RELATED • Greatest Characters: Nos. 25-21
	John McEnroe's histrionics always kept fans entertained. Simon Bruty/Getty Images

They're mostly our court jesters, performers who provide us with comedic respites from the every day, mundane, game-to-game drone that can be the sports season. Some are originals who defined a new genre. Some are merely eccentric. Some great quotes. Others possess stories that simply touch us in unique ways.

They are the characters who fill our notebooks with more than stats and facts. They give us the colorful. They make us laugh, or roll our eyes. They give us highlights to replay forever. Or maybe just a moment.

Like Doug Flutie's pass. Like Bo Jackson breaking a bat over his leg like a tooth pick. Like Johnny Mac's, "You cannot be serious!" Or Serena's booty-dacious catsuit.

When CNN asked Sports Illustrated to compile a list of the 25 greatest sports characters for a television show commemorating the network's 25th anniversary, we decided pretty quickly that there wasn't a single characteristic that could define them all. And they proved to be as varied as a jelly beans, all gratifying in their own way.

There aren't many lists that would include Dale Earnhardt and Ricky Henderson, but if NASCAR's original gangster and baseball's persnickety stolen-base king aren't characters, who is?

Andre Agassi grew out of his "character." But his late-career greatness will never make us forget the pony-tailed rebel from Las Vegas who told us "Image is everything," until he showed us it wasn't.

Sometimes "character" is the only word --- at least the only one I'll use in front of my kids -- that can be used to describe someone who defies characterization.

Like John Daly.

Like Dennis Rodman.

Like Anna Kornikova.

Some characters are subtle, or perhaps more crafty. They parsed their quirks sporadically, using them as chits to be used only when needed for maximum impact.

Like Sugar Ray's "Bolo" punch.

Like Magic's smile.

Like Charles Barkley's mouth.

Other characters wear theirs proudly, defying us to either embrace it, or get over it.

Like Scotty Bowman.

Like Allen Iverson.

Like Pete Rose.

Some on our list make us wonder if their greatness was in part due to their character quirks.

Like Brett Favre.

Like Tony Hawk.

Like Lance Armstrong.

There were vast swings in our thoughts when it came time to rank our characters, little consensus on the relative "character" our nominees. I thought William Perry was one of the greatest characters from the last 25 years, a lovable lug whose girth and grin carried him not only to the NFL but to the biggest TEAM of characters of all time -- the Super Bowl Shuffling 1985 Chicago Bears.

The Fridge solidified his place on the list by scoring a TD in Super Bowl XX during the Bears' 46-10 rout of the New England Patriots.

"Even when I was little I was big," he once said. How could this man not be high on the list. But many of my colleagues disagreed and the Fridge came in at No. 16.

About the only consensus was regarding who should be No. 1. Is there anyone who has been more of a character both during and after his career than Charles Barkley? Anyone who has confounded, irked, prodded and provoked us more that the Mouth from the South? Not in CNN's lifetime and not likely ever.

Whether he likes it or not Charles is the sports characters' role model.

Of course there are characters I would have chosen.

Like Manute Bol.

Like Michael ("The ship be sinkin'") Ray Richardson.

Like Mark "The Bird" Fidrych.

Like Joe Namath.

Like Mugsy Bogues.

Who else did we miss? Let me know at roy_johnson1271@aol.com.