From Mahomes to Jordan: The 10 best 7-year peaks of the past 40 years

Thursday marked the seven-year anniversary of the Kansas City Chiefs trading Alex Smith to make Patrick Mahomes their starting quarterback. The rest, as they say, has been history.

The Chiefs are making an unprecedented fifth Super Bowl appearance in six seasons, and Mahomes is the first QB in history to make five trips before turning 30.

His greatness had us thinking about the best individual seven-year runs. What other athletes have dominated for an extended period in team sports, while also maintaining their excellence in the postseason?

Here are the 10 best seven-year peaks of the past four decades.

Wayne Gretzky (1981-87)

It didn’t take long for Gretzky to establish himself as the best player in the NHL. He won the Hart Memorial Trophy (league MVP) in the 1979-80 season, which was the Edmonton Oilers’ first season in the NHL and Gretzky’s second with the team, joining them when they were in the WHL a year prior.

Wayne Gretzky won four Stanley Cups in five years with the Oilers. (Photo by Focus On Sport/Getty Images)

Gretzky’s greatness only took off from there. He led the league in points in each of the next seven seasons, winning MVP each year and adding three Stanley Cup titles in that span. Gretzky scored at least 160 points in each of those seven seasons, crossing the 200-point mark four times. In most of the seasons during this stretch, Gretzky scored at least 50 more points than whoever finished second. He was a whopping 79 points ahead of Paul Coffey when he scored 205 points in the 1983-84 season; when he put up an NHL record 215 points in 1985-86, he finished 74 points ahead of Mario Lemieux.

To further illustrate Gretzky’s dominance, those who played NHL fantasy hockey adjusted the rules around him. Some fantasy leagues prohibited Gretzky from even being used. In most leagues, Gretzky became two draftable players, either picking him by just the goals he scored or the assists he dished out. He led the league in both stats five times from 1981-1987.

Jerry Rice (1988-94)

Rice’s prime was about as long as anyone in the history of the NFL, which made narrowing down his peak especially tough. By his second season, Rice began a run in which he was named first-team All-Pro 10 times in 11 seasons. In his third season, Rice won Offensive Player of the Year after recording a then-NFL record 22 touchdowns in 12 games.

The marriage between his success and the San Francisco 49ers‘ began to perfectly align one year later. Rice helped close out the…