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I believe they wanted to list mostly "clean" people (Magic and Ali not-withstanding) who had a social twist to their careers. If you throw the "transcends sports" caveat you would have to add Bobby Orr, Wilt Chamberlain and Jim Brown , as they only changed dramatically their respective sports.

Do you see no irony in your allegation that Magic is not "clean" (apparently for contracting HIV) but overlook Wilt's uncleanliness (he stated he slept with 20,000 women), and Jim Brown's (who has a history of domestic violence)??

No I was saying some people were saying this one and that one were not on the list. I believe the author did in fact leave Wilt and Jim Brown off the list for the reasons you said. I believe that the irony is the authors, that they put Magic on but left Wilt off because Magic having HIV trumps him being a sleep-around.
I was just pointing out that this list is not really a "heroes" nor a greatest athletes list but a "great athlete with a social twist with a couple of near-heroes on it" list.