Top Ten Sports Stories 2016 - #1

The Chicago Cubs win the World Series

The most epic drought in sports history is over, and the Cubs are world champions.

After 108 years of waiting, the Cubs won the 2016 World Series with a wild 8-7, 10-inning Game 7 victory over the Indians on Wednesday night at Progressive Field. The triumph completed their climb back from a 3-1 Series deficit to claim their first championship since 1908.

A roller-coaster of emotions spilled out in a game that lasted almost five hours, featuring some wacky plays, a blown four-run lead, a 17-minute rain delay and some 10th inning heroics that sealed the deal.

Top Ten Sports Stories 2016 - #2

LeBron brings a title to Cleveland

Even though he's one of the five greatest basketball players of all time, LeBron James, until June, never had his signature moment, his defining play, his crowning achievement. Now he does.

Top Ten Sports Stories 2016 - #3

Colin Kaepernick Starts a Conversation

What might end up being forgotten about the 49ers quarterback's anthem protest is that no one even noticed it for a couple of games, until NFL.com reporter Steve Wyche happened to see Kaepernick sitting on the sidelines of an exhibition game and decided to ask him about it. Thus was a political movement born, and a million hot takes ignited. The election of Donald Trump two months later did little to quell the fire. Expect more of this in the coming years, not less.

Top Ten Sports Stories 2016 - #4

The Rio Olympic heroes

Everybody has their favorite. Usain Bolt. Simone Biles. Michael Phelps and his victorious scowl. But for my money, the most amazing athlete was Katie Ledecky, who was so dominant that she made all her opponents look like they were playing a different, more rudimentary sport all together.

Top Ten Sports Stories 2016 - #5

Muhammad Ali dies

There were many legends to die this year (Arnold Palmer, Pat Summitt, Gordie Howe), but Ali might have been the most influential, important American athlete since Babe Ruth. 

Top Ten Sports Stories 2016 - #6

Villanova wins the best title game ever

It was the first buzzer-beating shot to win an N.C.A.A. men’s national title since Lorenzo Charles’s dunk for North Carolina State in 1983, and the first title game to end on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer.

Top Ten Sports Stories 2016 - #7

Leicester City pulls off the most amazing upset championship ever

It's difficult to overstate how unlikely their Premier League title was, and it's only this high up the list because there was no Big Dramatic Moment that clinched it for them. But I don't think those Leicester fans minded.

Top Ten Sports Stories 2016 - #8

Jose Fernandez is killed in a boat crash

 Fernandez wasn't just an amazing pitcher; he was a bridge to the next generation of baseball fandom, a player who had an unabashed exuberance and joy for the game and wasn't afraid to express it. When you thought of baseball at its best, and what it still could be, you thought of Fernandez. His loss remains inexplicable. And Dee Gordon's home run in the Marlins' first game after Fernandez's death, with the whole team wearing his number, is one of the game's more emotional moments in recent memory.

Top Ten Sports Stories 2016 - #9

Kevin Durant chooses the Warriors.

One of the best five players in the game decides to join the best team in the game rather than trying to beat them, leading to all sorts of angry old white men having all sorts of thoughts about "loyalty" and "competitiveness" and "Michael Jordan wouldn't have!" What Durant's decision, which might end up being bigger than LeBron's big decision ever was, did was assert more than ever that this is a players' league, and that superstars rule the world. So much so, in fact, that the CBA, signed in December, might have been in large part a direct result of Durant's July 4th move. Plus: The Warriors are pretty amazing to watch now!

Top Ten Sports Stories 2016 - #10

Peyton Manning's career ends in the weirdest way possible

In the span of 40 days, Peyton Manning: 

• Was accused of using PEDs.
• Won his old job back from a guy who, one year later, would be benched in favor of someone named Tom Savage.
• Played pretty terribly.
• Won a Super Bowl anyway, allowing him to have the John Elway walk-off despite barely being able to throw a ball farther than 10 yards.
• Retired a champion.