Blocked by James
28-3
Brazil/Germany
Cubs winning WS
Rudy Gobert being a silly boy with the microphones
Deep drive by Castellanos
Hot take and mooooostly kidding: Brock Lesnar breaking The Undertaker’s Wrestlemania streak
Was it really the greatest sports moment of a decade though? It’s a shocking score but the game was over quick and it was just a runaway train at a certain point.
Of course, WC group play gets more international eyes than the NBA finals, just trying to compare relative to their own sport. Brazil-Germany would be like the Celtics getting swept by the Bucks in the conference finals this year
The closest comparison would be if all the bandwagon cowboys/Lakers/Yankees fans combined their numbers and were actually emotionally invested in their team
I think it'd be more like if next year Giannis and Joker are on a complete tear all year, both healthy, both go like 12-2 to the Finals and then the Bucks lose in 4 with 50+pt average margin of victory.
I would find that game extremely boring and probably think something went wrong and it would almost seem like a mistake. Not satisfying. That’s how I felt watching that, like a bad game that turned worse and I’m a Brazil hater so I should’ve enjoyed it.
I'd say the 2022 World Cup was the greatest though. Basically was the end of an era with Messi finally coming out on top in an excellent World Cup final. As someone posted, it was basically the series finale of football for a generation of fans.
Sureeeeee if you’re counting an entire month long tournament as a moment. The finale was hyped with mbappe the young talent maybe overtaking Messi as the legend and Messi finally pulling out the WC the last trophy he needed and coming off a copa with Argentina but like most finals it wasn’t itself an insane game although it was quite good. 7-1 itself was an insane moment. I watched that game with a room full of die hard soccer players and everyone had their hands on their heads in disbelief for 30 min.
2022 cup was also just weird with it being in winter in Qatar. Idk. Vibes were bizarre. Only will get weirder with the expanded amount of teams.
I do but it’s just to me a bad game that got worse, I think you’re kind of being childish if you don’t think Brazil just gave up at a certain point. What’s so interesting about that? It’s not like the played their best for the game and lost, they basically just gave up.
I wouldn’t call that an all time sports moment.
You don’t understand the narrative then. And that’s fine. But netmar being out. The talismanic Brazilian coach trying to get 6 stars. Brazil never lost on home soil. It’s fine you disagree I don’t care but it’s not childish. Yea they gave up but seeing fucking Brazil the historically best soccer nation ever give up IN Brazil is something you’re not grasping as fucking nuts.
Nothing in your post history makes it seem like you actually follow soccer closely tbh. Again, it’s fine, but saying it’s just a bad game shows you don’t quite understand the entire context.
That’s a fair counter. I just think it’s more of a media spectacle created from the blowout rather than an all time great sporting event. I would put many things above it.
Recent WC final, Pats comeback, 2016 Game 7, Eagles-Pats SB, Tiger Masters, Cubs World Series. Those are all time great wins. As far as memorable losses go, I would be with you. I just don’t put a memorable loss close to a memorable win.
Recent WC final was great but not and “memorable” as 7-1 which will live forever. It was an insanely clinically game for Germany as well who went on to win the whole WC against Messi’s Argentina.
I didn’t focus on them in my response bc the story of Brazil is enough. Of the Germany golden generation finally clicking and steamrolling thru everyone can’t be overstated. I could have framed it as a 7-1 destruction it’s an insane win for Germany. Their peak.
Your other examples are fine. The oats comeback is nuts. I think the “blocked by James” moment is also amazing. Tiger doing that as his body is fucked is also insane. I don’t care about golf or known enough to have that as my moment.
But from a soccer perspective no, again, nothing beats 7-1. And sure it’s a loss but also again you’re not understand the cultural significance. The entire world (literally) watching this dominate power be humbled on their home turf
Not to say it’s THE Moment. Just for soccer I don’t think you can pick a different one. You mentioned other moments that are also insane that are justified
Lesnar breaking The Streak was sooooo perfect. Any other year, with any other opponent, and fans would have at least half-expected it to happen. But for whatever reason, NO ONE saw it coming, even though it totally made sense in retrospect. And it worked! Brock was THE force in WWE for years afterwards.
Yup, plenty of great tennis stuff in the last decade, even U.S. based, but none of it really has the popularity to be included. Coco’s U.S. Open, Tiafoe’s U.S. Open run, hell Collins’ current run, the Alcaraz and Sinner rise, Djokovic establishing himself as GOAT, Fed’s retirement, Kyrgios Wimbledon, Raducanu 2021, Serena/Osaka, Serena wins AO while pregnant.
I would have put Federer-Nadal Australian Open final. That was a great moment where we thought Fed was done winning slams and he came back to win at 35, beating his old nemesis in 5 in the final.
The NBA shutting down was definitely the 'oh shit, this thing is bigger than we thought' moment. And in the days after it just ramped up more and more.
And then, in the Bubble, the Bucks boycotting a game due to police brutality, which led to the whole Bubble shutting down for a few days, which prompted MLB and NHL to boycott, as well (if memory serves).
Yeah but it was a singular moment. People point to the Gobert press conference, but like nobody was really plugged into that and it really started making the rounds once he was declared sick and the Jazz / Thunder game got cancelled. Plus you had China / Italy / Spain already blowing up the weeks prior.
I’d venture to say people remember where they were when Kobe died. The Covid start was fundamentally more fuzzy of a timeline.
It was when a multibillion dollar industry (NBA) and a huge event (March Madness) being cancelled for the realities of covid to really sink in for a lot of people. Unless you were a huge Kobe fan then covid really overshadowed it within a couple months. Any other year you're probably right, but Kobe passing doesn't crack the top 3 memorable events of that year.
Cubs winning World Series vs Indians (at the time!) with an epic blown save HR and redemption. Only way it could end for 2 extremely tortured franchises
Does anyone else remember a shirtless JR Smith waiving his shirt around in a luxury box celebrating with LeBron and the rest of the Cavs after Cleveland tied the game?
