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A new year is upon us, sports fans, and 2023 has already been historic. The dawn of the new year saw the Georgia Bulldogs rout the TCU Horned Frogs in the CFP National Championship game at SoFi Stadium to become back-to-back National Champions! The Sports Collectibles GameDay Auctions team was on-site in Los Angeles to witness the excitement. Stetson Bennett and team fought tough through the 2022 NCAA football season against many foes to come out on top. What a way to start the year for the Dawgs!

Let’s look back on some other FAN-tastic sports moments from 2022!

In the National Football League, the Los Angeles Rams started out the year as Super Bowl LVI Champions, beating the Cincinnati Bengals at the first big game played at the new SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, CA. However, the ensuing 2022 season did not go as well for Matthew Stafford and the Rams. The Rams lost in the NFL Kickoff Game to Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills, who would go on to become season (and fantasy football) darlings in 2022. The 2022 season was noticeably missing some familiar faces that retired after the 2021 season including Pittsburgh Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and longtime New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski, five-time Pro Bowler Frank Gore and Georgia alum running back Todd Gurley, to name a few. Tom Brady announced his retirement in February of 2022 but then reversed the decision in March to come back to the Bucs to try to win one more ring. The Bucs had their ups and downs (as a Bucs fan I’ll admit, it was not the best season) but weren’t quite the same without Gronk and, despite making it to the top of the NFC South with stars like Mike Evans and Leonard Fournette. They lost to the Dallas Cowboys in the Wild Card round. The 2022 season saw Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs and Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles come out on top with the best records of the regular season. The Eagles have just been crowned NFC Champions and are headed to Super Bowl LVII in Arizona. At the time of publication, the Chiefs are battling Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals for the title of AFC Champions. The Bengals had a wild ride in 2022 with stars like Joe Mixon, Tee Higgins, Tyler Boyd and Ja’Marr Chase. Can they make it to a second Super Bowl in 2 years? Time will tell.

2022 gave the Golden State Warriors their 7th NBA title with a win over the Boston Celtics. Steph Curry continues to dazzle on the court, now in his 14th season in the NBA. In hockey, the two-time defending champions, the Tampa Bay Lighting fought hard to try and win their third Stanley Cup in 2022 but were defeated in Game 6 by the Colorado Avalanche, who became 2022 NHL Champions. Mikko Rantanen and Nathan McKinnon led the Avs to a spectacular season and a hard-fought victory.

The 2022 World Series was a best-of-seven playoff between American League Champion Houston Astros and NL Champ Philadelphia Phillies. The Astros and series MVP Jeremy Peña defeated the Phillies in 6 games to win their second MLB Championship.

Beijing hosted the 2022 Winter Olympics and the Games made for great television during the cold winter month of February in the US. Snowboarder Shaun White made his last Olympics appearance, finishing fourth in the half-pipe before retiring at the age of 35.

Other top moments in sports from last year included the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, with Argentina coming out on top and Lionel Messi winning his first World Cup Trophy. In the golf world, in April, golfer Scottie Scheffler won The Masters Tournament, taking home the coveted Green Jacket. Other golf majors tournament champions included Justin Thomas (PGA Championship), Matt Fitzpatrick (US Open) and Cameron Smith winning the coveted Claret Jug at the 150th Open Championship held at the historic St. Andrews course in Scotland.

With the NFL season winding down now at the end of January 2023, we await a new Super Bowl champion and so many more moments to come in the spectacular arena of professional sports. Stay tuned!

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This post is brought to you by Sports Collectibles Blog Dog Jackson!

– Jackson is a rescue dog born and raised in Florida. He loves watching NFL football with his pop-pop and college football with his GiGi when he visits her in Ohio. He doesn’t love that his mama has to travel often for her job as Director of Marketing for Sports Collectibles but he looooooves to greet her with big smiles and a helicopter tail when she comes home!

We find ourselves at the end of yet another NBA season. The Golden State Warriors closed out the Boston Celtics in six games, securing their fourth title in 8 seasons and cementing them in NBA history as a top-tier dynasty.
Before this season, only four teams have been able to capture four titles in an eight-year span. The Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili trio brought the San Antonio Spurs to four titles spanning from 1999 to 2007. The legendary Chicago Bulls duo of Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen won six titles from 1991 to 1998, arguably one of the most dominant teams to ever grace the court. The Boston Celtics and legendary Bill Russell took the fourth title in an eight-year span accomplishment to a new level. The Celtics may have won four titles in an eight-year period but what is most impressive is the eleven titles in thirteen years. The Celtics won every title from 1957 to 1969, besides ‘58 and ‘67. That feat is unheard of in todays landscape. The Lakers were the first team to accomplish the feat and the only franchise to do it twice. The first time was a stretch in the 1950s. Then known as the Minneapolis Lakers, they won titles in ‘50, ‘52, ‘53 and ‘54 led by league pioneer George Mikan. After that, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy helped the Los Angeles Lakers franchise explode back onto the scene winning titles in ‘80, ‘82, ‘85, ‘87 and ‘88. Understandably, its a nine-year span, but with five rings it’s worth the mention.

This Golden State Warriors run has been special, especially this year. Centered around the future Hall of Famer players Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, they have created a change in the way the game is played, focusing heavily on three-point shooting. That scoring ability was on full display in the 2022 NBA Finals. The Warriors attempted 43 or more three-point shots in three of their six games this series. That accounts for three of the top six spots ever in NBA Finals history, this team shoots at a historically high clip. The Warriors attempted 42.5 three-point attempts per game in the NBA Finals and Steph Curry was the only player in double digit attempts per game sitting at 11.8 attempts per game. Curry hit at a 43.7% clip shooting 11.8 three-point attempts per game. Read that sentence again.

Andrew Wiggins exploded onto the scene this playoff run and especially in the Finals. Wiggins, who was the #1 overall pick in 2014, had a lot of expectations coming into the league that many believed he has not lived up to. The 27-year-old out of Kansas showed his abilities and tenacity this Finals run, leading the team in rebounds (8.8 RPG) and blocks (1.5 BPG) while still being the second scoring leader per game in the series.
Klay Thompson and Draymond Green both seemed to struggle in terms of their usual production on the games biggest stage but were still able to contribute to key moments and big shots. Klay chipped in 17 PPG on 35.1% shooting from deep. Draymond, who found himself with more fouls than points at one point, turned it around in the last two games and lead the team in assists over the six games.
My biggest notice of the series was the play of young upcoming star in Jordan Poole. The 23-year-old out of Michigan played with no fear, was a huge spark plug for the team and hit an insane half court buzzer-beater because, why not?

This Golden State Warriors team was unlike others we have seen before them. There was no Kevin Durant to give the media an excuse as to why the Warriors are champions. There was no excuse that they were playing a Lebron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers team that is injured or missing key players. This was a complete team, built from the ground up and this Finals propelled Stephen Curry into a top-10 argument for greatest players to ever grace the hardwood. Shop our selection of NBA Collectibles and Memorabilia including autographed jerseys, basketballs, autographed shoes, signed basketball trading cards & much more today as we close another chapter of history and await the dawn of a new season.

SC.com Blog Dog:

-Tucker, a Military Brat pup hailing from Connecticut, loves going for relaxing walks, ear rubs, scratching rugs, and eating entire bowls of chicken enchilada meat before his family can eat it! A HUGE fan of the Yankees, Giants and most things New York (with the exception of a borderline-unhealthy obsession with LeBron James), TuckTuck is so excited to get to blog about his favorite thing – SPORTS!