Stock Up, Stock Down for 2015 Sports Stars So Far
It’s not easy to wrap your head around the fact that 2015 is closer to being over than when it began. If you’re like me, you find yourself wondering where the year went around the time you started to finally feel okay about writing "2015" instead of "2014."
But, here we are—at the first clear vantage point to view the sports world in 2015.
If the year is halfway over, then championships have been won, trophies awarded, stats padded and—generally—the good has created some distance from the bad. Though there is plenty of time for a slumping athlete to claw back into the black or an MVP to throw all that goodwill away, it’s mid-July, and what is possible is quickly becoming what is.
So it’s time to assess the biggest winners and losers thus far.
Stock Up: Malcolm Butler
1 of 20
Undrafted out of West Alabama in 2014, Patriots cornerback Malcolm Butler became an instant superstar when he intercepted a goal-line pass by Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson in the final seconds of Super Bowl XLIX.
He was the only thing that separated Seattle from a second consecutive championship, and Tom Brady seemingly recognized Butler as the MVP, even if the NFL didn’t.
As for what the future holds for Butler, who was working part-time at Popeyes not that long ago, that remains to be seen. He certainly isn’t getting any special consideration from his head coach—Bill Belichick benched him for three weeks after missing a flight back to Boston for OTAs.
No matter what, though, Butler earned a permanent place in NFL history with a single play, much like David Tyree did back in 2008.
Stock Down: Russell Wilson
2 of 20
Had it not been for the miraculous interception of Malcolm Butler, Russell Wilson’s Seahawks would’ve returned to Seattle following Super Bowl XLIX with their second consecutive Lombardi Trophy.
Alas, it wasn’t meant to be.
On one hand, Wilson got off pretty easy, with most either crediting Butler or blaming Pete Carroll’s play-calling for the pick. On the other hand, it’s hard to imagine Wilson would still be publicly jockeying for leverage in his contract negotiations had he completed that pass.
As it stands, he is entering the final season of his rookie deal, which will pay him just under $3 million over four years, something he’s clearly not pleased about.
With the two sides still far apart, recently Wilson indicated he still considers playing baseball and that a future in Seattle is not definitive, having told 99.9 The Fan he’s “been moved around before” (h/t K5 TV). After three years of meticulous cultivation, the Seattle Times’ Larry Stone said recently that Wilson’s “image is absorbing some serious puncture wounds.”
Even though he's dating Ciara, there’s no question that Wilson’s year isn’t going as well as it could have.
Stock Up: Alex Rodriguez
3 of 20
It’s hard to believe that just 18 months ago, Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez was facing a season-long suspension and ominous threats from anonymous players warning him to “be scared,” should he return to MLB after suing his own union.
Anyone who thought A-Rod was going be pelted with garbage and met with a chorus of boos upon his return this season were sadly mistaken.
Not only have fans welcomed him back with open arms, but they’ve cheered him as he’s broken records set by legendary greats like Lou Gehrig and Willie Mays. Rodriguez’s most recent achievement was moving into the top 25 of the all-time hits list.
Even though he didn’t make the All-Star roster this season, it might be even more impressive that Alex Beam of the Boston Globe is among those in the media making the All-Star case for him. In April, The Daily Beast’s Allen Barra demanded: “Enough with the A-Rod Hypocrisy,” and apparently everyone is suddenly in agreement. With the Yanks heading into the All-Star break in first place, Rodriguez might have more fans in New York now than in his prime.
Stock Down: Matt Kemp
4 of 20
After playing his first nine seasons with the Dodgers, outfielder Matt Kemp was traded to the Padres in December 2014. So desperate were they in Los Angeles to send him packing the two hours south to San Diego that the Dodgers agreed to pay $32 million of the remaining $107 million on Kemp’s contract, which earned him $21.75 annually through 2019.
Halfway through the season, it’s fair to say that the trade hasn’t exactly paid dividends for the Padres.
ESPN’s Jayson Stark just named Kemp the NL’s Least Valuable Player of the year to date. Stark noted “at last look, Kemp ranked 142nd in the big leagues, out of 162 hitters who qualify for the batting title.”
Stock Up: LeBron James
5 of 20
In his first season back in Cleveland, LeBron James led the Cavaliers back to the NBA Finals for the first time since he took his talents to South Beach and signed with the Heat as a free agent in 2010.
Even though they ultimately lost to the Warriors in six games, many argued LBJ deserved to be named the Finals MVP, regardless of the outcome.
James carried the Cavs on his back, at times entirely alone, after key players like Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving went down for the duration and role players like J.R. Smith Smith and Iman Shumpert came up very small in big situations.