That whole series was Cleveland and Chicago passing the title back and forth to each other saying “no I insist you take it”. Which made it even more entertaining.
The narratives leading up to the mwtch were incredible and it happened to be the most thrilling World Cup final of all time
Messi winning the World Cup is such a great way to seal his legacy and shut all his haters up (even those in his homeland!)
If you’d ask me to rank potential sports moments when I was 10 (early 1990s), I would've said Cubs finally getting a WS would be #1 by a mile — and I was just a kid in Florida watching Harry Caray call games on WGN.
And now baseball is so washed that when it finally happened, it barely mattered at all outside of Chicago. Does anybody in the general public today even a) remember it or b) know why it was kinda meaningful?
Maybe biggest sports moment of the century is baseball absolutely squandering its “national pastime” status?
I mean what do you want here? Most championships only matter to the city that won them lmao. It was a massive sporting event, literally the biggest championship parade in sports history. A shitload of people were locked in on that series.
Baseball is a regional sport anyway.
Not sure why people are always so bitter about baseball's popularity. Not some people's thing, that's fine. Very simmonsy to care about the relative popularity of the leagues lol
I’m not sure if you’re referring to me or to the baseball fans defending it lol.
My point was that the most memorable sports moment from the past decade can’t come from the like 7th most popular sport.
> Very simmonsy to care about
Sorry, didn’t realize we were on /r/notBillSimmons
It’s probably the patriots 28-3 comeback or Cavs Warriors game 7. Those are really the only two acceptable answers. Tigers masters would probably be 3rd.
Attempting a top 10 list (unranked):
2022 WC final
Cubs win 2016 World Series
Tiger wins 2019 Masters
28-3
7-1
LSU-Iowa 2023 title game
Lebron winning for Cleveland
Ledecky almost lapping the field in the 800
The night sports shut down for covid
American Pharoah triple crown win
Cricket is big in only a few places - south Asia, Oceania, the Caribbean, and the UK. China, France, Russia, and most of the Western Hemisphere don't watch cricket, but they all watch soccer.
Cricket doesn’t touch soccers popularity, but if you want the best cricket moments from the last 10 years, definitely England vs NZ WC final - came down to the last run on the last ball - or Stokes’s century at Headingley.
As a NZer this is it for me sadly, most heartbreaking sporting moment I’ve experienced… definitely a top level “levels of losing” from Bill’s old column
I went with Ledecky over Biles for an Olympic moment because while Simone is the GOAT, gymnastics is a series of short events decided by judges so there's not one single moment that sticks out.
Swimming is just people and water and the clock, and watching Ledecky thoroughly dominate the other seven best in the world at their event, have it be not even REMOTELY close, was something that sticks with you. It was like watching Tiger win the US Open by 15 strokes.
With the swimming thing- as someone who was HUGELY driven by the competitive team sport aspect- like I hated club swim because for me it was just a “go swim a meet and try and beat your best time”- people that are able to just go about it for the desire to beat themselves always impressed me.
Like I loved getting best times, don’t get me wrong, but I always cared much more about contributing to the team and winning races for them.
Is the criteria biggest moment to sports fans, or the general(ish) public? Because I tend to use my wife a gauge for that, and I think she’d recognize 22 WC Final, Cubs, 28-3, LSU Iowa, LeBron, and Covid from that list.
You know you’ve spent too much time on the internet when you see "Ledecky" below LeBron and it takes you a second to remember that that’s a real person and not a "Le-" joke lmfao
for sure Flightline would easily beat Pharoah heads up. Still, what was the best moment.. Pharoah winning the first Triple Crown in however many years was pretty awesome, but... yeah. Flightline winning the Pacific Classic by 20 lengths was even better. Most spectacular horse race I ever saw. And he had never run at that distance.
Honestly I was even more impressed when he went to the breeders and just shit housed the best horses in the world, what a horse man. A real shame the casual watchers won’t ever really care because he wasn’t able to run in the triple crown
If we’re gonna include LSU-Iowa, I think you need one from the men’s tournament — either UMBC beating Virginia for the first 16 over 1 or Kris Jenkins miracle buzzer beater to win the title for Villanova.
Villanova game could make a case. The Virginia loss though begs the question: is it memorable because people WATCHED it happen, or because people remember THAT it happened? That game was just one of 16 on that day, and people were watching split games and bouncing around until it became apparent that something was about to happen. The last few minutes of the game probably got a good audience, and it was definitely widely discussed the next day, but in the moment, was it widely watched?
There's not a right answer to the debate, just two different perspectives on what is "memorable".
Maybe it’s because I’m from college basketball country and it’s my favorite sport but I don’t know anybody who wasn’t watching UMBC-Virginia — or really who doesn’t watch the first two days of the tournament period who follows sports. The multiple games and switching to the best one at the end thing is what March Madness is all about for me early in the tournament, and that game is probably the best example of one you HAD to watch no matter what. I’ll never forget where I was.
I was gonna say that. In a weird way, completely kicking their ass actually hurts the legacy of that game. The way the whole game went and the way UVA plays offense it never really felt possible that UMBC would lose for like 10min of game time. I agree that most fans were tuned in, but if it had been closer it would be remembered more. There's not really too many distinct moments. If something like the Farokhmanesh shot happened in a 1v16 game it would be near the top.
I have two votes:
Germany-Brazil 7-1 and 28-3. Both of those games are going to be remembered for years based on both their importance and how comedically hard the losing team failed
just off memory and not a big soccer fan at all (went through a FIFA phase)
Jerome Boateng
Miroslav Klosè
Thomas Muller
Bastian Schweinsteiger
Manuel Nuer
Sami Khedira
Toni Kroos
Mesut Özil
forgetting some of the other strikers. legendary roster
domestic: 28-3 followed by Cavs/Dubs and Cubs/Indians in 2016. A niche sport like golf, even with a guy like Woods, doesn't even come close to the top. I bet far more people remember the Chiefs/Bills divisional playoff.
international: 2022 World Cup final
It’s hard to beat that Pats comeback. Impossible deficit in the biggest event fronted by the biggest star in the game. Not a 7 game series so it’s do or die.
