Women’s basketball has undoubtedly seen a rise in popularity this year. Whether it’s the ‘Caitlin Clark’ effect, or any of the other interesting storylines in the league, women’s sports, especially basketball, have gotten a lot of attention. This year’s WNBA Draft was the highest watched since 2004 when Diana Taurasi was drafted. The 2024 draft class included big names like Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, Rickea Jackson, Kamilla Cardoso, Aliyah Edwards, Kate Martin, and more. Only being a little over 25 years old, the WNBA is growing every day. This year, the league was able to pay for private flights for some teams and has new teams coming in the future, with one causing an expansion draft to be held. The All-Star game this year was between the All-Stars and Team USA. At the Olympics, the women took gold, but against the new talent, they lost 109-117. The WNBA finals were between the Minnesota Lynx and the New York Liberty. The Las Vegas Aces were looking for a three-peat but fell short to New York, who took home a victory during game 5.

New and old fans of boxing were united for the match between Jake Paul, YouTuber and online star, and Mike Tyson, heavyweight champion. This was the first time since his retirement in 2005 that Mike Tyson has professionally entered a ring. The event streamed live on Netflix, and peaked at 65 million concurrent streams, with 108 million live global viewers. Leading up to the event, hype was built up for the fight because of the weigh ins. This heavyweight title fight took place in Arlington, Texas, at the AT&T Stadium. After eight rounds, Jake Paul was chosen as the unanimous champion. At 58 years old, Mike Tyson is still showing just how influential he is in the sports world, garnering a lot of attention for this matchup, and debates on who would win.

Lebron and Bronny James – This father son duo made history by becoming the first to play simultaneously in the league. Not only did they play at the same time, but they also played on the same team after Bronny was drafted 55 overall in the 2024 draft by the Los Angeles Lakes. Bronny James, 20 years old, played for USC, but averaged a low number of points due to missing the start of the season because of health problems. The Lakers still saw his potential, and the historic value of this, so they drafted him. He made his debut during preseason, but unfortunately after 7 games, he was sent to play for the South Bay Lakers, the G League affiliated with the Lakers. Bronny has found success with this team, scoring 30 points in a recent game, and has brought attention to the G League.

The Boston Celtics became the NBA team with the most championship titles in 2024, with 18. They were previously tied with the Los Angeles Lakers. The Celtics started with a 3-0 lead, but lost game 4 84-122. However, in game 5, the Celtics beat the Dallas Mavericks 106-88 at home in TD Arena, securing their win. Jayson Tatum scored 31 points that night, and had 11 assists and 8 rebounds, almost giving him a triple double. Finals MVP Jalen Brown scored 21 points. Head coach Joe Mazzulla became one of the youngest coaches to lead a team to a championship, at 35. Boston finished 80-21 this past season, giving them the second highest win percentage for a season in the league, only behind the 1985-86 Celtics. Jayson Tatum took his opportunity to recreate iconic championship moments from NBA legends like Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, and Lebron James.

Following their Super Bowl 57 win over the Philadelphia Eagles, the Kansas City Chiefs made it to Super Bowl 58, aiming for their fourth ring, and second win in a row. The Chiefs beat the Dolphins, Bills, and Ravens to advance to the big game, which took place on February 11th, at Allegient Stadium in Las Vegas. The 12-5 49ers, looking for their sixth ring, put up a fight against Kansas City, making the score at the end of the 4th quarter 19-19, and causing the game to go into overtime. In 58 years, this is only the second time a Super Bowl game has gone into overtime (Super Bowl 51 – Patriots vs. Chiefs). On top of the rare overtime, it shocked viewers when San Francisco chose to have the first possession of overtime after winning the coin toss, because of the new rules that allows each team a chance to have the ball and score. The final score was 22-25. Kansas City celebrated the dynasty they’ve built with coach Andy Reid and quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who also won MVP, along with tight end Travis Kelce, who brought in a new demographic of viewers during the season due to his relationship with Taylor Swift.

The Panthers Win the 2024 Stanley Cup – The 2024 Stanley Cup featured the Florida Panthers and the Edmonton Oilers, in what was the longest NHL season ever, ending on June 24th, 2024. After having a 3-0 lead, the Oilers tied the series 3-3, forcing a game seven. Held at home for Florida Amerant Bank Arena, game seven ended with a score of 2-1. It was the first in franchise history, and the Panthers celebrated victoriously on the ice. With a total of 42 points, 8 goals and 32 assists, Connor Mcdavid won the finals MVP. Mcdavid set the record for assists in the post season and is only the sixth player from a losing team to win MVP. The NBA championship was also taking place at the same time, and former classmates Matthew Tkachuk and Jayson Tatum, for the Boston Celtics, celebrated their championship wins, giving the news a new storyline to talk about.

Arizonans were shocked when the Arizona Coyotes announced they would be relocating to Utah. Due to a delay in building an arena for the Coyotes, they had been playing in Mullet Arena, and didn’t plan to have a home until 2027. The league started to find someone to sell the Coyotes to due to Alex Meruelo’s inability to find an arena, and Ryan and Ashely Smith, also owners of Utah Jazz bought the team for $1.2 billion. The Coyotes played their final game in Mullet arena, winning against the Edmonton Oilers, and it was history after that. The team relocated to Utah and is under the temporary name of Utah Hockey Club.

The Olympics – 2024 was already expected to be a big sports year because of the Olympics, held in Paris, France. Since last year’s games took place during the pandemic, there was more hype this year, and a large number of in-person attendees, as well as live viewers. Team USA took gold in many sports, with track and field being a big event this year. In a photo finish, Noah Lyles became the fastest man in the world by .0005 of a second. Gymnastics also saw a large number of medals between Simone Biles, Sunni Lee, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey, and Hezley Rivera, who got gold for the team. Stephen Nedoroscik became a popular figure in the media for getting bronze in his specialty, pommel horse, and helping secure the first medal, bronze, since 2008 for the men’s team. For swimming, Katie Ledecky took gold for the fourth time in the 800m freestyle, becoming the first woman to have a four-peat in an individual event. The men’s and women’s basketball team both took gold. The Olympics could be its own top 10, as it dominated the sports world during the summer.

This year’s World Series featured an iconic matchup between the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers. A battle between the East and West coast, this series was highly anticipated. The Dodgers won their 8th world series after beating the Yankees at home during game five with a score of 7-6. They had a five-run comeback in this game, making it the largest comeback to clinch a World Series in history. LA won the World Series in 2020, breaking a 32-year drought, and with this win in 2024, they were able to silence the people criticizing the COVID season. Freddie Freeman was the MVP winner, who contributed the first ever walk-off grand slam in the World Series. The Dodgers also recently signed a historic 10-year $700 million dollar contract with Shohei Ohtani, which proved to be valuable with his performances throughout the year.

F1 Racing – The sport of Formula 1 racing has attracted more attention this year because of the interesting events. The Netflix original docuseries “Formula 1: Drive to Survive”, has also brought in a new wave of fans because of the new seasons coming out each year about the previous season. For 2024, Lewis Hamilton, who has been racing with Mercedes for 12 years and won 7 titles with them, is moving to Ferrari. News also broke thar Carlos Sainz, following his injuries, would be leaving Ferrari. Due to his injuries, Ferrari had to call in 18-year-old reserve driver Oliver Bearman. In the Driver’s World Championships, it was a close race between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, but ultimately Max Verstappen won. This year the Constructor’s Cup took place in Abu Dhabi, and for the first time since 1998, McLaren-Mercedes won.