Cote: Fins, Stanley, Cam, Messi, chaos ... a statue? Top 10 Miami/South Florida sports stories of 2024
Here is our nearly annual top 10 list of the biggest sports stories in Miami/South Florida over the past year. It’s a Miami Herald tradition except for years we forget to do it. But I didn’t forget this time! Hopefully I didn’t forget any big stories, either.
Happy new year, all!
1. Florida Panthers win first Stanley Cup: Championships in major sports are the rarest of treats. The Dolphins, Heat, Marlins and Panthers in their combined 159 seasons have totaled eight. The eighth was Florida’s first ever, in a thrilling Game 7 on home ice last June, and thousands of fans ignored a rainstorm to cheer the victory parade along Fort Lauderdale beach.
2. Hurricanes’ 9-0 start fizzles, wastes Cam Ward’s record year: UM at 9-0 was headed for Atlantic Coast Conference title game and College Football Playoffs. Then the Canes ran a fade pattern. Three losses in the final four games followed, including the ignominy of this month’s Pop-Tarts Bowl defeat. Quarterback Cam Ward broke major season records for Miami, but all for naught.
3. Messi leads Inter Miami to record season, but it ends badly: Inter Miami in its fifth MLS season — and first full season with global superstar Lionel Messi — won the Supporters’ Shield for best regular-season record, setting a league high for most standings points. A championship was expected. A stunning first-round playoff exit in November happened instead.
4. Dolphins lost season sees a late rally ... and hope: Fins’ 2024 began in January with a sub-freezing 26-7 playoff loss in Kansas City. The new season began with Tyreek Hill handcuffed and detained by Miami-Dade cops over a traffic matter outside the stadium. Tua Tagovailoa got another concussion. Team was 2-6 at midseason. But now, at 8-8, playoff hope still flickers.
5. Fan pandemonium taints Copa America in Miami: Argentina and Messi beat Colombia 1-0 in the Copa America finale in July at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium. But fan pandemonium led to arrests and chaos as thousands of ticket-holders were denied entry. Calamity sullied the match, embarrassing host Miami and CONMEBOL, the South American football federation.
6. Larranaga abruptly retires as Canes’ men’s basketball coach: Citing the transfer portal, NIL and the changing face of college sports, Jim Larranaga, 75, resigned in the midst of his 14th season at UM — just two years after leading Miami to its first Final Four. That came after longtime Canes women’s coach Katie Meier had retired last spring.
7. Butler trade talk arises from Heat struggles: As Miami Heat plays through what could be a third consecutive season relegated to the NBA’s play-in tournament, the future of star Jimmy Butler takes center stage. Reports are he wants out prior to Feb. 6 trade deadline, but club prez Pat Riley says a trade won’t happen. Butler can leave in free agency this summer.
8. Marlins’ endless fire sale/rebuild goes on and on: New year, same story as low-spending Marlins keep trading veterans for cheaper prospects and a future that never seems to arrive. Luis Arraez, Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Jesus Luzardo were among the ‘24 departures in the perpetual cost-cutting. Another manager change, too.
9. FIU needs attention. Enter Pitbull: The Miami music superstar, “Mr. 305,” bought naming rights to FIU’s campus football home, rechristened as Pitbull Stadium, in a deal announced in August. FIU, forever in the shadow of the Hurricanes, ended a sixth straight losing season and 17th in 21 program years, and is now trying its sixth coach in newly hired Willie Simmons.
10. The Dwyane Wade statue: The Heat unveiled it in October outside the downtown arena, and the Internet immediately howled with mocking GIFs and memes over how absurdly unlike Wade the bronze face looked. Oh well. It’s the thought that counts ... right?
Just missed, but not forgotten:
Miami named host city for inaugural season of Unrivaled, WNBA’s new offseason women’s league that begins play in January on a court built in a production studio in Medley.
Miami Heat home floor is renamed Pat Riley Court.
Miami born-and-raised Teddy Bridegwater coaches alma mater Miami Northwestern to state high school football championship and two weeks later comes out of NFL retirement to sign with Detroit Lions.
Rising tennis star Coco Gauff, 20, of Delray Beach, wins 2024 WTA Finals and ‘24 French Open doubles crown.
In memoriam: Longtime NASCAR star Bobby Allison dies at 86. Native Miamian’s first race was at 17 during senior year at Miami’s Archbishop Curley High.
This story was originally published December 30, 2024 at 2:11 PM.
