The 25 greatest plays of the 2020s

Thanks to a league rule that allows teams to advance the ball to half-court on a timeout, the full-court buzzer-beater is a rarity in the NBA. But in February of 2024, with the Cavaliers trailing Dallas and out of timeouts with just seconds to play, Strus took the inbounds pass and, with Luka Doncic running at him to contest, heaved a 75-footer that found nothing but net, delighting the home crowd and delivering Cleveland a very unlikely victory.

In 2022, the 7-1 Vikings were on the ropes against the 6-2 Bills, staring at a 4^th-and-8 with two minutes to play, and trailing 27-23. Kirk Cousins took the snap, looked right, and heaved one about 30 yards downfield. Jefferson, despite being blanketed, somehow went up with one hand, took the ball away from the defender, and then managed to tuck it to his body as he fell to the turf. Minnesota won 33-30 in overtime, and really, the catch has to be seen to be believed.

We could pick any number of Clark plays here; that’s what happens when someone turns an entire sport on its ear and dominates in a way never seen before. I’m partial to this January 2024 game-winner against Michigan State for a few reasons: First, Iowa’s set play to get Clark the ball wasn’t working, and with less than four seconds to go, there was chaos. Second, Clark observed all this and took the ball in far from ideal shooting position. Third, she was calm enough to know she had time to make a move and still get a shot off. Fourth, that move was to step back from the logo and let fly. I imagine Stephen Curry and Damian Lillard in particular watched this shot with glee.

Like every other sport, golf in 2020 had an eerie feel because of COVID. The end of the BMW Championship would have featured some deafening roars had it been a typical crowd. Faced with a double-breaking 45-footer to force a playoff with Jon Rahm, Johnson calmly sank it. In the playoff, Rahm answered back on the very same green by hitting a 66-footer with about 10 feet of break to top Johnson and take home the title.

The specter of COVID still loomed over the 2021 NCAA Tournament. The entire event was played in and around Indianapolis, and crowds were reduced to comply with safety protocols. Therefore, only 8,131 fans were in attendance to see one of the best games, tournament or otherwise, in several years. Top-seeded Gonzaga and 11^th -seeded UCLA went back and forth in a thriller that seemed destined for a second overtime after a Johnny Juzang basket with just seconds remaining. Suggs took the inbounds passed, raced just past half court, and banked in a winner that sent the Bulldogs to the national title game.

Had the Panthers blown a 3-0 Stanley Cup Final lead to Edmonton, no one would have wanted to talk about some of the great plays that defined their playoff run. Where goaltending is concerned, nothing comes close to what Sergei Bobrovsky did to Matt Dumba in Florida’s 2024 first-round matchup with Tampa Bay. In Game 2 of that series, with the Panthers up one game to none, and the score tied at 2 in the second period, Dumba had a loose puck come right to his stick in front of a yawning, empty cage. It’s a save worth watching, probably several times. I recommend pausing the video at 8 seconds, to see where Bobrovsky was when the puck hit Dumba’s stick.

I don’t want to say that we’re at times desensitized to great feats of athleticism by NBA players, but, well, we’re at times desensitized to great feats of athleticism by NBA players. Even alley-oops can sometimes feel routine. Morant executed one against the Spurs in 2022 that should go down as one of the greatest plays in NBA history . With just 0.4 seconds left until halftime, the Grizzlies were inbounding the ball at the other end of the floor. Steven Adams threw a full-court baseball pass to Morant, who caught the ball in mid-air on the baseline, then immediately shot it to beat the buzzer. The play was something like Grant Hill to Christian Laettner on steroids.

Perennial Sun Belt Conference contenders Troy and Appalachian State were battling in September of 2022, and it appeared that things would go the visitors’ way. Troy led 28-26 with two seconds to go, and Appalachian State was still on the wrong side of the 50. Mountaineers quarterback Chase Brice scrambled around for a few seconds and then heaved a ball as far downfield as he could get it. The ball was deflected, and Christian Horn pulled it in and scampered to the corner on the end zone to give Appalachian State a very unlikely 32-28 victory.

You might have seen the viral video involving PGA Tour pro Adam Hadwin getting tackled by a security guard, but perhaps there’s a chance you don’t know what preceded it. Well, allow me to introduce you to one of the great tournament-winning putts you’ll ever see, from Taylor, who in 2023 became the first Canadian in 69 years to win the Canadian Open.

Maye, the third pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, has occasionally been compared to longtime Steelers great Ben Roethlisberger in terms of his size, athletic ability, and skill for improvisation. Pittsburgh fans saw those traits on display on the very field where Roethlisberger did his thing when Maye stunned Pitt with a ridiculous touchdown throw. Rolling left, and with one Pitt defender hanging on his right arm while another was bearing down on him, Maye calmly flipped the ball with his left hand about 15 yards ahead for a wide-open touchdown. North Carolina went on to cruise past the Panthers, 41-24.

For the first half and some of the third quarter of the 2023 NFC Championship Game, it looked like the Lions – yes, the Lions – weren’t just going to beat San Francisco and earn the franchise’s first trip to the Super Bowl, it looked like they were going to crush them. Detroit was leading 24-10 in the third quarter when the 49ers’ Brock Purdy let fly on a first-down deep ball. Detroit’s defender looked to be in a good position, only for the ball to hit him in the facemask and an alert Aiyuk to make a diving catch inside the five-yard line. San Francisco went on to score, and win the game, and the Lions had to endure some serious heartbreak.

Connor McDavid is the best player in the world, and already one of the 10 best players of all time (my opinion, but I’m also right). Please enjoy this video from November of 2021, which shows him going 1-on-4 against the Rangers and winning in the way an adult would beat a team full of toddlers. It’s sublime.