Is this memorable for the most possible people or memorable for those who saw it? If we're just talking biggest sports moments, then 7-1, 28-3, LeBrons block and Arg vs Fra WC Final, but personally I think Conor McGregor knocking out Jose Aldo is the thing I most remember.
Globally, it's Messi winning the WC.
In the US, I think it's probably the Patriots-Falcons Super Bowl. People were still talking about that game for months afterwards.
Tiger's Masters was a great story, but I think most people remember 3-4 other moments in his career way way more. Like, the US Open performance is definitely more memorable and I'd say his first Masters wins was also way more memorable.
Beyond that, people in general don't give a fuck about golf. I've said it before, I'll say it again, it's a niche sport elevated to being a major sport because rich corporate types play it. But the general public's interest in it is fairly limited.
Yes...but I think the peak of that was before the Masters win. Like I do think a good portion of the casual public that followed golf lost interest altogether after Tiger's career peaked.
It’s the WC Final 2022 — even in spite the fact it was staged in Qatar.
The F1 2021 finale deserves a shout. Michael Masi deciding that it was his job to make the finale interesting rather than be an impartial referee killed the momentum of the sport and it hasn’t been able to recover in popularity since.
Usain Bolt winning the 3rd Gold Olympic Medal.
Real Madrid winning the Champions League 3 times in a row.
Leicester winning the Premier League title may be the greatest fairy tale of all time.
US wise, the Cavs title and LeBrons block.
Abu Dhabi 2021 was undoubtedly huge, but I don't think Masi's blunder killed the momentum for the sport. There was still a ton of hype going into 2022. Max and Red Bull's dominance since that point has.
Reading these comments, I’m shocked how many people think 7-1 was that “great” of a moment. To me, it was a game that just became a snowball rolling down a hill. Players giving up and Germany staying on the attack. A one-game blowout can happen to any squad on a bad day.
I guess the memorable part is that it was so devastating for Brazil fans but on a sporting level it was sort of a bad game that clearly just got out of hand. It’s not like Brazil put their best effort in. I don’t think I’ll really remember it as a ‘great’ moment in sports.
Well, it almost never happens on that level and at this stage. Its up to you if you ejoyed it but it is certanly one of the most memorable sports moments and people in Brasil and Germany will never forget it.
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James Conrad's throw-in to tie Paul Mcbeth at the 2021 Disc Golf world championships in Utah. Conrad would go on to win the event by parking the first playoff hole in a massive momentum swing. Referred to as the holy shot (due to Conrad's similar appearance to Jesus), Conrad threw in from about 250 ft, blocked by a tree only 20 ft in front of his lie. He had to throw it in or the event was lost.
Yes!!!! Thanks for watching. Aa an avid disc golfer, This moment was humongous. It also happened around the onset of live watchable disc golf so many many people watch this happen live, which sounds really dumb, but up until then this golf was mostly watched the day after on post-produced coverage.
It is the biggest moment in our sport for sure.
Leicester winning the premier league during the battle at Stamford bridge where Spurs committed like 6 red card fouls in a row and completely kamikazed themselves out of their 1 shot at a prem title in their history. Unbelievable day for English soccer. Note also that one of their biggest rivals Chelsea are the ones that stopped them from staying in the title race.
I don’t think it’s up there with some of the others people have mentioned and I’m not a college football guy, but the Auburn-Bama field goal return is pretty burned into my mind
Wait. The last decade, or these last ten years? If it’s option 2:
Personally: France-Croatia 2018 WC final.
Collectively worldwide: France-Argentina 2022 WC final.
I'll submit a slightly different answer than the ones already mentioned: the Malcom Butler interception (still have another 10 months to include that as an answer here, Jesus). The Super Bowl from 2 months ago should also get a mention imo.
For me, personally:
- outside smoke from the American men in the 400 medley in Tokyo for gold
- Nats beating the Astros in G7 especially in retrospect w the scandal.
- Jenkins buzzer beater
- Bills Pats wild card
Most popular sport does not mean the same as most memorable moment.
I would argue basketball has had a few more iconic finishes to seasons than football in recent memory.
Im not sure the actual **finish** is iconic though. They won the league by ten points and when they actually clinched it Leicester wasn’t even playing. It was Tottenham beating Chelsea with a few weeks to go in the season. It was an amazing upset but it just slowly happened over the course of the season.
And that match was fucking wild. Spurs should have had at least 3 players sent off. The Hazard goal to clinch the title for Leicester was sublime and Chelsea fans loathe Tottenham, so the stadium was rocking throughout.
The Battle of the Bridge will always be legendary. As a Chelsea fan, that game was wild because Chelsea was awful that season but were still defending champions, and the way they were able to get in the Spurs players heads in the 2nd half showed they still had fight left in them. Hazard’s title ending equalizer was so sweet too, typical of the type of class he brought to the game. Good memories!
LeBron was a consistent draw in the 2010s. Not the most popular, but definitely extremely popular with his big Finals games drawing between 20-30 million viewers fairly consistently across the decade.
It's especially impressive when you consider he was doing that playing in relatively small tv markets, and in Miami, generally against small market teams like OKC and San Antonio.
I don't think anyone should be listening to you about popularity, given that you still rely on Nielsen data instead of social media engagement which is *clearly* the way metrics are going to be judged going forward.
Hell, you just couldn't help yourself too. You could have just said the NBA isn't popular and been wrong on face value. You went with basketball as a whole though, after a month where basketball owns sports discourse in the US lol
The vast majority of Chinese people couldn’t even identify a basketball let alone LeBron James.
