Greatest moments in sports of the decade
Kobe Bryant salutes to the fans at Staples Center after the last NBA basketball game in his career. Bryant finished with 60 points in a 101-96 win over the Utah Jazz.
- Boston Red Sox win their first World Series at Home in 90 years: The Red Sox were coming off of a 69-93 record during the 2012 season, and were not supposed to be considered an MLB powerhouse. Then on April 15, after the Red Sox had played only a few games, the city of Boston fell victim to a terrorist attack, when two bombs exploded 14 seconds apart and killed 3 and injured several others. After that day, the Red Sox tore up the MLB standings, going 97-65 and advancing to the 2013 World Series, where they defeated the St. Louis Cardinals in six games, winning Game 6 at Fenway Park, their first home world series win in 90 years.
- Philly Special: During Super Bowl 52, at the end of the first half, the Philadelphia Eagles were looking to score before halftime. The Eagles ran a trick play, making it look like Quarterback Nick Foles was making adjustments at the line, when the ball was snapped suddenly snapped to Corey Clement, who tossed the ball to Trey Burton, who started to make it look like an end-around, then quickly threw to a wide open Foles in the end zone. This play has spread across the NFL like wildfire and is considered to be the greatest trick play in NFL history. Philadelphia would go on to win the game 41-33 and win their first Super Bowl in franchise history.
- The Minneapolis Miracle: With 10 seconds left, the Minnesota Vikings were at their own 39 yard-line and down by 1 to the New Orleans Saints in the Divisional Round of the NFL playoffs. They were out of timeouts and if they couldn’t get the ball out of bounds on the next play, the game would be ever. Then, Vikings Quarterback Case Keenum threw a long pass to Wide Receiver Stefon Diggs, but Saints safety Marcus Williams ran up to knock Diggs to the ground, but missed. From there, Diggs sprinted into the end zone as time expired, and Minnesota was in the NFC championship competing for a shot at the Super Bowl.
- Cubs break 108 year World Series title drought: Prior to the 2016 MLB season, the Chicago Cubs’ last World Series win was in 1908. The 108 year curse was known as “The curse of the billy goat.” In 1945, William Sianis was attending Game 4 of the World Series with his goat Murphy when he was told the goat was not allowed to enter the stadium. When he heard this, he famously declared that the Cubs would never win another World Series as long as the goat was never allowed in the stadium. This declaration stayed true for the next 71 years until the Cubs beat the Indians in seven games in the 2016 World Series.
- The Kick Six: In the 78th Iron Bowl between the University of Alabama Crimson Tide and the University of Auburn Tigers, the game was tied at 28 with just a few seconds left. Alabama kicker Cade Foster had had a tough night, missing two easy field goals that had been regular makes for him all year and had one blocked. With the game on the line, and Foster struggling, Alabama coach Nick Saban brought in freshman Adam Griffith to kick a game winning 57-yard field goal. The kick fell short, and Auburn kick returner Chris Davis returned the ball 109 yards for the game winning touchdown as time expired. The game prevented Alabama from contending for a 3rd straight BCS championship, and vaulted Auburn into the BCS championship.
- Woods comes back and wins the Masters: Tiger Woods had an illustrious golf career, decorated with 79 PGA tour wins prior to 2018, but before that year, his last major victory was in 2014. Woods had four back surgeries from 2014 to 2017 and led many to believe he would never win again. Then in 2018, he ZoZo Championship and the Tour Championship to give him 81 tournament wins. In 2019, Tiger surpassed all of his critics with a victory in the Masters golf tournament, his first Masters title since 2008.
