2024 was a year of excellence. Of great teams—like the Celtics, Liberty, Chiefs, and Dodgers—reaching the summit. And great athletes—like Caitlin Clark, Novak Djokovic, and Mondo Duplantis—taking their sports to new levels. Of course, that doesn’t mean 2024 didn’t have its fair share of the unexpected. It also delivered Jack Gohlke and RayGun and the New York Mets.
Before the calendar flips to 2025, The Ringer is looking back at the most iconic sports moments of the past 12 months. Here, in no particular order, are the 55 that stood out most.
Steph Curry Hits a Golden Dagger
Rob Mahoney: The biggest sports moments are the ones that blur the edges and make you forget everything that came before them. Will history remember that Steph Curry couldn’t buy a bucket throughout most of his first (and maybe last?) Olympic run? Hell no. Because that’s what happens when you deliver the biggest shot in USA Basketball history: a medal-winning heat check launched over the outstretched arms of two French defenders, made somehow logical only by the fact that Curry was the one to take it.
We didn’t need the benefit of hindsight; this was iconography made in real time. The shot, the celebration (nuit, nuit!), the perfect call from Noah Eagle. A golden dagger. Put it in the Louvre. Some of the greatest basketball players to ever live spent the final minutes of the gold medal game deferring to Steph, looking for him at every opportunity. And he hit, over and over, turning in 12 points over the final three minutes and one of the enduring images of his already legendary career. If you look behind Curry when he put the crowd to sleep, you can see the entire range of human emotion—not just from person to person, but in the face of every French fan delighted and demoralized all at once. Sometimes you’re lucky enough to see sports history taking shape right in front of you. And sometimes it comes at your team’s expense, on its home soil, to be relived and replayed until the end of time.
Noah Lyles Becomes a World Champion Once Again
Joel Anderson: If you, like many NBA players, were inclined to root against Noah Lyles, then those few seconds of confusion after the end of the Olympic men’s 100-meter final must have felt so satisfying. Lyles had seemingly been humbled in the Paris Games’ marquee event, crossing the finish line in a cluster of other runners and maybe losing his status as the fastest man in the world. The possibility primed a bunch of haters who never let go of Lyles questioning the status of NBA title winners who called themselves world champions. “World champion of what? The United States?” he quipped the previous summer, basking in the glow of his victory at the World Athletics Championships. Kevin Durant, Draymond Green, and many others, didn’t like that. “Somebody help this brother,” Durant wrote on Instagram, responding to an ESPN post with Lyles’s comments.
Under the bright lights of the Stade de France, Lyles nearly lost it all from the start. The Olympic champion of what? His reaction time at the gun—0.178 seconds—was tied for worst in the race; the other runner finished sixth. But Lyles’s top-end speed—his vastly underrated strength makes him an even better 200-meter runner—soon kicked in and, by 60 meters, he was nearly even with the leaders. Lyles then compounded his bad start by leaning at the finish, a known no-no for elite runners. When the race was over, Lyles went over to Kishane Thompson of Jamaica and patted him on the shoulder. “I'm gonna be honest, I think you had that one," Lyles told Thompson, a concession of sorts. NBC sports announcer Leigh Diffey also called it for Thompson: “Jamaica’s going to do it!”
But the race was too close to call and Thompson and Lyles stared up at the scoreboard waiting for officials to sort through the photo finish. A half-minute later, Lyles’s name popped up as the winner. He’d won by a .005-second margin, one of the closest finishes in Olympic history, becoming the first American man to win 100-meter Olympic gold in 20 years.
So yeah, KD, Draymond, and the rest of the NBA cognoscenti will just have to be mad about it. Lyles is a real world champion, once again.
Kyle Shanahan Forgets the Overtime Rules in the Super Bowl
Katie Baker: With his sky-high standards and his hangdog eyes, San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan projects an energy that is one part his dad (Mike), one part post-2003 Andy Roddick, one part Kendall Roy, and one part Jeremy Strong talking about Kendall Roy. He is good enough at what he does to have been to the Super Bowl three times since February 2017, once as Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator, and twice as San Francisco head coach. The only problem is that he’s lost all three—and how! Squandered leads, freak injuries, too-tentative strategy: you name it, he’s got the big-game experience to match. And this February against Kansas City, not only did Shanahan become the first NFL coach to lose two Super Bowls after leading by double digits, but he also did so in a manner that maximized the universe of possible discourse in ways we hadn’t even imagined.
“I’m never going to question Kyle, because he’s brilliant,” noted Chiefs coach Andy Reid after the game, which was real easy for him to say. Whether you think Shanahan had the right reasons for opting to receive the ball to begin overtime is between you and your God. (And if you read that sentence and thought: Well, the real issue was kicking the field goal on fourth-and-4, congratulations! This is a test, and you passed.) Either way, it made for one of the most memorable Super Bowls in history, and while there ought to be no shame in losing to KC, doing so twice has been enough to cause the Niners to spiral. I feel bad for 49ers Country. But Kyle Shanahan is tremendous content.
Freddie Freeman’s Walk-Off Grand Slam in the World Series
Craig Gaines: I usually am in charge of putting our 4-year-old daughter to bed, but during Game 1 of the Dodgers-Yankees World Series, I received special dispensation. I contributed as much as I could to dinner and bath time, but once her evening entered its quiet wind-down phase, and furtive glances at various screens became verboten, I excused myself from the proceedings and sank into the couch. She and my wife entered her bedroom sometime around when Blake Treinen entered the game in the top of the ninth. They were engrossed in a book during the 1-2-3 bottom of the ninth. And negotiations about the exact timing of lights-out happened while Jazz Chisolm Jr. scampered around the bases in the top of the 10th.
And then, as she sometimes will, the squirt broke loose from her room and came out to the living room just as Frederick Charles Freeman was digging into the batter’s box in the bottom of the 10th. My wife and I looked at each other and wordlessly agreed, “Eh, she can watch one at-bat.” Freddie didn’t make our girl wait long. She sat next to me on the couch as Freeman ejected Nestor Cortes’s very first pitch deep into the right-field mob just 9 miles to the southeast of where we were sitting. Soon after, she too was being lifted into the night, in her wild dad’s arms, as we ran circles around the living room about as fast as Freddie was running around the bases. Delighted and confused at this outburst, she asked her mom as we continued to traverse around the room, “Why is Daddy feeling like this?” Well, kid, I’ll try to explain that in a few years when this silly game might make a bit more sense. A few days after Game 1, she told me, “I like Freddie Freeman because he hits the home runs.” This is really all the baseball analysis you need at the end of 2024. Every Angeleno will have their own Freeman story for the rest of their lives; that my kid and I get to share ours is one of the best gifts I received all year.
Francisco Lindor’s Go-Ahead Grand Slam in the NLDS Clincher
Bobby Wagner: 2024 was the year Francisco Lindor won over the souls of New York Mets fans. Hearts? You could argue he already won those when he signed an 11-year extension to be the franchise’s shortstop. Minds? Those of us who actually have them had turned them over to him when we saw how damn good he was in every facet of the game, every day of the season.
But souls? That’s something more ineffable. Cosmic, sometimes. To earn a permanent place in the soul of a fan base, it takes a perfect alchemy of the right player and the right moment, built on a foundation of day-in and day-out excellence. And that’s exactly what Lindor did when he stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the sixth inning and bounced a team that has tortured Mets fans for the last decade and a half.
The Mets’ season stalled out in the next round; those World Series dreams will have to wait another year. But that moment? That’s forever.
The Liberty Win Their First Title and Cap Off a Banner Year for the WNBA
Kat Spillane: I am approaching the act of writing this with some bias. This is due to the fact that I am a diehard New York Liberty fan. And that I was physically and emotionally present at Barclays Center on October 20 when the Liberty defeated the Minnesota Lynx in Game 5 of the WNBA Finals, in overtime, to win their first championship. 2024 was a landmark year for the WNBA and women’s basketball, and this electric final series befit this banner season. Four of the five games came down the wire, with Game 3 ending in an iconic Sabrina Ionescu 3-pointer. The series posted major ratings and major celebrity sightings (Spike Lee, Jason Sudeikis, Aubrey Plaza, Gayle King, countless others—we see you and we appreciate you). The games in both Brooklyn and Minneapolis averaged around 18,000 or more fans. Said plainly: Folks were seated for these games, and the basketball did not disappoint. Because (and say it with me now): EVERYONE WATCHES WOMEN’S SPORTS.
Minnesota had been a tough matchup for New York all season. The Barclays crowd at Game 5 innately understood this and was very nervous. Not even beloved mascot and spiritual leader Ellie the Elephant could calm our collective nerves. With the Liberty’s deep bench and superstar lineup, this looked like their best shot to finally win that elusive title, but it seemed to be slipping away. The Liberty were behind all game, with the clock counting down to what seemed like a heartbreaking end to the season. And then there was a call. By all accounts a bad call. The Lynx were up 60-58 with seconds left in regulation when Breanna Stewart went up for a short jumper and Alanna Smith was whistled for a foul. The call went to review, but the outcome remained the same and Stewie went to the line to send the game to OT. Stewie had missed two free throws mere moments before, but as Barclays fell into a hushed prayer, the Liberty’s leader and former league MVP sunk both shots handily.
If one were to watch it back, one COULD say that Smith’s block was all ball, that it was an egregious call, that it should have been overturned, and that the Lynx should have won the series. These are all hypotheticals. Here is what I know to be true. I fell to my knees when Stewie hit those two free throws. I held my breath all of overtime, with my head in my hands. I hugged strangers as confetti fell around us, announcing the Liberty as first-time champs. Women who had been fans of the team since their inaugural 1997 season wept.
My dad, who grew up in New York, has always proudly said: “New York is a basketball town.” In my lifetime, I have not known that to be true. But with this trophy, my girls brought the city its first basketball championship in 48 years. The New York Liberty were a sensation, and the dramatic conclusion to their season only cemented that fact. New York basketball is SO BACK! Sort of, kind of.
The Unadulterated Joy of Manchester City’s Monthlong Losing Streak
Brian Phillips: It’s easy to feel cynical about soccer in 2024. Sportswashing remains rampant. FIFA, coming off a long and bitter reckoning with its years of rampant corruption, has taken a good, hard look in the mirror and resolved to be even more rampantly corrupt. Christian Pulisic is doing the Trump dance, probably as we speak. And this is why, when I think about my favorite sports moments of 2024, I go back again and again to the most uplifting story of the year, a story that rekindled the glow of childlike innocence and wonder in the hearts of soccer fans everywhere. I’m referring, of course, to Manchester City absolutely shitting an entire mattress warehouse’s worth of beds across all phases of their 2024 campaign.
