favorite Sports moments of 2005

[air gordon]

I got this idea watching NBA Action's plays of the year from last season. if you like, share your favorite sports moments from this past year. This doesn't have to exclusively be basketball.

here are mine:

Attending the 3 Bulls playoff games vs the Wizards. From Krause's draft blunders to terrible trades/FA signings (kornel David anyone??!!), these past 6yrs have been so dreadful and almost embarassing to be a Bulls fan. Despite this, I still watched and drank my way through almost all the Bulls games. But all suffering was over- the Bulls were finally in the playoffs! Even though they ended up losing the series, it was great to witness in person the Bulls returning to the playoffs, to partake in the crazy atmosphere the United Center used to have back when Jordan and Co. were winning titles.

The Fighting Illini's improbable comeback against Arizona in the NCAA tourney. I was watching this game at a local bar. For much of the game, the bar was quiet, aside from the swearing, since the Wlidcats were dominating the game. Even when Illinois hit those first few 3's around the there was just a quiet stir. But when they got those 2 steals at midcourt, the bar was going crazy. Once the game went in OT, we all knew the Illini were going to win- the momentum was clearly on their side. after the game, my friends and i spent the whole night in bewilderment

Game 2 of the ALCS against the Angels. Luckily I was able to score 2 tickets for this game...This to me this was the biggest game of the year for the White Sox. They couldn't head back to Anaheim/L.A down 0-2. This was a classic grinder game for the Sox- the pitching was great but the bats were quiet. I'll never forget the A.J Pierzynski at bat. At the ballpark, they don't show replays. My bro and I were sitting on the 3rd base side of the field. We both thought he struck out so we started heading towards the pisser. But then A.J headed for 1st base and just stood there when he got there, so we decided to stay. The crowd was getting rowdy once the Umps ruled AJ was safe. During this little delay, my brother couldn't t hold his piss anymore so he goes in his beer cup. A few pitches later, Joe Crede knocks the game winning double off the Wall. At first we weren't sure if it would stay fair since earlier in the game there were a fits hits that went foul but looked fair from our vantage point. But Crede's hit was a rocket and it immediately hit the Left field wall, sending the 40,000 fans at US Cellular into frenzy

My fav moment of 2005 was the White Sox winning the World Series. Just to piss off the Cubs fans, I went to see the Game 4 in the North Side of the City. When they clinched it on Uribe's throw to Konkerko, at first I was just going crazy, giving high 5 to everyone at the bar. when my brother and i hugged and started jumping up and down, a feeling of shock/amazement came over both of us. We both said "I can't believe they fuckin' did it! Yehh!". We both fell down because we were drunk. We drove around the City for a little bit but the car ride was quiet because i think we were both still in a state of shock of what happened. Ah Good times

[Andrew]

The Bulls improbable 2004/2005 season and the Playoff berth

You've summed it up already, really, though I of course didn't have the pleasure of going to any games. Just a great feeling to know that progress is being made and picking up a couple of wins in the Playoffs was a real treat.

Spurs vs Pistons, Game 5

This game basically saved the 2005 Finals for me. Not having strong feelings about who I wanted to win the series, I was disappointed with the blowout wins in Games 1-4. With Robert Horry's heroics, this was one of my favourite games of basketball to watch.

[Jugs]

AFL - Semi Finals Geelong Cats vs. Sydney Swans

God that was the best AFL match I've seen (i'm sure there have been better in the past) but this one was like Horry's shot, some guy stepped it up in the final quarter for the Swans and scored 4 goals including one with like 10 seconds left in the game. That was a great moment even though my Catters lost

Spurs vs. Pistons, Game 5

How could I not miss this match, finally a close match and Big Shot Rob was the man.

Someone besides Schumacher winning the F-1s

Alonso won but Schumacher still came third.

[J@3]

NBA - Andrew Bogut being drafted #1

The pure fact that he actually made the news on every commercial TV station over here says it all. This basketballing black hole of a country really needed a kick up the ass to try and expand the game to where it should be, and Bogut is a huge first step. Once he starts to mould into the Bucks system and consistantly puts up big numbers he'll get a shit load of attention here, since he's on the news every time he has a good game.

Football - Australia qualifying for the football World Cup

Usually this is the time of year where all Australians sit back and discuss how much we dislike teams like Uruguay, Iran and any other of the countless nations that have knocked us out of qualifying at the last hurdle. Not this time. In a stadium filled with 80,000 people, which isn't bad for a sport no one really cares about, the Soceroos came from a 1-0 overally deficit to draw the match 1-1 and dramatically win in a penalty shootout. Mark Schwarzer was the hero, denying 2 or 3 penalties and going nuts everytime he did so. Fantastic night.

