Some of the best sports moments of 2026 (so far) went beyond the field of play. There were scandals, comebacks, and huge trades that threatened to reshape the landscape of a sport. The first six months of 2026 also saw the New York Knicks author one of the most thrilling postseason runs in NBA history—one that seemed to lift the spirits of a famously jaded metropolis. In the process they turned the anointed new face of the NBA into the league’s new supervillain. Also of note: the UFC invaded the White House; a former journeyman won the Super Bowl; and the Americans suddenly got good at both hockey and soccer. With the midway point of 2026 approaching, now is a good time to look back at the 20 Best Sports Moments of the Year. . . So Far.
Giannis Antetokounmpo Traded to Miami Heat
Date: June 22
The most anticlimactic big trade in NBA history was announced less than 24 hours before the 2026 NBA Draft. Ending months (years?) of speculation, intrigue, rumors, and scuttlebutt, the Milwaukee Bucks mercifully sent two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis to the Miami Heat for a package of young players (Tyler Herro, Kel’el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr., and Kasparas Jakučionis) and draft picks (no. 13 overall in 2026, unprotected firsts in 2031 and 2033, a swap, and a second round pick). Does this vault the Heat into contention? Probably not. But the deal was a win-win-win. Pat Riley has his superstar. Milwaukee got a much-needed reboot. And Giannis takes his talents to South Beach.—Thomas Golianopoulos
Kimi Antonelli’s Win Streak
Date: March 15–June 7
Kimi Antonelli, the 19-year-old Mercedes driver, entered the 2026 Formula 1 season as one of the sport’s most intriguing stars. The Italian had an up-and-down rookie campaign featuring three podium finishes but there were questions regarding his temperament and judgment (see, his crash in Austria that also took out Max Verstappen). In 2026, Antonelli erased any concerns about his driving. Antonelli backed up a second place finish in Australia with wins in China, Japan, Miami, Canada, and Monaco, before a DNF in Barcelona ended his win streak at five. As a result, Antonelli has a commanding lead in the F1 Drivers Standings over Lewis Hamilton, Verstappen, and the rest of the field. —TG
Jo Adell Robs Three Home Runs in One Game
Date: April 4
There’s an old baseball saying that goes, “If you watch baseball long enough, you’ll see something that you’ve never seen before.” Never was that truer than on April 4, 2026 when Angels right fielder Jo Adell robbed the Mariners of three home runs in a 1-0 LA victory. Adell took one away from Cal Raleigh in the first inning, Josh Naylor in the eighth inning, and JP Crawford in the ninth. The 27-year-old Adell, a Gold Glove finalist in 2024, saved his best catch for last. Crawford ripped a slider from Angels closer Jordan Romano down the right field line at Angel Stadium of Anaheim, but Adell caught it despite ending up in the stands. According to MLB.com and Statcast, Crawford’s liner would have been a home run in 23 other ballparks. —Matt Burke
Serena Williams Comeback
Date: June 9
When Serena Williams announced that the 2022 U.S. Open would be her final tournament, she insisted that it wasn’t a retirement. She was simply “evolving away from tennis.” Well, nearly four years later, the GOAT, winner of 23 Grand Slam women’s singles titles, has evolved back (devolved?) to the sport. She was always coming back—retirements in women’s tennis stick about as well as they do in pro wrestling—and WIlliams, 44, made it official this spring, announcing that she’d be playing doubles at Queen’s Club with 19-year-old Canadian phenom Victoria Mboko. Phase one ended when the team was forced to withdraw after Mboko suffered a knee injury. But Williams soon accepted a Wild Card into Wimbledon, an event where she is a seven-time champion. Don’t be surprised if the GOAT once again reigns on the grass. —TG
Caleb Williams’ Heroics in Wild Card Win Over Packers
Date: January 10
The Bears-Packers rivalry has plenty of history. One of the most entertaining chapters was written on Jan. 10, 2026 when Caleb Williams and the Bears rallied from 18 points down to beat their rivals, 31-27 in the Wild Card round of the NFL Playoffs. Williams’ 25-yard touchdown pass to DJ Moore with 1:43 remaining gave the Bears the lead and the moment instantly became one of the biggest moments in recent Chicago sports history. It was such a stunning moment that it got a rise out of noted Packers fan Lil’ Wayne, as the rapper took a shot at Williams on X: “We just loss a playoff game to a [expletive] w purple nails we fkn suk bear azz! Bare ass!!!,” Weezy wrote. “We don’t deserve to be in the playoffs. Straight like that.” Williams responded to the tweet with a snowflake emoji and a superhero emoji, before adding #DABEARS for good measure. —MB