Stories this pure weren’t supposed to be possible in our day and age. Manchester City—the club with the $270 million payroll, the club owned by a secretive private equity company linked to the royal family of Abu Dhabi, the club that redefined the role of big money in soccer—was supposed to be able to keep buying all the trophies it could eat. This is the club, after all, that’s won four straight Premier League titles and six of the last seven, all while more or less openly mocking any half-hearted rules designed to limit their spending. And yet here Man City were, in the autumn of 2024, losing … five straight matches? Not winning a single game in the month of November? Dropping below Nottingham Forest in the league table? Losing to Manchester United, for the love of Liam Gallagher’s unquiet ghost?? All this really happened, and leaving aside the reasons why—injuries, complacency, Pep Guardiola finally becoming so annoying even his own players had to notice—it made this fall and winter feel like springtime for the Premier League. Let’s hope 2025 is full of equally inspiring and beautiful soccer stories.
USA Rugby’s Full-Field Buzzer-Beater for the Bronze
Zach Kram: One of the great delights of the Olympics is becoming invested in various sports that you won’t then think about for 47 months, until the next Summer Games arrive. One of those quadrennial highlights is rugby sevens, a frenetic, fast-paced version of the sport that was an instant hit when it arrived at the Olympics in 2016.
But it hadn’t yet produced a singular breakout moment like it would in 2024. Let’s set the scene for the bronze medal match in the women’s tournament, between Australia and the United States. Australia had started the tournament 4-0 before falling to Canada in the semifinals, while the U.S. looked like, in sports parlance, the “bad good team”: The Americans beat everyone they were supposed to beat, but lost to everyone (eventual gold medalists New Zealand and host France) that they were supposed to lose to. That dynamic appeared poised to continue in the bronze medal match, as the favored Australians broke a tie and pulled ahead with just 90 seconds remaining.
The clock kept ticking away until a miracle intervened: Pinned all the way in her own end of the field, Alex “Spiff” Sedrick received an innocuous pass, stepped through one defender’s attempted tackle, pulled away from a second, and stiff-armed (Spiff-armed?) a third into the turf. All of a sudden, she was free, and sprinting the full length of the field with nobody left to stop her. It was the equivalent of a 99-yard Hail Mary as time expired.
Sedrick’s run for glory was transcendent, exhilarating, a pure release of joy amid a joyous fortnight. But I related most to Sammy Sullivan (wearing jersey no. 4) on the bench; amid a crowd of delirious teammates, Sullivan clearly, repeatedly mouthed “shut up,” lest the celebrations jinx Sedrick’s extra point to break the tie. (I know it’s not actually called an extra point, but I watch rugby for one week every four years! Cut me some slack on the terminology here.) Her teammates obliged, and Sedrick tucked the winning kick through the uprights. The Americans won their first Olympic medal in the sport in the most dramatic fashion imaginable.
Charlie Woods Sinks a Hole in One in Front of Tiger
Matt Dollinger: Much like Tiger Woods and his father, Earl, my dad taught me the game of golf. Granted, we didn’t start until I was 10 years old. And I’m still 82 PGA wins and 15 majors behind Eldrick. And I don’t think I’ll ever be on The Mike Douglas Show at this point, but otherwise this is basically an apples-to-apples comparison.
Why do I bring it up? Because in a sense, Tiger played golf for his dad, much like I did for mine. It was one thing to make a birdie; it was another for your dad to see it. Look at Tiger’s career. When he won his first Masters in 1997, he made a beeline for his dad off the 18th green. The real prize was the hug that awaited. When he won his first major after Earl passed away in 2006, he let out a guttural sob knowing he couldn’t share it with him. And when Tiger won his last Masters in 2019, muscle memory kicked in. He made the same beeline off the 18th green. But this time, the hug was for his son. The proud son was now a proud dad.
Watching Tiger swing a golf club creates about as much nostalgia as you can get. He still has picturesque form and an ungodly command of the golf ball, but chances are that his days of winning tournaments are over. There are still victories to be had on the course, though. And for Tiger, we saw arguably his greatest one yet come after his 15-year-old son drained a 7-iron from 174 yards for his first hole in one at the 2024 PNC Championship:
In a flash, it all came back. The full-bodied hug. The tearful embrace. The proud smile. The sheer disbelief. Much like Tiger did for Earl, Charlie gave his dad the sweetest win of all.
Derrick White Chips His Tooth, Stays in, and Helps the Celtics Clinch the Finals
Jack McCluskey: Young sportswriters get taught all the reasons not to use clichés. They’re tired. They’re lazy. They’re the equivalent of painting with a broad brush, leaving a picture that lacks the fine detail that really makes a work of art, art. But then, every so often, you see a cliché come to life before your eyes—and it proves irresistible. For example: Leave it all on the floor (or field, or ice, or diamond).
I don’t know whether Derrick White literally left pieces of his teeth on the floor in Game 5 of the Finals, but having watched his selfless, do-whatever-it-takes season to that point, I was sure he would have if it gave the Celtics a better chance to win (which he then confirmed in his postgame interview). So after Dereck Lively II landed on the back of White’s head as they both dove for a loose ball in the second quarter of the potential title-clincher, slamming him face-first into the parquet, I winced through the replays and braced for the Celtics guard to unleash some fireworks.
He delivered in true Derrick White fashion, with a little bit of everything. A 3-pointer in front of the Celtics bench (after which he said he yelled “Eff that tooth!” to his celebrating teammates). A hustle play to steal an offensive rebound from the weak side. A drawn foul on a sloppy Dallas screen. And, my favorite, this block on—who else—Lively:
While he isn’t a star on the level of Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, or even Kristaps Porzingis, White’s hot shooting and tough defense made a massive difference in Game 5, just as it had all season for the stacked Celtics. And that jagged smile he flashed to the cameras after the confetti fell in June proved he’s just as willing to—yes, here comes that cliché again—leave it all on the floor to win.
Payton Pritchard’s Half-Court Heave Earns the Mike Breen Bang
Alan Siegel: When Payton Pritchard’s longer-than-half-court shot fell through the net to beat the second-quarter buzzer of Game 5 of the NBA Finals, a noise came out of my mouth that I didn’t think I was capable of making anymore. I’m ashamed to admit this, but 25 years of offensively good Boston sports memories desensitized me. At 41, I thought my days of screaming at the TV were over.
Then Pritchard hit another one of his absurd 3s at the biggest possible moment. The long jumper, which gave the Celtics a comfy 21-point lead, was the closest an anti-climactic series came to a real climax—just listen to Mike Breen’s call. I involuntarily yelled loud enough to scare my poor neighbor’s dog. I’m not sure I’ll ever do that again.
Donte DiVincenzo Earns the Vaunted Double Bang
Daniel Chin: There’s nothing in the NBA quite like Madison Square Garden when the New York Knicks are playing playoff basketball. And in 2024, the basketball gods cooked up an epic first-round matchup between the Knicks and 76ers that ended up being the most exciting, contentious series of this year’s playoffs. With New York hosting Philly, Game 2 proved to be a crucial turning point, as the Knicks stole the game away in one of the most electrifying (and controversial) endings in franchise history.
With the Knicks trailing by five with only 30 seconds remaining, Jalen Brunson knocked down a corner 3 that saw the ball clank off of the front rim before falling through the net. And then chaos ensued. Kyle Lowry inbounded the ball to Tyrese Maxey, who proceeded to get mugged by a pair of former Villanova roommates in what might have been just a little bit of a foul (but don’t worry about it). Josh Hart came away with the steal, then kicked the ball out to Donte DiVincenzo for a wide-open 3, which he bricked off the back rim, only for a streaking Isaiah Hartenstein to snatch it out of the skies and deliver to OG Anunoby on the wing. Anunoby found DiVincenzo for another open 3, and the Big Ragu made sure not to miss it again. DiVincenzo’s game-winning triple sent the Garden into a frenzy, its floorboards shaking from the roars of the crowd, as Knicks legends and celebrity fans jumped up and down the sidelines, and as Mike Breen anointed the shot with a rare double “Bang!” call on the MSG broadcast.
DiVincenzo and Hartenstein may have moved on to other teams in the offseason that followed, but the two will forever be revered by Knicks fans for delivering an iconic moment on the MSG stage.
Ashton Jeanty Carries the Running Back Revival to the NCAA
Amaar Burton: The running back resurgence isn’t just an NFL story line in 2024; it’s also a plot point of the NCAA season. While Saquon Barkley, Derrick Henry, and Josh Jacobs make up the three-headed face of the RB resurgence at the pro level—they’re each on pace to finish in the league’s top five in rushing yards as their new teams (Eagles, Ravens, Packers) look like Super Bowl contenders and their old teams (Giants, Titans, Raiders) look awful—Ashton Jeanty stands alone as college football’s preeminent running back.
The Boise State junior has ripped off 2,497 yards and 29 touchdowns heading into the Broncos’ opening playoff game on New Year’s Eve. That’s over 1,000 yards better than his breakout sophomore-year production, and more than double the scoring output. In 2023, Jeanty was the Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year; in 2024, he did that again, plus he won the Maxwell and Doak Walker awards, was a consensus first-team All-American, and finished second in the closest Heisman Trophy vote since 2009. (Another W for RBs: Jeanty finished higher than any quarterback in the voting.)
During the season, Jeanty had national championship favorite Oregon against the ropes (192 yards, three TDs) and posted six games of 200-plus yards—including slaughtering my hometown Washington State Cougars (259 yards, four TDs) and my adopted-town UNLV Rebels (209 yards, one TD) in Boise’s playoff-clinching Mountain West conference title game victory.
On the way to college superstardom, Jeanty became known just as much for his creepily chill pre-snap stance (hit Michael Myers’s music) as for the trail of broken tackles and busted ankles he left in his wake. Widely considered the top running back prospect in the 2025 NFL draft, his celebrity should only grow in a league that’s learning to love running backs again.
Saquon Barkley’s Mind-Melting Reverse Hurdle
Ben Lindbergh: This year marked the 40th anniversary of John Madden agreeing to lend his name to (and help design) a franchise of football video games. John Madden Football, now named Madden NFL, has become a crossover cultural institution that was spotlighted late this year in a Prime Video documentary and an alternate broadcast on Peacock. So in Week 9 of the NFL season, when Eagles running back Saquon Barkley caught a pass from Jalen Hurts, broke a tackle, spun around Jaguars linebacker Devin Lloyd, and then leaped backward over cornerback Jarrian Jones for another 5 yards, the first question that came to my mind was, “Can you even do that in Madden?” The answer: No, you cannot. Madden, after all, was designed to be semi-realistic.