NRL - Sydney Roosters mid-season player recruitment

When your legendary 5/8 retires, the club stalwart at lock also retires this would generally cripple alot of teams for years to come. Not the Roosters however, they managed to sign Braith Anasta who at one time was being touted as the next Brad Fittler, and Ashley Harrison a representative quality lock who was by far the best player at Souths and most likely the single reason they ever won any games.

NBA - Kobe Bryant's 62 in 3

Well it's still 2005. Amazing effort from a brilliant player who suffers from some bizarre American form of jealousy that makes him nationally hated for no apparent reason. Of course the reasons seem legit to those who do hate him, I mean, how dare he strut around like he's a good player?!? Who does he think he is, Jerry Stackhouse??

Cricket - After losing The Ashes, Australia crush the World XI

In a match designed to pit the best players from around the World against the best team in the World, alot of talk before the series was that Australia weren't the World super power they once were having lost The Ashes against England only a couple of weeks beforehand. The English were still beating their sunburnt chests over the win, and all of the English players who made it onto the World XI side seemed a bit too pleased with themselves. Thankfully the cricket actually started and Australia molested the World XI like they were a 5 year old girl at a birthday party. It was really... really ugly.

That's all I can think of for now...

Honourable Mentions:

West Tigers winning the NRL premiership
Newcastle Knights going 13 matches without a win
Andrew Bogut killing TD in the 4th Q and subsequentially winning the game
Lamar Odom occassionally resembling a basketballer
Sydney Swans winning the AFL premiership
Sydney Kings dominating the NBL

[Axel]

No favorite sports moment for me. Just a memorable one, watching my team, the Atlanta Braves lose yet again in the division series.

[Andrew]

NBA - Andrew Bogut being drafted #1

The pure fact that he actually made the news on every commercial TV station over here says it all. This basketballing black hole of a country really needed a kick up the ass to try and expand the game to where it should be, and Bogut is a huge first step. Once he starts to mould into the Bucks system and consistantly puts up big numbers he'll get a shit load of attention here, since he's on the news every time he has a good game

How could I have missed that one? Definitely a great moment for us Aussie basketball fans.

[Jing]

any loss by the usa national teams

[Jackal]

any loss by the usa national teams

Well aren't you a regular bitch?

[ixcuincle]

4th and 9 , USC down by 3 in the 4th

With USC as dominant as they are and their long winning streak they came into Notre Dame , and almost came out with the streak broken but didn't. This was brought up by Skip Bayless on the Jim Rome Show today as "the defining moment in College Football" since a failure to convert would essentially mean the end of USC's era of dominance. But Leinart managed to convert on 4th down , and convert big as he helped lead USC deep into Notre Dame territory and set up the 1 yard qb sneak to win the game in what many consider one of the best college football games this season.

That's all I can think of right now. The only other sporting event that comes to mind that would be event of the year would be the Patroits victory over the Eagles to win a 2nd straight super bowl , and 3rd in 4 years. At that point , they were officially considered by many as a "dynasty". Even though they may not repeat this year what they did in the era of free agency and the cap remains one of the most amazing things in American sports.

[hipn]

Mos def, the NBA All-Star Weekend.

[Jing]

any loss by the usa national teams

Well aren't you a regular bitch?

what can i say? its good to see the big guys fall one in a while like in the olympics

[Rip32]

Sox winning the World Series, Air has explained why.

[Riot]

I have no good moments because it was a horrible year for Minnesota sports. I had a few fun times (like going to the Twins game vs. White Sox where Jacque Jones hit the game winning homer in the 8th) and a few Timberwolve games and what not. But overall nothing really good happened.

[Wayne]

Kobe's 62 top Dallas...haha

[cklitsie]

For me I think it's T-Mac's 13 in 30 seconds.
And Ariza over Big Ben.

[kevC]

Whoa, T-Mac's 13 in 30 is 2005, it seems so long ago. Well for me, that and the entire Astros' post season run.

[Matt]

Halftime: Ac Milan 3 - Liverpool 0
Fulltime: AC Milan 3 - Liverpool 3

Liverpool won on penalties, but it was a fantastic game, especially that dbl save from Dudek.

[Cloudy]

Shaq lose in the playoffs again.
Spurs champion, game 7, 4th quarter run.

[Matthew]

Number 1: Terrell Owens in the superbowl. All my life i grew up admiring Isiah Thomas' perfomance in game 6 of the nba finals. Up 3-2 in the series, but down in game 6 in LA, Isiah twists his ankle pretty bad. He could have easily thought "we'll its the third quarter. we're up 3-2, i should rest it and be ready for game 7." That would be the logical thing.

