After the Florida Panthers added Brady Tkachuk to their lineup and the Miami Heat traded for NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo, the sports world can’t get enough of South Florida sports headlines. BetMGM entered the game by releasing its list of Top 10 Athletes in Miami, which unsurprisingly caused an uproar on social media.
As the only team to win multiple championships in the past decade, four Florida Panthers players cracked the list, including captain Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Reinhart, and Brady Tkachuk.
Giannis is taking his talents to South Beach 👀 pic.twitter.com/xv37bronNR
— BetMGM 🦁 (@BetMGM) June 23, 2026
Hockey fans roasted BetMGM, pointing out there is no way that Brady should be a spot higher than Reinhart, who is a two-time Stanley Cup winner and one of the few players to score four goals in a Stanley Cup Final game. Moreover, as an NHL veteran with almost 300 more games of experience over Tkachuk, most fans took to the comments to defend their playoff hero.
Despite not making the same money as Lionel Messi and Antetokounmpo, there’s no denying that Barkov is the best homegrown star in Panthers history and is a future first ballot Hall of Famer. He’ll most likely be joined later in the HHOF by Matthew Tkachuk, who should surpass 1,000 points and 500 goals as his dad did.
Although not a top-four sport in North America, MLS star Messi topped the list. Arguably one of the greatest soccer stars of all time, Messi draws fans to every stadium he plays at, and with his leadership and skills, Inter Miami won the MLS Cup in 2025.
Meanwhile, without playing a single game in Miami, Antetokounmpo came in second, as the pressure to bring back the Larry O’Brien Trophy to South Florida just went up with one of the game’s best players relocating. He’ll soon be joining Bam Adebayo, who has starred on the Heat since 2017.
Regarding the other Miami teams, Otto Lopez represented the Marlins, while De’Von Achane and Jordyn Brooks represented the Dolphins. Achance is a one-time Pro Bowler, who's been Miami’s top running back for the past three seasons, while Brooks is one of the top linebackers in the NFL. In MLB, Lopaz has been a top-hitting infielder who currently leads the league in both hits and batting average, one category short of the triple crown.
If sports fans across the globe disliked the Miami teams before the past weekend, the heat is about to go up a few degrees as some of the best players in their respective sports have found new homes in Florida to bring championships there.
Add us as a preferred source on Google