Barkley’s video-game maneuver may have been too far-fetched for Madden, but it’s in the game now: Electronic Arts updated Madden NFL 25 to give Barkley alone a “spin hurdle” that players can pull off under certain conditions. Think about that: Barkley, an MVP candidate whose exploits are restoring the luster of a position whose importance has slipped, did something so inconceivable that the makers of Madden hadn’t deemed it to be in the realm of possibility—and so awe-inspiring that once he proved it could be done, everyone dreamed about doing it. Hurdling a defender in a forward direction is impressive enough, but Barkley’s backward acrobatics, which stunned even other world-class athletes (let alone normies like me), made for football’s most rewatchable moment of 2024.
In one post-hurdle interview, Barkley explained, “My body kind of took over.” In another, he cited divine intervention. “I’ve got to give credit to God, man,” he said. “I’m not going to lie ... I feel like God gave me the ability to play this position and gave me some instincts. Sometimes you’ve got to let go and let God and your instincts take over.”
I’m not a believer, but Barkley’s reverse hurdle is the closest I’ve come to a conversion experience.
Anthony Edwards’s Dunk of the Year
Isaac Levy-Rubinett: I can’t remember another dunk in which both the dunker and the dunkee walked away injured. John Collins, rest his soul, hit the deck and took his head in his hands; he suffered a head contusion. And instead of celebrating one of the greatest in-game dunks ever, Anthony Edwards walked straight into the tunnel with a dislocated finger. Both injuries contributed to a somewhat strange post-dunk sensation. Of course there was genuine awe at the way Edwards took off like a damn ornithopter. But there was also something slightly jarring in the aftermath, like we’d seen something we shouldn’t have. In a way, we had. It was violent. It was disrespectful. It should have been impossible!
2024 was a year of transition in the NBA. LeBron James and Steph Curry each had indelible moments, but they are aging out of supremacy, loosening their grip on the mantle. Perhaps more than any other young star, Edwards has risen up to reach for it. Ant produced several of the most jaw-dropping NBA highlights of the year: this dunk, of course, but also, his playoff jam on the Suns, the game-saving block against the Pacers when he hit his head on the damn rim, and his broader postseason takeover en route to the Western Conference finals. Sometimes a single play can capture a player’s whole arc, or the shifting dynamics of an entire league. In that respect, Ant’s dunk on Collins was a fitting encapsulation. Edwards is coming for the NBA. Look out below.
Mondo Duplantis Defies Physics in Pole Vaulting
Danny Chau: Mondo Duplantis’s record-breaking 6.25-meter pole vault at the Paris Games was, in two words, fucking sick. The swagger, the spectacle, the supremacy. What does the GOAT look like? Cillian Murphy, as rendered by whichever AI editor has the most robust Roman Deity filter.
Pole vaulting is an exercise in channeling speed. And while sprinting is not his event, Mondo is fast: His 100-meter time is nearly identical to that of Seattle Seahawks wide receiver DK Metcalf, who is arguably most famous for doing this. In pole vaulting, speed is metabolized in two stages: Energy exerted on the lateral plane determines the maximum output that can be achieved on the vertical plane. Somewhere between, in the intersection of axes, is what separates Duplantis from the rest of history. If pole vaulting is a mathematical formula played out in the physical realm, Duplantis has achieved fractalization. He has logged 19 of the 25 highest outdoor vaults ever recorded—in a sport whose modern format has existed for at least the past 230 years, with a stylistic lineage that dates back to antiquity. Mondo turned 25 in November.
The threshold for the elite is 5.80 meters—19 feet, or, the height of the tallest giraffe ever recorded. Cross that mark, and you’re one of the best in the field. Duplantis’s current record stands at 6.26 meters, which he set less than three weeks after resetting the world and Olympic record in Paris (!!!). He has surpassed his own world record 10 times thus far. Mondo has his sights set on one day hitting 6.30 meters: half a meter above that corridor to greatness. For most, the Olympics are the pinnacle of athletic achievement. For Duplantis, even with the eyes of the world upon him, it seemed more like a stepping stone.
The Pole-Vaulter Who Made Headlines for … Other Reasons
Danny Heifetz: Mondo Duplantis may have won the gold medal in the pole vault, but Anthony Ammirati won a larger prize. Ammirati, the French pole-vaulter, lost himself a medal at the Olympics this summer because, uh, how do I put this … he knocked the bar down with his dick.
Maybe you’d rather have a gold medal than the entire world finding out you have a hog (maybe). But in the true spirit of sports, Ammirati reminded us that what matters is not the size of the man but the size of a man’s … heart. One missed pole vault for man, one giant pole vaulted for mankind.
Novak Djokovic Completes the Golden Slam—and Basically the Sport of Tennis
Alex Stamas: Djokovic has left little doubt that he is statistically the greatest male tennis player of all time: a record 24 Grand Slam titles, 40 Masters 1000 titles, seven year-end championships, 428 total weeks ranked no.1, a winning record over Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal (just to list some of the highlights).
But one accolade had proven elusive in his career—an Olympic gold medal. At 37 years old, Djokovic entered the 2024 Olympics in Paris knowing that this was likely his last real chance at winning gold. After reaching the final without dropping a set, a familiar foe awaited him in the final: Carlos Alcaraz, the 21-year-old Spanish phenom who has taken tennis by storm and had already beaten Djokovic three times at that point. It took two grueling sets and nearly three hours, but Djokovic dispatched Alcaraz via two tiebreaks to finally capture the gold medal.
Conventional wisdom says Father Time will catch up to Djokovic sooner rather than later. So whenever he does decide to call it a career, he will now leave the sport knowing that there is essentially not a single trophy, record, or accolade left to pursue.
NC State’s Bigger-Than-Basketball NCAA Tournament Run
Steven Ruiz: I love college basketball. I’m not sure why, but I know it’s at least partially influenced by my dad’s love for the NCAA tournament. He wasn’t really a college basketball ball fan per se, but he did love March Madness. He fell in love with it in 1983 after watching NC State start from the bubble and go on a shocking run to win the ACC tournament and secure an automatic bid. They, of course, went on to win the national title that season. Any time the topic of college basketball came up, my dad would tell that goddamn story.
I lost my dad in August. But a few months before he died, in March, he had major back surgery. It was a terrifying situation. The chances of him getting through the operation without major complications were slim. This is going to sound made up—like some crappy made-for-TV movie shit—but the surgery was scheduled the same week of the ACC tournament. And on the day my dad miraculously got through the surgery, NC State, needing to win the tournament to get an automatic bid, just like in 1983, beat Duke in the quarterfinals to make the championship game. The next night, while my dad was in the hospital recovering from surgery, they upset North Carolina to win the ACC title and repeat history.
My dad was not locked into the ACC tournament that weekend, but I still vividly remember visiting him in the hospital a few days later and telling him how it happened—the upset over Duke on Thursday night, the late rally against Virginia, and the comfortable win over North Carolina to close things out. They went on to make the Final Four to complete this remake of the 1983 team that made my dad a college basketball fan.
“Triple Espresso” Leads the USWNT to Gold
Anthony Dabbundo: The same year that Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” became a smash hit, “Triple Espresso” led the United States Women’s National Team to Olympic Gold in France. Triple Espresso is the self-appointed nickname of the USWNT’s three leading attackers: Mallory Swanson, Sophia Smith, and Trinity Rodman. In the gold medal match against Brazil, Swanson scored on a through-ball from Korbin Albert in the 57th minute, making it the third consecutive game that the USWNT won 1-0 in the knockout stage. Rodman had scored the winner in the quarterfinal against Japan and Smith had scored the decisive goal against Germany in the semifinal.
U.S. women’s soccer had hit rock bottom less than a year prior, when the Americans scored just one goal in their final three World Cup matches and lost a penalty shoot-out to Sweden in the Round of 16. It was their earliest ever exit from a World Cup. That made the Paris Olympics an important inflection point for the USWNT. After disappointing showings in the 2021 Olympics and World Cup, questions emerged about whether the rest of the world had caught up to, and maybe even surpassed, the Americans.
British manager Emma Hayes officially became coach of her second home nation in May. The old guard finally aged out of the squad. Swanson—who debuted for USWNT at age 17 way back in 2016—completed her own redemption arc after she missed the 2023 World Cup with a knee injury.
While the men’s team failed on the world stage this summer at Copa América, the women’s team once again carried the mantle for American soccer fans. And the moment wouldn’t be complete without the iconic photo of the team looking quite hungover the day after winning gold.
Chris Kreider’s Hat Trick Rescues the Rangers
Matt James: With apologies to all the internet trolls skimming this list, foaming at the mouth, eager to drop a comment about how invisible hockey is to The Ringer, I present to you a single hockey highlight from 2024. Please clap.
Sure, I’m a New York Rangers homer, but when a player scores a natural hat trick in the third period of a playoff game to complete a comeback and clinch a series … that’s a memorable event. Down 3-1 entering the third period of Game 6 of the Rangers-Hurricanes second-round series, New York had let all momentum slip away. The Hurricanes were just one period away from forcing a Game 7 in a series in which they had trailed 0-3. The vibes for the Rangers were down horrendous, man. And then, seemingly out of nowhere, Chris Kreider put together eight minutes and 58 seconds of hockey that cemented his status as an all-time Ranger, scoring three goals, all within a few feet of the net, in the most scrappy, Kreiderian way possible. It’s the most iconic individual Ranger playoff performance since Mark Messier scored a hat trick in a series-clinching playoff game that he had guaranteed they’d win.
Unlike that Messier-led team, however, the 2023-24 Rangers fell short of winning the Stanley Cup—and let’s not even talk about this season—but what a moment! It’s always thrilling to watch an individual player in a team sport push a rudderless team forward seemingly through sheer force of willpower.
Pete Alonso Vs. Devin Williams
Stefan Anderson: The Temptations’ “My Girl.” Grimace. “OMG” and … Hawk Tuah Girl. None of these things make sense together, but they perfectly encapsulate the 2024 New York Mets. This team, which found the most egregious ways to lose in April and May, finished with the best post-June record in MLB and earned itself a trip to the NL Division Series.
During Game 3 of the Mets and Brewers’ wild-card matchup, I was out having an early birthday dinner at Tatiana by Kwame Onwuachi, and I could not stop checking my phone for updates. As my meal came to an end, I decided to run to the bathroom to tune into the game live, and I ended up catching a seminal moment in New York sports history.
With runners on the corners, facing one of the best relievers in the MLB, Pete Alonso was staring down the final two outs of the Mets’ magical run—and possibly the end of his time in orange and blue. He worked a hitter’s count and drove an opposite-field home run that made his lucky pumpkin look genius, and he added another chapter to the 2024 Mets’ unforgettable season.
