Worst 5 Sports Moments for Me

Last night when I had over 3,500 songs mysteriously vanish from my ipod, I was pissed off. Clearly, it was not my fault for this stupid technical error. Such crappy feeling led me to think about moments where my favorite sports teams broke my heart and crushed my well-being. Below are the top worst moments of my life as it pertains to sports:

5. Detroit "sweeping" the Lakers in 5 games in the NBA Finals

The Lakers were coming in with a good looking roster, and what seemed to be a poised team to win a 4th title in 5 years (the Spurs won in 2003, as they did in every odd year from 1999-2007 except 2001). In the way stood an upstart and very talented Detroit squad ready to bring back a title to the Motor City for the first time since 1990. The result? total domination with the Lakers looking pathetic. Aftermath? Phil leaves, Shaq gets traded, Kobe gets hated.

4. Liverpool losing to AC Milan in the 2007 Champions League Finals

Had Liverpool not had won in the epic 2005 affair between these two teams, and FC Barcelona not downed Arsenal the following year, chances are this would have been higher. However, this completely sucked as Milan just dominated and won fairly easily. Perhaps the expectations for 2005 made this overhyped.

3. Maccabi Tel-Aviv losing to CSKA Moscow in the 2006 Euroleague Finals

Again, If this was to happen in 2004 (when they met in the semis) it would be #1 or #2 for me. However, Maccabi was the back-to-back champion and gunning for the first three-peat since Split did so in the early 90's. The worst part about this is the fact that losing to CSKA is the like the Yankees losing to the Red Sox in the playoffs or UCLA losing to U$C in the final four (who am I kidding, $c can't even make it past the Sweet 16), but you get my point. This rivalry was a highlight of the Cold War and the hate has never stopped. Losing in the finals to your most hated rival is never an easy pill to swallow.

2. UCLA losing in the F4 in 2007 and 2008

Had I been a student in 2006, I would have included that year too. Unfortunately, I was not. However, my first two years were filled with basketball magic. Sadly, both ended up with a national semifinal lost to a longer more athletic team filled with dumber players (Derrick Rose probably can't even spell SAT's). Each year brought hope until about 10 minutes into each game when I realized the dream will once again end a bit too early. No banner has been raised in Pauley for basketball in 14 years, and it is doubtful there will be another chance while I am a student here (one more chance). It is always great to have a team so talented and great, but it's always more painful to be so close and not win it all.

1. Giants lose to the Angels in the 2002 World Series

This is way to painful to talk about in details. To this day I can barely handle the heckling given to me by Angels/Dodgers fans, which is tough considering that's the majority of the UCLA student body. This is painful because we were a couple innings from winning it all for the first time in almost 50 years. Russ Ortiz got the game ball from Dusty when he left the game (6). Losing to the Marlins in the playoffs the next year didn't help. All in all, the Giants have the 3rd longest streak of futility in baseball behind the Cubs and Indians.