It’s the end of the year.  Its the end of a decade.  Nothing great ever ends without a list and a debate over that list.  Today, we focus on the 10 best sports stories of the 2000 decade and their impact on sports in America.

10. Emergence of Mixed Martial Arts

In January 2001, Zuffa LLC purchased the fledgling, close-to-bankruptcy MMA promotion Ultimate Fighting Championship for $2 million.  They then secured state sanctioning with the Nevada State Athletic Commission.  Zuffa struggled for a few years to emerge from the shadows of the negativity that surrounded MMA until it secured a reality TV show called The Ultimate Fighter which first aired in January 2005 on Spike TV.  The sport then exploded with a multitude of competitive promotion both regional and national.  The sport is now on the brink of generating near $1 Billion in revenues per year and is on the cusp of mainstream acceptance.  Love him or hate, Dana White is responsible for making MMA the sport it is today.

9.  Rulon Gardner Upsets Alexander Karelin

Do you believe in miracles?  Most fans of the Olympics are familiar with that saying and its forever bond with the 1980 USA Hockey team’s upset of Russia.  In the Summer Olympics of 2000, a much more unimaginable upset of a Russian occured when Rulon Gardner shocked the world with his stunning victory over undefeated superstar Alexander Karelin.  Coming into the finals, Karelin had not lost a match in 15 years and had not even surrender a point in the last 10 years.  Gardner pulled out a 1-0 victory and delivered the most stunning upset in Olympics history against the 3-time gold medal winner that was deemed to be invincible.

8.  New England Patriots Near-Perfect Season

The New England Patriots were the darlings of the 2007 NFL season, putting together the first perfect regular season in a dominating fashion never before seen in the sport.  One toughed out victory against Baltimore and a valiant effort by the New York Giants in the final game of the season were as close as anyone got during the regular season.  The Patriots then carved out two solid, conservative victories in the playoffs, setting up a rematch with the upstart New York Giants to end the season 19-0 and go down in history as the greatest team ever.  An Eli Manning circus-like pass to and catch by David Tyree will forever be remembered in NFL lore that drove the nail into the coffin of this special team that was denied greatness.  And in the process, the Patriots scored the largest Super Bowl viewing audience in the history of the game.

7.  Red Sox Break The Curse

Buck F-ing Dent.  Bill Buckner.  Aaron Boone.   The Red Sox were perhaps the unluckiest team in professional sports.  Down 3-0 to their bitter rival New York Yankees in the 2oo4 ALCS, the Red Sox forged the biggest comeback in baseball history to defeat the Yankees and go on to win their first World Series since 1918, the year before they traded Babe Ruth away to those very same Yankees.  Curt Schilling pitched one of the most courageous game ever by a pitcher, his bloody sock on display in Cooperstown for all to remember the pivotal moment of that amazing playoff season.

6.  Roger Federer Streak at Top Ranking

There having been many great tennis players over the years.  Rod Laver, Jimmy Connors, Bjorn Bjorg, John McEnroe, Ivan Lendl, Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi.  Federer did something that none of them ever did, holding the #1 ranking in tennis for almost four and half consecutive years between February 2, 2004 to August 17, 2008.  During that span, Federer won 65 straight matches at Wimbeldon and holds a 72-1 record on grass over the past seven years.   Federer also holds the record for most Grand Slam titles at 15, while finally earning his first French Open championship this past year.  Without question, the greatest tennis player in the history of the game and he still has a lot left in the tank to set records that may never be matched.

5.  Tiger Woods Wins Four Straight Majors

Woods made history in April 2001 winning his 2nd Masters championship.  With that victory, he became only one of five player in the history of golf to win all four major titles in his career.  To one up them, Woods won the championships consecutively, becoming the first ever to hold all four major golf championships at the same time, earning him a pseudo Grand Slam.  Woods has gone on since that point to win 8 more majors, bringing his career total to 14, leaving him just four shy of the all-time record of 18 held by Jack Nicklaus.

4. 2001 World Series

With the country reeling from the recent terrorist attacks that had taken over 3,000 lives, Major League Baseball gave grieving Americans an outlet to cope with their losses.  The New York Yankees and Arizona Diamondbacks provided perhaps the most exciting World Series in history, filled with riveting National Anthems, seventh-inning stretches echoing to God Bless America and some of the most unbelievable ends to World Series games ever seen.  In Game 4, Tino Martinez hit a game-tying two run homer in the bottom of the ninth and Derek Jeter closed the game with an opposite field walk-off homer in the 10th to win the game.  The very next night, Scott Brosius hit a game-tying home run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth that would lead to another extra inning victory.  The magic would fade in Game 7 though, as Mariano Rivera would surrender two runs in the bottom of the ninth to end the Yankees consecutive World Series run.  A truly magical World Series for the ages at a time when America needed its pastime the most.

3. Major League Baseball Steroids Scandal

In a sport defined by stats and where Hall of Fame hitters fail 7 out of 10 times, baseball has been defined by its statistical records and comparison of current ballplayers to those in its past. At the end of the last decade, MLB treated its fans to the most compelling drama in years when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa battled it out to surpass Roger Maris’ single season home run record.  At the turn of the decade came BALCO, a book by Jose Canseco and revelations that MLB owners and execs turned a blind eye to rampant steroids abuse.  After a humiliating Congressional hearing where Mark McGwire pleaded the 5th Amendment so, baseball was forced to implement drug testing.  The Mitchell Report would then follow, containing over 100 names that were linked to steroids, many of them the biggest names in the sport.  In the end, we are left with era that will forever be scarred and represents some of the darkest hours in the sport’s history.

2.  Michael Phelps’ 8 Olympic Gold Medals

The swimming star from Baltimore MD had prepared for this moment all his life, but nobody expected the drama that would go down at the pool in Beijing.   Phelps and his relay teammates were heavily favored in six of his eight races.  The remaining two races will go down in Olympic history forever.  Teammate Jason Lezak would anchor the final leg of the 4 x 100, facing off against Alain Bernard of France, the current world record holder in the 100 freestyle.  The Frenchman was provided an ample lead for the final leg, all but assuring Phelps quest being over.  But in the final 25 meters Lezek tracked Bernard down for the gold.  The drama was even more amazing a few days later, as Phelps dug deep in the final 25 meters of the 100M butterfly to defeat Serbian Milorad Cavic by 1/100 of a second for his seventh gold medal.  You can be assured most Americans will not forget that moment as they cheered and screamed in front of their TVs trying to help will Phelps to victory.

1.  Lance Armstrong Winning 7 Tour De France Titles

Armstrong lays claims to the greatest story of the decade.  In a sport dominated by Europeans, Armstrong did the unthinkable…he dominated them at their own game.  Armstrong set the record of seven victories, besting the previous record of five held by Miguel Indurain.  A survivor of testicular cancer, Armstrong became an American hero in a sport that most in this country rarely followed or cared much about.  With his unbelievable climbing ability in the mountains and untouchable time-trial sprinting, Armstrong dominated the competition like nobody before him.  His victories spawned an explosion of interest in cycling in America and his story gave hope to everyone around the world that you can beat cancer and strive forward to be the best in your craft.