World Baseball Classic Final, Venezuela 3 USA 2
Date: March 17
Fittingly called the World Baseball Classic, the WBC Final between the US and Venezuela proved to be an all-timer. An absolutely stacked USA lineup mustered just one hit against Venezuela’s Eduardo Rodriguez over 4 ⅓ scoreless innings. Bryce Harper briefly lifted the spirits of the Americans with a game-tying two-run bomb in the bottom of the eighth. Venezuela would not be denied its first WBC title, however, as Eugenio Suarez’s RBI double in the top of the ninth gave his country a 3-2 lead it would not relinquish.—MB
Knicks Comeback in Game 1 of the ECF
Date: May 19
Years from now, when you bring up the Knicks “Comeback Game” from the 2026 NBA Playoffs, most will zero in on Game 4 of the Finals. But diehard Knicks fans will ask, “WHICH comeback game?” The Knicks staged their initial comeback classic of the 2026 postseason in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Jalen Brunson’s crew trailed 93-71 with 7:52 left to play … but this Knicks team did what it always does—battle until the final horn. Brunson went right at the defensively-challenged James Harden time after time down the stretch. The Knicks went on an 18-1 run, and Brunson tied it at 101 when he scored with 19 seconds left in regulation. New York opened overtime on a 9-0 run, sending Madison Square Garden into delirium. The Knicks ultimately won, 115-104.—MB
Arsenal Wins the EPL
Date: May 19
When the final whistle blew to end Manchester City’s 1-1 draw with Bournemouth on the season’s penultimate matchday, Arsenal were officially champions of the Premier League. After three straight second-place finishes and a 22-year title drought, Gooners—the football fan kind—rejoiced. The trophy was theirs. And the haters? Well, they continued hating. Too many set-piece goals, they said. Too many favorable VAR decisions. Too much defensive football. Too arrogant of a manager. Hate, hate, hate. No matter. London is red, and 21 finally saw his Gunners win the Premier League. —Donnie Kwak
Indiana Wins the National Championship
Date: January 19
The LA Lakers have Jack Nicholson. The New York Knicks have Tracy Morgan and Spike Lee. The Miami Hurricanes football team has porn star Abella Danger. Ms. Danger reached the celebrity sports fan Hall of Fame during The U’s National Title game loss to Indiana back in January. With less than seven minutes to go in the game, and Miami losing, ESPN cameras cut to a visibly upset Abella, who is reportedly attending the university as a law student. A certain section of the folks watching at home immediately went to social media to discuss ESPN’s camerawork. “ESPN just cut straight from Carson Beck to Abella Danger, holy sh**,” wrote one user on X. In the end, Danger’s cameo on national television upstaged a back-and-forth game that featured an efficient performance from eventual top overall pick Fernando Mendoza and ended with Indiana’s first national championship.—MB
El Grande Americano vs. The Original El Grande Americano
Date: May 30
The most compelling feud in professional wrestling since the OG Bloodline storyline ended at WrestleMania XL was between El Grande Americano, a German wrestler (Ludwig Kaiser) pretending to be an American pretending to be a Mexican luchador, and The Original El Grande Americano, an American wrestler (Chad Gable) pretending to be a Mexican luchador. Despite the goofy premise, the angle caught fire in Lucha Libre AAA (a sister promotion of WWE), culminating in a Mask vs. Mask Lucha de Apuestas match at Noche de Los Grandes in Monterrey. The blowoff to the feud was everything that is right with pro wrestling: a physical, intense battle with high stakes before a hot crowd that resulted in a clear winner (Kaiser’s Americano) but, in the end, elevated both competitors. —TG
Jannik Sinner’s Epic Collapse at the French Open
Date: May 28
Jannik Sinner entered his second round match at the French Open against Juan Manuel Cerundolo on a 30-match winning streak, having last tasted defeat in January, a five-set loss to Novak Djokovic in the semifinals of the Australian Open. Since then, he’d won five Masters 1000 tournaments (Indian Wells, Miami, Monte Carlo, Madrid, Rome) and reclaimed the number one ranking from Carlos Alcaraz, who was missing Roland Garros with a wrist injury. He was primed for his first French Open when he ran into his toughest opponent: Mother Nature. Sinner, a -50000 favorite, wilted in the Parisian sun against Cerundolo, the no. 56 ranked player in the world, after taking a two sets to love lead and being one game away from victory. But the Italian succumbed to the heat. Suffering from dizziness and cramps, Sinner went on to lose 15 straight points and 18-of-20 games and Cerundolo shockingly won the match in five sets (3-6, 2-6, 7-5, 6-1, 6-1). —MB
