LeBron James Tops Horrow Sports/MVPindex 2014 POWER 100 Athlete Ranking

The Cleveland Cavaliers' LeBron James (No. 1), Seattle Seahawks' Russell Wilson (No. 2), and Oklahoma City Thunder's Kevin Durant (No. 3) top the Horrow Sports Ventures/MVPindex 2014 POWER 100 ranking of the world's most powerful pro athletes in the U.S.

To determine who the 100 most powerful athletes are on- and off-the-field as the leaves begin to change and summer sports transition over to fall, Rick Horrow, CEO of Horrow Sports Ventures, collaborated with Dallas, TXbased MVPindex, with an assist from Bloomberg Sports, the world's leader in sports analytic technology.

For 2014, on-field attributes comprise 50% of the athletes' POWER.  The other 50% is based entirely on a key off-field attribute: social media presence.  Combining on-field (50%) and off-field (50%) attributes yields the POWER score.  Athletes are then ranked based on POWER to find the top 100.      

The full POWER 100 special report is available on atwww.bsports.com/statsinsights/power100

"This is the fifth year of the Power 100, and it continues to command attention as an invaluable tool to evaluate an athlete's brand and marketability," said Horrow.  "By focusing narrowly on social media for our off-field component, we are combining strong performance analytics with the most robust social media statistics in the industry, forming a new way of analyzing an athlete's overall performance measurement."

In its fifth consecutive installment, The POWER 100 uses a complex statistical model to accurately compare performance and influence through on-field and off-field attributes.  This metric is collectively known as POWER, and enables equitable comparison across otherwise incomparable sports.

The 2014 POWER 100 focuses on long-established sports and the U.S. market specifically. Key indicator statistics were used as predictors of performance per sport, and statistical weight varied with impact. For sports lacking indicator statistics, such as tennis and golf, relevant rankings were used.

Boxing, MMA, and soccer are not included in the 2014 POWER 100 rankings, a change from earlier iterations of the rankings.

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