CLEVELAND, Ohio – Welcome cleveland.com readers and voters to your first year-end cleveland.com Sports Awards, where you cast the votes and decide the winners for the most amazing, most interesting and most deserving Cleveland athletes, teams and moments of 2016.
Categories will be released Dec. 5 through Dec. 15, with winners announced the week of Dec. 19. Voting for each category lasts one week.
Today’s category:
THE BELIEVELAND BEST MOMENT OF THE YEAR
The nominees are:
Garfield Heights and St. Ignatius boys basketball: For their five buzzer-beaters as the Bulldogs won an OT regional final at Cleveland State, March 12.
Lake Erie Monsters: For their overtime goal that beat Hershey, 3-2, and brought the Calder Cup back to Cleveland, June 11.
Kevin Love, Cavaliers: For his exemplary defense on Golden State’s Stephen Curry in the final minute of Game 7 of the NBA Finals, June 19.
Love earned his entire contract right here. #cavs #NBAFinals2016 #abc pic.twitter.com/8xpZYEwSEE
— Dennis Manoloff (@dmansworld474) June 20, 2016
Kyrie Irving, Cavaliers: For his clutch 3-pointer to help sink the Golden State Warriors in Game 7 of the NBA Finals, June 19.
LeBron James, Cavaliers: For “The Block,” his chasedown swat of Andre Iguodala’s shot in Game 7 of the NBA Finals, June 19.
Tyler Naquin, Indians: For his thrilling inside-the-park home run to beat the Toronto Blue Jays at Progressive Field, Aug. 19.
Stipe Miocic, MMA fighter: For his dramatic knockout of challenger Alistair Overeem to retain the UFC heavyweight title, and for making Cleveland the center of the MMA universe, Sept. 10.
Noah Brown, Ohio State receiver: For his behind-the-back-of-an-opponent catch in Ohio State’s 45-24 football win over Oklahoma, Sept. 17.
Rajai Davis, Indians: For his dramatic game-tying home run in the eighth inning of Game 7 of the World Series, Nov. 2.
Those are the nominees, and below is the poll. Voting ends on Dec. 11.
