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Ranking the greatest athletes from every sport to ever don those magic jersey numbers.

What's Your Number?

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The best players to wear 21 on their jersey have helped make it one of the most beloved numbers in sports. There is great variety across the board with players of all sports, from the NHL to soccer leagues,&nbsp;rocking the number. Deion Sanders even showed that one of the few successful and beloved two-sport professional athletes could find success with the number in the NFL and MLB.Some <a href="https://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/top-10-current-nba-players?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">top NBA players</a> with number 21 on their jerseys include basketball&nbsp;legends like Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett, along with rising superstars Jimmy Butler and Joel Embiid. Historic baseball players with number 21 jerseys include stars&nbsp;Roger Clemens, Roberto Clemente, and Sammy Sosa. Football and hockey players also found success with the jersey number 21 as their choice.&nbsp;So check out the list of famous athletes who wore 21 and help decide who deserves to rank the highest for wearing this iconic jersey number. Vote up your favorite athletes to wear the number 21, then head over and check out some other iconic jersey numbers, including the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-athletes-who-wore-23/ranker-sports" target="_blank">best players to wear No. 23</a>.

The Best Athletes Who Wore Number 21, Ranked By Fans

The Best Athletes Who Wore #21

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Tim Duncan

Timothy Theodore Duncan (born April 25, 1976) is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is an assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association (NBA) He spent his entire 19-year playing career (1997–2016) with the Spurs. 
Duncan started out as an aspiring swimmer and did not begin playing basketball until ninth grade when Hurricane Hugo destroyed the only available Olympic-sized pool in his homeland of Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. In high school, he played basketball for St. Dunstan's Episcopal. In college, Duncan played for the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, and in his senior year, he earned the John Wooden Award as well as Naismith College Player of the Year and USBWA College Player of the Year.
After graduating from college, Duncan went on to win NBA Rookie of the Year after being selected by San Antonio with the first overall pick in the 1997 NBA draft. Widely regarded as the greatest power forward of all time as well as one of the greatest basketball players in NBA history, he is a five-time NBA champion, a two-time NBA MVP, a three-time NBA Finals MVP, a 15-time NBA All-Star, and the only player to be selected to both the All-NBA and All-Defensive Teams for 13 consecutive seasons.Off the court, Duncan created the Tim Duncan Foundation to raise health awareness and to fund education and youth sports programs.

Roberto Clemente

Roberto Enrique Clemente Walker (Spanish pronunciation: [roˈβeɾto enˈrike kleˈmente (g)walˈkeɾ]; August 18, 1934 – December 31, 1972) was a Puerto Rican professional baseball right fielder who played 18 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1973, becoming both the first Latin American and Caribbean player to be enshrined. His untimely death established the precedent that, as an alternative to the five-year retirement period, a player who has been deceased for at least six months is eligible for entry into the Hall of Fame.
Clemente was an All-Star for 12 seasons, playing in 15 All-Star Games. He was the National League (NL) Most Valuable Player in 1966, the NL batting leader in 1961, 1964, 1965, and 1967, and a Gold Glove Award winner for 12 consecutive seasons from 1961 through 1972. His batting average was over .300 for 13 seasons and he had 3,000 hits during his major league career. He also played in two World Series championships. Clemente is the first Latin American and Caribbean player to help win a World Series as a starting position player (1960), to receive an NL MVP Award (1966), and to receive a World Series MVP Award (1971).
Clemente was involved in charity work in Latin American and Caribbean countries during the off-seasons, often delivering baseball equipment and food to those in need. On December 31, 1972, he died in a plane crash while en route to deliver aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. He was 38 years old. The following season, the Pirates retired his uniform number 21, and MLB renamed its annual Commissioner's Award in his honor; now known as the Roberto Clemente Award, it is given to the player who "best exemplifies the game of baseball, sportsmanship, community involvement and the individual's contribution to his team".

Deion Sanders

Deion Luwynn Sanders Sr. (born August 9, 1967), nicknamed "Prime Time" and "Neon Deion", is a retired American football player, baseball player and sports analyst who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons. During his football career, he was a member of the Atlanta Falcons, San Francisco 49ers,  Dallas Cowboys, Washington Redskins, and the Baltimore Ravens. He also had a part-time career as a baseball outfielder for nine seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), where he played professionally for the New York Yankees, the Atlanta Braves, the Cincinnati Reds, and the San Francisco Giants. Sanders won two Super Bowl titles and made one World Series appearance in 1992, making him the only individual to appear in both a Super Bowl and a World Series.
Sanders attended Florida State University, where he was recognized as a two-time All-American in football, and also played baseball and ran track. He was drafted by the Falcons in the first round of the 1989 NFL Draft and played football primarily at cornerback, but also as a kick returner, punt returner, and occasionally wide receiver. During his career, he was named to nine Pro Bowls and made consecutive Super Bowl appearances in XXIX with the 49ers and XXX with the Cowboys, winning both. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2011.
Following the conclusion of his athletic career, Sanders currently works as an analyst for CBS Sports and the NFL Network. He is also the offensive coordinator at Trinity Christian-Cedar Hill high school, which his sons attend. Sanders founded the Prime Prep Academy charter school in 2012 where he coached until the school closed in 2015 due to financial insolvency.  Additionally, he starred in the show Deion Family Playbook which debuted in 2014.

Charles Woodson

Charles Cameron Woodson (born October 7, 1976) is a former American football player. He played college football for Michigan, where he led the Wolverines to a share of the national championship in 1997. Woodson, a "two-way player" who played both offense and defense, won the Heisman Trophy in the same year. To date, he is the only primarily defensive player to win the Heisman, and he is the most recent player to win the Heisman who was not either a running back or quarterback. Woodson went on to accomplish a storied career professionally with one of the most decorated professional football resumes of all time, considered by many of his peers to be one of the greatest defensive players to have ever played. 
Woodson was drafted by the Oakland Raiders fourth overall in the 1998 NFL Draft. In his first season with Oakland, Woodson was selected as the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year by the Associated Press. He was named to the Pro Bowl and earned All-Pro recognition three consecutive times (1999–2001).  In a 2002 AFC playoff match against the New England Patriots, Woodson seemed to have clinched the game by forcing a fumble by sacking quarterback (and former Michigan teammate) Tom Brady, but the ruling was overturned. Woodson later battled several nagging injuries in consecutive seasons in Oakland, leading to his departure after the 2005 NFL season via free agency.On April 26, 2006, Woodson signed a seven-year, $52 million contract with the Green Bay Packers. He would later win Super Bowl XLV with the team over the Pittsburgh Steelers. In his first season in Green Bay, Woodson was the team's punt returner and led the National Football Conference with eight interceptions, surpassing his previous career high of five, in his rookie year. In his second season in Green Bay, the injury problems returned and Woodson was forced to sit out two games. He was the AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year for the 2009 NFL season. He returned to the Raiders in 2013, playing three more seasons and once more being voted to the Pro Bowl. Woodson is one of the few players in NFL history to play in a Pro Bowl in three different decades (1990s, 2000s, 2010s). He is currently tied for fifth on the all time interceptions list with 65, and is tied with Rod Woodson and Darren Sharper for most career defensive touchdowns with 13. He also is second all time in interceptions returned for touchdowns, with 11.
After he retired in 2015, he signed with ESPN in 2016.

The best players to wear 21 on their jersey have helped make it one of the most beloved numbers in sports. There is great variety across the board with ...

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