Stock Down: LeBron James
6 of 20
Everything said in the previous slide aside, there’s no denying that, once again, LeBron James lost in the Finals. In 12 seasons in the league, James is now 2-4 in the NBA Finals.
For his many detractors: It's the only argument I need, Shawn!
Stock Up: Carli Lloyd
7 of 20
Having recently recorded the fastest hat-trick in Women’s World Cup history in America’s 5-2 win over Japan in the final, 33-year-old midfielder Carli Lloyd is suddenly the best player in the world—just ask her.
It took her just 16 minutes to double her total number of goals for the tournament, which is why she easily earned the Golden Ball Award as the World Cup’s top player.
It’s worth noting that all six of Lloyd’s goals came during the knockout phase. Deadspin’s Greg Howard recently asserted that, for at least 16 minutes during that match against Japan, Lloyd “was the greatest player of all time.” It’s hard to argue against the convincing case he makes, although one does wonder what took her so long to become a “breakout” star, as espnW's Graham Hays put it.
Belated or not, this has absolutely been Lloyd’s year.
Stock Down: Abby Wambach
8 of 20
Prior to the U.S. women’s World Cup match against Columbia in the round of 16 (Team USA would go on to defeat Japan in the finals), one of its greats announced that the 2015 tournament would be her last.
Having turned 35 in June, Abby Wambach, who has been the all-time international leading goalscorer since surpassing Mia Hamm in 2013, is not even close to the physically dominating presence she was just a few years ago. The only lift a well-beyond-her-prime Wambach provided against Colombia was emotional—she launched a penalty kick high and to the left, right after a red card sent their goalkeeper off the pitch.
The World Cup win may seem like a fairytale end to a legendary career, but walking away on top is not as easy as it seems, particularly with the Rio de Janeiro Olympics just one year away.
Realistically, Wambach knows “there is probably no better way to go out” than now, as she told reporters, but she’s unwilling to commit to retirement while riding this high.
Stock Up: Todd Gurley
9 of 20
Despite an ankle injury that plagued his sophomore season in 2013 and a torn ACL that ended his junior season in November 2014, in May Georgia running back Todd Gurley was selected No. 10 overall by the Rams.
It was surprising to see him become the first running back since 2012 to be selected in the first round, especially since St. Louis was not one of the 20 cities Gurley had visited prior to the draft.
Injuries aside, Rams coach Jeff Fisher was very firm in his assessment of the former Bulldog. “This is the running back of our future,” Fisher told reporters. “It makes no sense to put him in a bad situation sooner than we have to.”
That means Gurley lucked out and stumbled into what may very well be the most ideal situation in the NFL.
Very few teams are willing to draft a player in the first round they’ll have to wait for, yet the Rams decided Gurley's was that rare type of talent worth taking a chance on.
Stock Down: Dante Fowler Jr.
10 of 20
Drafted by Jacksonville No. 3 overall out of Florida, defensive end Dante Fowler Jr. could have just as easily ended up on the “Stock Up” side of this list, being so talented and having signed a four-year, $23.5 million deal just four days after suffering an ACL tear in his first practice with the Jaguars.
Fowler is lucky his injury, which was sustained on the first day of rookie minicamp, didn’t cost him much money. Then again, even though the Jaguars proved their commitment to him, it doesn’t change the fact that Fowler will unfortunately miss his entire first season as a pro.
Here's hoping he makes a full recovery.
Stock Up: DeAndre Jordan
11 of 20
Going into the offseason, Clippers center DeAndre Jordan was expected to be one of the most coveted free agents to hit the market.
Growing tension with superstar point guard Chris Paul was reportedly the root cause of Jordan’s decision to leave Los Angeles, according to Bill Reiter. It seemed the stars were finally aligning for Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who has been trying to lure a high-profile free agent to Dallas for years.
On July 4, ESPN reported that Jordan was set to sign a four-year max contract worth more than $80 million to play for Cuban in the Big D. Just days later, Jordan unexpectedly flipped the script, opting to back out of his verbal agreement with the Mavs to re-sign with the Clips after a “contingent of players and executives” traveled to his home in Houston.
And of course, there's this...
Stock Down: Mark Cuban
12 of 20
If DeAndre Jordan is a winner, then Mark Cuban is absolutely a loser.
It’s no secret the Mavs owner has been exceptionally thirsty during free agency in recent years and is generally left feeling quite parched.
After continually whiffing on free-agent signings—last summer Chandler Parsons became their biggest get since Jason Kidd in 2009—the Star Telegram announced that the Mavs would "finally land franchise’s first big fish” in Jordan.