Instead, he goes out there and sets a NBA record for points in a quarter. (to put it in perspective, Kobe twisted his ankle in the 2000 finals and missed nearly 2 games).

That was inspirational, and alot of the time childhood memories seem to be greater than recent ones. But Terrell Owens played in the superbowl with a broken fucking ankle. How do you even put pressure on a broken leg out of a cast let alone run with it let alone play maybe the fastest and most physically demanding team sport in the world on the biggest stage? He not only played, but was the Eagles best player. For him to risk his career like that for Philly, then for the Eagles to not redo his contract shows exactly what a classless organisation they are. People often talk about the ego's of professional athletes but they should look at the ego's of the team owners.

[Jackal_]

Eagles to not redo his contract shows exactly what a classless organisation they are. People often talk about the ego's of professional athletes but they should look at the ego's of the team owners.

Cmon man you can't be serious.. you call the Eagles organisation classless yet TO has class? TO's a whinin little bitch.. his ego is the size of a planet.. I agree TO did endure pain in the Superbowl.. but does that make him a better person? He's still a cock with a broken ankle or without.

[iG®]

Serbia & Montenegro qualifying for the football World Cup at No. 1.

Liverpool-Milan of course is worth of mentioning, EC hosted in S&M (don't count our result)... Can's think of any specific at the moment.

[Matthew]

Eagles to not redo his contract shows exactly what a classless organisation they are. People often talk about the ego's of professional athletes but they should look at the ego's of the team owners.

Cmon man you can't be serious.. you call the Eagles organisation classless yet TO has class? TO's a whinin little bitch.. his ego is the size of a planet.. I agree TO did endure pain in the Superbowl.. but does that make him a better person? He's still a cock with a broken ankle or without.

I wouldnt go as far as saying Owens has class, but he has alot more than the Eagles organisation. What exactly makes him a cock? He said what everyone was thinking. How could Mcnabb start to be sick in the superbowl when Owens is out there on a broken leg. Think about that for a minute... McNabb gets tired, and that hurts his performance. Owens is out there on a broken leg and yet he still was Philly's best player.

Now I'm not criticising McNabb for having a bad game. New England has a history of doing that to quaterbacks. But the media came out with that as a story to almost give McNabb a free pass as to why he stunk it up... words to the effect of "now we know why Donavon McNabb struggled so much, He was sick!".

This all leads to the offseason. Owens felt that after he rickes his career for the eagles, they should show similar loyalty to him. He asks for a restructured deal. Not more money or more years. Just the deal to be less of a back end deal. Philly says now way so it all goes public. Then the media asks him if this would be a distraction. A distraction?! This man just played a superbowl with a broken leg and him asking for a restructured deal is a distraction? So he points out (correctly) that it wasnt him who got sick in the superbowl.

The Eagles could have prevented this whole situation but instead they wanted to show the world who is boss. Great PR Philly, treat the guy who put his career on the line for you guys like he means nothing to you.

Of course T.O. did not miss camp. Of course he did play. And give Mcnabb credit too, he did play with a sports hernia for alot of the season. But this all came to a head when Owens responded to a question presented to him asking if he felt that philly would be better off with Brett Farve as qb instead of McNabb. How that could be blown so far out of the water is beyond me.

Its almost like Mcnabb had the (intentionally or not) backing of the organisation and he was treated like the spoilt little brother who could do no wrong. T.O. is the bad brother who is criticised for no matter what he says. It doesnt matter if its truthful or not.

Just to point out how fucked up the eagles are, they said T.O. had to apologise to rejoin the eagles. He did that. They didnt accept it. They must of thought "he wont apologise" then he did. The Eagles not only robbed their fans, but every fan of the NFL. He is the best WR in the league and they deactivated him. They took Hugh Douglas' side over T.O. (hugh douglas is retired and is the eagles "ambassador". what kind of bullshit is that? he has no role. he cant play, coach, scout.. ). What's Philly's record since they deactivated Owens? 1-5? Somtimes you get what you deserve.

[Jackal_]

Eagles to not redo his contract shows exactly what a classless organisation they are. People often talk about the ego's of professional athletes but they should look at the ego's of the team owners.

Cmon man you can't be serious.. you call the Eagles organisation classless yet TO has class? TO's a whinin little bitch.. his ego is the size of a planet.. I agree TO did endure pain in the Superbowl.. but does that make him a better person? He's still a cock with a broken ankle or without.

I wouldnt go as far as saying Owens has class, but he has alot more than the Eagles organisation. What exactly makes him a cock? He said what everyone was thinking. How could Mcnabb start to be sick in the superbowl when Owens is out there on a broken leg. Think about that for a minute... McNabb gets tired, and that hurts his performance. Owens is out there on a broken leg and yet he still was Philly's best player.