Caitlin Clark Returns
Date: May 9
The biggest box office draw in the history of the WNBA is also the most polarizing player in the 30-year history of the league. Clark isn’t as good as her online Stans insist (a not-small percentage of whom ignored women’s hoops until they learned they could wage their BS culture wars through the sport). But she also isn’t some jabroni like her haters claim. Clark is a legit top 20 player in The W. And so it was exciting to see her return after injuries limited her to 13 games last season. So far, it’s been a mixed bag for the Indiana Fever sharpshooter. The good: Clark is averaging career highs in points and field goal percentage. But she still can’t defend and makes too many turnovers despite the slight statistical improvement. That last part sparked a heated sideline confrontation with Fever head coach, Stephanie White, which resulted in 48 hours of fake, algorithm-boosted trade rumors with no basis in reason or reality. —TG
Game 1, WCF: Wemby drops 41 and 24 on the road.
Date: May 18
Remember way back in May when the new 22-year-old face of the league announced his arrival? Victor Wembanyama, the 7-foot 4-inch Alien by way of Le Chesnay, had just led the Spurs to 62 regular season wins and was now in the Western Conference Finals against the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder. Game One felt like a shift in the NBA landscape—a victory for ethical hoops. Wemby was the best player on both sides of the court, dropping 41 points and 24 rebounds in the Spurs 122-115 road win over the hated foul merchant Thunder. It was Game 4 Kobe against the Pacers in 2000. LeBron against the Pistons in 2007. The NBA had its new Main Character. The Spurs would go on to win the series and make the NBA Finals against the Knicks. Wemby would go on to tank his reputation in almost every way during the five-game humiliation. But that doesn’t detract from his brilliance in Game 1 against the Thunder. That was just the start of his villain arc. —TG
USMNT World Cup Opener
Date: June 12
Heading into the 2026 World Cup, only one host nation—Qatar—had ever lost its opening game. So odds were good that the U.S. would get a result against Paraguay in its first match. However, the team’s 4-1 victory was so dominant, it had pundits debating whether or not it was the GOAT USMNT performance. Recency bias aside, consider that not only was it the most goals the U.S. has ever scored in a World Cup game, but also that the goals themselves were so … sexy. Folarin Balogun’s pair of clinical finishes and Gio Reyna’s outside-of-the-boot stoppage-time stunner are instantly all-time U.S. highlights. Shoot, even the own goal was pretty. No matter how far the USMNT go in their home World Cup, we’ll always look back fondly on how they started. —DK
USA Men’s Hockey Wins Olympic Gold
Date: February 22
Though a Canadian club hasn’t won the Stanley Cup since 1993, the hockey rivalry between Canada and the United States in international competition has been pretty lopsided. Canada eliminated the United States from the Winter Olympics in 2002, 2010, and 2014. They also prevailed last winter in the finals of the 4 Nations Face-Off, a 3-2 overtime win. But that wretched history is what made Jack Hughes’ Golden Goal one minute and 41 seconds into overtime so special. There were heroes other than Hughes: Connor Hellebuyck stood on his head in goal and Jack’s older brother Quinn, one of the best defensemen in the world, helped stifle the Canadian attack and deliver the first Olympic gold in men’s hockey for the Americans since the Miracle on Ice team in 1980. The victory kicked off a wild celebration on the ice that spilled into the locker room. Since these are hockey players, they shotgunned beers in the locker room where they were joined, for some reason, by Kash Patel, who decided the best place for the FBI Director to be at the moment—a week before the United States went to war with Iran— was the Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena in Milan. But no amount of distractions or political sideshows could change the fact that the Americans were now the best hockey team in the world. —TG
Bam Adebayo Scores 83 Points
Date: March 10
