2015 Sports Year in Review

Happy New Year to all. On December 30th, I published an article discussing the best and worst of 2015 in Pittsburgh sports http://joesmeltzer775.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-best-and-worst-of-2015-in.html. Now, I will go even further by breaking down what went on in all sports with my ''awards''. Unlike my first article, these will all be positive. Let's get into it.

Best Team: Golden State Warriors

Photo creds to celebrity.baby.com

NBA title in June. 30-2 start from October-December. Yes, 2015 has been quite kind to the Warriors. A lot of teams accomplished great feats in 2015, but none has made history quite like Golden State has. The Dubs have taken the NBA by storm, and they deserve all of the credit in the world.

Honorable Mentions: Kansas City Royals, New England Patriots, Chicago Blackhawks

Athlete of the Year: Jordan Spieth 

Photo creds to nbcdfw.com

How many golfers in the Masters era have won all four major tournaments in the same year? If you guessed 0, you are correct. Jordan Spieth almost accomplished that feat in 2015..... and he's barely old enough to drink a Budweiser. Spieth won the Masters in convincing fashion, then proceeded to edge out Dustin Johnson in the US Open. If Spieth had sunk that putt on 17 in the British Open, I reckon he would have won that sucker too. And damned if Jason Day didn't shoot -20 in the PGA Championship. What did Spieth shoot for that tournament? -17. Good enough to win most tournaments. All of the athletes that I considered for this award play individual sports, because I feel that those sports are the easiest to judge how awesome somebody truly is. Spieth is the future of golf, and could be the face that the sport has been lacking since Tiger Woods stopped winning.

Honorable Mentions: Serena Williams, Novak Djokovic, American Pharoah 

Coach of the Year: Joel Quenneville 

Photo creds to www.nytimes.com

There might be a coach in American sports who is more under-appreciated, but I can't think of one. Quenneville's Blackhawks are the closest thing that America has to a sports dynasty, as they won their 3rd Stanley Cup in the past five years in 2015, defeating the Tampa Bay Lightning in 6 games. The Stanley Cup is, in my mind, the hardest championship in team sports to win, and the fact that the Blackhawks are tied with the San Francisco Giants for the most titles of any team in the four major sports since 2010 is simply incredible. Unfortunately, because the NHL is the least popular of the four major American sports (sorry hockey fans, it's true), Quenneville does not get the recognition that he deserves for his brilliance. Even for those who do not follow hockey, you should know Quenneville's name and realize that he is a winner. Plenty of coaches won championships in 2015, but Coach Q has the edge over all of them because of what he has done in the past five years.

Honorable Mentions: Ned Yost, Geno Auriemma, Coach K, Bill Belichick 

Game of the Year: Superbowl XLIX

Photo creds to q13fox.com

An instant classic. There were just so many things to love about this game. It was the football equivalent to a Heavyweight title fight, as the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks truly were the best teams in the AFC and NFC respectively. Seattle was looking to repeat as champs, which is a very special occurrence, and it was even more special because the greatest quarterback in league history was standing in their way. The game was already a classic before Seattle's final possession, as Tom Brady rallied his troops from a 10-point fourth quarter deficit and gave them a 28-24 lead at the 2:00 warning. Everybody remembers how the game ended, but what might be forgotten is the play that set the stage for the picture above. It was a catch by Jermaine Kearse that put the ball on the five-yard line, but you'd have to see it to believe it, and you can do just that by fast-forwarding to about 3:24 on the video below the picture. Had Pete Carroll not been a complete dolt, that would have gone down as one of the greatest plays in football history. But after the Seahawks moved the ball down to the New England 1,  Carroll was a dolt, and called a pass play on the one-yard line, even though he had one of the best running backs in the NFL to give the ball to. We all should remember what happened next. Russell Wilson gets picked off by undrafted rookie Malcolm Butler, and the Pats get their 4th Superbowl Ring.  Because of all that was at stake as well as the quality of play, Seahawks-Patriots is an easy choice for my game of the year. 

Honorable Mentions: Kentucky-Wisconsin, Rangers-Blue Jays (Game 5 of ALDS), NFC Title Game

Breakout Athlete of the Year: American Pharoah 

Photo creds to www.cnn.com

Yes, my breakout athlete is three years old and not a human. But, he is also a beast. American Pharoah became the first horse to win the ''Triple Crown''(Kentucky Derby, Preakness, Belmont) since 1978. Winning the Triple Crown is one of the hardest things to do in all of sports, human or horse, and God knows when we will see something like this again. Another reason I'm giving Pharoah some love is because I know he won't shove his accomplishments in anybody's face. 

Honorable Mentions: Jordan Spieth, Kris Bryant, Jake Arrieta, Josh Norman

Biggest One-Minute Sensation: Matthew Dellavedova 

photo creds to www.huffingtonpost.com

Delly! Delly! Delly! Delly! Yes, this man played two good games in the NBA Finals and gave Steph Curry fits. Fair enough. But fans started to believe that this un-drafted free agent from St. Mary's owned the NBA MVP. Then Game 5 happened. Curry did what Curry does, the Warriors won the title in Game 6, and Cavs fans made lots and lots of excuses. Fast forward six months and Delly is back to being his 8 PPG self.

Photo creds to www.wsj.com

Upset of the Year: Wisconsin over Kentucky in National Semifinal
Who envisioned Kentucky losing to anybody? These guys were scary. So much so, that early last season, one of my friends compared them to the monstars from the movie ''Spacejam'', and he wasn't too far off. Almost everybody on that team looked like a giant. The Cats came into their Final Four matchup with Wisconsin with a 38-0 record and six players that are currently in the NBA. I estimate that coming into the NCAA Tournament, 90% of people who were picking their brackets either
A. Picked Kentucky to win it all
B. Were hoping Kentucky would lose and picked somebody else based on that.

It was all in the cards for UK to go 40-0 and win the National Title. Except that it wasn't. Wisconsin was supposed to be the next victim in the Final Four. But Bucky played a nearly flawless game and hung on for a 71-64 win. How shocking was Wisconsin's win? All five of Kentucky's starters on that night are currently in the NBA while Wisconsin's starters included a guy who is playing in Germany (Josh Gasser) and a guy who is playing nowhere professionally (Bronson Koenig).

Honorable Mentions: Holm beats Rousey, Ohio State beats Alabama, UAB over Iowa State

Play of the Year: Jalen Watts-Jackson beats Michigan 
If this happened in a Division III game, it would be incredible. But the fact that it happened in one of the game's most historic rivalries and ended up helping a team to the College Football Playoff makes this play a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. The only way you will ever see anything like this again is by watching the replay.

Honorable Mentions: Malcolm Butler INT, Aaron Rodgers Hail Mary, any ending to a game involving the Nebraska Cornhuskers, R.J. Hunter Buzzer Beater against Baylor


Emotional Moment of the Year
http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/12/the-10-most-emotional-sports-moments-of-the-year
Would hate to single one of these out over another. USA Today sums it up better than I ever could. Enjoy the article.

Story of the Year: Deflate-gate

Photo creds to localsonly401.com

This story dominated the headlines for eight months. It was full of twists and turns, and it just would not die. I was sick of hearing about it, but its significance can't be denied. We should all know the tale of the New England Patriots allegedly under-inflating their footballs during the AFC Championship Game against the Colts. Opinions were divided. Did New England cheat? Was their title tainted? Was it simply mother nature? My opinion on this matter would require a separate blog post. Long story short, Tom Brady was suspended for four games, fought the suspension for months, and finally won in court. It's a long, weird, crazy story, and it dominated the headlines more than any other in 2015.

Thank you for reading, and have a blessed 2016.