opinion on this topic. This is ours.

Joe Thomas remains the best real-life "Draft Day" story. 

Cleveland sports fans know the script well. Thomas opted to go fishing on Lake Michigan instead of attending the 2007 NFL Draft. The Browns selected Thomas at No. 3. 

Thomas remembers exiting the boat and turning on the television that day. He saw overwhelming enthusiasm from Cleveland fans at the draft. He heard the barking from the man-on-the-street-interviews. That Midwest love affair was not forced, and the loyalty remains as Thomas prepares for enshrinement into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Aug. 5. 

"I love living in Cleveland," Thomas told The Sporting News. "When I was drafted, right away, I was like, 'Yes!' It's on the shores of Lake Erie, so I can go fishing. I know there's a lot of good hunting in Ohio. The people are hard-working, blue-collar people that understand a Midwest culture similar to where I am from. It was easy to make it my home." 

Three of our four choices called Cleveland home for the entirety of their professional careers, and all four athletes were impactful off the field. 

Bob Feller served in World War II. Jim Brown was an integral part of the Civil Rights movement and retired in his prime. LeBron James left Cleveland twice, but his social justice mission in Northeast Ohio continues. Thomas has emerged as an ambassador for Cleveland and the NFL as an analyst.  

MORE: Why Otto Graham missed on Cleveland's mountaintop

Three of our four choices won championships. Feller was on the last World Series championship team in 1948. Brown was on the Browns' 1964 NFL championship team, and the city waited 52 years for the James-led Cavaliers to win one of the greatest NBA Finals of all time. Thomas is beloved for resisting the urge to chase a Super Bowl ring elsewhere, and that is part of the charm. 

Staying in Cleveland counts for something, even if it is a complicated relationship. These are the athletes who epitomize that most. 

MORE: See the GOAT Mountain selections for all nine cities

LEBRON JAMES (2003-10, 2014-18) 

Thomas – who is 6-foot-6, 312 pounds –  sized up James while sitting court-side for the 2007 NBA Finals. With that, there was a brief high-school flashback. 

"I remember looking over and seeing him and thinking, 'Oh my gosh,'" Thomas said. "We were the same age and would go to the same AAU tournaments. I never played against him directly, but we played against his team. Seeing him in that Cavs jersey and looking eye to eye or maybe looking a little bit up and seeing how big and physical he was, it really kind of blew me away." 

James has that effect on everybody who comes to witness the once-in-a-lifetime talent that now has stretched for more than 20 years without a discernible expiration date.

Tom Withers, an Associated Press sports writer covering Cleveland since 1999, and Brian Windhorst were among the first reporters on the James beat in Northeast Ohio when James was at Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary High School. Withers wrote a national profile before the Sports Illustrated article in 2002, and he recalled pushing his editors. 

Withers was convinced after watching a drill installed by Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary coach Dru Joyce II. 

"They would give the second unit a 15-point lead and put two minutes on the clock and they were trying to run out the clock," Withers told SN. "The Fab Five would press and try to whittle it down. More times than not, they would be able to do it." 

Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary played Kenmore High School in their next game, and Kenmore could not advance the ball past half-court for most of the first quarter. 

"It was steal, dunk, lob, dunk, steal, dunk," Withers said. "It was unworldly. It really was." 

James seems to fit the mold of two other athletic, preps-to-pros wing men who have gone on to NBA stardom: Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady. But even that mold might not be big enough for him.

"He is flat-out better than those guys were when they were in high school," (an) Eastern Conference personnel man says. "But having said that, Kobe and McGrady have worked very, very hard to take their ability and maximize it. If he puts in that kind of work, then, yeah, he could be better than them. It's tough to tell who will be the ones willing to do that.”

—The Sporting News, Dec. 23, 2002

So when James brought the show to Cleveland – those who already experienced the 6-foot-9 , 250-pound forward were not surprised. Yet the weight of those expectations – especially in Cleveland – was not easy to shoulder. James led the Cavaliers to the NBA Finals in 2007 – only to leave via "The Decision" after the 2010 season. 

Cleveland fans had seen so many other superstars follow the same path to fame elsewhere. Ken Carman, an Emmy-winning sportscaster at Fox 8 Sports and radio host at 92.3 FM in Cleveland, watched other franchises do it first. 

"We look at the Bad Boy Pistons, they got through Boston, and they lived happily ever after. With the Bulls, they got through Detroit, and they lived happily ever after," Carman told SN. "Well, the Cavs did that, and then they got chased off by Boston. When he left in 2010, he walked off the floor and that was it. It wasn't happily ever after in those eras." 