Jayden Daniels’s—and Washington Commanders Fans’—Prayers Are Answered
Lindsay Jones: For years, Washington’s football franchise was an NFL laughingstock, a bottom-dwelling team on the field with the league’s worst ownership off it. It’s almost impossible to adequately describe just how bad the vibes were amidst the losses and lawsuits that defined the Daniel Snyder era. So no fan base was more deserving of the pure ecstasy that rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels delivered on October 27 in a Week 8 game against the Chicago Bears and their rookie quarterback, Caleb Williams.
The Commanders’ hopes of winning that game seemed dashed after the Bears scored a touchdown and made the two-point conversion to go up by three with 25 seconds remaining. After a kickoff return, Daniels had just 19 seconds to orchestrate a drive to tie or win the game. As the clock ticked down to its final seconds, Daniels moved the Commanders close to midfield—too far for a field goal attempt, but not too far for a Hail Mary.
The Bears didn’t call timeout to set their defense, and then sent three rushers when the ball was snapped. Daniels, a deft scrambler with a huge arm who won the 2023 Heisman Trophy at LSU, drifted backward, rolled out of the pocket to his right, and then darted back to his left. He finally settled his feet at Washington’s 35-yard line and unleashed the throw. The ball sailed in a high arc, all the way to the goal line, where a cluster of Bears and Commanders were waiting. One of those defenders, Tyrique Stevenson, batted the ball up and into the end zone, where Commanders receiver Noah Brown had broken free, completely uncovered. “It’s caught! It’s caught! It’s a miracle!” Jim Nantz screamed on the CBS broadcast as Brown was swarmed by teammates.
It was a hell of a throw from Daniels, but replays revealed this was no miracle. This was a meltdown of epic proportions by the Bears. A video seemingly shot from the stands showed that Stevenson spent the first seconds of the play with his back turned, actively taunting Commanders fans rather than keeping an eye on his man: Noah Brown.
So not only was Stevenson responsible for letting Brown go uncovered, but he was also the player who committed the cardinal sin of defending a Hail Mary by batting the ball up and not down. The viral video of Stevenson’s antics and the Bears’ ensuing dysfunction (the loss was the first in a nine-game losing streak, during which the team fired its offensive coordinator and head coach) garnered much attention, but this is a moment Washington fans should never forget. Daniels represents hope for a football future many of them may have stopped believing was possible.
Max Holloway’s Last-Second K.O. of Justin Gaethje at UFC 300
Troy Farkas: In the months leading up to UFC 300, UFC president Dana White promised fight fans they’d see the greatest fight card ever assembled. To deliver on that promise, the UFC stacked the undercard with former champions, international superstars, and top prospects. But that must-see main event, the would-be cherry on top of a historic night for combat sports, never presented itself: UFC GOAT Jon Jones was recovering from a nasty pec injury. MMA’s biggest star, Conor McGregor, was nowhere to be found. So behind closed doors, the UFC brass came to grips with the reality that their dream main event might never materialize. To soften the blow, they needed to do something fun, something out of left field, something that would rile up the fan base.
So when they announced the notoriously bloodthirsty brawlers Justin Gaethje and Max Holloway for the BMF (bad motherf-----r) title, UFC expected an uproar of positive online chatter about the—until then—much-maligned UFC 300 (which would later announce a ho-hum main event of Alex Pereira vs. Jamahal Hill). Except, that didn’t happen.
Instead, the oft-fickle fight fans wondered why Holloway, then a featherweight, would move up to 155 pounds for a seemingly meaningless fight against a born killer like Gaethje when UFC had already penciled him in for a 145-pound title shot against Ilia Topuria. But in the fight game, everything gets settled in the Octagon. When that steel cage door locks behind two prize fighters, the voices of the naysayers fade into nothingness.
Holloway, who entered the fight as a slight underdog, systematically beat down Gaethje, a top lightweight contender, for 24 minutes and 50 seconds. The Hawaiian’s striking arsenal was on full display, as he landed 181 strikes against a man most don’t dare stand toe-to-toe with. But in the final 10 seconds, in true BMF fashion, Holloway issued a challenge that only a man as wild as Gaethje would accept: Holloway pointed to the ground, speaking in the language that only fighters like him and Gaethje can communicate in. For the uninitiated, this gesture invites the opposition to stand in the center of the cage, throw caution to the wind, and put everything they have into every punch to try and end the fight once and for all.
And with literally one second left, Max Holloway sent Justin Gaethje face-forward into the ground with an overhand from Hell.
Dana White likes to say he sells “HOLY SHIT” moments for a living. And man, did we get one of the biggest holy shit moments in sports history that night. One of those I-remember-where-I-was-when-I-saw-that moments. Forget the best sports moment of the year. That’s the best sports moment of all time.
Chelsea Green Becomes the First WWE United States Champion
Brian Waters: In 2015, the WWE universe was introduced to Chelsea Green through the reality show Tough Enough, in which contestants compete for a WWE contract. Historically, the winner of the competition rarely lasts with the company, while those who get eliminated more often find their way back and have successful careers. Green was eliminated in the seventh episode and returned to the independent circuit until she was signed in 2018. She remained there for three years before being released. Since her return to WWE in 2023, Green has made sure she makes an impact every time she is on your television screen. Whether she’s wrestling in a dumpster match or making the general managers’ lives miserable, Green has made every segment she is a part of must-see TV. Not only does her character keep you captivated, but she has also proved that she can triumph in the ring. In the Money in the Bank ladder match, Green fell short with her hand on the briefcase, getting knocked off the ladder and through the tables outside the ring. Her chance at becoming the WWE women’s champion slipped right through her fingers.
In November, WWE announced that it would crown its first United States women’s champion. Why is this a big deal? Because now there are multiple story lines on television for WWE’s women wrestlers. There’s the world title story, and now a U.S. title story. Green and her rival Michin had a personal issue that concluded in a dumpster match on SmackDown. As fate would have it, the two would wrestle again in the finals on Saturday Night’s Main Event live on NBC. This time, it was for the inaugural United States women’s championship. Green, who fell short of the Money in the Bank briefcase, would not be denied. She got her payback, defeating Michin to become the first United States women’s champion.
Caitlin Clark Breaks the Scoring Record in Signature Fashion
Seerat Sohi: In a momentous year for women’s hoops, no event will be as permanently stitched into the neurons of our collective brain as when Caitlin Clark broke the NCAA women’s all-time scoring record with a logo 3. The record was previously held by Kelsey Plum, who accumulated 3,527 points in 139 games. Clark, heading into her 126th game, trailed Plum by seven points, meaning there was already a sense of ceremony, attention, and anticipation leading up to the moment. Even so, Clark cleared expectations, breaking the record within the first 135 seconds of the game (133 if you count the moment the shot left her fingertips) and scoring a career-high 49 points. The fact that she did it with her signature logo 3, the shot that made her the best show in basketball this year, added a touch of magic dust that turns great stories into folklore.
Between the two logos at Carver-Hawkeye Arena is a new one; a “22 Clark” decal sits 35 feet from the rim, where Clark pulled up and made history. It’s fitting: a logo to commemorate a logo 3—probably the best attempt yet at bottling the magnitude and feeling of the moment.
In the end, though, nothing captures the totality of Clark’s transformational college career like the shot itself: the timing, opportunity, skill, audacity, and faith it took for her to get there. When it comes to putting Clark in context, everyone else falls short; it’s Clark herself, regardless of range and difficulty, who hits the mark.
Joe Mazzulla Contests a Royce O’Neale 3
Tyler Parker: On March 14, 2024, Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla tried to block a shot. No, it wasn’t in practice, and no, it wasn’t while playing pickup. It was in an actual NBA game. Mad Maz struck again. Phoenix had just called a timeout, and during the dead ball, before heading back to his bench, Suns forward Royce O’Neale shot a 3. Mazzulla stepped onto the court and left his feet with a hand in the air. Honestly, a good, solid contest. I have never seen a coach do it before, will never see it again. It is a singularly strange move, one only Maz is capable of.
2024 was the year Mazzulla finally let his freak flag fly—and in no moment more than this one. Asked about it afterward, he said, “I saw a guy going in to try and get a shot, and he hadn’t made one, and I didn’t want him to feel good about himself going to the bench. That’s the bench rule. Guys don’t shoot shots in front of our bench to go back to their bench to feel good about themselves. If I’m gonna ask the guys to contest, the staff’s gotta do the same.”
Here’s hoping he holds his assistants to the same standards he holds himself. Haven’t seen Sam Cassell get a hand up once this season.
Jerry Jones’s Apparent Disdain for Curtains
Danny Kelly: There’s an NFL truism that I first heard from my former Ringer colleague Kevin Clark, who pointed out the simple yet profound fact that only a handful of teams each year are actually trying to win the Super Bowl. Obviously, some of the teams that aren’t “trying” are doing so on purpose, using a given season to strategically rebuild their roster, reset the salary cap, or install new leadership. For something like 15 or 20 teams each year, general organizational fuckery in one form or another tends to get in the way of what should be the actual goal (winning). Take, for instance, the Cowboys! A team whose owner seemingly has no problem actively blinding his own players during home games:
AT&T Stadium was designed, evidently, to allow unobstructed rays of exceedingly bright sunlight to splash directly onto the field at a certain time each day—which, it turns out, is almost always right when Cowboys quarterbacks are trying to throw the ball into the end zone. This distinct impediment against winning—again, to be clear, the stadium appears to be designed to blind the team’s players—should probably bother Jerry Jones. But if there’s one thing that meddlesome owners do best, it’s meddle against their own interests. Instead of acknowledging the fault in the stadium’s design, Jones has stubbornly refused the desperate pleas of star receiver CeeDee Lamb to do the easiest and most logical thing imaginable and simply put up curtains. Which they already have. Fitted for the stadium. To use for other concerts and events. Anyway, the Cowboys are 2-6 at home this year.
The Detroit Tigers Return to the MLB Playoffs
Isaiah Blakely: I haven’t been a big baseball fan in at least a decade. That coincides perfectly with the last time the Detroit Tigers made the playoffs. Coming into the 2024 season, I had a little bit of optimism that they’d at least be competitive, but that disappeared pretty quickly. It soon felt like yet another year of a wildly long rebuild with very few promising signs.
Fast-forward through many losses and their nonexistent offense, and I, like a lot of people, started paying attention to the baseball standings. I was disappointed but not surprised to see that the Tigers were way out of it again. But I kept getting score updates and watching highlights and started to notice that, for the first time in a decade, this team was starting to win some games.
