All hail King James.

Love him or hate him, Lebron James is a force to be reckoned with. Back-to-back championship, four MVP awards, and huge endorsement deals with Nike, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola have made James an influential figure in sports and business. Therefore, it’s no surprise that James is number one on Horrow Sports Ventures/MVPindex 2014 POWER 100 ranking of the world’s most powerful pro athletes in the U.S.

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.

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 on-field attributes measure an athlete’s ranking within his or her sport, relative to all other participants. Each athlete is compared to peer group averages, by sport (and position when necessary), in a number of statistical categories.

Next, a multiplier is used to adjust athletes’ rankings, based on the popularity and viewing audience of that sport. Given that some sports schedules overlap the calendar year, data for the 2014 POWER 100 is sourced from that sport’s most recently-completed regular season, or, in the case of tennis and golf, through the conclusion of the sports’ “majors” (and including Ryder Cup data in golf’s calculations). NFL statistics, finally, were based on the entire 2013-2014 season as well as numbers through the 2014 Week Four.

The off-field score was measured by the MVPindex, a unique scoring algorithm that blends three key social media metrics in its calculation. Unlike other indices that principally measure Reach—the size of one’s potential audience—MVPindex considers Reach along with the subject’s actual social media engagement activity and the conversation surrounding the athlete across the web.

These three components—Reach, Engagement, and Conversation—provide a much more focused picture of an athlete’s influence and the overall value of his or her social media footprint.

Here is the list of the Top 1o Most Power Athletes as measured by the Horrow Sports Ventures/MVPindex 2014 POWER 100 ranking.

1. Lebron James, Basketball

 

2. Russell Wilson, Football

 3. Kevin Durant, Basketball

 

 4. Rory McIlroy, Golf

 

5. Mike Trout, Baseball

 

6. Carmelo Anthony, Basketball

 

7. Drew Brees, Football

 

8. Blake Griffin, Basketball

 

9. Dez Bryant, Football

 

10. Aaron Rodgers, Football

 

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