Curses be gone: The top sports moments of 2016
It will go down as the year of broken curses, when two long-suffering fan bases finally saw championship heartbreak turned to sweet delirium. But long-awaited titles for the Chicago Cubs in baseball and the Cleveland Cavaliers in basketball were far from the only highlights in 2016. Here are our five most memorable moments from the year that was:
Go away, goat
The Chicago Cubs’ identity as lovable losers changed undeniably early in the morning of Nov. 3, when Kris Bryant threw out Cleveland’s Michael Martinez to close out an 8-7, 10-inning win in Game 7 of one of the most compelling World Series of the past 25 years. Gone by the wayside are curses involving billy goats and guys wearing headphones trying to catch foul balls. The team’s victory celebration in Chicago’s Grant Park a few days later drew an estimated five million people, which according to a local TV station made it the seventh largest gathering in human history.
Top ‘Cats
April’s NCAA Tournament final between Villanova and North Carolina gave us everything we could want in a championship game: closely contested action; a stirring comeback as the Tar Heels rallied from a 10-point deficit with less than six minutes to play; and an unbelievable, double-clutch 3-pointer from North Carolina guard Marcus Paige to tie it, setting the stage for junior Kris Jenkins to ice Villanova’s first national title since 1985.
Game of inches
It was the most compelling game of the college football season. Arguably the best rivalry in the sport added another remarkable chapter — complete with controversial calls and questionable coaching decisions — in what amounted to a playoff game for a spot in the annual College Football Playoff. OSU coach Urban Meyer eschewed a tying field goal on fourth-and-1 in the second overtime, and quarterback J.T. Barrett got the yard he needed — barely — to move the chains and set the stage for running back Curtis Samuel to win it on the next play.
Cleveland rocks
The city of Cleveland had its own decades-long championship drought entering 2016, but the Cavaliers, led by LeBron James, who grew up 40 miles away in Akron, rallied from a 3-1 deficit in the NBA Finals against Golden State, which had won a league-record 73 games in the regular season.
Kobe’s farewell
It was a goodbye unlike any we’ve ever seen. In the final game of his Hall of Fame career, Lakers star Kobe Bryant scored 60 points while putting up 50 shots — from baseline drives to twisting turnarounds to savage dunks — and playing 42 minutes of his team’s otherwise forgettable 101-96 win over the Utah Jazz in the regular season finale. Bryant’s dazzling display included 15 points in the final three minutes and the game-winner — a 20-foot pull-up jumper with 31 seconds to go. A storybook ending to one of the greatest careers in NBA history.