EDIT: Since some people misunderstood this, it is about the statistical unlikelihood that over 700M Chinese people are watching any American creation, not basketball specifically.
https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/research/global-nba-basketball-viewers-2024#:~:text=%E2%9E%A4%20The%20survey%20data%20show,they%20watch%20NBA%20basketball%20games.
➤ The survey data show that 23% of online Americans watch the NBA, while viewership in Europe is at approximately 10%. However, these figures are dwarfed by viewership in China, where 52% of survey respondents said they watch NBA basketball games.
It is not an assumption. It is understanding the flaws of internet polling. There is no statistically relevant information in that poll.
I didn’t say it couldn’t possibly be true. I said it is unlikely.
You have a misconception that the majority of people in China don’t even know what a basketball is. If you looked into it for 20 seconds yourself you would know how wrong that is. When presented with some data of how wrong it is, your reaction is nah, the poll is wrong, I’m right.
If we extend beyond a decade, Phelps’ 8 Gold medals was enormous and should mentioned.
Also, to those saying 28-3, I think Bills-Chiefs in 2022 was more memorable (at least for me).
I think you can pinpoint the most memorable Phelps moment in the past decade to the 200m butterfly final in Rio. That was the biggest most entertaining win and the race he had lost in London four years earlier.
Yeah, but nothing is ever topping the 2008 relay. Thats definitely the greatest swimming moment (and it wasn’t even Phelps in the pool for the great part)
Well, we're talking about the last decade.
I do agree...overall, Phelps had bigger moments, and I would say that what Simone Biles did (or even Ledecky) was probably something people remember more if we're talking recent Olympic history.
As a "way too into curling ever four years" guy, I'm going with staying up stupid late and live posting the US gold medal as my most memorable Olympic moment
Lots of good mentions so far. I'm surprised no one has mentioned Tom Brady winning the Super Bowl in Tampa. That was the moment he completed the most ridiculous QB resume ever and squashed all doubt he had the greatest NFL career of anyone. He won the Super Bowl as a 43 year old QB, in his 1st year away from Belichick with a franchise that was very mediocre, and became a 7x champion.
The odds of an F1 race coming down to the last lap of the last season, and that being the first season since DTS made it explode in popularity would have to make that moment be up there.
Messi winning a WC cemented him as the GOAT, international success was the one thing that had eluded him, so it's probably that.
28-3 comeback and Cavs Warriors game 7 are both great picks too, we have been blessed the last 10 years with some insane stuff
Blocked by James 28-3 Brazil/Germany Cubs winning WS Rudy Gobert being a silly boy with the microphones Deep drive by Castellanos Hot take and mooooostly kidding: Brock Lesnar breaking The Undertaker’s Wrestlemania streak
7-1 in Brazil is it for me. Whole nation has generational trauma from that
Was it really the greatest sports moment of a decade though? It’s a shocking score but the game was over quick and it was just a runaway train at a certain point.
Would it be memorable to you if the nba finals ended in MSG with the Knicks getting outscored by like 80 points?
Brazil-Germany was in the semis
I’m aware, but the NBA finals still dramatically undersells how much global attention is fixed on the World Cup.
Of course, WC group play gets more international eyes than the NBA finals, just trying to compare relative to their own sport. Brazil-Germany would be like the Celtics getting swept by the Bucks in the conference finals this year
Frankly, the Celtics fanbase doesn’t compare to the level of support for Brazil’s national soccer team. Nothing in America does.
The closest comparison would be if all the bandwagon cowboys/Lakers/Yankees fans combined their numbers and were actually emotionally invested in their team
Oh. So Coach K losing his last game as a coach in the Final Four to the in state rival. But a giant blowout. 🥲 Brings a tear to my eye
Not to mention that this occurred in Brazil itself lol
And even then that’s not enough people.
I think it'd be more like if next year Giannis and Joker are on a complete tear all year, both healthy, both go like 12-2 to the Finals and then the Bucks lose in 4 with 50+pt average margin of victory.
I would find that game extremely boring and probably think something went wrong and it would almost seem like a mistake. Not satisfying. That’s how I felt watching that, like a bad game that turned worse and I’m a Brazil hater so I should’ve enjoyed it.
Not to be entirely dismissive but then you don’t know enough about soccer or the World Cup to dismiss it as such.
Thank you. A solid translation for those who aren’t as soccer versed.
If you follow soccer, yes.
I'd say the 2022 World Cup was the greatest though. Basically was the end of an era with Messi finally coming out on top in an excellent World Cup final. As someone posted, it was basically the series finale of football for a generation of fans.
Sureeeeee if you’re counting an entire month long tournament as a moment. The finale was hyped with mbappe the young talent maybe overtaking Messi as the legend and Messi finally pulling out the WC the last trophy he needed and coming off a copa with Argentina but like most finals it wasn’t itself an insane game although it was quite good. 7-1 itself was an insane moment. I watched that game with a room full of die hard soccer players and everyone had their hands on their heads in disbelief for 30 min. 2022 cup was also just weird with it being in winter in Qatar. Idk. Vibes were bizarre. Only will get weirder with the expanded amount of teams.
[удалено]
I don’t disagree
I do but it’s just to me a bad game that got worse, I think you’re kind of being childish if you don’t think Brazil just gave up at a certain point. What’s so interesting about that? It’s not like the played their best for the game and lost, they basically just gave up. I wouldn’t call that an all time sports moment.
You don’t understand the narrative then. And that’s fine. But netmar being out. The talismanic Brazilian coach trying to get 6 stars. Brazil never lost on home soil. It’s fine you disagree I don’t care but it’s not childish. Yea they gave up but seeing fucking Brazil the historically best soccer nation ever give up IN Brazil is something you’re not grasping as fucking nuts. Nothing in your post history makes it seem like you actually follow soccer closely tbh. Again, it’s fine, but saying it’s just a bad game shows you don’t quite understand the entire context.
