(ThyBlackMan.com) It says a lot about the year in sports in 2024 when the choice for TIME Magazine’s Athlete of the Year is polarizing during an Olympic year of noteworthy performances. In 2024, Caitlin Clark concluded her historic college basketball career falling short of leading Iowa to a women’s basketball national championship again but left no doubt that she was one of the best college basketball players ever among the men or women. Her college stardom led to high anticipation and expectations of her WNBA rookie season for the Indiana Fever and while there were bumps during that rookie season, it was a success overall. However, the college basketball rivalry with fellow WNBA rookie Angel Reese seemed to carry over into the professional ranks and the media attention that Clark receives remains a point of contention for some including owner of the Washington Mystics, Sheila Johnson, taking umbrage during a CNN interview with TIME magazine honoring Clark with the Athlete of the Year designation over the entire WNBA while also pointing out the difference in media attention for Clark as a white WNBA player compared to her Black WNBA counterparts.
2024 was always going to be an impactful year as an Olympic year and a U.S. Presidential election year. The Olympics are always very political despite the consistent calls by some sports fans to keep politics out of sports. There were lessons learned by athletes like former NBA player Gilbert Arenas and current NFL player Marlon Humphrey about not identifying with their African heritage as well strong support for those Palestinian athletes at the Olympics given the current struggle of their people. The debate about transgender athletes competing in sports also grew due to Olympic boxer Imane Khelif. Regarding the U.S. presidential election, while both Donald Trump or Kamala Harris had celebrity athlete supporters and detractors, this year’s U.S. presidential election still didn’t garner positivity among many of those eligible in the U.S. to go cast a vote for either.
A fascinating historical merger came into effect in 2024 as Major League Baseball officially incorporated Negro Leagues stats into their historical records back in May. This changed the leaderboards of some of Major League Baseball’s most hollowed records such as career batting average and slugging percentage which are now held by Negro League baseball legend Josh Gibson. With the changes, Gibson is now the MLB’s new single-season leader in batting average, slugging percentage, and OPS. He’s also now the MLB’s all-time leader in all three categories and that gives him the opportunity to be mentioned in all conversations as the greatest hitter of all time and not just the best player in Negro League history. Gibson wasn’t the only baseball legend to receive a boost in his historical standing on account of MLB’s decision as Willie Mays now has 3,293 hits to his name from his time playing with the Birmingham Black Barons.
The death of Mays was one of the most notable ones among sports figures in 2024. There were also the surprising losses of young college basketball coach Amir Abdur-Rahim and Basketball Hall of Famer Dikembe Mutombo. It was truly a global affair for Mutombo, who came to the U.S. from as a native of the Democratic Republic of Congo and went back to support numerous people back in his home with his time and money. It is fair to say that 2024 had an international sports feel to the year in various ways.
Staff Writer; Mark Hines