MORE: Revisiting the legend of LeBron James' final HS football game

"The relationship with Cleveland still is a little bit complicated," Withers added. "There are still a lot of people here that begrudge him for leaving the first time; never mind leaving the second time. Who knows? We could have a third act here, which would not be beyond anything I've thought of the last few years. Anything is possible with LeBron." 

Literally anything. Withers walked into an Akron gym for a youth community center dedication. 

"I'm standing there with Mike Snyder of WTAM and LeBron walked in and somebody handed him the ball and he shot it from about 75 feet,"  Withers said. "I turned to Snyder and said, 'If this goes in, I'm leaving. Sure enough, it was a swish." 

Withers stayed, of course. He watched James rattle off 25 straight points against the Pistons in the 2007 Eastern Conference Finals. Withers had the same feeling in 2016, even after Golden State took a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals.  

"There was still something about that team, and that was because of him," Withers said. "He instilled a belief in everyone. That went from the fan sitting at the top of the arena to the teammates on the floor with him. You just felt like because he was there, anything was possible." 

Carman watched Game 7 from the CBS Sports Radio studio, and he remembers every detail. He was sick after ordering Chinese food from a downtown restaurant. He turned the channel during commercial breaks to relax. J.R. Smith hit back-to-back 3-pointers, and James' block of Andre Iguodala was a frozen-in-time moment. The Cavs won the NBA championship, which broke a 52-year pro sports drought. 

"A lot of the listeners knew I was from Cleveland, so that was really cool," Carman said. "I haven't forgotten yet, and I don't think I will ever forget it." 

That is why when James left a second time for Los Angeles after the 2017-18 season, Carman wasn't angry at all. 

"When it comes to LeBron, it's such an intricate history because he left, he came back, he fulfilled the prophecy, then he left again," Carman said. "The second time he left, it was, 'I wish you well.' Now, again, not everybody feels that way. I loved the Cavs, and I've watched the Cavs since I was a little kid. It was, 'I wish you well. You gave me something I've never seen in my life.’" 

All that legacy talk still follows James, from the Michael Jordan comparisons, to the ring count to his work as a social justice activist. Yet in Cleveland, that championship ring means a little more. James will always be the largest Cleveland hero because of it. 

"If not for LeBron, they might be the Oklahoma City Cavaliers, or the Nashville Cavaliers or the Seattle Cavaliers," Withers said. "He literally saved this franchise, and you could argue that he saved downtown Cleveland as well because we all know of the struggles this city has had economically through the 70s, 80s and 90s. LeBron put Cleveland back on the map, and he's so proud of Akron and so proud of being from this area. 

"That's why I think a lot of the people who initially despised him for leaving the first time came around," Withers said. "He came home. He came back. Who could hold that against somebody? Beyond that, he delivered. He delivered on his promise." 

BOB FELLER (Indians, 1936-56)

Feller – a right-handed pitcher – spent 18 seasons with Cleveland, and he was a regular in the Indians press box until his death at age 92 in 2010. Withers enjoyed the company. 

"He was as big a fan as anybody sitting out in the left-field bleachers," Withers said. "There were games where they would rally on a Manny Ramirez home run late, and Bob would break the rule of no cheering in the press box. If a pitcher wasn't getting the job done, you could hear Bob grumbling and slamming his hand down on the table. He was truly one of a kind." 

Feller's statue – which captures that right-handed windup preparing to unleash what some claim could be a 107 mph fastball – greets Cleveland fans entering Progressive Field off East 9th Street. It is the immortalization of the two-seamed legend of Feller.

Feller is the dominant pitcher who won the Triple Crown in 1940. He won 266 games with 2,581 strikeouts. Feller is one of three pitchers who led the MLB in wins in three different decades along with Warren Spahn and Tom Seaver. Carman grew up hearing the "Rapid Robert" legends.

"With Bob Feller, people always say, 'Well, Bob Feller would say he is the best pitcher ever,' which he probably was the best pitcher ever," Carman. "Yeah, I'm being a sports fan there. There are some people that are going to disagree, but what are you going to do?" 

Do the math. Feller missed three full seasons and most of a fourth from 1942-45 to serve in the U.S. Navy during World War II. Take the two seasons before Feller left and the two seasons after he returned, which totaled 98 wins and 1,064 strikeouts over those four years. Tack those totals on his career numbers, and he would easily make the top 10 all time list in wins and strikeouts. By the time Feller led Cleveland to its last World Series championship in 1948, his legend was secured. 

