By KOREY DEBEER 1/21/2021
In the last year, professional and amateur sports faced challenges that were essentially unheard of. With Covid-19 rampaging across the globe, athletes and audiences were forced to isolate. Although almost all leagues ground to a halt, many were able to show resilience to resume and finish their seasons.
Even before the pandemic struck, 2020 started as an eventful year. On January 13th, Heisman winner Joe Burrow led #1 LSU over #3 Clemson in dominating fashion and leading the Tigers to the National Championship. That same day the Astros were accused of sign-stealing during their 2017 world series run. On January 25th, Lebron James had passed Kobe Bryant for 3rd on the all-time scoring list. The very next day, the unthinkable happened: Kobe Bryant, his daughter and 7 others were killed in a helicopter crash on the way to his daughter's basketball game. The basketball world mourned this unreal tragedy and the city of L.A. was devastated.
On February 2nd, the Kansas City Chiefs, led by 2018 NFL MVP Patrick Mahomes, won the Super bowl as they beat the San Francisco 49ers 31-20. The Chiefs capped off a remarkable postseason as they won all three of their games when down by 10 points or more. The NBA all-star game was one to remember as they honored Kobe and played one of the most competitive games in recent memory. On February 8th, we had one of the best Duke-UNC basketball games of all time. Duke won by 2 in overtime on a buzzer-beater and a buzzer-beater to force overtime. Duke-UNC is regarded as the best college basketball rivalry ever.
In March, everything changed, starting with Utah Jazz player Rudy Gobert testing positive for COVID-19. The NBA was forced to suspend their season that night. This caused one of the craziests domino effects in sports. By March 13th, the MLB, NCAA, NHL, MLS had suspended, or canceled their championships, and seasons. The New York Post headlined it: “The Day the Sports World Stopped.”
These left measures left leagues scrambling for ways to return. Most announced plans in May or June: they would require strict protocols in order to prevent the athletes from getting the virus. However, some major events ended up being canceled altogether or postponed to the following year,such as the Olympics and the European soccer cup.
Finally, after 134 days of non-major sports playing, The MLB finally resumed on July 24th. Within that week the NBA, NHL, and NFL resumed or started their activities. In the WNBA, players of the Atlanta Dream wore “Vote Warnock” shirts in order to promote Raphael Warnock’s race for the senate. He would go up against Dream co-owner Kelly Loeffler, a Republican senator from the state of Georgia. Loeffler criticized the Black Lives Matter Movement in the WNBA. Warnock would later win the race. The Washington Redskins announced that they would drop their nickname for the upcoming NFL season, they would be called the Washington Football Team.
The Milwaukee Bucks decided to not play their Game 5 game against the Orlando Magic, in protest to the shooting of Jacob Blake. Every other major sport followed by passing for the next two days in protest to the shooting. The NBA, MLB, and NHL seasons rolled on.
On September 15th, the Denver Nuggets became the first NBA team to overcome two 3-1 leads in a single playoffs. They beat the Utah Jazz and the Los Angeles Clippers 4 games to 3 after being down 3 games to 1. However, they would lose in the next round. On September 28th, the Tampa Bay Lightning won the Stanley Cup finals beating the Dallas Stars 4 games to 2.