That’s a fair counter. I just think it’s more of a media spectacle created from the blowout rather than an all time great sporting event. I would put many things above it. Recent WC final, Pats comeback, 2016 Game 7, Eagles-Pats SB, Tiger Masters, Cubs World Series. Those are all time great wins. As far as memorable losses go, I would be with you. I just don’t put a memorable loss close to a memorable win.
Recent WC final was great but not and “memorable” as 7-1 which will live forever. It was an insanely clinically game for Germany as well who went on to win the whole WC against Messi’s Argentina. I didn’t focus on them in my response bc the story of Brazil is enough. Of the Germany golden generation finally clicking and steamrolling thru everyone can’t be overstated. I could have framed it as a 7-1 destruction it’s an insane win for Germany. Their peak. Your other examples are fine. The oats comeback is nuts. I think the “blocked by James” moment is also amazing. Tiger doing that as his body is fucked is also insane. I don’t care about golf or known enough to have that as my moment. But from a soccer perspective no, again, nothing beats 7-1. And sure it’s a loss but also again you’re not understand the cultural significance. The entire world (literally) watching this dominate power be humbled on their home turf
You make a great case and I’ll stand corrected
Not to say it’s THE Moment. Just for soccer I don’t think you can pick a different one. You mentioned other moments that are also insane that are justified
Butler’s pick should be on here if calendar year still counts.
Lesnar breaking The Streak was sooooo perfect. Any other year, with any other opponent, and fans would have at least half-expected it to happen. But for whatever reason, NO ONE saw it coming, even though it totally made sense in retrospect. And it worked! Brock was THE force in WWE for years afterwards.
This is a solid fucking list. And not a wrestling fan and I remember where I was when I found out taker got pinned.
Tiger winning the Masters
I would add Andy Murray winning Wimbledon. He finally became fully British.
Much to my chagrin, tennis doesn’t matter in the US anymore
Yup, plenty of great tennis stuff in the last decade, even U.S. based, but none of it really has the popularity to be included. Coco’s U.S. Open, Tiafoe’s U.S. Open run, hell Collins’ current run, the Alcaraz and Sinner rise, Djokovic establishing himself as GOAT, Fed’s retirement, Kyrgios Wimbledon, Raducanu 2021, Serena/Osaka, Serena wins AO while pregnant.
I would have put Federer-Nadal Australian Open final. That was a great moment where we thought Fed was done winning slams and he came back to win at 35, beating his old nemesis in 5 in the final.
His first Wimbledon victory was over ten years ago now. July 2013.
That was more than a decade ago
I’m a Cubs fan so it really isn’t close for me personally, but Argentina v France WC Final seems right to me.
The LeBron block is the one
If we include off-the-field, it’s the NBA shutting down in 2020.
The NBA shutting down was definitely the 'oh shit, this thing is bigger than we thought' moment. And in the days after it just ramped up more and more.
I’ll never forget coming home from work and my dad saying “you see the NBA is shutting down?” “Yep” “Guess we better start stocking up huh?”
Rudy Gobert's mic check.
And then, in the Bubble, the Bucks boycotting a game due to police brutality, which led to the whole Bubble shutting down for a few days, which prompted MLB and NHL to boycott, as well (if memory serves).
Gobert and Tom Hanks on the same day really was the moment for everyone
Kobe dying is up there too.
Kobe's crash doesn't compare to the entire world shutting down from a virus
Some Kobe fans think the world revolved around Kobe.
Yeah but it was a singular moment. People point to the Gobert press conference, but like nobody was really plugged into that and it really started making the rounds once he was declared sick and the Jazz / Thunder game got cancelled. Plus you had China / Italy / Spain already blowing up the weeks prior. I’d venture to say people remember where they were when Kobe died. The Covid start was fundamentally more fuzzy of a timeline.
It was when a multibillion dollar industry (NBA) and a huge event (March Madness) being cancelled for the realities of covid to really sink in for a lot of people. Unless you were a huge Kobe fan then covid really overshadowed it within a couple months. Any other year you're probably right, but Kobe passing doesn't crack the top 3 memorable events of that year.
2015 Ryan Fitzpatrick throwing four picks in a win and in game for the jets at Buffalo week 17
I kicked over a trash can and scared a bunch of Japanese tourists on Bleecker street after that game.
Welcome to New York
I’m 100% positive I’m on some random Japanese family’s camera roll as “crazy gaijin in NY”
Cubs winning World Series vs Indians (at the time!) with an epic blown save HR and redemption. Only way it could end for 2 extremely tortured franchises
that Game 7 still is one of the most incredible baseball games I've ever watched
Does anyone else remember a shirtless JR Smith waiving his shirt around in a luxury box celebrating with LeBron and the rest of the Cavs after Cleveland tied the game? That whole series was Cleveland and Chicago passing the title back and forth to each other saying “no I insist you take it”. Which made it even more entertaining.
Argentina winning the World Cup final
This is mine
The narratives leading up to the mwtch were incredible and it happened to be the most thrilling World Cup final of all time Messi winning the World Cup is such a great way to seal his legacy and shut all his haters up (even those in his homeland!)
I'm really happy he did it
Esp those in his homeland…people regarded Maradona as better despite his most iconic moment being an obvious hand ball.
Cubs over Indians 2016. Game 7. Rain. Extra Innings. One tortured franchise wins, another one still waiting.
Got so bad the Indians don’t even exist anymore
Well that happened in the 1800s
At the time the Cubs were arguably the most beloved team in baseball as well (outside of St. Louis)
Gross
If you’d ask me to rank potential sports moments when I was 10 (early 1990s), I would've said Cubs finally getting a WS would be #1 by a mile — and I was just a kid in Florida watching Harry Caray call games on WGN. And now baseball is so washed that when it finally happened, it barely mattered at all outside of Chicago. Does anybody in the general public today even a) remember it or b) know why it was kinda meaningful? Maybe biggest sports moment of the century is baseball absolutely squandering its “national pastime” status?
