What's been your toughest loss as a sports fan?

[Yoki_IsTheName]

These.

Celtics - 2010 Game 7 Finals
Niners - 2013 NFC Championship
Arsenal - it's been all tough for 7 years.

[libermaniac]

Thursday October 5th, 1967 my 6th grade teacher walked up to me at recess and said the principal had given permission for me to go to the game.

Love the priorities!  That reminds me of how grateful I was to my parents for picking me up from school and taking me home to drop me off at home alone in 6th grade to watch the one game '78 playoff game vs. the Yankees.  Bucky-Bleeping-Dent.  But, I still appreciate my parents, who are not Red Sox fans - I grew up in Albuquerque - recognizing how important that was to me.

[action781]

Celtics Game 7 in 2010
This was incredibly tough on celtics fans at the moment, but it's a killer now as well.  Once we got Ray and KG, 2008-2011 should have been "The Celtics Era" of the NBA.  We should have been *the* team.  At the time, it really felt like it.  But this heartbreaking loss (along with our no-show in game 6) left us with just one title while the Lakers got 2.  I feel like we were the best team of that era, but in the end, greatness is measured in championships.

Celtics Game 7 in 2012
For me, this one wasn't tough because of how bad it was to lose.  It was tough because of how amazing it would have been to win.  The celts window was closing, this was going to basically be our last gasp, and we were the clear underdogs but found ourselves in a 1 game winner take all situation.  It was a chance to redeem the entire Big 3 era after only winning one title.  If we won, it would have been an amazing feeling to put away the (kind of) newly formed and widely hated Miami super team.  If we won, it also would have been on the back of Rajon Rondo who would have officially broken out as the new superstar of the team that we could feel confident in building around as the Big 3 era came to a close.  Our team fought like heck that game, but alas, everything I mentioned was dashed.

[Alleyoopster]

1972 Basketball Olympic loss to the Soviet Union
1972 Basketball Olympic loss to the Soviet Union
1972 Basketball Olympic loss to the Soviet Union

1979 Bruins Semi-Finals loss to Montreal...too many players on the ice.

1986 Red Sox World Series

[libermaniac]

1972 Basketball Olympic loss to the Soviet Union
1972 Basketball Olympic loss to the Soviet Union
1972 Basketball Olympic loss to the Soviet Union

Wow, that's some serious patriotism.  I could care less about Olympic teams.  To me, my level of disappointment when an Olypmic team loses is right up there when the guy I'm rooting for in American Ninja Warriors falls into the water.  Fleeting.

I'm not trying to knock you, by any means, just interesting difference in priorities.

[coffee425]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8rv24MFgpw

This lead to that terrible all SEC championship game where Bama destroyed LSU.


Probably should be worth adding.. this was my senior year of being at Oklahoma State.

[Denis998]

Apollo Creed vs. Ivan Drago - 1985

[Donoghus]

Apollo Creed vs. Ivan Drago - 1985

That was a rough one.

[CoachBo]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8rv24MFgpw

This lead to that terrible all SEC championship game where Bama destroyed LSU.


Probably should be worth adding.. this was my senior year of being at Oklahoma State.

Sorry. I laughed.

I attended Oklahoma.

[Celtics4ever]

Celtics Game 7 in 2010

This is mine too because the refs basically gave the Lakers a FTA whenever they missed and they took more FTA in the fourth quarter than we did all game.

[SparzWizard]

Celtics Game 7 in 2010
This was incredibly tough on celtics fans at the moment, but it's a killer now as well.  Once we got Ray and KG, 2008-2011 should have been "The Celtics Era" of the NBA.  We should have been *the* team.  At the time, it really felt like it.  But this heartbreaking loss (along with our no-show in game 6) left us with just one title while the Lakers got 2.  I feel like we were the best team of that era, but in the end, greatness is measured in championships.

Celtics Game 7 in 2012
For me, this one wasn't tough because of how bad it was to lose.  It was tough because of how amazing it would have been to win.  The celts window was closing, this was going to basically be our last gasp, and we were the clear underdogs but found ourselves in a 1 game winner take all situation.  It was a chance to redeem the entire Big 3 era after only winning one title.  If we won, it would have been an amazing feeling to put away the (kind of) newly formed and widely hated Miami super team.  If we won, it also would have been on the back of Rajon Rondo who would have officially broken out as the new superstar of the team that we could feel confident in building around as the Big 3 era came to a close.  Our team fought like heck that game, but alas, everything I mentioned was dashed.

In 2012, it's like we had no business being that deep into the playoffs. Derrick Rose was out with a torn ACL and the 76ers did the job to upset them. The 76ers nearly stunned the Celtics before they took it away.

2012 ECF was a thrilling series. Still remember that wonderful PP34 clutch shot over LeBron James in Miami. Game 6 LeBron went supersaiyan on us, and Game 7 Chris Bosh was hot. That was truly the end of a great era.

[liam]

Reggie Lewis.

[the TRUTH]

Apollo Creed vs. Ivan Drago - 1985

That made me LOL. TP for that one.

[the TRUTH]

Celtics Game 7 in 2010
This was incredibly tough on celtics fans at the moment, but it's a killer now as well.  Once we got Ray and KG, 2008-2011 should have been "The Celtics Era" of the NBA.  We should have been *the* team.  At the time, it really felt like it.  But this heartbreaking loss (along with our no-show in game 6) left us with just one title while the Lakers got 2.  I feel like we were the best team of that era, but in the end, greatness is measured in championships.

Celtics Game 7 in 2012
For me, this one wasn't tough because of how bad it was to lose.  It was tough because of how amazing it would have been to win.  The celts window was closing, this was going to basically be our last gasp, and we were the clear underdogs but found ourselves in a 1 game winner take all situation.  It was a chance to redeem the entire Big 3 era after only winning one title.  If we won, it would have been an amazing feeling to put away the (kind of) newly formed and widely hated Miami super team.  If we won, it also would have been on the back of Rajon Rondo who would have officially broken out as the new superstar of the team that we could feel confident in building around as the Big 3 era came to a close.  Our team fought like heck that game, but alas, everything I mentioned was dashed.

Great point about that 2012 team. It was sad to lose and see the unofficial end to that era, and would have been amazing to win. However, Miami was definitely better than us. In 2010, I felt like we were the better team and got totally robbed by the refs.

[Bobshot]

What do you mean by loss? A death? A championship?

A death, it would be Len Bias. They had a dynasty team with the top overall draft pick. Red picked Bias, the country's top player. And then a day later he was dead. Red just didn't keep track of the kid's lifestyle. Didn't realize the kid was capable of taking drugs. That killed the Celtics. And then Reggie Lewis. Controversy to this day about Lewis and possible drug scarring of his heart. And the insurance. Stern never did a thing for them. Both deaths. They had to count dead Lewis' salary against the cap. Never have forgiven Stern for that. Red never did, either.

A Championship--it would be the '86 Red Sox, up 3-1 in the WS against the Mets, on the verge of winning it with Clemens coasting with a lead in the 8th inning (Clemens was unhittable in those early days). And then the manager found a way to lose the game by putting in his rookie closer--while Clemens seethed in the dugout. And then found another way to lose the series by not replacing crippled Buckner defensively at 1B in the 9th or 10th, for Stapleton, as he had done all season.  The name of the manager was McNamara, and a HOF player who had played for him later told me he sucked as a manager. I believed him.