- Raptors win their first NBA title: The Toronto Raptors were an expansion team the came into the NBA in 1995 and immediately struggled. The team struggled to win until the arrival of Vince Carter, but they never got past the second round. In 2013, Raptors General Manager Masai Ujiri, the general manager at the time, formed a back court duo of Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan, who constantly got the team into the second round and proved to be a dynamic scoring team. In 2019, the Raptors traded DeRozan, Jakob Poetl, and first round pick for Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green. This trade boosted the Raptors offense and defense, and, thanks to a breakout year by Pascal Siakam and great bench play from Fred VanVleet, the Raptors went to their second Eastern Conference Finals and beat the Milwaukee Bucks in six games. The Raptors then proceeded to advance to the NBA finals where they beat a Golden State Warriors team that had been battered by injury throughout the playoffs. Leonard was named NBA finals MVP and the Raptors had their first championship.
- Damian Lillard’s 37 foot game winner against the Thunder: The Portland Trailblazers and Oklahoma City Thunder were deadlocked in game five of the first round of the NBA playoffs. The Blazers had to overcome a 15 point lead with eight minutes left and eventually tied it. With 15 seconds left Damian Lillard went into isolation against Thunder forward Paul George, a Defensive Player of the Year and MVP candidate, and with 3 seconds left, launched a 37-foot shot that beat the buzzer to give the Blazers the 118-115 game five victory and the 4-1 series win. It was the second series winner of Lillard’s career, the first one coming against Houston in the first round of the 2014 playoffs.
- Cavaliers give Cleveland its first major sports title in 52 years: Before 2016, the last championship ever won in the city of Cleveland was the 1964 NFL Championship, before the Super Bowl was even introduced, when the Cleveland Browns beat the Baltimore Colts 27-0. The next 52 years, Cleveland fans watched in agony as chances to reach Championship games were foiled by big mistakes down the stretch. In 2016, the Cavaliers had built up their roster around stars Kyrie Irving, LeBron James, and Kevin Love, and advanced swiftly to the NBA finals were they faced the Golden State Warriors that had the Splash Brothers, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green and Andre Igoudola, both being excellent defenders. The Cavaliers struggled, but managed to come behind after trailing 3-1 in the series, being the first team to come back from a 3-1 lead in the NBA finals. Cleveland was a city of champions once again, after 52 years of agony and torture.
- 16 ranked UMBC upsets Number one Virginia: Going into the March Madness NCAA basketball tournament, Virginia was a favorite to win it all. They had four future NBA players, where UMBC only had one player averaging over 15 points per game, Jairus Lyles, who played in the NBA G-League and in the Euro League, the rest of the team was relatively unknown, and most of the team was only averaging single digits. The game stayed close in the first, but UMBC quickly took control of the second half, and Virginia had no response. Where Virginia had the better team, the UMBC Retrievers fought harder, and ended up winning 74-54.
- Kobe Bryant’s 60 point farewell game: Kobe Bryant had one of the best basketball careers in NBA history. He won five NBA finals, two NBA finals MVP, was an 18 time All-Star and won an NBA MVP award while being one of the greatest shooters of all time. However by 2016, Kobe was not the dynamic player he used to be. He only averaged 18 points a game and the Lakers had losing record after losing record each season. On April 13, 2016 though, in his final game, Kobe was on fire, going 22-50 and hitting the game winner with around 20 seconds left. It was the icing on the cake to the beautiful career of one of the greatest players in NBA history.
- Leicester City defies 5000-1 odds to win the Premier League title: In the 2015 Premier League season, Leicester City barely avoided relegation, the ability to compete for the Premier League title. Going into the 2016 season, Leicester was placed at the bottom of the standings and were never expected to move up at all. Their roster was players that should never have been given a chance. Then Leicester beat Sunderland four to two and from there they would not stop winning. Led by striker Jamie Vardy, Leicester managed to stay in the lead just two points ahead of Tottenham Hotspur after their 1-1 tie against Manchester United. Tottenham would play their final game against Chelsea on May 2 after Leicester’s last game. If Tottenham won the game, Leicester’s cinderella season would come to an end, but a draw or tie would mean Leicester would win the Premier League. Chelsea came back from being down two goals and managed to force a draw, meaning Leicester was the winners of the Premier League in the greatest cinderella story of all time.