Now I'm not criticising McNabb for having a bad game. New England has a history of doing that to quaterbacks. But the media came out with that as a story to almost give McNabb a free pass as to why he stunk it up... words to the effect of "now we know why Donavon McNabb struggled so much, He was sick!".

This all leads to the offseason. Owens felt that after he rickes his career for the eagles, they should show similar loyalty to him. He asks for a restructured deal. Not more money or more years. Just the deal to be less of a back end deal. Philly says now way so it all goes public. Then the media asks him if this would be a distraction. A distraction?! This man just played a superbowl with a broken leg and him asking for a restructured deal is a distraction? So he points out (correctly) that it wasnt him who got sick in the superbowl.

The Eagles could have prevented this whole situation but instead they wanted to show the world who is boss. Great PR Philly, treat the guy who put his career on the line for you guys like he means nothing to you.

Of course T.O. did not miss camp. Of course he did play. And give Mcnabb credit too, he did play with a sports hernia for alot of the season. But this all came to a head when Owens responded to a question presented to him asking if he felt that philly would be better off with Brett Farve as qb instead of McNabb. How that could be blown so far out of the water is beyond me.

Its almost like Mcnabb had the (intentionally or not) backing of the organisation and he was treated like the spoilt little brother who could do no wrong. T.O. is the bad brother who is criticised for no matter what he says. It doesnt matter if its truthful or not.

Just to point out how fucked up the eagles are, they said T.O. had to apologise to rejoin the eagles. He did that. They didnt accept it. They must of thought "he wont apologise" then he did. The Eagles not only robbed their fans, but every fan of the NFL. He is the best WR in the league and they deactivated him. They took Hugh Douglas' side over T.O. (hugh douglas is retired and is the eagles "ambassador". what kind of bullshit is that? he has no role. he cant play, coach, scout.. ). What's Philly's record since they deactivated Owens? 1-5? Somtimes you get what you deserve.

But man, I used to think the same when it came to "He's saying what he thinks" .. but I think that's wrong in a way too.. there should be a filter between his mouth and his mind.

The Eagles organisation had told the press that TO would be allowed to rejoin the eagles yes.. but that apology was pathetic.. his agent took the spotlight. TO had a 1 minute part in the whole thing I think.. he just sat back and let his agent do all the talking. I think that was a fair indicator that he didn't really mean what he said.

Is TO a good athlete.. yes he's a phenomenal athlete.. Is TO a player young athletes should look up to? NO. He's bringing out the politics in sports.. there's times where you have to hushup and play.. no matter what the situation is.. you're paid to play the game.. not tangle with the QB when the camera's arent looking.

Personally I blame McNabb aswell.. but he did the same thing as TO .. just the smarter way.. he took his problems with TO to the organisation.. not to the media. As soon as you let loose on the media you've just dug your own grave.

[ixcuincle]

I'm with Andrew on this one , kind of. I don't like what TO did , starting fights with Hugh Douglas and threatening to fight teammates. I don't like how he didn't get along with Donovan McNabb. But the Eagles risk a possible winning season by suspending and releasing a superstar wide receiver? The Eagles should have known what mess they were getting into when they got him. Maybe if Donovan didn't get hurt and require surgery , and T.O. was still on the team , the Eagles might have a slight chance of going to the playoffs. Unfortunately they suspended him , and then Donovan went out , and now their season is a complete joke. It's a real pity the sub-par Eagles will be walloped by the Redskins this Sunday.

The thing is , the future looks questionable. Even if McNabb comes back from surgery next year and is playing again , who is going to replace the athleticism or talent of TO? Remember the Eagles went to 3 straight NFC Championships without T.O. , how many of them did they win? None.

And a hilarious note about the apology. At Terrell Owens' birthday party several Eagles players were with him at Atlantic City. As he blew out the candles on his cake , he yelled what is probably one of the most hilarious things ever in "I AIN'T GONNA LET NOBODY CHANGE ME!"

[j.23]

Steve Nash wins the MVP

personal favourite of mine because he hails from the same province as I. i'm really proud of the guy considering british columbia is crazy about their hockey, yet somehow steve nash managed to get people to talk about basketball (at least for a little bit) once again.

Robert Horry's performance in Game 5 of the NBA Finals

out of all the robert horry playoff performances, this may very well be my favourite one. the clutch three's, the dunks, he brought everything to the table and bailed tim duncan out big time. magnificient game by a very clutch player with ice cold veins.

Allen Iverson scores 60 points

just a little bit under 6 feet, 165 pounds -- 60 points?! remarkable performance. i honestly don't think we'll see another player of his stature with his scoring ability for a long, long time. (and by that i don't mean people that play the point guard spot, i'm talking about people that are relatively his size.)