Top 5 Cinderella stories in sports this decade
Earlier this week, Leicester City Football Club scripted the most memorable Premier League victory in the modern era.
Promoted from the Championship (2nd division) of English Football to play the 2014-15 season, the Foxes were on the verge of relegation until a last month surge rescued their cause last time around. The run not only kept them in the league for a second season running it gave them the momentum they carrried forward to this season which they’ve now taken home with two matchdays to spare, outperforming the likes of big-money giants Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea.
In a sporting world where ‘favourites’ dominate the scene and enforce predictable outcomes more often than not, Leicester's achievement is one of epic proportions, a rare gem in the rough.
Let us now take a look at 5 such fairytale triumphs that have taken place in this decade:
5) Boston Celtics: 2007-08 NBA season
Having last won the Championship way back in 1986, Boston Celtics were reduced to being deemed NBA giants of a bygone era after the onset of this century. As if to worsen things, they had a devastating 2006-07 season on the court.
Following the demise of club legend Red Auerbach in October 2006, the Celtics finished at the bottom of the Atlantic Division, with an all-time second-worst win-loss record of 24-58 which included their longest ever losing streak of 18 games.
The miraculous rise from the ashes that they pulled off in the next season remains, till date, the largest single-season turnaround in NBA history. A 42-game improvement from 2006-07, Boston Celtics finished the regular season with 66-16 at the top of the Atlantic Division as well as the Eastern Conference.
After edging past Atlanta, Cleveland and Detroit in the playoffs, the galloping Boston side thumped the mighty Los Angeles Lakers in the 2008 NBA Finals to take home their 17th title, at the same time achieving some long-awaited Championship glory.