4. 2012-13 Los Angeles Lakers
Via espn.go.com
The Los Angeles Lakers added All-Star players Dwight Howard and Steve Nash to a squad that was, on paper, capable of making a postseason run and contending for a championship if it got hot at the right time. Things started out disastrously for the Lakers, as head coach Mike Brown was fired after LA lost four of the team’s first five regular season contests. Any and all hopes that the Lakers would win the NBA Championship were dashed right before the playoffs when Kobe Bryant went down with a torn Achilles. That injury proved to be the beginning of the end of the Lakers dynasty.
3. 1980 USSR Olympic Hockey Team
Via articles.latimes.com
“Do you believe in miracles?!?” is the phrase commonly associated with the 1980 USSR Olympic Hockey Team. The group of Eastern Bloc professionals that was supposed to be untouchable at the 1980 Winter Olympics likely saw their performance against the US in the medal-round as more of a choke-job than a result of divine intervention. Soviet head coach Viktor Tikhonov showed just how shaken he was after the first period ended at 2-2 when he shockingly replaced all-world goaltender Vladislav Tretiak with backup Vladimir Myshkin. The rest, as the saying goes, is history, as the USSR fell to a group of collegiate and amateur US players.
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