[2006alum]

There is obvious recency bias in some cases but in terms of NBA players you have LeBron at #29 and Kobe not even in the top 50, so results are all over the board.

Race also played a brobdingnagian role. FiveThirtyEight had a terrific piece on this; non-white voters ranked Kobe 36th, while white voters ranked him dead last of every athlete in the poll. Not sure why, but white voters really didn't like Kobe. They apparently also don't like Serena Williams and Lebron James. The best non-sinister reason I can guess is that I would bet white voters disproportionately know black football and baseball players better than basketball players, and probably care more about football and baseball too, so some of it is simply voting for athletes in the sport with which you have the strongest affinity.

[2006alum]

There is obvious recency bias in some cases but in terms of NBA players you have LeBron at #29 and Kobe not even in the top 50, so results are all over the board.

Race also played a brobdingnagian role. FiveThirtyEight had a terrific piece on this; non-white voters ranked Kobe 36th, while white voters ranked him dead last of every athlete in the poll. Not sure why, but white voters really didn't like Kobe. They apparently also don't like Serena Williams and Lebron James. The best non-sinister reason I can guess is that I would bet white voters disproportionately know black football and baseball players better than basketball players, and probably care more about football and baseball too, so some of it is simply voting for athletes in the sport with which you have the strongest affinity.