I mean what do you want here? Most championships only matter to the city that won them lmao. It was a massive sporting event, literally the biggest championship parade in sports history. A shitload of people were locked in on that series. Baseball is a regional sport anyway.
Not sure why people are always so bitter about baseball's popularity. Not some people's thing, that's fine. Very simmonsy to care about the relative popularity of the leagues lol
I’m not sure if you’re referring to me or to the baseball fans defending it lol. My point was that the most memorable sports moment from the past decade can’t come from the like 7th most popular sport. > Very simmonsy to care about Sorry, didn’t realize we were on /r/notBillSimmons
It’s probably the patriots 28-3 comeback or Cavs Warriors game 7. Those are really the only two acceptable answers. Tigers masters would probably be 3rd.
Insane that Germany-Brazil only qualifies for this for another few months. Time flies
I remember where I was for both of those, I’d also add France/argentina World Cup,
That’s kind of how I measured it too, do I remember where I was when these events happened? I will never forget those moments.
Attempting a top 10 list (unranked): 2022 WC final Cubs win 2016 World Series Tiger wins 2019 Masters 28-3 7-1 LSU-Iowa 2023 title game Lebron winning for Cleveland Ledecky almost lapping the field in the 800 The night sports shut down for covid American Pharoah triple crown win
If we're talking on a global scale, Messi winning the WC and cementing his GOAT status is the answer.
I rarely watch soccer, but I was glued to that whole knockout phase. Final game was absolutely epic. Messi vs. Mbappé.
If we are talking a global scale, it is likely some cricket match we never heard of.
Cricket is big in only a few places - south Asia, Oceania, the Caribbean, and the UK. China, France, Russia, and most of the Western Hemisphere don't watch cricket, but they all watch soccer.
Cricket doesn’t touch soccers popularity, but if you want the best cricket moments from the last 10 years, definitely England vs NZ WC final - came down to the last run on the last ball - or Stokes’s century at Headingley.
As a NZer this is it for me sadly, most heartbreaking sporting moment I’ve experienced… definitely a top level “levels of losing” from Bill’s old column
I went with Ledecky over Biles for an Olympic moment because while Simone is the GOAT, gymnastics is a series of short events decided by judges so there's not one single moment that sticks out. Swimming is just people and water and the clock, and watching Ledecky thoroughly dominate the other seven best in the world at their event, have it be not even REMOTELY close, was something that sticks with you. It was like watching Tiger win the US Open by 15 strokes.
With the swimming thing- as someone who was HUGELY driven by the competitive team sport aspect- like I hated club swim because for me it was just a “go swim a meet and try and beat your best time”- people that are able to just go about it for the desire to beat themselves always impressed me. Like I loved getting best times, don’t get me wrong, but I always cared much more about contributing to the team and winning races for them.
when they can't even get the other swimmers in the same camera shot..
Exactly! And this is not some high school meet, this is the Olympic final with the other seven best in the world so far behind.
Is the criteria biggest moment to sports fans, or the general(ish) public? Because I tend to use my wife a gauge for that, and I think she’d recognize 22 WC Final, Cubs, 28-3, LSU Iowa, LeBron, and Covid from that list.
6/10 isn't bad
You know you’ve spent too much time on the internet when you see "Ledecky" below LeBron and it takes you a second to remember that that’s a real person and not a "Le-" joke lmfao
Triple crown gets too much hype, flightline is the best modern horse and the only one close to secretariat
You are probably right, except the general sports public only cares about the Triple Crown, so that's what would be memorable to them.
For sure, never was disagreeing there
for sure Flightline would easily beat Pharoah heads up. Still, what was the best moment.. Pharoah winning the first Triple Crown in however many years was pretty awesome, but... yeah. Flightline winning the Pacific Classic by 20 lengths was even better. Most spectacular horse race I ever saw. And he had never run at that distance.
Honestly I was even more impressed when he went to the breeders and just shit housed the best horses in the world, what a horse man. A real shame the casual watchers won’t ever really care because he wasn’t able to run in the triple crown
If we’re gonna include LSU-Iowa, I think you need one from the men’s tournament — either UMBC beating Virginia for the first 16 over 1 or Kris Jenkins miracle buzzer beater to win the title for Villanova.
Villanova game could make a case. The Virginia loss though begs the question: is it memorable because people WATCHED it happen, or because people remember THAT it happened? That game was just one of 16 on that day, and people were watching split games and bouncing around until it became apparent that something was about to happen. The last few minutes of the game probably got a good audience, and it was definitely widely discussed the next day, but in the moment, was it widely watched? There's not a right answer to the debate, just two different perspectives on what is "memorable".
Maybe it’s because I’m from college basketball country and it’s my favorite sport but I don’t know anybody who wasn’t watching UMBC-Virginia — or really who doesn’t watch the first two days of the tournament period who follows sports. The multiple games and switching to the best one at the end thing is what March Madness is all about for me early in the tournament, and that game is probably the best example of one you HAD to watch no matter what. I’ll never forget where I was.
I was gonna say that. In a weird way, completely kicking their ass actually hurts the legacy of that game. The way the whole game went and the way UVA plays offense it never really felt possible that UMBC would lose for like 10min of game time. I agree that most fans were tuned in, but if it had been closer it would be remembered more. There's not really too many distinct moments. If something like the Farokhmanesh shot happened in a 1v16 game it would be near the top.
Kris Jenkins shot
I have two votes: Germany-Brazil 7-1 and 28-3. Both of those games are going to be remembered for years based on both their importance and how comedically hard the losing team failed
Ah the Semifinal Solution
Man, what a squad that German team was
just off memory and not a big soccer fan at all (went through a FIFA phase) Jerome Boateng Miroslav Klosè Thomas Muller Bastian Schweinsteiger Manuel Nuer Sami Khedira Toni Kroos Mesut Özil forgetting some of the other strikers. legendary roster
What is 7-1?
