Congratulations to the Boston Celtics for winning the NBA championship and the Florida Panthers for winning the NHL’s Stanley Cup.
We have now officially entered the annual summer lull in North American team sports. With the NFL’s training camps still being more than a month away, only major league baseball, among the four traditional North American team sports, is active. Perhaps this summer lull will provide an opportunity for the fifth team sport—soccer—to ride the coattails of the surrealistically talented Lionel Messi to greater popularity.
The storied Celtics franchise won the NBA championship for an astounding 18th time, prevailing over the Dallas Mavericks four games to one. Sports fans saw the same basic pattern that played out in both the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball championships in April: The team that had the best player (Mavs superstar Luka Doncic) lost to the more balanced team. Once again, while superstars are exciting to watch, the bottom line is that basketball truly is a team sport.
The Stanley Cup finals between Florida and the Edmonton Oilers was one for the ages. The Panthers had been impressive in defeating two powerful teams—first the Boston Bruins and then the New York Rangers—on the way to the final round.
The Oilers’ journey to the finals was even more dramatic. In October and November 2023, the Oilers got off to a horrendous start in the regular season, losing 10 of their first 13 games. At that point, the management of the Oilers made what has turned out to be a brilliant move. They fired the team’s coaching staff and brought in Kris Knoblauch, who had never been a head coach in the NHL before. The Oilers quickly got untracked, winning 26 of their next 32 games.
The Oilers’ resilience continued during the playoffs. In the second round, the Oilers were down three games to two to the Vancouver Canucks, who had finished above the Oilers in the regular season standings, but the Oilers rallied to win the last two games. In the third round, the Oilers faced a Dallas Stars team that had looked unbeatable in the previous round. Once again, the Oilers fell behind, this time two games to one, only to suddenly overwhelm the Stars and reel off three straight victories to advance to the final round.
In the finals, the Panthers raced off to a three-games-to-zero lead. Once again, though, the Oilers rallied, winning the next three games. Were they a team of destiny? It definitely appeared that way, as they were on the verge of becoming only the second NHL team in history to win a Stanley Cup final after losing the first three games.
Alas, it was not to be. Momentum in sports and the bounces of a hockey puck are both very fickle things. Florida carried a 2–1 lead into the third period. The Oilers then mounted a furious effort, buzzing the Panthers’ goal, but they just couldn’t quite get the puck into the net, and the game ended with the score unchanged.
The Panthers–Oilers final will be remembered by hockey fans for a long time. It was one of those years when an impartial observer such as yours truly could say, “It’s a shame one of those teams had to lose.” As it is, I am happy for the Florida team, because they had never won the Stanley Cup before. I am also happy for their head coach, Paul Maurice, who no longer will be known as the NHL coach who has coached the most games in his career without having won the Stanley Cup.
Individual Sports
Pardon me for the jarring transition, but let’s take a quick look at individual professional sports. Both tennis and golf crowned champions in May and June—a mixture of new and repeating champions.The men’s French Open tennis tournament may have witnessed the changing of the guard to younger champions after many years of dominance by Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic. Federer has retired; 14-time winner (yes, 14!) Nadal, battling age and injuries, lost to eventual runner-up Alexander Zverev in the opening round, and the GOAT, Djokovic, had to withdraw partway through the tournament with a knee injury that required surgery. The winner was Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz (maybe they should call this tournament the Spanish Open, since Spaniards win it so often), who, having just turned 21, has already won three of tennis’s four grand slam tournaments. On the women’s side, Poland’s Iga Swiatek won in dominant fashion. At the tender age of 23, she has already won the French Open four times.
In golf, American Xander Schauffele won his first major title at the PGA Championship in May, and fellow American Bryson DeChambeau won his second U.S. Open Tournament this month. Both were suspenseful matches. Schauffele won by one stroke, scoring a birdie on the last hole to finish 21 under par for 72 holes—the best-ever score in the history of golf’s four major tournaments. DeChambeau likewise won by one shot following a nerve-wracking final few holes when he blew a putt of less than four feet only to have the runner-up, Rory McIlroy, make the same mistake twice.
There were plenty of thrills for us sports fans in the first half of 2024. Now let’s see what the second half of the year gives us!