"Bob Feller gave maybe his four best years in terms of his physical prime to his country," Withers said. "When you consider he averaged 23 or 24 wins a year anyway, you add those on to his resume and you have probably – maybe the greatest baseball pitcher of all time." 

Feller the no-nonsense war-time hero is the other side. Feller would sign a fan's autograph, but only for the right price and a promise of good behavior. Feller was not short on opinions about baseball or anything else. Countless Feller tales have sprouted up from spring training in Winter Haven, Fla., long after his playing days were over. 

"There were some people that would say they would meet him and he wasn't very nice," Carman said. "Then there were people that would say, 'No, that was him teaching lessons.' He's Bob Feller. He saw real stuff, and he doesn't give a damn what your opinion is. He's right and you're wrong." 

In other words, if Bob Feller was yelling at your kids by the pool, they deserved it. 

That is the Greatest Generation attitude Feller always wore with pride, and the loyalty of staying in that press box to cheer Cleveland on. That is also why Withers cherished the one-on-one interviews where Feller would explore both of those unfiltered legacies most. 

"Bob would sit out by the bleachers and do the autograph sessions, then when he was done he would tell World War II stories and baseball stories," Withers said. "I just loved to hear him talk about CC Sabathia or whoever the pitcher of the moment was." 

JIM BROWN (Browns, 1957-65)

Jim Brown carried a lifetime of experiences within a 6-foot, 232-pound frame. NFL superstar. Civil Rights activist. Hollywood actor. When Brown walked into a room, he became the unquestioned center of attention. 

"There was a presence about him unlike any athlete other than LeBron that I've ever experienced," Withers said. "Even when you were around other athletes and Jim Brown was in the room; everybody's attention went to Jim Brown. That was whether he was 52 years old or 82 years old."

Remembrances after Brown, 87, passed away on May 18 reflected that presence from Baby Boomers to Generation Z. Carman – who grew up watching "NFL Films" and "The Dirty Dozen" with the understanding that Brown was "the greatest football player that ever played" – felt that presence during an interview scrum on his first encounter. Brown asked Carman to get him a bottle of water. What happened next? 

"When Jim Brown tells you to get him a bottle of water, you get him a bottle of water is what you do," Carman said. "So I did that." 

Brown played nine seasons, won three NFL MVP awards and led the Browns to a 1964 NFL championship. No player in Cleveland history has made that kind of impact since. 

"I would argue he's the greatest player in the history of the NFL – not just at running back – although when you've got Tom Brady in his 40s playing at such a high level that I think he deserves to be in the conversation, for sure," TheLandOnDemand.com's Tony Grossi told SN. 

Grossi has covered the Browns since 1982, and he takes that perspective to the next level with Brown when looking at the rushing numbers. Brown held the NFL rushing record for nearly 20 years before Walter Payton reset it in 1984. 

"If you look back, he was like the Babe Ruth of running backs," Grossi said. "He not only won the rushing title. He would win it by six- or seven-hundred yards three or four times. In his era, he was by far the best. By any era, II think he's the greatest football player. He is the only running back to average more than 100 yards per game in his career."

To Grossi's point, Brown won those eight rushing titles by an average of 415.8 yards per season. The only season Brown didn't win the rushing title was 1962 – a season in which Green Bay's Jim Taylor led the league. The following season, Brown rushed for a career-high 1,863 yards. Taylor finished second, but he was 845 yards behind Brown. 

Some skeptical columnists call it a giant hoax, the retirement of Jim Brown. They don't see how a man can walk away from $75,000 so casually.

Those disbelievers don't really know Jim Brown and they didn't talk with Jim Brown.

In the first place, his decision to retire wasn't a casual one. The Cleveland Browns' fullback wrestled with it long and hard. Secondly, Brown isn't given to idle words. We talked to him at length via trans-Atlantic phone. Jim is in London where he is making an MGM movie, "The Dirty Dozen," in which he plays a major role.

We asked him pointedly, "What, if after the picture ends and the team needs you? What if Art Modell, the Browns' president, then asks you to come back? Will you return?"

"No," he replied quietly but emphatically, "This decision is final. I'm no longer preparing myself mentally for football. I'm committing myself to other things. One thing I want to get over: I'm not going to play again.”

—The Sporting News, July 30, 1966

Brown's film also holds up to the HD reels of today's running backs with ease.

