Top Sports Stories of 2008

2008 was a bittersweet year for New York sports. Early in the year, it saw the Giants make an incredible run in the playoffs, all the way to winning the Super Bowl in one of the NFL's biggest upsets. But 2008 also saw the final days of two stadiums, one more beloved than another, the rebuilding of the Knicks and Nets, playoff misses for both local baseball teams, the welcoming of a NFL great and several other compelling stories.

Knicks and Nets Tear Down and Rebuild Only in the NBA do teams try to trade for nothing. With a historic free-agent class (including LeBron James) looming following the 2009-10 season -- that's not this summer but next -- teams with little chance of doing anything in that span will try to dump as much salary as they can. That includes the Knicks, who sent Jamal Crawford and Zach Randolph packing. In return they got Al Harrington, Tim Thomas and Cuttino Mobley. Mobley promptly retired with a heart condition. By dispatching with those two, the Knicks told the world they value cap space over competing this season. All this just to have enough salary cap space to go after James or Dwyane Wade or Chris Bosh or someone else. Yet another absurdity in the absurd world that is the NBA. The Nets made their moves as well. Jason Kidd got flipped to the Mavericks for Devin Harris and others. That trade has worked out well for the Nets, who rely on Harris as a scorer. Dallas suffered an early departure last season and now has an expensive and old Jason Kidd. Good job Rd Thorn. The Nets later dumped Richard Jefferson on the Bucks in their attempt to clear space for the Summer of 2010. They got Yi Jianlian and Bobby Simmons back. - Tom Boorstein (Left: AP/Mark Duncan; Right: AP/Bill Kostroun)

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