Think of basketball greats. Even if you know little about basketball you can probably name Michael Jordan or Shaq because of all their commercials. Sports Illustrated for Kids named him the most amazing athlete of the year despite his low profile. He showed that a great athlete can be a nice person too. Bad news travels fast.
Negative examples are easy to find.
The challenge comes in finding examples of decency, respect, faith and good sportsmanship that we can share with our kids. Athletes have been admired and pointed to throughout history. Even the Apostle Paul compared himself to an athlete who buffeted his body to prepare to meet any challenges that he came up against. Sports Illustrated for Kids does a good job of highlighting good sportsmanship within its pages. A complaint might be that it can send confusing messages to kids who read nice stories in SI and then see contradicting behavior in the featured athletes elsewhere.