COVID-19 could not stop all sports in the US, and Michael Jordan was the most profitable

The coronavirus pandemic surprised the whole world and turned 2020 into a human and economic tragedy, but what it could not achieve was to stop the development of sports competition in the United States, where all major tournaments and professional leagues were completed.

The same did not happen in the rest of the world, where 2020, which was to be the sporting year of the decade, with the events of the European Football Championship, the America’s Cup and the Tokyo Olympics, added to the regular annual calendar, turned the Pandemic into a an overturned bookstore, with postponements until 2021.

The opposite of what happened in American professional sports, which, although they suspended all competitions on March 13, returned to be one of the symbols of the fight against the deadly disease, which took the lives of over 340,000 people in the United States. United.

Beginning in June, sporting events began to be rescheduled with the new reality of having no fans on the field, reduced the regular seasons of professional baseball in major leagues, NBA, WNBA, NHL, MLS football, NWSL and millions of dollars in economic losses. ($ 15,000 million) in an industry that is fundamental to the country’s economic gear.

NASCAR motorsport was the first to meet its rescheduled program, then IndyCar, while mixed martial arts and wrestling were the first sports to start competing in so-called “bubble” venues.

Something did boxing, which would later become the professional sport that allowed the presence of thousands of spectators when safety and health protocols to combat the deadly disease of Covid-19 have already been established by federal and state authorities.

NASCAR ended a historic season both in terms of sports and politics, when, through the only black driver in the competition, Bubba Wallace, he began his fight against racism and managed to end the organization with the presence of the flag. Confederate in competitions.

The new NASCAR Cup champion Chase Elliott, just 24 years old, the son of Bill Elliott, who also won the title in 1988, became the youngest driver to win the championship in 25 seasons.

IndyCar followed in NASCAR’s footsteps and with less prominence in the fight for racial and social justice, leaving veteran New Zealand driver Scott Dixon, 40, who won his sixth title as champion.

While another veteran driver, the Japanese Takuma Sato surprised with the victory in the 104th edition of the legendary Indianapolis 500 race, which also had to be postponed from its traditional date of Memorial Day weekend at August 23rd. .

Then came the return to the professional golf circuit of the PGA Tour, which had to reschedule the legendary Augusta Masters from April to November, but which was a sporting success with the best golfer in the world, the American Dustin Johnson, as the new champion.

PGA followed its entire competition schedule, including the Houston Tournament, which became the first to have spectators on the field again, 2,000 fans a day, and a brilliant champion in the Mexican Carlos Ortiz, who won his first title on the circuit.

Professional tennis, which was the professional sport that suffered the cancellation of most of the tournaments that should have been played in the ATP and WTA calendar, managed to save the Cincinnati Masters and Premier 5 by playing in the bubble place. from the United States National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York.

The tournament, which left Serbian Novak Djokovic and reborn Belarusian Victoria Azarenka as champions, served as a prelude to the US Open.

With the absence of the legendary, Swiss Roger Federer and Spaniard Rafael Nadal in the men’s field and the best tennis players in the women’s world, the Austrian Dominic Thiem took advantage of Djokovic’s disqualification after hitting a court judge with a ball to get the first his Grand Slam title.

While the Japanese Naomi Osaka, after holding an entire recital of racial and social struggles, in the grand final defeated Azarenka to win her second Open title.

Prior to that, the United States Professional Football League (MLS) return tournament had ended in the Orlando Balloon with Portland Timbers as champions.

The NHL, in several bubble places in Canada, also managed to define the Tampa Bay Lightning as Stanley Cup champions after defeating the Dallas Stars (4-2) in the final.

WNBA, at the IMG Academy ball in Bradenton (Florida), saw the Seattle Storm team beat Las Vegas Aces in the final and won the title.

Major Leagues, after completing a regular season of 60 games and overcoming several outbreaks of coronavirus infections, finally in the balloon of the new Texas Rangers field, Globe Life Field, with 11,000 fans per game they had World Series champion to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

He will later join another Los Angeles team, the legendary Lakers, in the Orlando balloon, proclaiming themselves NBA champions with their new stars of MVP award-winning striker LeBron James and center Anthony Davis, who awarded the team the seventeenth title, equal to the Boston Celtics for the best dynasties.

The last title in 2020 contested by a team of professionals in the United States during the coronavirus pandemic was that of MLS, which was won by the Columbus team, without spectators, but in their field.

As he left the competition, the pandemic once again allowed the figure of Michael Jordan to be the center of attention and the sports character who generated the most money on TV with the documentary “The Last Dance”.

The life of Jordan’s billionaire’s excesses with mansions, cars, motorcycles, golf courses, gambling, the majority shareholder of the Charlotte Hornets and a bad investment allowed his broadcast to generate excellent dividends for the former player, ESPN, Netflix, Nike, NBA and many other brands related to its image.

Jordan, according to Forbes magazine, is the athlete who has earned the most money in history, with an estimated fortune of 2.1 billion dollars.

The crossroads of the 2020 currency in professional sports in the United States was the death of the legendary former Lakers baseman, Kobe Bryant, who died on January 26 in a tragic helicopter crash in which he lost his life and his daughter Gianna. 13 years and seven other people.