SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
One last time this year, it is time for sports.
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SIMON: 2024 - slam dunk for women's basketball, a glorious Olympic Games in Paris and several baseball legends pass on. Howard Bryant of Meadowlark Media joins us. Howard, thanks so much for being with us.
HOWARD BRYANT: Good morning, Scott.
SIMON: No bigger name in sports this year, my friend, than Caitlin Clark. Began with the Iowa Hawkeyes, then rookie of the year with the Indiana Fever of the WNBA. Has women's basketball now finally won recognition as big-time sports?
BRYANT: Well, I hope so. I mean, certainly what you've seen this year and over the last few years, it's not just Caitlin Clark, it's also the activism from the female players getting March Madness as part of the women's game as well in college. It's also the rise of South Carolina as a powerhouse, and Dawn Staley is a great coach. But really, the engine has been Caitlin Clark. She's been the difference maker in terms of getting people interested. And I think that what you see in this game so far has been the reluctance that so many broadcasters and pundits had that the game - no one would watch the game. And I think that between Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese and that rivalry and just the great basketball, that if you put great sports in front of sports fans, they're going to watch it. And she was the headliner all season.
SIMON: And let me move to the Olympics, 'cause Paris put on quite a show. Just three years after Tokyo hosted the game during the pandemic, and of course, nobody in the stands, you know, the extraordinary scene of fans cheering along the Champs-Elysees, and Eiffel Tower in the background of several events. A number of Americans did notably well, of course, Simone Biles, Noah Lyles. But let me ask you about Steph Curry. He really stole the show, didn't he?
BRYANT: He absolutely stole the show. And once again, it's wonderful, and we forget those pandemic years that you had these Olympic Games with no fans. And over the last couple of years, we've really seen it, Scott, where it's been - people have been coming back. But this was the first year where the Olympics felt like the Olympics again. This was really one of the - probably the first year where sports in general sort of felt like we had turned a corner, but nothing like Steph Curry in the final minutes of the gold medal game against France. We've been watching this his entire career. But you watch that game and you feel the momentum - they're going to lose. It really looks like the Americans are about to have a horrible defeat to France. And then here comes Superman and just put on a three-point barrage, put on a show that will not be forgotten any time soon. Incredible. Really maybe my favorite performance of the year.
SIMON: Yeah. And last, we have to mark the passing of an unusual number of real titans of the baseball world.
BRYANT: Yeah. I mean, it - every year is difficult, and you can have the same conversation every year because time is passing, but Willie Mays, Luis Tiant, Fernando Valenzuela, Orlando Cepeda, Pete Rose and, of course, Rickey Henderson and Whitey Herzog and Ken Holtzman and the fan favorite in Cleveland, Rocky Colavito, just a devastating year for baseball fans, and especially Mays, Rose, Rickey, Cepeda, Fernando. I mean, not just great, great players but people that really reminded us how much we love baseball. People that are the ones who stayed with us for all of these years. And it was just another reminder that our generations are leaving us, and that institutional memory is leaving us, as well. But this one felt especially devastating. And Rickey, of course, five days before his 66th birthday on Christmas Day, really a real gut punch.
SIMON: Well, and I - your book on Rickey Henderson, I think, is great, and this is a great time to read it and appreciate him all over again, along with so many other whose names you mentioned. So Howard Bryant of Meadowlark Media, thanks so much for being with us.
BRYANT: Thank you. We'll see you next year, Scott. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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