Serena

What constitutes a miracle? The US ice hockey team beating Russia?

How about the very young Cassius Clay who some thought was too scared to even enter the ring, standing over the bear, Sonny Liston, who had twice destroyed Floyd Patterson?

Or Buster Douglas taking down an unstoppable Mike Tyson?

Maybe even the Joe Namath led Jets victory over the inVinceible Packers?

They all seem to pale against this. The great Serena, having turned back every challenge thrown her way, with the end tantalizingly close, a grand slam for the taking. And who even heard of her opponent before this week? Immortality lay just ahead.. Too close to the sun, like Icarus.

Sports draw us in emotionally in ways that defy logic. And when we are so invested, the good and the bad become not just events, but reach a higher plane, become, well Al Michaels knows what they become.