Hot Clicks 100: The Best Stories, Tweets and Videos of 2020
Of all the jobs to have in 2020, sportswriter was a relatively easy one. It’s far from what anyone could reasonably consider essential, and it comes with the luxury of being able to choose a desk, a couch or a bed as the day’s office. Inexplicably, even during the dark days of the spring and early summer when there were no major sports happening in North America, writing a daily sports column managed to not be impossible.
I spent the last few weeks of the year going back through every Hot Clicks of 2020 to pick out my 100 favorite items. (Boy, was it weird to relive the pandemic that way.) Though this was undoubtedly the worst year to be online, I still had no trouble finding a long list of things to feature here. Whittling it down to 100 proved difficult.
This will always be remembered as the year a pandemic threw the world off its axis, but there were so many other things that made it memorable. It was the year LeBron won his first title in Los Angeles (well, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.). It was when an ESPN documentary became the biggest television event of the year. It was also when a cricket batsman hit himself in the nuts. Below are the 100 things that I most enjoyed sharing with our readers. (They’re not listed in any particular order, but they are numbered to prove there are actually 100.)
100. Robbie Anderson was very confused about his new team’s mascot
99. The Mavs turned their balconies into a club during their initial quarantine period in the NBA bubble
98. The Bucks’ G League coach went on an epic rant after his team blew a 28-point lead in the final quarter
97. A Canadian Family Feud contestant answered a question very confidently but very wrongly
96. A guy announcing a Minnesota high school basketball game made a joke about his broadcast partner’s dead dog
95. Joey Votto explained why the shirt gifted to him by the Reds’ clubhouse attendants is one of his most prized possessions
94. Dr. Dre helped produce an amazing video tribute to Kobe Bryant before the All-Star Game
93. Daniel Jones broke a huge run but tripped over his own feet
92. Alex Trebek announced the Senators’ first-round draft pick
91. A Dutch train that derailed was saved from plummeting 30 feet by a statue of a whale’s tail
90. A Hungarian hockey player leapt into the glass to celebrate a goal and crashed through it
(A photographer was fortunately stationed in the right place and got some amazing photos.)
89. Clemson’s Andrew Booth Jr. made an absurd one-handed interception
88. Wildfires in California made for a spooky backdrop to baseball games in the Bay Area
87. Joe Kelly broke a window during a backyard bullpen session
86. A news reporter got a little too up close and personal with a bison
85. Bobby Ryan scored a hat trick in his first game back after seeking help for substance use
84. A bunch of New Yorkers came together to lift up a car that ran over a woman
83. After Kobe Bryant died, this video recirculated of Kobe's reuniting with his high school point guard
82. The day after the NBA season suspension, the Big East tournament got canceled in the middle of a game
Mike Watts, the PA announcer who notified the crowd of the decision (and whom I spent many a long van ride with on trips to Patriot League football games), was back at MSG nine months later as the Big East resumed play.
