I've been watching early to mid 2000s races on YouTube lately. It's amazing how dominant Carmichael and Stewart were and how much respect they had for one another. Reed was just playing third wheel, and simply never had the respect of the other two due to his style.
I grew up with McGrath dominating supercross, a mix of others in motocross, Carmichael as an amateur, and Stewart as a little kid I read about in magazines. I met nearly all the big names from the 90s as a kid at some point or another except McGrath. Still have Carmichael's autograph from his days on a KX80. It's strange to me seeing a Kawasaki #9 that isn't Ryan Hughes and there's been several since then.
I would like to make it to a motocross race this year, but it's a little difficult for me to get back into it. New names, no two stroke sound or smell, and what the heck is with the current apparel? No design effort, basically a solid colored shirt with company name in white font. Change shirt color and it's a different rider. Just a completely different feeling.