The first blip on my radar was in July, when the Tigers had back-to-back ninth-inning comebacks against the Dodgers, including one five-run rally to win. Looking back, this was when Detroit started its unprecedented run, but in the moment I was still skeptical. They were 6.5 games out of a playoff spot. But more and more games went by, and this young, fun group continued to stack up wins in unique ways. Behind Cy Young winner-to-be Tarik Skubal, a shutdown bullpen, an exciting young outfield, and timely hitting, the Tigers went from being expected sellers at the trade deadline to finishing 31-13 and making the playoffs. Sweeping the Astros in the wild-card round and taking the Guardians to five games in the ALDS was icing on the cake. Having a fun team to root for and remembering how awesome playoff baseball is was enough for me. We’ll see whether the Tigers can carry their success forward, but regardless, during what’s been a pretty rough decade for Detroit sports, the Gritty Tigs brought some hope for the future.
The NFL Playoffs Return to Detroit
Lindsay Jones: Lovable losers no more. For at least one night last January, the Detroit Lions were America’s team as they hosted their first home playoff game in 30 years. That this particular wild-card playoff game came against the Los Angeles Rams, quarterbacked by Matthew Stafford, made it all the more intense for the Detroit faithful. Stafford is still respected in Detroit for the years and years he played there and the way he led the Lions through so many lean times with both toughness and grace. But on this Sunday night, Lions fans roared their appreciation for their new quarterback, Jared Goff. The chants of his name started before the game even kicked off—and nearly a year later, they haven’t stopped.
As our former Ringer colleague Ben Solak wrote at the time: “Perhaps it wasn’t that Detroit or Goff, the Lions’ no. 16, needed any extra incentive to win—rather, they had a mutual desperation, a shared need. The Lions needed this worse than anyone else in the NFL.”
Indeed, no team has a longer, more tortured history than the Lions. They made the playoffs three times during Stafford’s tenure, losing first-round road games each time. They hadn’t hosted a postseason game since January 1994, and it had been even longer—since January 5, 1992—since Detroit had won a playoff game. They endured the misery of the 2008 0-16 season, and they watched two of the NFL’s best players ever, running back Barry Sanders and wide receiver Calvin Johnson, put together Hall of Fame careers but retire early. It would have been fair to wonder whether Lions fans really were cursed.
I’m not sure whether one game can heal decades of heartbreak, but damn if the Lions didn’t try as they won that night, 24-23. Goff was excellent, completing 81 percent of his passes and throwing for 277 yards and a touchdown, while the Detroit defense did just enough to survive a stellar performance from Stafford and star receiver Puka Nacua. But the details and the box score aren’t really all that important all these months later. It’s the chants that resonate, the deafening noise, the happy tears from Lions fans who waited decades to experience playoff joy. And perhaps best of all, it wasn’t fleeting. Detroit won another home playoff game a week later, and the Lions—and their fans—now expect to host postseason football for years to come.
The Feats of Fashion at the Paris Olympics
Anna Done: When it was announced that the Olympics would be coming to the fashion capital of the world, I knew that we were in for some incredible threads. Turns out “incredible” was an understatement. The moment that Mongolia’s opening and closing ceremony outfits were revealed, I was ready to call the whole thing a wrap. Gold medals to Mongolia; we’re done here. Yes, I know the Games hadn’t even started yet, and yes, I know a sick outfit isn’t enough to earn a medal, but surely we can make an exception. Alas, I’m glad the Games continued, and the incredible drip along with them. The opening ceremony featured some stunning outfits from Haiti, the Philippines, and others. We saw the South Sudan men’s basketball team don some immaculate-as-hell suits. We also saw Team France make some last-minute substitutions and pull in a flight attendant crew to repla—What’s that? Those were the actual athletes in the actual uniforms France decided on and not the JetBlue employees who reprimanded me for needing to pee while the seatbelt sign was on? Oh.
Fortunately for all of us, the fashion didn’t stop at the opening ceremony. Besties Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart pulled out their matching outfits for the equestrian team dressage event. Qin Haiyang, a member of China’s swimming team, gave us the answer to the question: What would happen if Neo decided the woman in the red dress made a good case for a bright spring color palette? We also got some unexpected competitors in the sock game. Colombian weight lifter Mari Leivis Sánchez sported some Monkey D. Luffy socks on her way to the silver medal in the women’s 71-kilogram weight-lifting event. Did she channel Luffy’s super strength to achieve her absurd 145-kilogram clean and jerk? Impossible to say. Meanwhile, Tarsis Orogot of Team Uganda rocked both SpongeBob Squarepants and Minion socks. (Normally, I’d say that any adult wearing Minion apparel should be sent right to jail, but Orogot gets a pass for committing to the bit; they even have little dangly arms and goggles!)
And finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the artwork that was weight lifter Emily Campbell’s hair. The weight lifters don’t get the snazziest outfits, but that didn’t stop Campbell from strutting out in this absolute—if I may borrow a word from another beloved Great Britain creation—showstopper. Campbell said that the style took three hours! And she had it done the previous day, so she had to sleep in it!! And then she got up and won a bronze medal (and then did a cartwheel, which I know doesn’t really compare to the lifting thing, but as someone who can’t do a cartwheel, I was still impressed)!!! If I wear even those squishy heatless curling rods to bed, my sleep is so disrupted that I barely want to lift my head off my pillow the next morning, let alone 288 kilograms. If that’s not proof that Olympians are on another level, I don’t know what is.
Jack Gohlke Takes a Flamethrower to Kentucky’s John Calipari Era
J. Kyle Mann: For starters, I think there’s one pressing question that needs to be answered: Why do I insist on doing this to myself? Why do I compulsively revisit fandom trauma? I’ve rewatched Kentucky’s 2015 NCAA Final Four loss to Wisconsin—easily the worst sports moment of my entire life—dozens of times, and not for work! I wasn’t even covering basketball in 2015! I went out of my way to write my 2022 year-end blurb about the Wildcats’ baffling first-round loss to Saint Peter’s. Maybe by writing it down, I create an illusory feeling of control over it? By facing it, I rob it of its power? The reality is that I’m never cured. Maybe I feel some minuscule amount better, but the stitches never sew tight enough for the wound to heal.
“Should we have been surprised?” is another pressing and useful question to ask, in these types of games. Seeing as West Virginia used a 1-3-1 zone to knock out John Calipari’s inaugural freshman-heavy rock star team in 2010, should we have been surprised that Oakland flummoxed another Calipari team at yet another critical moment? Should we have been surprised that Jack Gohlke, who to that point in his five seasons of college basketball had essentially taken only audacious 3s, got up 20 of them in 36 minutes of game action and made 10? Himmy Neutron has never had a taste for life inside the arc. The wilder the shot, the better—he ain’t driving any closeouts. You guys realize that 3 is a bigger number than 2, right? There are diehards in the r/Cryptozoology subreddit who hear about the potential existence of video footage of Gohlke 2-point attempts and go, “Come on, man, you sound insane.”
I highly doubt that Greg Kampe was in any way surprised. He knew what he had. When it came to the flow of this game, the Oakland coach used Gohlke’s audacity with a symphonic beauty. The tension of one motif preparing the way for another. Lottery status did nothing to help those Wildcat guards navigate pindowns, the flex and elevator screens, the flares. It didn’t help them stay down. Kentucky never seemed patient or poised. By the time Happy Jack banked in a deep right-side 3, a palpable feeling of terror was in the building, and the Grizzlies knew it.
That terror kept Wildcat eyes fixated on the 3-point line, which left Trey Townsend—the Horizon League Player of the Year and a legit post presence all season long—in single coverage. Oakland’s bigs were literally playing two-on-two like they were in a fucking driveway, and [AHEM] it was going well. Now the stench of death was in the air.
On One Shining Podcast, Tate Frazier and I love to try to pinpoint the moment when a team’s fate is sealed. Whether it be a big shot by an opponent, a missed opportunity, a time when it seems like there’s no coming back, we like to time-stamp it by saying, “Unfortunately, that’s game.” But this contest had a pretty remarkable micro, macro thing going. Not only had Oakland shoved Kentucky out of the NCAA tournament, but Gohlke, Townsend, and Kampe’s feisty squad (the Horizon League champs) had also effectively put an ugly bit of punctuation at the end of a tome of (mostly) success that was Cal’s tenure there. By April, the board had shuffled and Calipari was gone—calling the Hogs in Fayetteville. Unfortunately, that’s era.
Michael Penix Jr. Dismantles Texas in the Sugar Bowl
Bryan Curtis: Want to see what it’s like to watch a great quarterback torture a secondary? I’ve got a four-minute video for you.
Washington’s Michael Penix Jr. was playing Texas in the Sugar Bowl. At least, this was the conceit. From my seat in the Superdome press box, high above the field, it seemed like Texas’s secondary wasn’t there. Penix had mentally vanished them from the game, made them irrelevant in the way that a quarterback playing out of his mind can do. It was like his pro day except in the first round of the playoff.
Three minutes in, Penix hit Ja’Lynn Polk for 77 yards. I invite you to watch not just the throw, which hits Polk in stride about 45 yards down the field, but also the way the DBs scramble as if they’d run out of the tunnel while the ball was in the air. That’s how you know you’re having a night. Even when Texas defenders got near the ball, it bounced into Penix’s receivers’ hands. Penix went 29-for-38 for 430 yards. Anyone who was there—including us Longhorns fans—will tell you that those numbers grossly understate what he did. Someday, maybe very soon, the NFC South will know this kind of pain.
Cody Rhodes (Finally) Finishes His Story
Khal: Growing up as a pro wrestling fan was how I got addicted to long-term storytelling. Back then, WWE programs, especially those at the top of the card, could last a year. The Mega Powers story line between the “Macho Man” Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan ran from 1987 until, roughly, February 1990. As the promotion grew (and attention spans shortened), you started to see faster title changes and story lines that would run for a few months as opposed to a few years. But during the pandemic, there was a creative shift. Roman Reigns and his Bloodline story line, in particular, ran for the better part of four years, detailing Reigns’s domination of WWE while also building on the legacy of his Anoa’i family in the industry. It was a historic reign (no pun intended), so powerful that the person who ended up knocking Roman off the mountain would become the new face of WWE.
That face appeared to be Cody Rhodes, who returned to WWE in 2022 after an six-year absence with one thing on his mind: winning the WWE championship, the one title his father, Dusty Rhodes, was never able to obtain. A pectoral muscle tear derailed his plans in 2022, and he came up short in his WrestleMania 39 main event against Reigns for said WWE championship. After spending the rest of 2023 grinding against a litany of opponents, Rhodes won on Royal Rumble for a second consecutive year in 2024, again setting his sights on Reigns in an effort to “finish the story,” a phrase that had gained steam ever since Cody uttered it during an April 2022 promo on Raw. Something had changed, though: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson had returned to WWE in both executive and performing capacities, and he had plans of his own. Instead of Rhodes finishing his story at WrestleMania XL in Philadelphia, the Rock would be taking on Reigns for the title. From there, it was off to the races. A very loud portion of the WWE fan base wanted to see Rhodes finish his story (Rock referred to these people as “Cody crybabies”), while others wanted to see two pillars of the Anoa’i family face off at the historic 40th edition of WrestleMania. What fans ended up getting was even better.