"I would put him with (Dick) Butkus, a very few small amount of people who played in that era, where I would say, 'Yeah, they could play in the 2000s and 2020s and be just as fine and just as fast and just as good as what they were in their time," Carman said. "I think that's the best compliment you could give Jim Brown is that he was timeless."

When tasked to find the right words to eulogize Brown, the lede popped into Withers' head: "Jim Brown was both extraordinary and extraordinarily complicated."

That could describe Brown after football. He emerged as a celebrity in Hollywood, but he also faced domestic violence allegations. Brown had an on-again, off-again relationship with the Browns after they returned to the NFL.

"When you talk strictly about football he was as good now or better now than he was back then and back then he was the most dominant player of his time," Withers said. "I'm not sure the NFL has ever really seen a player like Jim Brown."

Former players feel that way, too. Thomas recalled meeting Brown and his wife Monique for dinner at the TownHall restaurant in Cleveland after a Thursday Night Football game. The conversations spilled into the 2 a.m. hour, and that is when Thomas felt that presence. 

"The guy is in his 80s, and we're talking about life, the Browns' future and the future of football," Thomas said. "It was one of those moments where in that moment it was a pinch me, like, 'Holy cow, this is something I'm going to remember until the day I die.'" 

JOE THOMAS (2007-17) 

The Browns were 10-6 in Thomas' first season in 2007, but that was the peak. Cleveland won just 38 games over the next 10 seasons, including a 1-31 stretch in Thomas' final two seasons. 

That was the toughest part of a career in which Thomas made the Pro Bowl 10 times but never played in a postseason game. 

"The last few years were a real mental struggle with the losing that we endured," Thomas said. "We won one game the last two years. That was not so much fun. Not a lot of happy memories on Sunday, and I was in a lot of pain. I dealt with the mental struggle of, 'How hurt am I?' I couldn't practice. I could barely walk. I was putting my body through a lot of crap to go out Sunday and play. It was not a fun feeling." 

If it was any consolation, Cleveland fans loved him for it even more. The Browns returned in 1999 after the franchise was moved to Baltimore. The franchise has not won an NFL championship since 1964. There is a lot of pain associated with being a 21st century Cleveland fan, and watching Thomas play through it was an inspiration. 

"You have Browns fans who are 80 years old out there and older, they've dealt with a lot of upheaval in their life based on jobs and based on career," Carman said. "The only thing they could do is go to work and try to do a good job and make sure they hope for the best. That was always the same with Joe. He's going to go to work and do his job and hopefully things will work out." 

Thomas blocked for 20 different starting quarterbacks for the Browns, but he played at the highest level during that stretch. He is a six-time All-Pro selection and always mentioned in the same sentence as the greatest left tackles in NFL history. 

"As a player, he was a perfect technician," Grossi said. "He was not a mauler or a giant like Jonathan Ogden or Willie Roaf. So, he had to be perfect with his technique. That's what he strived for on every single play and every single game despite the hopelessness of losing."

Grossi and Withers both cited an obscure statistic by heart. 

"Joe Thomas played 10,363 consecutive plays and never missed a day of work," Withers said. "That's what endeared him as much as anything; to go along with a very great personality and just being a guy that everybody can relate to." 

Even when Peyton Manning encouraged Thomas to seek a trade to Denver in 2015 – amid all that frustration – Thomas stayed true to Cleveland. 

Thomas remains the Rust Belt workingman's friend. He will be presented at the Pro Football Hall of Home enshrinement by his wife Annie and four children Logan, Camryn, Jack and Reese. He's emerged post football as the same go-to media personality, much like former Browns offensive lineman Doug Dieken – the longtime color commentator who wore the same number. Dieken retired from the booth in 2021. 

"We love offensive lineman here," Carman said. "You go back to Lou Groza and Doug Dieken and Gene Hickerson and so many others. The fact that Joe is one of the three best left tackles to ever play the position and arguably the best to ever to play the left tackle position is the cherry on top. 

Thomas' place in franchise history is significant – and that didn't dawn on him until a media appearance in February. Thomas recalled a reporter asking: "How does it feel to be the first Browns player elected to the Hall of Fame?" 

"I looked at her and said, ‘What do you mean? There are like 17 Browns in the Hall of Fame?’ Then I realized what she was trying to say." 

Thomas is the first to be enshrined since the team came back. That is a fun feeling. 

"That made it even more special but I felt even more responsibility," Thomas said. "I better do a good job of representing the great people of Cleveland and the great Browns fans because I am that first guy coming up there since they came back."