🤔 Who Had The Best Team Of The Decade?

As the 2010s wind down, it’s time to have the conversation about the greatest sports teams of the last 10 years. [View in browser]( [FOX SPORTS INSIDER WITH MARTIN ROGERS] In today’s FOX Sports Insider: An important debate about the greatest sports team of the 2010s ... bowl season officially begins for college football ... and the 49ers will try to rebound from an unexpected loss. Not only has Christmas crept up on us stealthily this year, but so too has the impending conclusion of the 2010s, prompting the typical wonderings about where all that time went ... and also the head-scratching question of how the sports world managed to pack so much into the last 10 years. Such occasions are always an appropriate time for reflection and comparison, and because sports fans love to live in the hypothetical, we will be rolling out some “best of the decade” festive goodness over the next week or two. Before the mathematically-minded of you start pointing out that the end of the decade won’t actually arrive until the end of 2020, rest assured, we know all about [the intellectual kerfuffle over the various dates](. But do you really want to wait another year to figure out who in sports has dominated the last 10 years of our lives? Didn’t think so. Currently, the vote for Team of the Decade [is underway on FOX Sports’ social media platforms]( with seedings, a bracket and a bunch of worthy franchises all jostling for another notch on their immortal belts. It is fun and entertaining, and while we know that topping our poll won’t rival the hoisting of the Lombardi Trophy or the World Cup for the athletes involved, it does all give a fascinating insight into how we view greatness, and how we remember epic achievements over time. The first round saw some upsets of significance, with 8th-seeded 2015 Alabama, led by Heisman-winning RB Derrick Henry, getting past the 2016-17 New England Patriots, captained by that year’s NFL MVP in Tom Brady. Those Pats might have come back from being down 28-3 in the Super Bowl, but they couldn’t compete with a voting swell for the Crimson Tide. LeBron James and Kyrie Irving’s championship-winning 2015-16 Cavaliers were a seven seed and toppled the swashbuckling 2015-16 UConn women. As for the Curry-Thompson-Green-Iguodala Golden State Warriors team that lost to the Cavs that same year after going 73-9? They fell to the three-headed monster that was Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez’s 2014-15 Barcelona squad. [STORY IMAGE 1] It makes you think about what we’re really looking for in an ultimate team for the ages. Do teams that capture their finest hour with a moment of breathtaking drama have an edge, having not just earned the admiration of the sporting public but also etching an emotional connection? Does a team that veered to the brink of losing, but survived on the back of its inner steel and intense drive position itself as more worthy than one that cruised over the line, or does the fact that an opponent got so close diminish it? Those Cavaliers had “The Block” and “The Shot,” plus the hook of LeBron James bringing a feel-good title back to his hometown. Clemson in 2018 steamrolled the field, smashing Notre Dame and Alabama to win a national championship, minus the drama. Take your pick. Actually, if they both win their next round of the vote, you really can, as they’ll meet in a quarterfinal. FOX Bet provided a hypothetical futures market before the “event” took place, and had those 73-win Warriors atop the odds list at +750, narrowly ahead of the 2013-14 San Antonio Spurs and this year’s triumphant United States women’s soccer team. However, according to FOX NBA analyst Chris Broussard, it is the 2016-17 Warriors, featuring a newly-arrived Kevin Durant, that should be regarded as the finest team we’ve seen of late. “The 2016-17 Warriors are the team of the decade,” Broussard told me via text message. “Best shooting team ever. They went 16-1 in the playoffs. Unstoppable backcourt scorer in Steph Curry. Unstoppable frontcourt scorer in KD. Best backcourt of all time.” This year’s U.S. women’s soccer stars are a powerful top seed that will take some stopping, while WWE fans may mobilize behind the star-studded stable of The Shield (2014), featuring Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose, all former world champions in their own right. In Boston, there could be a serious conflict of interest in the second round, as the 2018 Red Sox, who won 108 games and didn’t lose two games in a single playoff series, take on the 2014-15 Patriots — you know, the team that sealed its Super Bowl win on Malcolm Butler’s epic interception. The idea for this cyber-competition came off the back of FOX’s hugely popular “Best NFL Fan Base” bracket from a year ago, which saw 2.6 million votes, engagements from 100 NFL players, 26 teams, two head coaches, and crowned the Cleveland Browns as having the best support. [STORY IMAGE 2] So far this year, FOX Sports director of social and short form Nick Rago tells me, more than 500,000 votes have been cast for the top team of the 2010s. Guess what: America likes remembering its great teams. If this bracket is anything to go by, and for all everyone else’s attempts to get to the summit of sports, we are seeing more dominance than ever. Last year on The Herd, Colin Cowherd tried to explain why. “Sports parity is a myth,” Cowherd said. “Parity in life is a myth. (There has) always been a rich and there has always been a poor. And the rich are gaining. There is a reason for it: dominance is unavoidable because so few people are great at anything.” The best thing about dominance is that you don’t usually see it coming, especially in regard to teams and franchises. Back at the start of the 2010s, the Patriots were already being written off as past their prime. Alabama? Three defeats in 2010. As for the U.S. women, they were supposedly about to find the rest of