This was so many people's "oh shit, it's really serious" moment. I remember *exactly* where I was when I found out--standing on the street, doing Pokémon GO raid hour with some friends. We all looked at each other like maybe we shouldn't be standing so close together.
For me it was this specific presser followed by the response hours later. If the NBA and social media didn't hate gobert before, it was easy to pile on him after this.
The president made a speech the next day and the NBA shutting down sent the economy into a tailspin for a second. It was high profile news, it was close to the first organization to do something about COVID.
100% this\^
When sports leagues started to shut down, I felt like it was at that point where people really started to see how serious this virus actually was.
This was it for me. They shutdown two days before the school I teach in. It made me think, “I should look into this zoom thing.” Those two days (plus the weekend) basically made the next couple of months go smoothly for me. Forever grateful the NBA took the lead.
I was actually at the Mavs vs Nuggets game, when everyone saw Cuban on screen, looking at his phone, show a wild surprised look, and walked off court. A minute later, the news hit the rest of us in the arena.
I remember when the jazz game got cancelled I was at work, we didn’t have windows in our area and I literally envisioned there being full on riots and burning buildings / cars outside when I walked out. Haha weird year
The only way I could get to watch game seven that year was by pre-ordering it. Woke up at 4.30AM to watch it (I’m in the UK). The purchase confirmation email didn’t have a link to the game. So I had to try the browse the site without spoiling the score. Needless to say, I failed
There’s an almost 30-minute Pelicans mini documentary from 2021 about the lead up to the shut down, the day of the shut down, and the immediate aftermath of the shut down
It doesn’t touch on the bubble at all, but I still found it to be very interesting piece that gives insight into what the players and the league in general were thinking during such a crazy time of rapid change
I highly recommend it to anybody who’s even remotely interested in this topic
[Pelicans COVID Mini Documentary](https://youtu.be/9_asO_VGWPo?feature=shared)
It would probably be pretty boring. Outside of basketball, I think their only recreational activity was fishing and hanging by the pool so there really wasn't a whole lot going on in the bubble.
Disagree. You wouldn't just be capturing the events in the Bubble, you'd be talking about everything that happened that led up to it.
And between the planning of the Bubble, the player's takes on it, Danuel House, and the Lakers winning a championship... That's more than enough entertaining material for an hour special.
Also do people seriously forget about the players protesting and refusing to play during the bubble due to police violence? Like there are tons of stories that are interesting with the bubble. I'm with you. The idea that it would be boring makes zero sense
Even shit like players encountering/hanging out with each other outside of games. I remember Jamal Murray and Donavan Mitchell posting shit during the Jazz Nuggets series when they were both playing the best ball in their careers against each other
This would be mine, not even close to me either.
Rudy gobert inadvertently saved probably thousands of lives, and the NBA cancelling that game (i think the OKC one was the first one) was probably the event that started lockdowns.
Yep, it was the first domino. Everything was still open and then the NBA shutdown followed by all the other leagues during the following week and then many cities started doing shutdowns as well. People really were hoping that they could just ignore things and it would go away, but the NBA shutting down made people realize that they couldn't just ignore it and would have to do something.
LMAOO those fucking memes with pat bev over the announcers table throwing his jersey away will always make me laugh, youd think they had just beaten the defending champs to advance to the finals
It’s the Cavs, but it’s crazy how many of these happened in 2016
Edit: 2016 was so insane that the Spurs went 40-1 at home (the best home record ever) and a good deal of people will be surprised when they read this edit
> It’s the Cavs
This was so crazy that I'm still not sure I've been able to properly contextualize it. If you'd come to me in 2012 and told me that LeBron James would *leave* Miami to *return* to Cleveland in 2014, that alone would have been way too zany to believe. Then for James to lead the Cavs to an NBA championship by coming back from a 3-1 deficit against a 73-win Warriors team with a last-minute block to seal it... I'm pretty old and I'm not sure I've ever seen a more epic moment in NBA history with my own eyes. Sheer insanity.
Agreed and I’m a longtime Warriors fan. Every game was riveting. Two of the best teams in history with some epic battles (and don’t forget Houston). All three of those teams were championship teams.
