What's the most heartbreaking sporting event you've ever experinced?

[jlip]

Easily the 2008 NCAA Championship

Born and raised in Memphis I've been a fan of the University of Memphis since the early 80's. I wasn't born when the school went to the national title game in 1973 where Bill Walton basically had the greatest championship game in history and destroyed our team. I was in elementary when we went to the Final Four in 1985 but still vividly remember the team. I was in between middle and high school during the Penny years and saw us go to the Elite Eight with him. Then after graduating from there, I became an adjunct professor there in 2003. So my entire basketball devotion on a college level was to the school.

So in 2008 with Derrick Rose, we had finally made it to the championship game again in my lifetime. We're up three with like 10 seconds to go, and Kansas has to drive the full length of the court. I'm watching the TV yelling, "Foul as soon as they cross the half court line!" No one fouls, and Mario Chalmers hits the game tying three pointer to send the game into OT. I knew we were going to lose after that. I was hurt!

[Im Still Ballin]

KB tearing his achilles after putting in all that effort to keep the 2013 season alive. Basically ended his career and put the Lakers into tank mode for 4 years. Me (and most Laker fans) before that game believed they could make a run as they were a top 5 team post-ASB with KB and Dwight peaking at the right time in March/April.

I just checked the numbers on that. 20-8 W/L - 58.6 win-pace. Not bad at all. It's a shame they drew the Spurs matchup. Had Kobe stayed healthy and they matched up with OKC in round one, they could've made it to the WCF.

[ArbitraryWater]

I just checked the numbers on that. 20-8 W/L - 58.6 win-pace. Not bad at all. It's a shame they drew the Spurs matchup. Had Kobe stayed healthy and they matched up with OKC in round one, they could've made it to the WCF.

That was an infamous run full of whistles and obvious rigjobs. The fix was in. Ive never seen anything like it for such a sustained amount of time.

This could honestly make one of the most shocking documentaries ever, because its clear there was one point where orders came down..

[Doomsday Dallas]

KB tearing his achilles after putting in all that effort to keep the 2013 season alive. Basically ended his career and put the Lakers into tank mode for 4 years. Me (and most Laker fans) before that game believed they could make a run as they were a top 5 team post-ASB with KB and Dwight peaking at the right time in March/April.

I personally feel that the Mavericks ended Kobe Bryant in 2011. 4-0 sweep of the Lakers, I was there. Lakers got obliterated into another dimension in that Game 4 and lost by 40 points... there wasn't going to be any recovery for KB after 2011.

Jason Terry went 9/10 for 3pts. Peja went 6/6 on 3pts.... Lakers & KB were obliterated into another realm.

.... and we prevented Lebron James from getting his first Ring.

[tpols]

It wasn't heart breaking to me since I'm not a fan of the team but the way the 49ers choked the superbowl looked heart breaking to the players sitting cold and stoic with confetti falling on their heads as the Chiefs won yet again.

[Doomsday Dallas]

It wasn't heart breaking to me since I'm not a fan of the team but the way the 49ers choked the superbowl looked heart breaking to the players sitting cold and stoic with confetti falling on their heads as the Chiefs won yet again.

idk... I felt bad for Detroit.

Lions have never been to the Super Bowl and they were up by 3 scores going into the 2nd half (17 points)...

For a city that has never been to the SB.... that's some heartbreaking $hit right there.



The Bay Area has the Golden State Warriors... people in SF are only a few years removed from celebrating 4 NBA championships from 2015-2022, and 3 World Series victories from 2010-2014.

That city should not be winning Super Bowls on top of that... it was for the greater good that SF lost this year, 2019, and in 2012.

[tpols]

idk... I felt bad for Detroit.

Lions have never been to the Super Bowl and they were up by 3 scores going into the 2nd half (17 points)...

For a city that has never been to the SB.... that's some heartbreaking $hit right there.



The Bay Area has the Golden State Warriors... people in SF are only a few years removed from celebrating 4 NBA championships from 2015-2022, and 3 World Series victories from 2010-2014.

That city should not be winning Super Bowls on top of that... it was for the greater good that SF lost this year, 2019, and in 2012.

Looking back on it, although I thought the 49ers were the better team talent wise, I think the Lions would've had a better chance at beating the Chiefs because they have more heart and Dan Campbell wouldn't pussyfoot around playing it safe. He would've went for a knockout which is the only way you beat Mahomes and Reid. You can't beat them slow and methodical. You have to swing for the fences and take chances.

[ShawkFactory]

I mean…28-3 is tough to beat.

The World Series in 2021 helped make up for it but the Braves had 25 years of heartbreak up to that point. Always in the mix and always watching 7th or 8th inning shenanigans in swing games.

[ShawkFactory]

I'm still pissed off about that bullshit holding call in the Super bowl to effectively end the game last year.



And this shot by John Lucas Jr. to end St. Joe's perfect season led by delonte west and jameer Nelson.

That OK State/St Joes game was in the elite 8 if I recall. Georgia Tech won the final 4 game against them on a game winner. Not in the spirit of the thread but that was one of the high points of my sports watching career.

[SouBeachTalents]

That OK State/St Joes game was in the elite 8 if I recall. Georgia Tech won the final 4 game against them on a game winner. Not in the spirit of the thread but that was one of the high points of my sports watching career.

That GT season is such an anomaly when looking at their track record, they've been a consistently irrelevant program over the last 25 years outside of that one tournament run. The craziest part to me is they had Chris Bosh the year before and were playing in the NIT

[SATAN]

That All-Star game.

[Cold soul]

I'm going off my favorite pro sports teams that had heartbreak as a diehard fan.

These games stick out the most to me as (Broncos, Lakers) fan. 2005 AFCG against Pittsburgh Steelers at home - 2012 playoff loss to Baltimore Ravens on Joe Flacco hail mary just completely crushed me horrific ending I thought Denver was destined to go all the way that season. 2013 getting spanked by Seattle in the SB was a major buzzkill that soured on an amazing season with historic offense that season Peyton Manning won his 5th regular season MVP reward. Lakers 2004 loss to Detroit Pistons in the NBA Finals, Kobe tearing his achilles in 2013 that basically ended his career and Kobe we all knew and loved was done as elite player.

[ShawkFactory]

That GT season is such an anomaly when looking at their track record, they've been a consistently irrelevant program over the last 25 years outside of that one tournament run. The craziest part to me is they had Chris Bosh the year before and were playing in the NIT

There was definitely a good 2-3 year run there where there was some great continuity, depth, and veteran leadership. Jarrett Jack was an excellent college player.

GT also had some great teams in the late 80s and early-mid 90s. No championships but a couple final 4 appearances.

But yea since 2010 or so it's been pretty mid.

[ImKobe]

That was an infamous run full of whistles and obvious rigjobs. The fix was in. Ive never seen anything like it for such a sustained amount of time.

This could honestly make one of the most shocking documentaries ever, because its clear there was one point where orders came down..

Lol that's such horseshit. Dwight got intentionally fouled on a regular basis and people cried about the FTA numbers. Yeah, there were videos of some bad calls that went in Lakers' favor (like there is every damn season and you could do this with every team btw) but people ignored all the calls went in the opponents' favor. Y'all do this with with every Laker season but somehow the league hasn't been exposed for rigging it in their favor all these years. Sure. That was the same league that denied the CP3 trade for us but we don't talk about it because it doesn't fit the narrative.