Goodbye, 2024. Hello, 2025.
This year at Arizona Sports has run the gambit between surprising, frustrating and weird. Emphasis on weird.
The Phoenix Suns have the superteam that’s a frustrating watch. The Arizona Cardinals might be a game or two short of preseason expectations but end the year on a sour note as well.
The on-paper worst team, the Arizona State Sun Devil football squad, is definitively the Valley’s best.
We lost a local legend and a literal team this past year.
How do we recap 2024? Ranking this stuff, of course.
So here’s how it was done: In a very unscientific way, I parsed through the top 100 stories by most pageviews on ArizonaSports.com to determine which headlines hit the hardest. Then I weighed the real significance of those stories that were highly read and built a list of the biggest storylines, dumping the one-off viral stories (As an example, two articles about Emma Stone attending a Suns game and waving goodbye were among the top-20 stories all year, but the significance of that narrative is relatively little).
Once the list was whittled to 10, it was subjectively ranked by yours truly.
Arizona State RB Cam Skattebo holding MVP belt after the Big 12 Championship game against Iowa State in Arlington, Texas, on Dec. 7, 2024. (Jeremy Schnell/Arizona Sports).
There’s no doubt what the top story of this year is — and it’s not recency bias.
The Sun Devils will play Texas in the College Football Playoff’s quarterfinal round after winning the Big 12, earning a bye and getting the Peach Bowl invite.
The context around that is ASU was picked to finish dead last in its first year of Big 12 play. Head coach Kenny Dillingham culled through the transfer portal the past two years to find more than enough talent to compete and win.
Running back Cam Skattebo got Heisman recognition a little too late, but it was deserved as the second-leading scrimmage yards man in the nation. Quarterback Sam Leavitt developed poise and found a No. 1 target in Jordyn Tyson before the latter was injured. The defense quietly did its business.
The worst controversy for ASU all year was Dillingham’s pretty fair criticism of a kicker. Small potatoes.
This wasn’t supposed to be the most successful ASU football season in three decades. The magic continues at least a few hours into 2025. Who says it can go weeks more?
Play-by-play announcer for the Phoenix Suns, Al McCoy speaks during the game six of the NBA Western Conference Semifinals at Footprint Center on May 11, 2023 in Phoenix, Arizona. Tonights game was Al’s final game after 51 years of broadcast. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
If you had to pick the face of Valley sports, you could only argue that Jerry Colangelo is more important than Al McCoy.
Larry Fitzgerald is arguably the GOAT receiver of all-time and Diana Taurasi’s nickname is just that, but in terms of Arizona’s deep professional sports roots, it’s those two.
McCoy died at 91 years old on Sept. 21, not long after he hung up the headset and mic having served 51 years calling Suns games.
It’s not just how he connected over the airwaves with Phoenix fans and, by every account, was that good of a person to those fans. It’s that McCoy was that good of a person that the Suns’ biggest stars from Devin Booker to Charles Barkley understood the gravity of the loss.
McCoy made sure he gave those two players a final call before his death.
“I got a call from (former Suns player and current analyst) Eddie Johnson recently, and he said Al McCoy wanted to talk to me before he died,” Barkley recalled on Arizona Sports’ Bickley & Marotta. “Man, I welled up. (Eddie) said … he only want to talk to two people and say goodbye to ’em. It was me and Devin Booker.
“Man, I’m telling you … it wasn’t a long conversation and he was thanking me and I was like, ‘Nah man, I thank you.’ To get a call saying he wanted to talk to you and say goodbye, it was one of the most amazing moments of my life. And I’ll never forget it.”
PHOENIX, ARIZONA – APRIL 19: NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman (R) speaks alongside Coyotes Chairman and Governor Alex Meruelo during a press conference at Hyatt Regency Phoenix on April 19, 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
A quick timeline: In May 2023, the Arizona Coyotes lost a public vote in Tempe that would have given the team the go-ahead to begin developing a new arena project.
A pivot ultimately had owner Alex Meruelo eyeing a chunk of land in northeast Phoenix, but the team would have to win a bid at auction on that land and then develop it. The city of Phoenix showed no signs of supporting the project, which it previously pushed back against when the arena project was pursued in neighboring Tempe.
Last June, the NHL stepped in, the land auction was called and Meruelo was convinced to sell the franchise’s hockey operations department to a group owned by the Utah Jazz owners Ryan and Ashley Smith.
“Can you look your players in the eyes and tell them when they can expect to have a new arena built? And I looked at them and stared, and said no,” Meruelo said.
Yuta Watanabe #18, Bradley Beal #3, Kevin Durant #35 and Devin Booker #1 of the Phoenix Suns watch from the bench during the second half of the NBA game against the Denver Nuggets at Footprint Center on October 10, 2023 in Phoenix, Arizona. The Nuggets defeated the Suns 115-107. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
Keeping up with the Suns in 2024 has been exhausting. Frank Vogel, last year’s head coach, got fired.
The team doubled down on building this roster around the same Big Three of Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal when it hired Mike Budenholzer. Still, fit and health issues on the roster have jumbled the rotations and the schemes too much to determine if this team has major construction problems, even if the on-paper talent got an upgrade.