Given the whole messy saga, it was not entirely surprising that Cuban became very personally invested.
Although he flatly denied the report of ESPN’s Chris Broussard, who claimed Cuban was texting frantically while driving the streets of Houston trying to find Jordan’s address (Broussard later apologized), Cuban obviously felt jilted, refusing to accept Jordan’s public apology issued via Twitter.
Stock Up: U.S. Soccer
13 of 20
Last summer the U.S. men’s soccer team exceeded expectations in the World Cup, emerging from one of the two so-called “Groups of Death” to make the knockout round.
Although they went on to lose 2-1 to Belgium, buoyed by the exceptional performance of goalkeeper Tim Howard, it was the second-highest rated television match in USMNT’s history. The first came against Portugal, just weeks earlier.
In December 2014, the U.S. women’s soccer team kept with tradition by also drawing a Group of Death. Led by Carli Lloyd, USWNT would defeat No. 2 Germany, No. 3 Japan, No. 5 Sweden, No. 10 Australia, No. 14 China, No. 31 Colombia and No. 35 Nigeria on its way to the World Cup. In the final against Japan, the ladies set the new high-water mark in U.S. soccer ratings.
Of course, America’s impact on FIFA in 2015 extends well beyond anything the men or women did on the pitch. Which is incredibly impressive for a country that might as well be named the United “It’s Only Soccer” States...
Stock Down: Sepp Blatter
14 of 20
In May, longtime FIFA president Sepp Blatter found himself in the very unfortunate crosshairs of HBO’s John Oliver.
Since Last Week Tonight debuted on HBO in April 2014, the “John Oliver effect” has become a legitimate phenomenon, known to rattle government bureaucracy, world leaders, cultural institutions and the sports world at large.
Blatter, who has served as FIFA president since 1998, first reportedly came under serious investigation by the FBI, which stepped up its corruption probe into soccer’s global governing body in late 2014. Frustrated by Blatter's moving unimpeded towards his fifth term as president, Oliver absolutely obliterated his entire existence in just 13 minutes, which was essentially a follow-up from a year prior (warning: videos NSFW).
Within days, Blatter shocked the world by announcing his resignation after 17 years in the position, though he would stay on for “at least six months to allow time for a proper election to replace him between December 2015 and March next year,” via the Guardian.
That being said, it may have been Oliver who truly lost, having promised to don a stupid pair of Adidas Wings 3.0 gold shoes, drink an entire Bud Light Lime and shotgun one of everything on McDonald’s Dollar Menu.
Stock Up: Ohio State, Urban Meyer
15 of 20
Urban Meyer's Ohio State was ranked No. 5 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll going into the 2014 college football season. Just days after the poll was released, starting quarterback Braxton Miller went down for the season after sustaining an injury to his right shoulder in practice.
In the past, the Buckeyes would have been eliminated from the national discussion for the season after losing to Virginia Tech in Week 2, but the College Football Playoff kept them alive.
Following a decisive 42-28 victory over Michigan in late November, it looked like OSU was in trouble again when a fractured ankle ended J.T. Barrett’s season. Third-stringer Cardale Jones stunned the world by stepping in and defeating Wisconsin 59-0 in the Big Ten Championship, the first start of his college career.
There were plenty of naysayers when Ohio State leapfrogged TCU and Baylor, earning a place in the first CFP, due in large part to the Big 12’s lack of a conference championship game.
In his third year at the helm in Columbus, Meyer led the Buckeyes to a 42-35 win over No. 1 Alabama and a 42-20 win over No. 2 Oregon, claiming their first championship since 2002.
Stock Down: Florida State, Jimbo Fisher
16 of 20
Florida State had quite a run with quarterback Jameis Winston, whose 29 straight wins set a new school record during his two seasons staring in Tallahassee. Winston went undefeated his (redshirt) freshman season, winning the Heisman and leading the ‘Noles to a national championship in the process.
Although the only game Winston would lose in college came against Oregon in the first round of the 2015 CFP, it seems Florida State has been trending downward for much longer than their record indicates.
That’s thanks in large part to the legal drama that haunted Winston throughout 2014, underscored by a New York Times report last October that alleged the university and local authorities were both complicit in covering up the wrongdoing to football players.
Though he is trying to hold everything in place, it doesn’t look great for Coach Jimbo Fisher's program that two of its recent top recruits have recently been accused of brutally assaulting women. Quarterback De’Andre Johnson has been dismissed, and running back Dalvin Cook has been indefinitely suspended, while each was charged with assault.
