10 Greatest Athletes Who Spent Entire Career with One Franchise

by Julian Spivey
When it was announced that Tom Brady would be leaving the New England Patriots, a team he’s had the most illustrious career of any NFL player/franchise coupling in league history, to sign with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers it was a shock. Even if this is a league that rarely sees star players remain with their team – this is the league that saw Emmitt Smith in an Arizona Cardinals jersey and Johnny Unitas in a San Diego Chargers jersey – it was still a surprise.
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Had he finished his career out with the Patriots, Brady may have gone down in sports history as the greatest athlete of all-time to spend his career with one team.
Since that’s no longer going to be the case it got me to thinking – who are the greatest athletes of all-time who played for one team their entire career.

I felt like I needed to make a caveat for this list to rule out some athletes. Jim Brown is no doubt one of the greatest athletes of all-time and only played for the Cleveland Browns, but he also only played nine seasons in the NFL. I considered a minimum career of 12 years, but that led to a ton of potential candidates. I ultimately settled on a minimum of 15 years in a sport – this eliminated some biggies in Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Bill Russell, Jerry West and more – but it also helped narrow down the list of candidates and well, the longer an athlete stays with a single team the more impressive it is.

Here are the top 10 single team athletes of all-time …

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10. Dirk Nowitzki

​Dirk Nowitzki wasn’t drafted by the Dallas Mavericks. He was selected ninth overall in the 1998 NBA Draft by the Milwaukee Bucks before immediately being dealt to Dallas where he would spend 21 seasons, the longest tenure of any NBA player ever with a single team. Nowitzki would lead the Mavericks to 15 playoff appearances and the only title in franchise history. He’s the highest scoring foreign born NBA player of all-time and the sixth leading scorer overall in NBA history. 

9. Mike Schmidt 

​Arguably the greatest third baseman in baseball history, Mike Schmidt played his entire 18-season career with the Philadelphia Phillies. Schmidt was a three-time National League Most Valuable Player who led the Phillies to a World Series title in 1980. Schmidt wasn’t just a power hitter, but also a terrific defender who won a whopping 10 Gold Glove awards. Schmidt’s 548 homers are the most ever for a third baseman. 

8. Kobe Bryant

​The late (it’s still hard to believe) Kobe Bryant spent his entire 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers, only Dirk Nowitzki has a longer tenure with one team, and essentially became the face of one of sports’ most legendary franchises and one that also had Magic Johnson, Jerry West and other Hall of Fame legends. Much like Nowitzki, Bryant wasn’t initially drafted by the Lakers, but rather acquired shortly after from the Charlotte Hornets. He would go on to lead the Lakers to five championships. 

7. John Elway

​John Elway was the first overall pick in the 1983 NFL Draft, the class famously known as “the quarterback class of 1983.” Elway was drafted by the Baltimore Colts, but Elway not wanting to play for the Colts threatened to play professional baseball if they didn’t trade him. The Colts relented and Elway would play his Hall of Fame 16-season career all with the Denver Broncos, where he would incredibly lead the franchise to its first two Super Bowl titles in the final two seasons of his career. Talk about going out on top. 

6. Mickey Mantle 

​Mickey Mantle was one of the best pure hitters to ever play the game of baseball and is considered by many the greatest switch hitter the game has ever seen. His 536 career homers are the most ever by a switch hitter. Mantle played his entire 18-year career with the New York Yankees, leading baseball’s most storied franchise to seven World Series title while winning the American League MVP three times. 

5. Walter Johnson

​Walter Johnson is arguably the greatest pitcher in the history of baseball and spent his entire 21-year career with the Washington Senators. Johnson was the most dominant pitcher of his era winning 417 games (110 of those shutouts), while striking out 3,508 batters and compiling at 2.17 Earned Run Average. Johnson led the Senators to a World Series title in 1924 and was league MVP twice. I almost feel a bit bad placing Johnson on this list as his career began in 1907 and back in those days baseball players were basically property kept by a team as long as the team wanted them around. But he fits the criteria and is no doubt an all-time great. 

4. Tim Duncan

​Tim Duncan is arguably the greatest forward to ever play in the NBA and he’s the highest ranked non-baseball player on this list – he’s also the highest ranked player on the list who has competed in the last half century. Duncan was the No. 1 overall draft pick in the 1997 NBA Draft by the San Antonio Spurs and he never left the franchise spending his entire 19-year career with them. Duncan led the Spurs to the greatest run in franchise history winning five championships, when the franchise had previously never won a single one before he joined the team. Duncan was also the NBA’s MVP in back-to-back years in 2002 and 2003. He made 10 All-NBA First Teams and eight All-NBA Defensive First Teams during his dominant career. 

3. Lou Gehrig

​Lou Gehrig is arguably the greatest first baseman in baseball history and spent his entire 17-year career with the New York Yankees in the franchise’s first period of baseball dominance. Gehrig teamed up with Babe Ruth to form the most fearsome duo in baseball history and helped lead the Yankees to six World Series titles. Gehrig was named American League MVP in 1927 and 1936 and won a Triple Crown in 1934. His career would end at the age of 35 after the 1938 season. He would die at the age of 37 in 1941 from a debilitating muscle disease that would go on to be named after him. 

2. Stan Musial

​Stan Musial may be the greatest pure hitter that the National League has ever seen in Major League Baseball. Musial played his entire 22-season career with the St. Louis Cardinals where he would lead the franchise to three World Series titles in the 1940s. Musial would win three N.L. MVP awards and was an incredible seven-time batting champion. When Musial retired in 1963, he held the National League records for most hits, RBI, runs scored, doubles and was second in home runs. Only Brooks Robinson and Carl Yastrzemski had longer careers in MLB history with the same franchise (23). 

1. Ted Williams

​If Stan Musial was the purest hitter the National League had ever seen than Ted Williams is certainly the greatest the American League has ever seen. Williams may have in fact been the greatest player in MLB history had it not been for many years selflessly given to serving his country in both WWII and the Korean War and also the fact that he was never on a World Series winning team. Williams played his entire 19-year career with the Boston Red Sox, losing out on three full seasons of his prime to WWII service and then almost two more in his 30s to the Korean War. Even with all of this missed time due to his duty to country he finished his career with a whopping 521 homers. Had he not missed any time he would’ve likely neared 700 homers for his career. To this date Williams is the last ballplayer to hit for a .400 average in a season hitting .406 in 1941. Williams won the American League MVP twice and the Triple Crown twice. Interestingly he didn’t win MVP either year he won the Triple Crown and many suspect a strained relationship with baseball writers cost him multiple MVP awards.