So what’s that left us with? Talking about a superteam barely getting away from a play-in tournament only to get bounced in a first-round sweep last season. Then came a promising start to 2024-25, but the reality as the calendar year ends is a 15-16 squad sitting a spot out of the play-in.
But what carries the headlines and talk radio segments are the rumors.
Did you hear that LeBron James wanted the Suns to draft his son, Bronny. The King was going to link up in Phoenix on a minimum contract. His agent had to explicitly say his most famous basketball player ever client was not going to accept $4 million per year.
Did you hear that Jimmy Butler wants to be on the Suns? His agent thinks it’s a straight-up lie! Butler’s hair does not.
We have been blessed with talk about Kevin Durant’s unhappiness. The Athletic’s in memoriam, after the T-Wolves completed the sweep of Phoenix, suggested that Durant was not pleased playing in the team’s offense, and Chad OchoCinco on some podcast said he was told directly by KD that Durant wanted to be on the Miami Heat. He swears!
The Rockets want Durant. Or Devin Booker. Or *incomprehensible Woj tweet*.
Arizona Diamondbacks managing general partner Ken Kendrick stands on the field during the 2023 National League Champion ring ceremony prior to the game against the Colorado Rockies at Chase Field on March 29, 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona. The Diamondbacks defeated the Rockies 7-3. (Photo by Chris Coduto/Getty Images)
The Arizona Diamondbacks made the World Series in 2023 and invested in getting better. They traded for a full-time third baseman in Eugenio Suarez, signed Eduardo Rodriguez and Jordan Montgomery for the rotation and had one of the best offenses in baseball.
And missing the playoffs with that context left owner Ken Kendrick a little salty.
He complained on Arizona Sports’ Burns & Gambo about how MLB handled a Mets-Braves series that had playoff implications for the D-backs but got backed up beyond the original end of the season due to weather. Kendrick then publicly ripped Montgomery, who indeed had a very poor season but would certainly pick up his hefty player option to remain with Arizona for the 2025 season.
“Let me say it the best way I can say it: If anyone wants to blame anyone for Jordan Montgomery being a Diamondback, you’re talking to the guy that should be blamed because I brought it to their attention,” Kendrick said.
“I pushed for it. They agreed to it. It wasn’t in our game plan when he was signed right at the end of spring training, and looking back in hindsight, (it was) a horrible decision to have invested that money in a guy that performed as poorly as he did. It’s our biggest mistake this season from a talent standpoint, and I’m the perpetrator of that.”
Anyway, Montgomery is still on the roster as of Dec. 31.
Kendrick is not backing away from spending, having just landed ace Corbin Burnes on a massive deal that further makes a starting pitching trade feel inevitable.
It’s a big season coming up for Arizona on the field, but also in terms of their stadium future. The Chase Field lease agreement can has been kicked down the road for too long.
Reports surfaced on Jan. 13 of this year that the Arizona Wildcats, fresh off an Alamo Bowl win, and head coach Jedd Fisch had agreed in principle on a contract restructure.
A day later, he was on his way to Washington.
It had taken Fisch just three years to pull his team out from the rubble and build it into a contender, and the lack of loyalty stung in Tucson when he left for Bigger, Tenner pastures.
Let’s just say he is not well-liked in Tucson, and the tumult of his departure put returning players and current head coach Brent Brennan under fire all season long.
7. Marvin Harrison Jr. and Kyler Murray take the brunt of the criticism
It does not feel optimistic in this Valley air that the Cardinals went from two straight four-win seasons to seven and possibly eight if they win the season finale against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.
Quarterback Kyler Murray is taking heat for leading a team to another whimpering end to a season. He is seventh in QBR but 17th in passer rating, with late-game interceptions tanking his stock in the back half of the season.
Rookie Marvin Harrison Jr. is under the microscope, too. There’s been a learning curve that’s obvious, but he’s got 822 receiving yards and seven touchdowns of production, not worth complaining about if he’s not the No. 4 overall pick.
Both of their draft positions play a huge role in painting the picture of why they’re on the receiving end of criticism.
I don’t make the rules, though: Murray and Harrison will have to take that criticism head-on, because it’d be mighty surprising if Cardinals fans lighten up. It’d also be a surprise if either is not on the Cardinals next year.
The Coyotes may have lost their fight to keep the franchise in Arizona, but one of the most prominent cultural faces of the team, Paul Bissonnette, has been in the spotlight to end this year for the wildest of reasons.
He found himself in a Scottsdale scuffle, taking on a group of men who were caught on security cameras harassing restaurant staffers.
The result of him going all-in on bringing justice to the group turned into an even crazier story.
The men reportedly have ties to Irish Travelers. Read up if you want to go down that rabbit hole.
We still don’t know if Diana Taurasi will play basketball for the Phoenix Mercury — or any other team — again.
On an expiring contract, the WNBA’s all-time scorer was given her proper flowers but in a campaign called “If this is it…” keeping the door open on a possible return.
She’s yet to make a final decision public, if she even has that final decision on continuing her playing career private.
The participant field for the 2024 WM Phoenix Open wasn’t chock-full of the biggest names in golf.
But the match dubbed “The Greenest Show on Grass” became the wettest last February.
The usual crowd at golf’s most rowdy event didn’t mix well with the rainy weather, resulting in event organizers having to shut down the gates and seriously reset how they put the event on from a logistical standpoint.