The 2023 PGA Championship was largely about Brooks Koepka’s dialed-in performance, one that saw him hold off Viktor Hovland and Scottie Scheffler by two shots to win his third Wanamaker Trophy. However, PGA professional Michael Block stole the show all four days, first by making the cut and sticking around near the top of the leaderboard, and then by delivering an all-time moment on Sunday. Paired with Rory McIlroy, Block was lingering around the top 10 when he got to the 15 ^th hole at Oak Hill. His unlikely story proceeded to get much, much better.

The nature of college football is such that an occasional upset gets memory-holed, even if it had all of the ingredients to be memorable. And so we have Jacksonville State’s tilt with Florida State in Week 2 of the 2021 season. The “other” Gamecocks were trailing 17-14 and facing 4^th -and-10 from their own 41-yard line. Oh, and there were less than ten seconds left on the clock. Jacksonville State’s Zerrick Cooper heaved a ball as far as he could, and Damond Philyaw-Johnson caught it on the run at the 20-yard line. One problem: He still had two Florida State defenders between him and the goal line. Actually, it wasn’t a problem, because he juked both of them and scored. Please watch, and pay special attention to some very surprised FSU cheerleaders.

Seeing a great play live as it’s happening and not on a highlight show is always a greater thrill, and I can say that I saw this one in real-time. On September 30, 2023, UCF was trailing 36-35 and down to its last down in its first home game as a member of the Big 12, but quarterback Timmy McClain wasn’t about to go down quietly. He backtracked 30 yards from the line of scrimmage, scrambling for about 15 seconds and narrowly avoiding a safety, and found receiver R.J. Harvey for a wild 16-yard game. Sure, UCF still lost, and they blew a 35-7 lead, but it was still a cool play.

Nick Saban’s final Alabama team struggled to flash the dominant form that was a hallmark of his tenure in Tuscaloosa. They were a one-loss team that looked certain to suffer their second defeat at the hands of Auburn in the Iron Bowl. Jalen Milroe and the offense faced a do-or-die 4 ^th -and-31 with under a minute to play. Milroe stood for several seconds, surveyed the field, and then launched a ball to the back-left corner of the end zone. Isaiah Bond was on the other end, and the Crimson Tide survived, 27-24, and ended up once again making it to the College Football Playoff.

Much like Connor McDavid’s play against the Rangers, please simply enjoy Cale Makar stealing the souls of the entire Blackhawks roster and fan base with this game-winning goal. Also, I’d like to remind you that Makar is a defenseman. Then again, so was Bobby Orr.

The 2023 AFC Championship Game must have been particularly frustrating for the Baltimore Ravens. They got the Chiefs at home, they had the MVP of the league at quarterback, and…they still fell short, with their offense going silent for most of the game. At least they got a memorable play out of it. Jackson converted a first down on a 2 ^nd -and-5 play in the second quarter in a most unusual way. His pass attempt was tipped by a blitzing Justin Reid, but Jackson alertly sprinted to the ball, snatched it out of the air, and took off for 13 yards.

Hail Marys are still pretty rare in football. Sure, every so often one of them works, but they’re still such a longshot that when one is successful, we take notice. That said, they’re all more or less of the same ilk. Quarterback fades back, waits, heaves ball downfield, and hopes. That’s what makes Murray’s throw to Hopkins back in 2020 so special. He was flushed out of the pocket, put under legitimate duress, and had to throw the ball while falling out of bounds away from the direction of the throw. It was a perfect strike, and Hopkins out-leaping three Buffalo defenders to come down with the ball and the win was icing on the cake.

The sports world was more or less shut down for a few months in 2020, and fans were craving almost anything to watch. Enter the 2020 edition of Capital One’s “The Match,” which pitted Brady and Phil Mickelson against Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning. It was one of the first live sports events to air after the March shutdown, and so nearly 3 million viewers saw Brady, a good-but-not-great recreational golfer, do Brady things on the 7^th hole.

Random December games in the NBA are for die-hards only. Sure, a player might go off for 50-plus points, but if it isn’t your favorite team, chances are you aren’t watching. So much of America probably doesn’t remember this play from 2021 or even realize it happened. I bet Thunder fans do, though. Particularly the ones who were very excited when Gilgeous-Alexander had tied the game at 110 merely seconds earlier. Let this be a lesson, kids. Always play until the buzzer sounds.

This one probably doesn’t need much explanation. I don’t care where you come down on baseball’s home run records – as long as you acknowledge that Barry Bonds is the true and rightful home run king, of course – but Aaron Judge still gets to call himself the American League’s single-season home run champion, thanks to a shot off of Texas’ Jesus Tinoco in the second-to-last game of the 2022 regular season. Judge took home MVP honors and narrowly missed winning the Triple Crown, finishing .05 points behind Minnesota’s Luis Arraez.

Sometimes great plays are fluky, lucky, or one in a million. Other times, there are situations where an exceptionally skilled player makes a play that even other professionals in their field wouldn’t attempt. Kyrie Irving’s shot to beat Denver from March of 2024 would fall into the latter category. Many of his peers have called Irving the most skilled player in the entire league. I find it hard to dispute that assessment.

Every so often, I watch a hockey game, as I am wont to do, and I’ll go, “Oh yeah, they’re doing all this while skating on ice.” That stoner-esque realization makes goals like the one Los Angeles’ Quinton Byfield scored against Columbus in February of 2024 all the more ridiculous. And while you might not notice when you first watch the goal, Byfield is 6’5”, 220. Someone that big should not be able to do all that on ice skates.

I’ve watched this Ricky Pearsall catch probably 30 times, and I still don’t know 1.) How he managed to catch the ball, and 2.) How he managed to hold on to it. Anyway, Pearsall was a first round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, which makes sense when you watch this video.