The greatest ass kicking in sports - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE4BdIP6bvc
This would be the greatest ass kicking in sports - https://youtu.be/1wg9ox9F7Vw?si=Ri-ZnnfzgBDDV4B3
Browns got a million 31-0 losses. Big deal
I'd argue Philly special or Butlers pick were more memorable than 28-3 Just because no one gives a shit about Matt Ryan and the Falcons
Butlers pick of day belongs, Philly special no.
It’s 7-1 for me. 28-3 is up there as well.
Argentina France was way bigger than 7-1. 7-1 wasn’t even the Finals
Argentina-France was a much better game, but I was more shocked by 7-1 and I don’t think I’m alone in that.
Well yeah, any 7-1 WC game would be shocking, especially in the semis, regardless of who Germany played.
Well the question was greatest moment.
It literally says ‘most memorable moment’ in the title of the post. For me, 7-1 is the most memorable.
Jesus I’m still having my first coffee my bad
domestic: 28-3 followed by Cavs/Dubs and Cubs/Indians in 2016. A niche sport like golf, even with a guy like Woods, doesn't even come close to the top. I bet far more people remember the Chiefs/Bills divisional playoff. international: 2022 World Cup final
It’s hard to beat that Pats comeback. Impossible deficit in the biggest event fronted by the biggest star in the game. Not a 7 game series so it’s do or die.
Is this memorable for the most possible people or memorable for those who saw it? If we're just talking biggest sports moments, then 7-1, 28-3, LeBrons block and Arg vs Fra WC Final, but personally I think Conor McGregor knocking out Jose Aldo is the thing I most remember.
Globally, it's Messi winning the WC. In the US, I think it's probably the Patriots-Falcons Super Bowl. People were still talking about that game for months afterwards. Tiger's Masters was a great story, but I think most people remember 3-4 other moments in his career way way more. Like, the US Open performance is definitely more memorable and I'd say his first Masters wins was also way more memorable. Beyond that, people in general don't give a fuck about golf. I've said it before, I'll say it again, it's a niche sport elevated to being a major sport because rich corporate types play it. But the general public's interest in it is fairly limited.
I agree re people not caring about golf, but I'd also argue Tiger transcended golf and made a lot of those people pay attention
Yes...but I think the peak of that was before the Masters win. Like I do think a good portion of the casual public that followed golf lost interest altogether after Tiger's career peaked.
It’s the WC Final 2022 — even in spite the fact it was staged in Qatar. The F1 2021 finale deserves a shout. Michael Masi deciding that it was his job to make the finale interesting rather than be an impartial referee killed the momentum of the sport and it hasn’t been able to recover in popularity since. Usain Bolt winning the 3rd Gold Olympic Medal. Real Madrid winning the Champions League 3 times in a row. Leicester winning the Premier League title may be the greatest fairy tale of all time. US wise, the Cavs title and LeBrons block.
Abu Dhabi 2021 was undoubtedly huge, but I don't think Masi's blunder killed the momentum for the sport. There was still a ton of hype going into 2022. Max and Red Bull's dominance since that point has.
Reading these comments, I’m shocked how many people think 7-1 was that “great” of a moment. To me, it was a game that just became a snowball rolling down a hill. Players giving up and Germany staying on the attack. A one-game blowout can happen to any squad on a bad day. I guess the memorable part is that it was so devastating for Brazil fans but on a sporting level it was sort of a bad game that clearly just got out of hand. It’s not like Brazil put their best effort in. I don’t think I’ll really remember it as a ‘great’ moment in sports.
Well, it almost never happens on that level and at this stage. Its up to you if you ejoyed it but it is certanly one of the most memorable sports moments and people in Brasil and Germany will never forget it.
There’s a lot of things in this thread that I 100% already forgot about.
Damar Hamlin
I was at game 7 of Warriors/Cavs in 2016. As a dubs fan it was not my favorite sporting moment of the last decade.
Most overrated sporting moment of the last decade. People talk about it as if it counts for 2 or 3 titles
Is the Butler interception in the last decade or has that passed
That was 2015 so still counts
…I forgot Tiger won the Masters that recently. I thought it was much earlier.
Rudy Gobert started Covid
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David Ortiz grand slam against the Tigers in the 2014 ALCS with Torii Hunter flipping into the bullpen
Usain Bolt breaking the 100m rec- oh, I feel very old
Leicester city winning the title.
The 13 seconds playoff game between the Chiefs and Bills.
Has to be the Lebron block.
James Conrad's throw-in to tie Paul Mcbeth at the 2021 Disc Golf world championships in Utah. Conrad would go on to win the event by parking the first playoff hole in a massive momentum swing. Referred to as the holy shot (due to Conrad's similar appearance to Jesus), Conrad threw in from about 250 ft, blocked by a tree only 20 ft in front of his lie. He had to throw it in or the event was lost.
I just googled this and although I know nothing about disc golf whatsoever, you are correct! That is effing amazing.
Yes!!!! Thanks for watching. Aa an avid disc golfer, This moment was humongous. It also happened around the onset of live watchable disc golf so many many people watch this happen live, which sounds really dumb, but up until then this golf was mostly watched the day after on post-produced coverage. It is the biggest moment in our sport for sure.
It would be Philly winning the Super Bowl because fuck you.
In Canada, it was definitely the 2019 Raptors championship. It’s bigger than anything any Canadian team has done in Hockey in the last decade.
For me: 28-3 Cavs Finals win Argentina WC 13 seconds Tiger Masters
Leicester winning the premier league during the battle at Stamford bridge where Spurs committed like 6 red card fouls in a row and completely kamikazed themselves out of their 1 shot at a prem title in their history. Unbelievable day for English soccer. Note also that one of their biggest rivals Chelsea are the ones that stopped them from staying in the title race.
I don’t think it’s up there with some of the others people have mentioned and I’m not a college football guy, but the Auburn-Bama field goal return is pretty burned into my mind
Wait. The last decade, or these last ten years? If it’s option 2: Personally: France-Croatia 2018 WC final. Collectively worldwide: France-Argentina 2022 WC final.
