ESPN loves lists, loves to rank plays, teams, high school kids, quarterbacks, slam-dunkers, exit-velocities, touchdown dances and superstars. That these lists and rankings so often are bereft of context and relevance is irrelevant.

In its eagerness to be socially inclusive, ESPN recently released the results of what it portrayed as an extensive survey of exclusion, one entirely based on race.

Respondents were asked to name the top 50 Greatest Black Athletes. The results are in. One through five are Michael Jordan, Jackie Robinson, Muhammad Ali, Willie Mays and Jesse Owens.

It’s interesting that three (Jordan, Ali and Owens) were Olympians, because perhaps the most extraordinary black American Olympic athlete of all time didn’t even make the list, likely because few respondents ever heard of him.

That also was reflected in a 2000 survey in which ESPN personnel ranked the Top 100 athletes of the 20th Century. He didn’t make that list, either.

Milt Campbell, who in 2012 died at 78 to small notice outside of his hometown of Plainfield, N.J., was, by international definition, the greatest American athlete of any hue.

At Plainfield High School, he starred at everything he attempted: running back, bowling, track, swimming.

Also while in high school, he finished second to the legendary decathlete Bob Mathias in the United States trials — in Campbell’s first-ever participation in a decathlon. He was just a kid, who weeks earlier learned that such a 10-skill track-and-field event existed and thus decided he would give it a try.

Having made the 1952 Olympic team, he won the silver medal, finishing behind Mathias. At 18, Campbell arguably, but more likely indisputably, was the world’s second-greatest athlete.

Four years later, the Olympic decathlon was billed as an epic struggle between American Rafer Johnson and the Soviet Union’s Vasily Kuznetsov. Campbell beat both, winning gold and bettering Mathias’ Olympic record by 50 points.

Decathletes Mathias, Johnson and Bruce Jenner are known to most, if not all, as American champions with sustaining fame. Campbell? Sorry, wrong number.

At the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, Campbell’s achievement was diminished by fate, as a series of rights disputes mostly prevented what was supposed to be televised in the U.S. Those Games showed up in movie houses as part of newsreels. And the Cold War “Blood In The Water” water polo match won by Hungary over the USSR in the midst of the anti-Soviet “Hungarian Revolution,” made the most news.

In 1957, Campbell was drafted by the NFL’s Cleveland Browns. In 1958 he was cut. Why?

The team’s coach and co-founder, Paul Brown, Campbell said, told him he was unhappy Campbell had just married a white woman. Campbell next played in the Canadian Football League through 1964.

Still, he wasn’t done. In 1972, at 40, he nearly qualified for the U.S. Olympic judo team.

I came to know Milt Campbell through his love of bowling and mutual friends, PBA Hall of Famer Johnny Petraglia and Lee Livingston, then owner of the massive Carolier Lanes in North Brunswick, N.J. I wanted — needed — to get to know Campbell. And I made sure to do so.

He was wonderful: engaging, candid, funny, opinionated, but open-minded. He seemed pleased by my questions and attention. We remained in touch.

When asked if he was bitter his Olympic achievements provided him only brief, long-forgotten fame and denied him the residual business opportunities enjoyed by Mathias, Johnson and Jenner — all three landed movie contracts — he answered: “I’m only human. How can I not be?”

And so there’s reason, beyond a lack of knowledge and research, as to why 48 years after he won silver in the Olympic decathlon while in high school, and 44 years after he won the gold, that Milt Campbell didn’t even make ESPN’s Top 100 of the 20th Century and its Top 50 Black Athletes survey.

And when I told friends — solid sports fans — that I had met and even dined with Milt Campbell, few had ever heard of him.

Enough to drive anyone crazy

Man, it’s crazy out there.

Marshawn Lynch, the Cal-Berkeley college man who had “spontaneous fun” by grabbing and holding his crotch after scoring a touchdown in a nationally televised game, has declared himself the NFL’s latest take-a-knee social activist.

Now, given that the first act already has been ignored, which of these two acts of his public comportment will a pandering media — especially TV — dutifully note?

ESPN sold late Sunday night’s Red Sox-Yankees game as can’t-miss event. Then, through seven innings, ESPN presented five split-screen shots — for those who can see two things at once — and made nine in-game cuts to the broadcast booth so audiences could both see and hear the threesome that turns TV into insufferably endless talk radio.

By the way, is there no one at ESPN to tell Aaron Boone that viewers are naming the mute on their remotes the AB button? It’s a seasonal ESPN designation. Next month, it becomes the JG button, for Jon Gruden.

Monday on YES, with the Yankees’ Chad Green pitching 2 ²/₃ innings of relief against the Mets, David Cone said, “One of the advantages of Green is his ability to throw multiple innings.”

All relievers have that ability, but most are yanked after one inning, even if they retired the side on five pitches.

The state and taxpayer-funded University of Connecticut successfully has recruited punter Luke Magliozzi. He was working as a plumber near his home in Westmeadows, Australia when UConn offered him a full scholarship.

Magliozzi will be a 23-year-old freshman. Man, it’s crazy out there.

Foul calls from self-absorbed Sterling

John Sterling, during Monday’s Mets-Yankees game, called Aaron Judge’s 86th home run of the season. It was a foul ball, but according to Sterling, that’s your problem, not his. Tuesday, Sterling was so self-immersed in his “Thaaaaah Yankees win!” bit he failed to see or report Aroldis Chapman was injured on the final out.

The Rockies’ Charlie Blackmon has 14 triples this season and 33 in the past 4¾ seasons. Robinson Cano has 33 triples in his 13-year career, just five in his past six seasons.

Mets radio’s Josh Lewin is king of the neat tidbits. Wednesday, with Michael Conforto batting against the Yankees, Lewin noted that Conforto left Oregon State just before another Beaver, the Yankees’ Jacoby Ellsbury, donated the “Jacoby Ellsbury Locker Room.”

Broadcast Journalism: ESPN’s Jim Trotter, reporting on SportsCenter on Wednesday, must be very close to Cowboys malfeasant Ezekiel Elliot to refer to him as “Zeke.”

Mariners reliever Edwin Diaz, Wednesday against the Orioles, entered in the ninth inning with his team up, 7-4. In two-thirds of an inning he allowed two runs on three walks and hit two batters. He was credited with a “hold.”