Stock Up: Spurs Fans
17 of 20
With the Spurs having won five NBA championships since 1999, they’ve become the model of consistency and stability in the modern salary-cap era. “Model” is the exact term used by both Marc Gasol and commissioner Adam Silver in the last year to describe the magic they’ve been making in San Antonio for well over a decade now.
Because they’re always in such a good place growing through the draft, the Spurs don’t usually make huge splashes in free agency.
In fact, when asked what he’d be doing as free agency kicked off this offseason, coach Gregg Popovich told reporters: “I’ll be in bed. And if that’s the difference in someone coming or not coming, then I don’t want them.”
Apparently, playing hard to get worked, with the Spurs having signed both LaMarcus Aldridge and David West, the latter of whom took an $11 million pay cut by opting out of the final year of his contract with the Pacers.
In addition to their free-agency acquisitions, San Antonio will retain its Big Three (Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili) while retaining young guns Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green.
It remains good to be a Spurs fan.
Stock Down: Knicks Fans
18 of 20
If it remains good to be a Spurs fan, well then it definitely remains absolutely miserable to be a Knicks fan.
Coming off a stunningly bad 17-win season, with nearly a 20 percent chance of nabbing the No. 1 pick, New York proved they can’t even lose right and managed to fall to No. 4 in the draft order.
Team president Phil Jackson selected 19-year-old Latvian Kristaps Porzingis with the fourth pick, which was met with an impressively loud chorus of boos from Knicks fans. It’s true that booing draft picks is second nature in the Big Apple—Jets fans would probably jeer Jesus Christ himself if he were drafted—but that’s only because failure has proven imminent for many franchises in NYC.
Simply by virtue of being selected by the Knicks, Porzingis instantly became the subject of bust speculation, particularly when it looked like injury could prevent him from participating in summer league play.
Even though his recent debut was promising, the Knicks are still saddled with team coach/chemistry-killer Carmelo Anthony, who will be making about $25 million on average through 2019. It’s rumored that Melo isn’t particularly pleased with the Porzingis pick—ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith recently classified Anthony’s mood as “furious.”
Which means that it’s nothing but more of the same for beaten-down and beleaguered Knicks fans.
Stock Up: New England Patriots
19 of 20
The Patriots absolutely crushed the Colts in the AFC Championship, besting them 45-7 in a game that was basically over in the first quarter.
Although the game will forever be known for the Deflategate fiasco, Tom Brady and Bill Belichick probably just remember it as the game before they won their fourth Super Bowl since 2001.
Deflategate would dominate the discussion in the two weeks between the AFC Championship and the Super Bowl, but New England’s dramatic win would eventually overtake the scandal. Even though the NFL’s investigation would result in a $1 million fine for the Pats and a four-game suspension for Brady, few in the franchise seem concerned.
You get the sense that, even if Brady’s suspension isn’t reduced, Belichick’s boys will still go 12-4 next season anyway and probably end up in the Super Bowl yet again.
And of course, Boston fans will be there to gloat and shout, “You're just jealous!” at anyone who dares to question the ethics behind the “Patriot Way.”
Stock Down: Roger Goodell
20 of 20
To say that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is losing 2015 feels reflexively wrong.
The NFL and its franchises make more money than ever, and pro football, as an enterprise, is a well-oiled multimedia machine. The NFL—the business, the sport—is foolproof.
Yet despite his status as former commissioner Paul Tagliabue’s handpicked replacement, Goodell has managed to do enough to spark the dreaded “Could he get fired?” stories.
And his slide into the position of 2015 Loser began on January 8, when his hired man, former FBI Director Robert Mueller, released his investigative report on the “Ray Rice Incident.” The report, as expected, exonerated the NFL in a way that satisfied no one—raising far more questions than it answered.
What's worse than a "commissioned" report letting its commissioner off the hook?
Following the rollout of the Mueller Report, Sunday Night Football analysts Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth offered commentary seemingly scripted by the league prior to the Patriots-Ravens divisional playoff game. The whole shebang—the report, the coordinated response—did nothing to dispel the notion that Goodell was accountable and overplaying his hand.
So, with Deflategate highlighting the confluence of Goodell’s friendship with Patriots owner Robert Kraft and the NFL’s discipline regime and its failures—it’s easy to wonder how many games Patriots quarterback Tom Brady will actually be suspended for after exhausting the many avenues of relief available.
Add in Greg Hardy’s successful appeal and the ongoing liability and health issues precipitated by concussions in a contact sport, and 2015 is shaping up to be a rough year.
It all serves to highlight the conundrum Roger Goodell faces: As head of the most popular pro sport in America, how can he rein in something far bigger than any one man?
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