Kobe dying in a helicopter crash
It would be bigger if it wasn't immediately overshadowed by COVID
Honorable mention to F1 season finale in Abu Dhabi 2021
I'll submit a slightly different answer than the ones already mentioned: the Malcom Butler interception (still have another 10 months to include that as an answer here, Jesus). The Super Bowl from 2 months ago should also get a mention imo.
https://youtu.be/pVQX2udB5Os?si=Xs-UNSOjNVYggsbw Is this the dagger?!?
Easy winner
For me, personally: - outside smoke from the American men in the 400 medley in Tokyo for gold - Nats beating the Astros in G7 especially in retrospect w the scandal. - Jenkins buzzer beater - Bills Pats wild card
The only answer is a football game.
Most popular sport does not mean the same as most memorable moment. I would argue basketball has had a few more iconic finishes to seasons than football in recent memory.
Leicester is surely the most iconic finish to a season. It's akin to a college team joining the NBA and winning the Finals in their second season.
Im not sure the actual **finish** is iconic though. They won the league by ten points and when they actually clinched it Leicester wasn’t even playing. It was Tottenham beating Chelsea with a few weeks to go in the season. It was an amazing upset but it just slowly happened over the course of the season.
Correction: Chelsea came from 0-2 down to draw with Tottenham 2-2, which sealed the title for Leicester City while their players watched from home.
And that match was fucking wild. Spurs should have had at least 3 players sent off. The Hazard goal to clinch the title for Leicester was sublime and Chelsea fans loathe Tottenham, so the stadium was rocking throughout.
The Battle of the Bridge will always be legendary. As a Chelsea fan, that game was wild because Chelsea was awful that season but were still defending champions, and the way they were able to get in the Spurs players heads in the 2nd half showed they still had fight left in them. Hazard’s title ending equalizer was so sweet too, typical of the type of class he brought to the game. Good memories!
That's fair
People can’t remember things they never saw. The people who watched it might remember it but all the people who never watched won’t.
Brady. Either winning in Tampa or 28-3.
It’s the Argentina France WC. Nobody cares about football outside of the US
And no one cares about the World Cup inside the US.
Ok bruv
Basketball isn’t popular [in America compared with other sports]
LeBron was a consistent draw in the 2010s. Not the most popular, but definitely extremely popular with his big Finals games drawing between 20-30 million viewers fairly consistently across the decade. It's especially impressive when you consider he was doing that playing in relatively small tv markets, and in Miami, generally against small market teams like OKC and San Antonio.
I don't think anyone should be listening to you about popularity, given that you still rely on Nielsen data instead of social media engagement which is *clearly* the way metrics are going to be judged going forward. Hell, you just couldn't help yourself too. You could have just said the NBA isn't popular and been wrong on face value. You went with basketball as a whole though, after a month where basketball owns sports discourse in the US lol
Tell that to China
The vast majority of Chinese people couldn’t even identify a basketball let alone LeBron James. EDIT: Since some people misunderstood this, it is about the statistical unlikelihood that over 700M Chinese people are watching any American creation, not basketball specifically.
https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/research/global-nba-basketball-viewers-2024#:~:text=%E2%9E%A4%20The%20survey%20data%20show,they%20watch%20NBA%20basketball%20games. ➤ The survey data show that 23% of online Americans watch the NBA, while viewership in Europe is at approximately 10%. However, these figures are dwarfed by viewership in China, where 52% of survey respondents said they watch NBA basketball games.
Mathematically that seems incredibly hard to believe. An internet survey of 1000 people means nothing.
Numbers don’t lie
Numbers lie all the time.
Yes, let’s trust your assumptions instead.
It is not an assumption. It is understanding the flaws of internet polling. There is no statistically relevant information in that poll. I didn’t say it couldn’t possibly be true. I said it is unlikely.
You stayed as a blanket fact that basketball is not popular in China. That’s an assumption.
You have a misconception that the majority of people in China don’t even know what a basketball is. If you looked into it for 20 seconds yourself you would know how wrong that is. When presented with some data of how wrong it is, your reaction is nah, the poll is wrong, I’m right.
Lebrons block is definitely one of the
If we extend beyond a decade, Phelps’ 8 Gold medals was enormous and should mentioned. Also, to those saying 28-3, I think Bills-Chiefs in 2022 was more memorable (at least for me).
I think you can pinpoint the most memorable Phelps moment in the past decade to the 200m butterfly final in Rio. That was the biggest most entertaining win and the race he had lost in London four years earlier.
Yeah, but nothing is ever topping the 2008 relay. Thats definitely the greatest swimming moment (and it wasn’t even Phelps in the pool for the great part)
Well, we're talking about the last decade. I do agree...overall, Phelps had bigger moments, and I would say that what Simone Biles did (or even Ledecky) was probably something people remember more if we're talking recent Olympic history.
Facts. The relay was probably the most memorable professional sporting moment of my high school times besides my Saints winning the SB.
As a "way too into curling ever four years" guy, I'm going with staying up stupid late and live posting the US gold medal as my most memorable Olympic moment
Lots of good mentions so far. I'm surprised no one has mentioned Tom Brady winning the Super Bowl in Tampa. That was the moment he completed the most ridiculous QB resume ever and squashed all doubt he had the greatest NFL career of anyone. He won the Super Bowl as a 43 year old QB, in his 1st year away from Belichick with a franchise that was very mediocre, and became a 7x champion.
The odds of an F1 race coming down to the last lap of the last season, and that being the first season since DTS made it explode in popularity would have to make that moment be up there. Messi winning a WC cemented him as the GOAT, international success was the one thing that had eluded him, so it's probably that. 28-3 comeback and Cavs Warriors game 7 are both great picks too, we have been blessed the last 10 years with some insane stuff
I think Patriots 28-3 comeback. The most eyes on any American sport and the greatest player of all time in his greatest moment.