Because of the two-night nature of WrestleMania these days, you’re guaranteed two main events before the weekend is over. At WrestleMania XL, the Saturday night main event—which ended up being a massive tag match of the Rock and Reigns versus Rhodes and Seth Rollins—had implications for the Sunday night main event, which featured Cody facing Roman again for the WWE championship. If Rhodes’s team lost on Saturday night, Sunday night would be “Bloodline Rules,” which basically means that anything goes (and there was more potential for Reigns to win). Spoiler alert: Rhodes’s team lost, but on Sunday night, with a little help from his friends—which happened to include John Cena, the Undertaker, and Rollins—Cody was finally able to defeat Reigns and finish his story a little over two years after the start of his journey.
This was a huge ordeal—so massive that WWE released a behind-the-scenes documentary about how they pulled it off—and showed what happens when WWE operates at its highest level. I truly thought that Philly would riot if Reigns defeated Cody in another ’Mania main event, and that was because of the fan base’s investment in a story line that was allowed to breathe and take shape, as well as pivot when new opportunities arose. The finish to Rhodes’s story made things more difficult for WWE’s future epic tales, but that’s what I like to call a good problem.
The Shot [of Mike Tyson’s Ass] Heard [and Seen] Round the World
Ben Cruz: On June 5, 2009, Mike Tyson came roaring back into our lives—fairly literally. When he played himself/a tiger-theft victim in Todd Phillips’s The Hangover, we saw a different side of a man who up until that point was most famous for his blistering knockouts, an iconic Nintendo game, biting Evander Holyfield’s ear, and his abuse of women. One of The Hangover’s most iconic scenes culminates with Tyson knocking out the lovingly moronic Alan (played wonderfully by Zach Galifianakis) to the tune of Phil Collins’s “In the Air Tonight,” leaving Alan’s friends to simply declare, “He’s still got it!”
And got it, he still does. Fast-forward to the 2020s, when the Baddest Man on the Planet entered his exhibition fight era, and you get the bizarre, record-breaking bout between Iron Mike and Jake Paul, a former YouTuber turned guy who boxes guys that don’t really box.
Fortunately, the fight itself was the third-most memorable part of the whole Tyson-Paul experience, behind (a) the incessant freezing and buffering issues that plagued millions of Netflix viewers and (b) well, Mike Tyson’s 58-year-old ass. Like, his actual ass:
Earlier that day, a few friends and I had power ranked what we thought we might see on this circus of an evening and netted out with the following:
- Tyson KO
- Paul KO
- Paul decision victory
- Tyson decision victory
- Logan Paul interferes and knocks Tyson out with a pair of brass knuckles when the ref isn’t looking to help his brother win
Somehow, “Tyson cheeks” was omitted from all our lists. And yet there they were. Much to the chagrin of my work-issued laptop, I’ve watched the clip of Tyson’s butt being exposed to millions of Netflix subscribers at least 50 times, and I’m left with more and more questions each time:
What is he wearing, exactly? Why did no one in that locker room (including his son, the interviewer) make any effort to cover up his keister? Was Tyson’s initial game plan to expose his ass in the ring to distract Paul, only to be talked out of it at the 11th hour? Why the hell did I watch this clip AGAIN? Why did it take a full two seconds for the Netflix cameraperson to realize that his tush was in full frame? Over/under 50 million Netflix subscribers whose streams froze right at the moment Mike’s derriere popped up on-screen?
There’s really no 100 percent clean way to end this remembrance of being accidentally (or maybe purposely?) mooned by one of the greatest boxers to ever live, so in an effort to conclude this with some shred of dignity, I leave you with the lyrics to the chorus of Big Sean’s multiplatinum single “Dance (A$$),” which absolutely foreshadowed this event:
Ass, ass, ass, ass, ass
Ass, ass, ass, ass, ass
Ass, ass, ass, ass, ass, ass, ass, ass, ass
Stop
Now make that motherfucker hammer time like
Go stupid, go stupid, go stupid.
Darren Rizzi Clogs the Toilet
Sheil Kapadia: My first instinct was to get sentimental and identify a moment that had to do with my kids' burgeoning sports fandom. But then I remembered the Clogger, and, well, there was no turning back.
Darren Rizzi took over as the interim coach of the New Orleans Saints in early November after the organization fired Dennis Allen. His first game was a 20-17 victory over the Atlanta Falcons. During his postgame press conference, Rizzi explained that he clogged the toilet in the morning and thought he was going to have a “crappy” debut. It was just one line, but suddenly, we were all introduced to a fun new character in our lives. Rizzi will probably never be a head coach after this season. But 20 years from now, if someone brings up his name, I will 100 percent remember that he clogged the toilet. That’s the power of sports right there.
Watching the Euros From Spain as Spain Beat Germany
Erika Cervantes: My favorite sports moment of the year took place when I was in a small bar in the heart of Madrid, surrounded by locals ordering their favorite cervezas and watching the quarterfinals of the 2024 Euros: Spain vs. Germany.
The intensity was palpable. This match was in Germany, and the youngest player to ever play in the Euros, Lamine Yamal, was on the field for Spain. Streams of “vale” and “vamos” could be heard from kickoff until the final whistle.
Spain got off to a lead early in the second half, but the game was far from over. In the final minute, Germany stunned the Spanish crowd with an equalizing goal to send the game to extra time. After 29 of 30 additional minutes had passed, we were sure that the match was headed to penalties.
Until! Mikel Merino scored a last-breath goal and sent the bar into a frenzy of hugs and shouts. “GOAL” and “VAMOS!” Spain beats Germany: 2-1.
Spain’s Nico Williams–Lamine Yamal Connection
Wosny Lambre: Spain came into the 2024 Euros with very low expectations. They entered the tournament with a very young squad that had accomplished pretty much nothing in prior international competition. Two matches into the Euros, however, it became quite clear that, along with the home German side, Spain was the most well-balanced club in the tournament.
The midfield dazzled with imaginative linkup play, spearheaded by Dani Olmo and the dazzling Pedri. But, for me, what immediately made La Roja pop off the screen was the combined brilliance of wingers Nico Williams and Lamine Yamal—Williams because of the relentless pace at which he took on every opposing defender and Yamal because of his grace and poise on the ball, which belied his ripe age of 17 years and a day by the time Spain faced England in the final.
Watching Williams and Yamal dominate their foes was thrilling in and of itself, but there was another element working here that took my reaction to their performance from awestruck to sentimental. The novelty of two Black kids kicking ass for Spain was not lost on me, but it was more than that. It wasn’t hard to notice that these two shared a clear mutual admiration for each other. All kinds of synchronized handshakes and dances whenever either one scored a goal. A youthful, unbridled joy displayed every match. It was enough to reaffirm my belief that sports can be so fucking awesome sometimes.
Josh Allen Records a Single-Game Touchdown Triple Crown
Andrew Gruttadaro: In a tie game in the fourth quarter of the Buffalo Bills’ Week 6 matchup against the New York Jets, running back Ray Davis was tripped up on a 3-yard run inside the 10-yard line. Running alongside him, in a dead sprint, was his quarterback, Josh Allen. It wasn’t just a golden retriever chasing a ball—Josh had visions of a lateral and a waltz into the end zone, the sort of fantastic, through-him-all-things-are-possible thinking that has defined his brand of football ever since he entered the league.
Seven weeks later, with the snow piling up on the field in Orchard Park and the Bills already hammering the San Francisco 49ers, Allen zipped a pass into the reassuring arms of Amari Cooper, who proceeded to be held short of the goal line by three Niners. Once again, the retriever ran toward the ball—only this time his teammate saw him. You’ve seen what happened next: Allen took Cooper’s pitch, scooted sideways, broke a tackle, and then launched himself into a full-on Superman pose toward the pylon.
The NFL doesn’t really know how to score a play like this, and why should they? It doesn’t really ever happen. And so, when we look back at the box score of this game 20 years from now, it’ll say that Allen threw a touchdown pass and caught a touchdown pass on the same play. (He also had a rushing TD in this game, becoming the first quarterback ever to record passing, rushing, and receiving touchdowns in the same game.)
Allen has always believed in himself to a deranged degree. That has always been his charm and, in certain moments, his downfall. But 2024 was the year when he convinced everyone else to believe in him as much as he does himself. Even the ones who voted him the most overrated player in the league before the season. Even the wide receiver who forced his way off Allen’s team. A week after the Cooper play—call it the Snow Shovel, or the Lake Effect Lateral—Josh threw for three TDs and ran for three more. A week after that, he threw for two and ran for two in a decimation of the Detroit Lions. The MVP almost surely awaits. Through him, all things are possible.
Victor Wembanyama Records a 5x5 on Halloween
Michael Pina: As if resplendently gliding into Salt Lake City’s Delta Center dressed as Kaonashi from Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away didn’t impress enough on its face, Victor Wembanyama making good on his otherworldly physical gifts and terrorizing the Jazz with a historic-cum-ordinary 5x5 on the same night should do the trick. The 20-year-old finished the night plus-43 (!) with 25 points, nine rebounds, seven assists, five steals, and five blocks. It was just the 23rd 5x5 in NBA history and already the second of Wemby’s career, which is already shaping up to be its own legend.
Shohei Ohtani’s Perfect Day at the Plate
Jomi Adeniran: “The greatest day in baseball history!” Joe Davis summed it up pretty well, but let’s look back at Shohei Ohtani’s landmark day, shall we?
On September 19, 2024, Ohtani, batting leadoff, stepped into the box against the Miami Marlins with 48 home runs and 49 stolen bases on the season—just two homers and one steal away from inaugurating the 50-50 club.
Bang. Leadoff double. A couple of pitches later, he stole third, his 50th theft of the season. The next inning, he singled to bring in a run and then completed another steal, extending his total on the year to 51.
THE VERY NEXT INNING, he drove in two more with another double. (He got caught at third trying to stretch it out to a triple, but that’s not what we’re worried about right now.) If you’re keeping track, that’s three-for-three, with three RBIs and two steals. That on its own would make a great day at the office for everyone else. But Shohei wasn’t even close to done.
In the sixth inning, he hit a two-run no-doubter into the second deck in right field, upping his home run total to 49. In the seventh inning, he hit another one, bringing his HR number to 50, making him the first player in MLB history to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a single season. And in the ninth inning, for good measure, he hit another one, an absolute moon shot, ending his day with 51 home runs and 51 steals on the season.
