Photos: Top 15 Los Angeles Sports Moments of 2024
The 2024 year was a wild one for Los Angeles sports. The year began with plenty of hope and promises, and ended with two championships against New York teams.
The 2024 sports calendar brought us moments of heartbreak, like when the Boston Celtics surpassed the Los Angeles Lakers with their 18th NBA Championship in June, but also plenty of jaw-dropping instances.
Whether it was record-breaking achievements or moments we've never seen before in sports, and may never see again, 2024 solidified Los Angeles as the City of Champions.
Here are the top 15 Los Angeles sports moments for the year 2024:
In September, the Los Angeles Lakers hired former NBA shooting guard J.J. Redick as their 29th head coach in franchise history. After starting a podcast with superstar LeBron James a year earlier, Redick was seen as a perfect fit for the Lakers in their next chapter. He was introduced by the team on September 25, 2024 at the team's practice facility in El Segundo, California. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
After leading the University of Michigan Wolverines to the national championship, former Chargers quarterback, Jim Harbaugh, was named the 18th head coach in franchise history on February 1st, 2024. Harbaugh made an immediate impact on the Chargers in 2024, after a 5-12 record the year before. Harbaugh led the Chargers back to the playoffs in his first season back on the sidelines. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
Three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year winner and Super Bowl champion, Aaron Donald, stunned the football world when he announced his retirement via social media on March 15, 2024. Donald is considered to be one of the greatest defensive tackles in NFL history. This picture was taken from the sideline before the last game of his career on January 14th, 2024 during the NFC Wild Card Playoff game between the Los Angeles Rams and Detroit Lions.(Photo by Ryan Kang/Getty Images)
WR Puka Nacua was drafted in the fifth round by the Los Angeles in 2023, and was an aberration on the field. In his first full season in the NFL, he finished with 105 receptions, 1,486 yards, and six touchdowns. He broke the all-time NFL receptions and receiving yards records for a rookie and was named to the 2024 All-Rookie Team. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
On December 8th, the lowly Los Angeles Rams, who started the season 1-4, and were sitting in third place in the NFC West, hosted the 10-2 Buffalo Bills, fresh off back-to-back victories over the 2023 Super Bowl participants Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers on NBC's Sunday Night Football. Despite being 4.5 point underdogs, the Rams stunned Josh Allen and the Bills 44-42 in a high-scoring offensive shootout. The game featured over 1,000 total yards and 12 touchdowns. (Photo by Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images)
After years of missing out, former Los Angeles Lakers guard Michael Cooper was immortalized when it was announced he would be part of the 2024 Basketball Hall of Fame class. The former NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award winner, and five-time NBA Champion was enshrined alongside his Showtime Lakers teammates and head coach Pat Riley, on October 13, 2024 at Symphony Hall in Springfield, Massachusetts. (Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images)
The United States team of Simone Biles, Jade Carey, Jordan Chiles, Sunisa Lee, and Hezly Rivera won the women's artistic team all-around gold medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France. Led, in part, by LA's own Jordan Chiles, the women took home the gold on July 30, 2024. (Photo by Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images)
In his inaugural year with the Los Angeles Dodgers Shohei Ohtani lived up to the all the hype when he became the fourth member of the infamous 40 home runs, and 40 stolen bases in a single season club on August 23, 2024. With the game tied in the bottom of the ninth, Ohtani joined the club in dramatic fashion with a walk-off grand slam for his 40th home run of the season against the Tampa Bay Rays. (Photo by Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images)
Los Angeles Lakers teammates LeBron James and Anthony Davis helped lead Team USA to the gold medal after a fantastic game against the host country France in the 2024 Paris Olympics. James nearly had a triple-double with 14 points, 10 assists, and six rebounds. Davis chipped in 8 points, nine rebounds, and four blocks in the 98-87 victory over Victor Wembenyama's French team on August 10, 2024. (Photo by Catherine Steenkeste/Getty Images)
Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani solidified his 2024 National League MVP when he became the sole member of the 50 home runs, 50 stolen bases club with one of the greatest individual games in MLB history. On September 19, 2024 against the Miami Marlins, Ohtani had six hits, three home runs, two doubles, two stolen bases, and a whopping 10 RBI in the team's 20-4 victory that clinched a playoff spot for the first time in the Japanese phenom's career. (Photo by Chris Arjoon/Getty Images)
Shohei Ohtani had never played in the postseason during his six-year career, and after signing with the Dodgers as a free agent in 2024, he announced himself on the game's greatest stage when he hit a game-tying three-run home run in the second inning of the National League Division Series against the San Diego Padres. Ohtani's blast electrified the crowd, and the team, as they rallied to beat the Padres 7-5 on October 5, 2024 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
LeBron James and his son, Bronny, made NBA history during the opening game of the Los Angeles Lakers season on October 22, 2024 against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Crypto.com arena. LeBron and Bronny James became the first father-son duo in NBA history to share the court as teammates when they entered the game together at the end of the second quarter. The Lakers went on to win the game 110-103. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
The Los Angeles Galaxy won an MLS-record sixth MLS Cup when they defeated the New York Red Bulls 2-1 in the final on December 7, 2024 at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California. The Galaxy, who failed to make the playoffs a year prior, had an amazing bounce-back season culminating in a trophy. After tearing his ACL in the semifinal, Galaxy MVP Riqui Puig was unable to play in the final, but helped the team hoist the trophy following the match. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
The Los Angeles Dodgers had one of the most injury-riddled seasons in MLB history during their 2024 campaign. With only two healthy starting pitchers entering the postseason, the Dodgers survived the playoff gauntlet with Jack Flaherty, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Walker Buehler and a bunch of bullpen games. After facing elimination in the first round, they dispatched of the New York Mets in the NLCS, and faced a dream matchup with the American League pennant winners the New York Yankees in the championship. After winning the first three games of the series, the Dodgers defeated the Yankees in five games after Buehler struck out former teammate Alex Verdugo to win the 2024 MLB title in the Bronx on October 30, 2024. (Photo by Alex Slitz/Getty Images)
It's rare when a singular moment supersedes a championship moment, but the 2024 World Series will always be remembered by Freddie Freeman's walk-off grand slam in Game 1 at Dodger Stadium. Freeman, who suffered a high-ankle sprain in the Dodgers final home game of the regular season, played through tremendous pain during the playoffs. Culminating in the moment of the year, Freeman channeled his inner Kirk Gibson when he stepped to the plate with the bases loaded, two outs and the Dodgers trailing 3-2 in the bottom of the 10th inning on October 25, 2024. With the Yankees one-out away from taking a 1-0 lead in the series, Freeman crushed a first-pitch fastball for a grand slam into the right field pavilion (almost the identical spot that Gibson hit his home run in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series). This moment, and the pandemonium that ensued afterwards, catapulted the Dodgers to their 8th World Series title in team history. (Photo by Keith Birmingham/MediaNews Group/Pasadena Star-News via Getty Images)
