This is one of the most wondrous times of the year for people like myself, as the holiday season is jampacked with pivotal matchups, rivalry games, and myriad playoff-clinching scenarios across the sports world.
Adding to the delight of this joyous period is the comfort we feel now that we’ve had ample time to process all the madness that ensued in the sports world throughout the year.
While most fans have already turned their attention to MLB free agency, the NFL playoff picture, and the NBA All-Star break, I want to look back on some of the biggest sports stories of 2024 to review the ripple effects of these developments as we approach the new year…
Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese redefined women’s basketball
Last year’s Women’s NCAA Tournament attracted a ton of eyeballs to women’s basketball due to the feud between LSU Tigers star Angel Reese and Iowa Hawkeyes star Caitlin Clark.
Reese, who grew up in Randallstown, Maryland, set off a firestorm with her “you can’t see me” taunt of Clark at the end of LSU’s 102-85 victory in the NCAA national championship. While the discourse that resulted from that saga was nauseating, it gave many basketball fans a new rivalry to follow.
Clark was drafted to her hometown Indiana Fever as the first overall pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft while Reese was drafted seventh overall by the Chicago Sky. Their June 18 matchup drew more than 3 million viewers, marking the WNBA’s most-watched game in 23 years.
Clark and Reese brought women’s basketball to the mainstream during their rookie seasons. Clark won the WNBA Kia Rookie of the Year while Reese was named a WNBA All-Star. They were the first rookies to earn All-Star nods since 2014.
They’ll undoubtedly always pull massive viewership, as fans will consistently tune in to see whether any bad blood remains from their spat in college.
If the WNBA builds upon this foundational pair of stars, hopefully players like University of Southern Carolina Trojans guard JuJu Watkins and University of Connecticut Huskies guard Paige Bueckers will become household names without having to start any beef.
Bill Belichick and Nick Saban ended historic tenures
Football season isn’t quite the same with the New England Patriots and Alabama Crimson Tide playing with coaches other than Bill Belichick and Nick Saban on the sidelines, respectively.
New England didn’t call Belichick’s departure a firing, but Patriots owner Robert Kraft explained in the press conference announcing the move last offseason that the NFL is a “results business.” Belichick was unceremoniously ousted after posting a 15-33 record to close out the last three years of his 24-year run in New England.
The most glaring hindrance in his final years was having to coach any signal caller other than arguably the greatest player of all time in former quarterback Tom Brady.
The Patriots selected quarterback Mac Jones in the first round of the 2021 draft to right the ship and keep the Patriots out of the doldrums while adjusting to post-Brady life. He had a promising rookie season, leading New England to the playoffs and earning Pro Bowl honors.
Belichick inexplicably opted to provide a new offensive coordinator (“OC”) for Jones in each of his next two seasons — after he played under three OCs during his time at the University of Alabama.
His experiment to assign Matt Patricia — who served as a defensive coordinator for the team from 2012 to 2017 — as the offensive play-caller in 2022 blew up in his face. And Jones didn’t fare any better under OC Bill O’Brien the following season.
In his three-year run with the Patriots, Jones posted 68 touchdowns and 36 interceptions. New England shipped him to Jacksonville in March to back up quarterback Trevor Lawrence.
Belichick was the general manager along with overseeing all aspects of coaching during his time in New England, so he deserves a lion’s share of the blame for questionable roster construction and bizarre coaching personnel decisions.
Kraft wasn’t the only owner who had trouble looking past his blemishes, as Belichick couldn’t find a suitor in the offseason after winning six championships in New England. However, he was recently hired as the head coach for the University of North Carolina. I believe this is a short-term play to get back to the NFL.
Saban, on the other hand, had the foresight to avoid putting any stain on his legacy with the Crimson Tide. He wanted no part of how the long-overdue introduction of name, image, and likeness (“NIL”) legal rights for student-athletes in July 2021 would completely transform the college football landscape.
Student-athletes can finally get paid by signing their NIL rights away to college teams so they can take money for endorsement deals.
Before this seismic shift, schools would simply pay players under the table. The whole NCAA marched in lockstep to avoid officially having to pay student-athletes under the guise that it would be improper to incentivize them since they were “students first.”
This created a system that wholly favored massive schools with endless funding from boosters like Alabama.
Saban thrived under the old guard, securing a bevy of five-star recruits from all over the country every year with ease. But the NIL rights made college football recruiting the Wild West, so Saban folded his cards and retired after coaching Alabama to six championships from 2007 to 2023.
Travis Hunter won the Heisman Trophy as a two-way player
The Colorado Buffaloes have been in the national spotlight since Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders took the reins as head coach in 2022. Sanders’ larger-than-life personality has been the subject of much ire during his tenure.
Still, he conducts his team in a way that allows them to express themselves while remaining respectful of opponents. This creates an environment that maximizes his players’ full potential, as shown by cornerback and wide receiver Travis Hunter’s historic Heisman Trophy-winning season in 2024.
Hunter led the Buffaloes with 92 catches for 1,152 yards and 14 touchdowns. On top of that, the 21-year-old caught four interceptions and recorded 11 pass breakups while serving as one of the top corners in all of college football.
Putting aside the mental fortitude it takes to be an effective player on both sides of the ball, Hunter’s conditioning is elite considering that he played an absurd 120.3 snaps per game.
Sanders recently revealed that Hunter aims to play on both sides of the ball in the NFL as well, although the wear and tear players suffer from playing at the highest level will likely limit his opportunities.
Some teams may view the toll Hunter has already put on his body throughout his college career as cause to pause rather than a positive since NFL executives tend to be archaic in their evaluation process.
No matter whether Hunter plays nearly full-time on both sides of the ball like in college, it will be fascinating to watch how he evolves as a two-way star.
LeBron and Bronny James became the NBA’s first father-son duo
When Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James declared in February 2022 that he wanted to end his career by playing with his son, the NBA community — including players, coaches, executives, owners, and fans — collectively rolled their eyes.
He emphasized his desire to close out his illustrious career by “being on the floor with Bronny” several times over the last few years, much to the indifference of anyone who would listen.
Admittedly, I never thought this would happen since Los Angeles Lakers guard Bronny James was not considered a highly touted prospect — let alone a second-generation prodigy. When the idea was first mentioned, he wasn’t anything more to NBA fans than LeBron’s oldest son still in high school.
But Bronny put in the work and earned a scholarship to play for the Trojans — becoming the first of his family to attend college. Last summer, he famously survived cardiac arrest and open heart surgery.
He declared for the draft anyway and the Lakers eagerly selected him with the No. 55 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft. The duo played together in the preseason, but LeBron’s longtime wish to share the court with his son wasn’t officially fulfilled until October.
Now that LeBron has checked this goal off, his future remains unclear. He agreed to a two-year $104 million deal to return to the Lakers this summer, but the Lakers aren’t viewed as legitimate contenders right now.
LeBron would be well within his right to simply coast and bask in living his dream of playing with Bronny for the final years of his career, but he has only ever given the basketball world his maximum effort.
If Los Angeles can put together a more balanced roster to make up for LeBron’s waning athleticism, I wouldn’t put it past him to make a late-career championship run for his swan song. Winning a championship with his son on the roster would be the final nail in the coffin for LeBron’s GOAT case.
History will look fondly upon LeBron’s illustrious career. If he goes out on top at 40-plus years old, there will be nothing left to debate.