Bam Adebayo’s 83 point game is one of the great statistical anomalies in sports history. Here’s a nice player—3x All-Star; consistent NBA All-Defense honoree; the second-best player on two NBA Finals teams—averaging a shade under 19 points per game, overtaking Kobe Bryant for the second-highest scoring game in NBA history. How did this happen? Adebayo faced a tanking Washington Wizards team with a thin frontline; the Heat fed him at every opportunity; and he got a lot of calls—Adebayo shot 20-for-43 from the field, including just 7-for-22 on 3-pointers but hit 36-of-43 from the free throw line to overtake the Black Mamba for second place behind Wilt Chamberlain. The moment was either an abomination or a celebration depending how you felt about Kobe Bryant. Former Laker Robert Horry summed it up for the pro-Bryant camp when he said, "83 points is impressive. But it gets to a point where you have to respect the game. And I think there were moments in this game where it was not respected.” —TG
UFC Freedom 250 at the White House
Date: June 14
UFC Freedom 250, which took place on the South Lawn of the White House, featured plenty of drama both inside the Octagon and outside of it. Held on President Trump’s 80th birthday, the event proved to be a politically-charged gathering with many of Trump’s political enemies bashing the UFC for aligning with Trump, while Trump’s allies lambasted them for not embracing a “patriotic” event. Rising heavyweight star Josh Hokit took it one further, making disparaging, racist remarks towards former First Lady Michelle Obama. As for what actually happened in the cage, the fights were very good! Each bout ended in a stoppage including Justin Gaethje’s upset over Ilia Topuria in the main event to claim the UFC lightweight championship. —MB
Mike Vrabel-Dianna Russini Scandal
Date: April 7
Typically, the NFL storylines that pop up each spring center on the Draft, but this year a renowned coach and a prominent reporter dominated the headlines. On April 7, the New York Post published photos of New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel and lead NFL insider for The Athletic, Dianna Russini—both of whom are married to other people—holding hands and embracing at a secluded Arizona resort. Vrabel initially dismissed the photos as “completely innocent” and said any suggestion of an affair was “laughable.” But then Russini resigned from her position at The Athletic shortly thereafter, and the New York Post published even more pictures a couple of weeks later. The pictures released on April 23 were taken in 2020, and showed Vrabel and Russini kissing at a New York bar. Vrabel missed Day 3 of the NFL Draft that week to “seek counseling” and spend time with his family. The scandal—which inspired memes upon memes—dominated the discourse for weeks and raised serious questions about journalistic ethics and standards and Vrabel’s potential role as a source for Russini’s repoting.—MB
Seattle Seahawks Win Super Bowl
Date: February 8
“Super Bowl winning quarterback Sam Darnold” is not a phrase many people had on their bingo card five years ago after he’d flamed out in New York.
“AFC Champion New England Patriots” is not a phrase many people had on their bingo card 12 months ago.
But this past February, Darnold, the third overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, helped guide the Seahawks to a 29-13 victory over the young Pats in Super Bowl LX. New England was flummoxed by the Seahawks’ elite defense all night as Seattle picked off Drake Maye twice, and the ’Hawks also limited Patriots running backs to just 41 yards on the ground. But the big story was Darnold's journey from bust to journeyman to Super Bowl champion.—MB
New York Knicks Win 2026 NBA Finals
The ‘25-’26 Knicks are the rare New York entity that defies hyperbole. Unify a city? See: “My mayor’s Muslim, my bagel’s Jewish, etc., etc.” A throwback to both better and worse times? See: Neighborhood watch parties and school buses lit on fire. Make the rest of the country actually like New York? Check.
Most inspiring Knicks team of all time? Let’s say that recency bias is a thing, but how can you argue otherwise? The ‘90s teams never quite finished the job, and the ‘70s teams were loaded with blue chip players. The 1970 champs had five future Hall of Famers; the 1973 team had seven, and while there’s still a lot of career for this Knicks team it seems likely they’ll have two at most.
Jalen Brunson, greatest Knick of all time? Again, you have any number of players from the ‘70s teams (Walt Frazier being the obvious choice) and Patrick Ewing to contend with but did either of them score 45—nearly 48% of his team’s total—in a closeout game or sacrifice $113 million (yes, it’s complicated) to free cap room for his GM? No shots to Clyde and Pat, but the answers are no. —Jack Erwin
