📸: My Favorite Sports Images From 2024
Reflecting on an unforgettable year in sports in picture form...
Happy New Year’s Eve!
It is crazy to think that we are hours away from waving goodbye to 2024 and saying hello to 2025.
It has certainly been one hell of a year, especially in sports. So much has happened in the world of sports over the past 12 months, and I have a plethora of favorite moments.
And, in trying to think of a creative way to share all of them with you, I tripped into the perfect answer.
Now, I’m going to lift the curtain up here a little bit but, as some of you may know, I pay for a photo license with IMAGN Images every year. They offer a stellar service and including elite, high-quality images with every newsletter is vital in my opinion. Anyway, my current agreement is due to end today, with the new one starting within a few hours. That’s swell and all, except for the fact that I had around 40 images left to use. And I can’t carry them over. Cue panic time.
However, I then had the genius idea to put together a gallery featuring some of my favorite sports images from 2024. I thought that would be the more fun way to do this. Now, it isn’t technically a gallery as I want to share a little blurb with each image, but you get where I’m going with this.
Disclaimer: These are MY favorite sports images from the past year, not technically the best ones. And certain pictures from certain big events that you loved may be missing. It is all personal preference, after all. Also, again with laying everything out there, I may have gone overboard with images from the Stanley Cup and the NBA Championship. I had a couple of hours to clear out my downloads before the new allotment gets added, so that’s my defense.
(Note: Pictures tend to take up a lot of space, so this won’t show up in full in email form. If you are reading this in your email inbox, it will probably cut off at some point, so please click the banner at the bottom to view the entire newsletter in full. Thank you).
Anyway, enough jabber-jawing. Here is a collection of the sports images I loved the most in 2024…
JANUARY 2024
I spent the beginning of 2024 in hospital, which I’ve covered extensively in this space. I won’t go into that again, only to say that I was pretty down for the entire month of January with sports the only thing that really pulled me through. As such, watching Jim Harbaugh and J.J. McCarthy lead Michigan to the College Football National Championship after a magical season was a lot of fun. It was also a great way to start what turned out to be an exhilarating year in sports.
I’m a huge hockey fan, and I think the game is a lesser version of itself for having less fighting. There is an art form to dropping the gloves, and this old-school tilt between Nick Foligno and Jeremy Lauzon was a sobering reminder of what we’re rapidly losing from the game.
FEBRUARY 2024
She came. She saw. She conquered. The year 2024 belonged to Caitlin Clark. Period. If breaking the NCAA Women’s all-time scoring record (3, 951 career points) wasn’t enough, Clark took the WNBA by storm in her rookie year. She scored more points than any rookie in WNBA history, set a league record for assists and led Indiana to the playoffs. Furthermore, Clark helped to elevate women’s sports into an entirely new stratosphere, with more people than ever before tuning in to women’s college basketball and the WNBA. Clark really did own 2024.
The Kansas City Chiefs won Super Bowl LVIII at the start of this year, becoming the first team in nearly two decades to win back-to-back Super Bowls. And, given how this year played out, you wouldn’t bet against them becoming the first team in NFL history to win three consecutive Super Bowls. Love them or hate them, you can’t deny that the Chiefs are the team of the decade.
I include this picture half in jest because I know more than a few people are over the whole Taylor Swift - Travis Kelce love story. Personally, I’m a huge Swiftie, and I saw women who previously had no interest in football suddenly become fans of the NFL. That should only be viewed as a good thing.
JUNE 2024
June is the month of champions in America. It started with the Boston Celtics, who won their 18th NBA Championship to become the winningest franchise in the NBA. These are some of the images I loved from the night the Celtics took down the Dallas Mavericks to secure banner 18, including veteran center Al Horford finally winning a ring after playing 186 career playoff games without one.
Then it was the turn of the Florida Panthers, who beat the Edmonton Oilers in seven games to win the Stanley Cup. They became the ninth team in NHL history to win the Stanley Cup after losing in the Final the previous year. And it was well deserved. The Panthers were the best team in hockey last year, led by the talented but hard-nosed Matthew Tkachuk who proved to be a game-changer for that franchise.
On a more sombre note, we lost some true greats throughout 2024, including the legendary Willie Mays, who will forever be remembered as one of the greatest players to have ever played the game of baseball.
JULY 2024
The summer belongs to baseball, and these were some of my favorite images from America’s National Pastime throughout the month of July.
Summer is also for tennis, and this year was a monumental one with Rafael Nadal announcing his retirement after a storied career. The below may be my favorite picture of Nadal in action of all-time. Simply breathtaking.
AUGUST 2024
As the below picture shows - and as Royals star Bobby Witt Jr. can attest, baseball can hurt sometimes, too.
As many of you know by now, I’m a huge Mets fan and August was memorable for a number of reasons. After being buried 11 games under .500 at the end of May, these Mets went on an absolute tear and they played some of their best baseball in the month of August. The vibes were immaculate, too.
August also brought us the Olympics, where we saw two American goats in action. Simone Biles - one of the greatest athletes of all time - left Paris with three Gold Medals and one Silver Medal to add to her ever-growing legacy. The most accomplished gymnast ever put on a show for the entire world in August. Then, on the basketball side of things, Steph Curry did Steph Curry things in Paris after exploding for 22 three-pointers, including 9 in the Semi-Finals and 8 in the Gold Medal Game as USA beat France 98-87. Curry has always been clutch, but his Olympic heroics really were something special.
SEPTEMBER 2024
We already knew Shohei Ohtani was historically great. But what the uber-talented two-way superstar did with the Dodgers in 2024 was simply mind-blowing. After signing a blockbuster free agent contract in LA, and navigating an incredibly tough personal scandal, Ohtani proceeded to write a remarkable new chapter in his already storied career. The four-time All-Star became the first player in baseball history to record a 50-50 season - 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases. And he did it in true Ohtani style, going 6-for-6 with three homers, two stolen bases and 10 RBI’s against the Marlins to accomplish the feat and seal his place in baseball lore forever. Oh, and it won’t surprise you that Ohtani won his third MVP award after the 2024 season. He truly is the greatest player on the planet.
OCTOBER 2024
I’m not alone in strongly being of the belief that October is the best sports month of the year. And it isn’t even close. You have everything going on at once, including the MLB Playoffs. My Mets went on a magical run thanks to some Pete Alonso heroics, while the Dodgers won it all thanks to an all-time postseason performance by Freddie Freeman. Despite playing hurt and battling a slew of different injuries, Freeman was an absolute horse throughout the playoffs and he put on one of the best one-man shows we’ve ever seen in the World Series, homering in each of the first four games of the World Series. Incredible.
NOVEMBER 2024
Once baseball is finished, football, basketball and hockey takes center stage. For me, November was a Hoops thrill with everything starting to click for Karl-Anthony Towns, Jalen Brunson and the Knicks. And, then, there was this picture that simply needs no words to do it justice:
DECEMBER 2024
The last month of the year is always fun because the NFL approaches the stretch run. And we get snow games. A snow-covered Buffalo is picture-perfect, as was Josh Allen delivering a statement game full of statement moments in what should be an MVP year.
I’ll be back with more end of the year stuff later but, in the meantime, let me know what of the above images you loved the most!
ALONSOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Bring him back, Cohen!
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