the world catching up to them. Part of modern sports is that we get to see greatness, live through it, and anoint it. Voting on such things is all about personal preference, figuring out what these teams and moments meant to us. Let’s be honest: comparing teams from different years and eras is the most inexact of all sporting sciences. Accurately assessing the respective legacies from teams in different sports is probably impossible. But trying to do so — that’s what makes it fun. [STORY IMAGE 3] Here’s what others have said ... Will Leitch, MLB.com: “After their breakthrough in the 2015 season, all eyes were on the Cubs in '16 from Spring Training on. Were they going to be the team to finally break the curse? They led the National League Central essentially from the first month on, took out the three-time World Series champion Giants in the NL Division Series, handled the upstart Dodgers in the NL Championship Series, and then ran into the Indians, a team with almost as painful a history as they had, in the Fall Classic. That Series became an all-time classic, one that ended with a breathtaking Game 7 … and Kris Bryant smiling as he fielded the ground ball that won the Cubs their first World Series since 1908.” Mandela Namaste, Bleacher Report: “Despite finishing with an objectively incredible record, it seemed as though Golden State had underachieved entering the playoffs. After all, the Warriors won six fewer games after adding Durant than they did the year prior. However, they quickly revealed they had another gear, making like Moses Malone on the Western Conference and decisively claiming their revenge against the Cavaliers in five games. We may never see another two-month stretch of basketball like that ever again. If you can tell your grandkids about only one team from the 2010s, this is the squad to pick.” Rick Suter, USA TODAY: “Whether you like to admit it or not, the New England Patriots were the NFL’s 2010s. The full hot order. Count ’em out? That’s what coach Bill Belichick and Tom Brady loved for the general masses outside of the Boston area to do. And then, they’d pull it together and outthink, out-scheme your team on their way to Super Bowl Sunday. Half of the decade featured the Patriots in the Grand Finale, with the team winning three times.” [IN OTHER WORDS] - ESPN’s Bill Connelly attempts to answer [the 12 biggest questions about the college football bowl season](. - LeBron James might call this his revenge season, but [it’s looking a lot more like serenity now](. Jerry Brewer at The Washington Post explains. - John Breech from CBS Sports reveals that Lamar Jackson, Ryan Fitzpatrick and Kyler Murray [could make history together by pulling off a rare NFL feat](. [THE INTERNET IS UNDEFEATED] [THE INTERNET IS UNDEFEATED]( It’s likely that no one has more fun at their job than the NBA on TNT crew. And when they’re featuring a doubleheader, you can bet that they’re going to get up to some shenanigans at worst and some hijinks at best. At some point during Thursday’s marathon of the Lakers losing to the Bucks and the Clippers losing to the Rockets, the crew thought it would be interesting for Shaq to guard Charles Barkley in an impromptu game of one-on-one. Chuck managed to score over Shaq, but with a no-look, overhead backwards flip. Best bucket of the 2019-20 NBA season? It’s too early to say for sure ... but definitely, yes. [VIEWER'S GUIDE] WWE Friday Night SmackDown (FOX, 8 p.m. ET) Daniel Bryan returned with a new (old) look at WWE TLC, so we’ll find out what’s next for him in his pursuit of Bray Wyatt’s Universal Championship. Meanwhile, the New Day will defend the Smackdown Tag Team Championship against Shinsuke Nakamura and Cesaro. Camellia Bowl: No. 19 Boise State vs. Washington (ABC, Saturday, 7:40 p.m. ET) Bowl season officially begins this week, and the Camellia Bowl might be the best of the weekend’s college football offerings. Los Angeles Rams at San Francisco 49ers (NFL Network, Saturday, 8:15 p.m. ET) A friendly reminder that this week, the NFL will offer up games on Saturday. The nightcap pits NFC West rivals against one another as the Niners attempt to rebound from a stunning loss to the Falcons last week. Dallas Cowboys at Philadelphia Eagles (FOX, Sunday, 4:25 p.m. ET) This is undoubtedly the marquee matchup of Week 16. All eyes will be on this game, as it may just decide who walks away with the embattled NFC East title. [BET OF THE DAY] [BET OF THE DAY] Odds provided by [FOX Bet]( George Kittle to score a TD in the first half against the Rams: +280 The San Francisco 49ers are -275 favorites on the money line to win Saturday’s tilt against the visiting Los Angeles Rams, with a 6.5-point spread as of Friday morning. Kittle has been Jimmy Garoppolo’s favorite target so far this season, leading the Niners in receiving yards and with his four touchdowns being the second-most receiving TDs on the team. Granted, he hasn’t scored a touchdown since 10/7 against the Browns, but there’s no telling how severely the Rams’ spirits have been crushed after their blowout loss to the Cowboys last week. [WHAT THEY SAID] "The only way to prove that you're a good sport is to lose." — Ernie Banks [FOLLOW FOX SPORTS] [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [YouTube]( [Instagram]( Download the FOX Sports app for live scores and streaming [App Store]( [Google Play]( Available on: [tvOS] [Roku] [fireTV] [androidtv] [XBOX] [Google chromecast] [tvOS] [Roku] [fireTV] [androidtv] [XBOX] [Google chromecast] Forwarded this message? [Sign up](. Trademark & Copyright Notice: ™ and © 2019 FOX Media LLC and FOX Sports Interactive Media, LLC. All rights reserved. Please do not reply to this message. If you do not wish to receive emails like this in the future, please [unsubscribe](. FOX Sports respects your privacy. Click [here]( to view our Privacy Policy. FOX.com Business & Legal Affairs - Manager Digital Media P.O. Box 900 Beverly Hills, CA 90213-0900