Six of six. Ten runs batted in. Three home runs. Two stolen bases. One hell of a game from one hell of a player.
“The greatest day in baseball history!” You’re goddamn right it was.
RayGun Kangaroo Hops Into Infamy
Justin Sayles: Presumably the only moment on this list to inspire a fabricated Reddit conspiracy and a theatrical musical, RayGun’s disastrous performance at the Olympics breakdancing event was, in one respect, a slap in the face to the Rock Steady Crew, the Mighty Zulu Kingz, and all the pioneers of the art form. But the Australian’s routine—which featured her jumping around like a kangaroo and spinning on the floor like Homer Simpson after he negotiated the CBA—was also the kind of meme fodder we just don’t get in these days of late-stage internet brain rot. Consider it a gift to elder millennials who just want to post cringe and be free.
But perhaps we took the jokes too far, because Rachael Gunn retired from competition earlier this year. It also looks like breakdancing may not happen again at the Olympics anytime soon. Of course, the latter was announced way before RayGun took to the floor, but it’s a disappointment for many—including RayGun herself. “It was decided before we’d even had a chance to show it so I think that was possibly a little premature,” said the extremely self-aware B-girl. “I wonder if they’re kicking themselves now.” We can assume she meant kicking themselves figuratively. After all, kicking one’s self literally is something best reserved for RayGun’s routines.
Cole Hocker Steals the Spotlight in the 1500-Meter Olympic Final
Katie Baker: Going into the Paris Olympics, one of the most dramatic rivalries in all of global sport (especially among the kind of people who refer to sports as “global sport”) was the ongoing one between two proud, testy 1500-meter runners: Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen and England’s Josh Kerr. For more than a year, the two elite athletes had been jostling for position and for attention, with one running mag describing them as “putting the ‘diss’ in ‘middle-distance.’” Even NBC chose to highlight the duo in its Olympics prerace coverage—in lieu of the network’s typical fealty to Americans. Predictably, with only a few hundred meters left to cover in the grueling event final, Ingebrigtsen and Kerr were the two runners in the lead. All was unfolding as it should.
Until, suddenly, it wasn’t. The wildest thing about the way Team USA’s Cole Hocker surged his way to a shocker gold medal between the final turn and the finish line wasn’t so much that he pulled it off, it was that he first tried and failed to pull it off, getting all boxed in on the rail by Ingebrigtsen—and then, undeterred, he had the poise and the wheels to kick things up a notch again.
Hocker’s win made him one of several American runners in Paris who successfully sneaked up on everyone after all seemed lost. (See below to read my esteemed colleague Joel Anderson, who knows whereof he speaks, on two such Team USA sprinters! There were also Grant Fisher’s two run-from-behind bronzes, both of which felt like gold.) And as for Ingebrigtsen and Kerr? Well, they may be middle-distance specialists, but their enmity seems to be in it for the long haul.
Every George Pickens Moment
Austin Gayle: I can’t pick! They’re all so good. If I had to pick the first Pickens moment, it would be when he told us all in prime time that he was open fucking always and yanked Cowboys cornerback Jourdan Lewis down by the face mask in Week 5. (Pickens’s thoughts on the eye black and Lewis’s thoughts on the shut-out after the game were also great moments!) If I had to pick the best game, I’d go Week 10 against the Commanders: Pickens made one of the best jump cuts I’ve seen all season, performed an acrobatic midair adjustment for a touchdown catch, executed a flying stiff-arm to a defender’s throat and face, and unleashed his inner zombie on a player’s head after an interception. Should I settle for this ridiculous catch against the Jets in Week 7? Or should I pick one of his infamous no-catches? He somehow landed the same foot down twice in Week 8 and practically threw himself out of bounds in Week 11. We haven’t even gotten to the WWE stunt or his scrap with Browns cornerback Greg Newsome in the snow yet! The only Pickens moments that haven’t been good this year are all the ones we’ve lost because he’s hurt this season. The NFL needs him healthy for the playoffs; the product suffers every day without him.
Juan Soto Delivers the Greatest At-Bat of All Time
Stefan Anderson: When the New York Yankees traded for Juan Soto last winter, this was the exact moment they dreamed of. In the bottom of the 10th inning, with the game knotted at two and runners on first and second, Soto was in a familiar spot. The five-time Silver Slugger, known for his patience at the plate, took pitch after pitch from Guardians reliever Hunter Gaddis. The seven-pitch at-bat felt like an eternity for most, but it was just another AB for Soto. He shook his head after every foul and gave his opposition the look of Bill Duke at the interrogation table in Menace to Society.
On the seventh pitch, Soto took a high fastball to deep right, flipped his bat, and turned to his Yankees teammates, roaring and beating his chest in glory as the Yankees won the AL pennant for the first time in 15 years.
The euphoria of Soto’s HR should be a time-stamp memory for Yankees fans, to be shown on the YES Network during rain delays from here on out. But it will be bittersweet. Now, it is like a memory of your favorite ex, one who ended up leaving you for your younger brother. (Sorry, Mets fans, I had to.)
Juan Soto Picks the Mets
Isaac Levy-Rubinett: Did the Yankees have a good 2024? On the one hand, they won the AL pennant for the first time in 15 years, and Aaron Judge ran away with the MVP after one of the greatest offensive seasons ever. On the other hand, they squandered it with one of the most embarrassing innings in MLB history, were outclassed by the Dodgers in the World Series, and then watched their second-best player depart for their crosstown rival after signing the largest contract in professional sports history.
You know who had a good 2024? The New York Metropolitans. After a slow start, New York’s other baseball team caught lightning in a bottle and carried it all the way to a wild-card berth and a surprise National League Championship Series appearance. Their magical run featured iconic moments such as Pete Alonso’s game-winning home run off Devin Williams and Francisco Lindor’s epic grand slam against the Phillies, both of which are included in this list. To cap it all off, they nabbed Juan Soto in free agency—and the only thing better than outbidding a rival is being chosen over one.
I have no horse in the race for New York baseball supremacy. I’m a Cardinals fan who lives in Texas. But damn if I haven’t enjoyed rubbernecking at this rivalry—both the dual ascendances throughout most of 2024, and then the total tipping of the scales in its final few months. I have no doubt I’ll also relish wherever it takes baseball in 2025 and beyond.
UConn Repeats as Men’s Basketball Champions
Conor Nevins: Before UConn men’s basketball won its first two national championships, it telegraphed its title credentials a year in advance. The Huskies’ 1999 championship—led by Richard Hamilton and Khalid El-Amin—was foretold the season prior, when the team, also led by Hamilton and El-Amin, won 32 games and lost to a superior North Carolina team in the Elite Eight. In 2003, UConn reached the Sweet 16 but lost to top-seeded Texas; Emeka Okafor and Ben Gordon returned the following year to lead the team to the 2004 title before becoming the nos. 2 and 3 picks in that year’s NBA draft. Then came the surprise attack: two championships, in 2011 and 2014, courtesy of spectacular individual tournament performances from Kemba Walker and Shabazz Napier, respectively.
The Huskies’ back-to-back titles these past two seasons represent something different in the program’s increasingly decorated history. It seemed implausible that a men’s college basketball team would match Florida’s achievement of consecutive titles in ’06 and ’07. That the Huskies did it is one thing; their utter dominance in doing so is what makes the achievement even more remarkable. Dan Hurley’s team has won each of its past 12 NCAA tournament games by an average of 21.7 points per game. Not long ago, UConn athletics seemed destined to be a casualty of NCAA conference realignment, its basketball program in danger of becoming a hapless nomad attached to a floundering football program. Instead, a return to the Big East and the hire of Hurley have propelled Huskies basketball back to prominence, and only Hurley’s flirtation with the NBA would seem to have any chance of slowing it down.
My First Win as My Daughter’s Soccer Coach
Keith Fujimoto: Teaching 6-year-olds (and some 5-year-olds) the ins and outs of soccer wasn’t something I penned on my 2024 bucket list, but when your kid asks you to do something—even if it makes your insides quiver—you do that shit. Disclaimer: I know absolutely nothing about the sport a vast majority call fútbol, however thanks to YouTube I quickly found an array of drills and activities to help me NOT look like a dummy when I was leading practice.
OK, now that you have some context, I will now wax poetic on the helluva drug that is the first sip of victory as a coach (albeit as an assistant). It was a breezy morning on Field DN, but the Purple Rain (my daughter’s team) were moving different during warmups. Soon enough, we had a breakaway from our quickest and youngest player and, lord help me, I shouted “GOALLLLLLLL” so loud my voice hit Mariah Carey–breaking-glass levels.
That goal was followed by two more, and the Green Turtles were shell-shocked for the rest of the game. Once the final three whistles hit, the tally was 3-1. I felt propelled to give each one of our girls a “you’re the real MVP” KD speech individually, but our head coach stopped me, and advised that I shouldn't make it seem like this would be our only win of the season, and to save my tears for the end-of-year pizza party.
We did notch one more victory after that game, but the sweet taste of that first W will be a moment that lives in my head rent-free for eternity.
Fernando Tatis Jr. Vs. Dodgers Fans
Jack Wilson: The 2024 NLDS reminded us that Dodgers-Padres is currently the best rivalry in baseball. It also showed us that Fernando Tatis Jr. has the potential to be one of the best villains in sports. Just ask a Dodgers fan. Game 2 of the series started with a Tatis homer in the first inning and didn't get much better for the Dodgers from there. Jurickson Profar pulled off an all-time "SIKE!" moment while robbing Mookie Betts of a home run. Noted chap-ass Jack Flaherty threw at noted antagonist Manny Machado, and in return Machado threw a ball at the Dodgers dugout with enough velocity to piss off Dave Roberts, which seems difficult to do. After that, the baseball guys did baseball-guy things, like standing at the top step of the dugout and shouting about how not-scared they are of the other team. Boring. The real show was in right field. Through a clever combination of tongue-wagging and pelvic gyrations, Tatis had Dodgers fans in an absolute frenzy. Feeling defenseless against his Magic Mike–esque thrusting, the fans resorted to sacrificing $32 Modelo tall boys, hurling them in the direction of the Padres superstar. That was not a great moment for Dodgers fans, and it seemed like an even worse moment for the Dodgers’ World Series hopes at the time.
After their eventual World Series win, the Dodgers recorded a slightly inebriated podcast at Betts's home, on the night of the championship parade. It was a tell-all on par with a Housewives reunion special. The big news from that podcast was the fellas telling the world that they actually expected the Yankees to blow it. But their honest talk about the NLDS versus the Padres—which Roberts later called this year’s de facto World Series—was more sincere than anything else Mookie's home bar elicited that night. Max Muncy said he was so nervous that he couldn't eat. As fans, this is why we endure a 162-game baseball season. We live for the excruciating anxiety of a playoff series against a division rival and being on the brink of elimination, only to watch Fernando Tatis Jr. go 1 for his last 10, and to see the Padres get shut out over the final 24 innings of their season. Go Blue.
The King of Kicking Ass Kicks Lots of Ass
Amaar Burton: Who is the best and baddest heavyweight fighter on the planet? You might say UFC titleholder Jon Jones. Or boxing’s (mostly) undisputed champion, Oleksandr Usyk. Maybe MMA-and-boxing dual threat Francis Ngannou gets your vote, or you may be the type to acknowledge WWE kingpin Roman Reigns. But you’re wrong.
The correct answer is Rico Verhoeven—the 6-foot-5, 270-pound Dutch destroyer who’s had a stranglehold on the GLORY Kickboxing World Heavyweight Championship for the past decade. Verhoeven has been so dominant that it borders on boring; the 35-year-old is the Max Verstappen of fighting, so far ahead of the field that it seems the only solution to stop him is to hope he makes a mistake. (For a combat sports comparison, imagine Wladimir Klitschko’s technical mastery laced with Alex Pereira’s sudden power.) Verhoeven has successfully defended his title 12 times and hasn’t lost in a GLORY ring since 2012.
On March 9 of this year, Rico did something your favorite heavyweight can’t do: He won three fights on the same night against real-deal competition. In the quarterfinals and semis of an eight-man GLORY Heavyweight Grand Prix tournament, Verhoeven beat top-10 contenders Sofian Laidouni and Nabil Khachab; then, in the final, Rico wrecked rising star Levi Rigters. A Hail Mary spinning backfist almost earned Rigters a stunning upset, but Rico pulled himself off the mat and brutally beat Levi into a stoppage two and a half minutes later.
On December 7, Rico and Rigters met again, this time with the title on the line. Billed as “The King vs. The Prince,” with full Game of Thrones–style marketing, the rematch saw Rigters again knock down the champ, and again, Verhoeven got up and proceeded to pummel the challenger on his way to a unanimous decision. The win capped a calendar year in which King Rico went 4-0 and remained firmly in his seat as the fight game’s final boss.
The Bizarre Saga of the Ryan Garcia–Devin Haney Fight
Raheem Palmer: From the moment it was announced that Devin Haney would defend his WBC super lightweight title against Ryan Garcia on April 20, 2024, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, there was absolute chaos—including a physical confrontation and shoving match between the two camps, which nearly turned into an all-out brawl on radio row at the Super Bowl. If that wasn’t chaotic enough, in the weeks leading up to the fight, Garcia’s mental health seemingly deteriorated to the point that boxing fans and analysts were calling for the fight to be canceled for fear of an Oliver McCall–esque breakdown in the ring.
While Haney was focused on doing all the right things in training camp, Garcia exhibited erratic behavior during prefight press conferences and on social media. He seemed worried about everything but training for the fight—publicly consuming drugs and alcohol, complaining about the fight not taking place in Vegas, and claiming that the elites tied him up, that he watched them hurt kids, and that he knew who killed 2Pac. At one point, his ex-wife took to social media begging fans to pray for him because he was being “heavily oppressed.” What that meant was unclear, but Garcia appeared to be in no shape physically or mentally to enter a boxing ring. That was reflected in the betting market, where Haney went from -550 (+370 Garcia) at open to -850 (+650 Garcia) at close, with +8000 props for Haney to win by disqualification being bet so much that many sportsbooks removed the option altogether.
Just when you thought the promotion couldn’t get any more bizarre, during the week of the fight, things got even more absurd. Garcia and Haney were scheduled to throw ceremonial first pitches before the New York Mets hosted the Pittsburgh Pirates at Citi Field, but team officials canceled to avoid a potential incident after a scuffle took place between Garcia and Haney at the top of the Empire State Building.
This was followed by Garcia missing the 140-pound weight limit by 3 pounds at the prefight weigh-in and exhibiting a stunning lack of professionalism by chugging a beer afterward. The entire promotion was a complete shit show, and as much as I wanted it to end, I couldn’t turn away. Both sides reworked the contract, with Garcia agreeing to pay $500,000 per extra pound ($1.5 million) to Haney in order to move forward with the fight, and while it felt downright irresponsible for Oscar De La Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions to allow Garcia to move on with this fight given his mental state, the show went on, and it seemed like a foregone conclusion that Haney would win … until it wasn’t.
Thirty seconds into the fight, Garcia stunned Haney with a left hook, a punch that would ultimately win him the fight as Haney struggled to avoid Garcia’s best move all night. Haney never recovered, touching the canvas three times, in the seventh, 10th, and 11th rounds, and Garcia came away with the victory by majority decision (114-110, 115-109, 112-112). It appeared a new American boxing star was born … until we learned that Garcia tested positive for the performance-enhancing substance Ostarine the day before and the day of the fight. The result was declared a no contest—a fitting end to one of the strangest boxing promotions of all time.
A’ja Wilson Builds Her Case as the Best Player Alive
Mirin Fader: “MVP! MVP! MVP!” The crowd chanted for A’ja Wilson after one of the most monstrous games in WNBA history. And it wasn’t even on her home floor. It was her opponent’s—the Mercury’s—home crowd, that gave her a standing ovation.
That’s respect. That’s how undeniable Wilson was in that game—and all season long.
This year Wilson proved, beyond a doubt, that she is the best player in the world. And when she led her team to a 97-79 victory in Phoenix that night of the ovation in early September, her status as the league’s MVP only began to glow brighter. It wasn’t just that she dropped 41 points and 17 rebounds; it’s how she dominated.
Up-and-unders. Silky fadeaways. Toying with her defender up top, only to take it strong to the hoop. She simply couldn’t be guarded, finishing 16 of 23 from the field. Wilson has always been top of the top, but this year? She’s taken it to a completely different level. She’s showing new tricks in her bag, and, even more thrilling, we haven’t even seen all of them yet.
Joining Candace Parker as the only WNBA players with a 40-point, 15-rebound performance, Wilson also added two assists, two steals, and a block. By the end of this game, she had passed Tina Charles for most 30-point, 10-rebound games in a single season in WNBA history with seven. But it's not even the numbers that make her the best in the game. It’s the passion, the competitiveness, the sheer grit that she won’t be outplayed, won’t be outhustled.
The Timberwolves Topple the Nuggets in Game 7
Megan Schuster: Generally, when your team gets down 20 points in the second half of a Game 7, it’s over. Turn off the TV, tweet out the Vince Carter meme, start posting on Reddit about the changes the team needs to make in the offseason. Those actions are especially valid when your rooting interest is the Minnesota Timberwolves, a franchise that has as checkered and unlucky of a past as any in NBA history. So if early in the second half of the final game of the Wolves-Nuggets series, you assumed that the plucky, defensive juggernaut had been all but left for dead by the defending champs, I don’t blame you. In fact, I felt that way myself.
Fortunately, none of the Wolves players shared that sentiment.
The comeback started via an unassuming Rudy Gobert dunk, with the Wolves down 58-38 and just under 10 minutes remaining in the third quarter. That was followed up by a Jaden McDaniels 3; then a coast-to-coast lay-in from Anthony Edwards; then another McDaniels 3. By the middle of the third, the deficit was under 10 points. By the end of the quarter, it was down to one. And by early in the fourth, Minnesota was on top. That final quarter was a thing of beauty—with the Wolves and Nuggets trading barbs and big shots and tight defensive possessions until, with just over three minutes to go, Mike Conley stole the ball at half court; he sent it to Naz Reid, who in turn sent it over to Ant; and the then-22-year-old hit perhaps the biggest 3 of his career to put the Wolves up 10.
It was rare; I wasn’t there (I like to pretend I was); the Wolves went on to win 98-90 and complete the biggest second-half Game 7 comeback in the play-by-play era (since 1998). What a way to put some franchise demons to rest.
Luka Doncic’s Merciless Game-Winner Over Rudy Gobert
David Lara: Listen, I’m a diehard Mavs fan who grew up in Dallas. I wasn’t going to pass on a chance to write about Luka Doncic’s stepback winner over Rudy Gobert in Game 2 of the 2024 West finals. It was the highlight of the playoffs for me. Not P.J. Washington’s free throws to seal our series win over the Thunder, not finally beating the Clippers in the first round—this shot was the best moment of the playoffs. We knew what the Mavs were gonna run in crunch time: an iso look for our Slovenian king. Luka gets the ball, hunts the switch to get Rudy on him, then proceeds to put Gobert on skates before knocking down the game-winner. The best part? Luka yelling, “YOU CAN’T F--KING GUARD ME!”
Quincy Hall Completes an Improbable Journey to 400-Meter Gold
Joel Anderson: NBC’s broadcast team didn’t mention Quincy Hall’s name until more than 27 seconds into the Olympics’ 400-meter race, when he was in fourth place and seemingly moving backward with about 100 meters to go. “Watch Hall! He’s fading badly,” said analyst Sanya Richards-Ross. Hall’s face was twisted in the grimace of an athlete who had already tapped out their reserves.
But as the race came down the homestretch, something incredible happened: Hall seemed to propel himself down the track, running right through the acidosis. The lights atop Stade de France glistened off Hall’s golden grill, visible largely because his face was frozen in agony. He then gradually picked off the three runners ahead of him: First, Kirani James. Then, Muzala Samukonga on his outside shoulder in Lane 9. And finally, Matthew Hudson-Smith in the final three strides before the finish line. “I've been saying all year, ‘If you're going to win, you've got to take it from me,’” Hudson-Smith said after the race. “And that's exactly what he did.”
It was the dramatic culmination of a journey two years in the making, when Hall switched from the 400-meter hurdles—an event in which he was an NCAA champion in 2019—to avoid the world record–breaking duo of Rai Benjamin and Karsten Warholm. “That decision changed my life,” Hall said after the race.
Of course, two seasons isn’t much time at the elite levels of the sport. Hudson-Smith had been competing professionally in the 400 for 10 years. James won Olympic gold in the 400 in 2012, when Hall was a high school sophomore. Even Samukonga, only 22, had already been running the 400 for three seasons. Hall certainly wasn’t a sure bet to medal in the Paris Games, and wasn’t even the most famous Quincy on Team USA: That designation would go to 16-year-old wunderkind Quincy Wilson, the youngest male track Olympian in Team USA history. Hall was an afterthought, a solid 26-year-old maybe caught between generational runners in one event and accomplished veterans in the other.
Hall, as it were, seems to have a knack for knowing when to make a move.