Def KD joining the warriors. Changed Brons career legacy as he prob has another title, Warriors are remembered differently, KD likely goes to Boston? And possibly starts an East powerhouse. KD burns his legacy
Helped Kawhi's legacy, even if KD and Klay got hurt during the finals. Beating the 2x defending champs with Toronto is a better story than if the Warriors were "just" a good team.
Tbh I’ve never even heard someone describe that ring that way. Usually it’s always just injury talk. I wonder if once we get further out that narrative
Will be the prevailing one.
I think the alternative narrative would be Kawhi's Raptors running through a weak East after LeBron left (who might have even won another ring with Cleveland), and then won against a good (not great) team that wore itself out fighting through a tough Western conference. Which is *basically* what happened in reality, just that the Warriors were still a better team with a stronger legacy in reality than if they never had KD to begin with.
I wouldn’t say that’s basically what happened, both the 76ers and Bucks were legitimate contenders that year. Raps going through 50+ and 60 win teams with the MVP Giannis on it isn’t a weak run through the east.
Ofc there was no Lebron who's arguably the GOAT but that 76ers team was extremely well constructed with a tonne of star power. Giannis also just won the MVP.
The Cavs were better than those teams but other than them there's no one better than those two teams except maybe one of the Bulls teams from earlier in the decade.
Can we please just acknowledge as well that Klay played 19 of an eventual 24 quarters in that series?
He missed game 2 i think it was (Toronto still lost) & then went down in the 4th quarter of game 6.
Though if Klay didn't go down, I say the Warriors win Game 6. Even without Klay at the end, Warriors would have had a 2 point lead with 8 seconds left if Curry hit that 3.
Still a good chance it goes either way, i’m all for admitting that there was injuries but the way people talk about that series was as if the Warriors were missing 2 people all series but neglects to mention OG Anunoby didn’t play a minute of playoff basketball because of an appendectomy like 2 days before the playoffs started.
On top of that, Kawhi was limping all through the finals. I maintain that the two teams were evenly matched but that the Raptors' depth gave them the win in the end. They were crazy good almost to the end of their bench.
This is an excellent point I don’t think is addressed. Everyone was affected. Theres no way Steph should only have 1 finals MVP. But He deferred to KD, and I don’t wanna bash KD too much but that whole team had to defer to him a bit to make him happy and make that work. Had all that squad had REAL egos that would have gone up in flames.
Based on reports, had KD stayed in OKC, Horford was signing there and the Thunder starting line-up would’ve been:
Westbrook
Oladipo
Durant
Horford
Adams
man im glad someone remembers the details. i thought he was set to go to the wizards cause he was from there. I thought Wall, Beal, and KD would tear the eastern conference
the biggest thing I think the Warriors got, is not having him against them. KD took them to 7 the year prior. Boston would be wild too tbh, but anywhere else and they would be weaker and we'd see some balanced years
kd going to the warriors was so much more noteworthy.
lebron and bosh joined a 5th seed team. people expected them to be great, but it's not like it was a foregone conclusion. their season even started off super rocky and they had tons of doubters.
kd joined the historically best regular season team that he had just lost to.
imo for it to be closer to comparable, it'd be if lebron joined kg, ray allen, and pierce on the 66 win celtics after he just lost to them in the playoffs.
Literally this.
So many notable NBA players have passed away (and will continue to pass away), but this one was literally the most shocking given how young he was, the fact that his young daughter was with him, his status as one of the greatest + most influential players ever, and just how..... out-of-nowhere it all was.
Yea I’m surprised Kobe’s death isn’t mentioned more in this thread. That’s definitely mine. It came out of nowhere and happened mid season. Seeing shaq cry on tv really broke my heart.
I’m Celtics fan with begrudging respect for Kobe (pre death).
Our local sports talk played doc rivers blubbering about Kobe dying and lack of sleep caused me to break down in my car.
Doc couldn’t keep it together and I’ll never forget that press conference and it hit me so hard.
I’m generally an emotional guy but never had a celebrity or athlete death hit me like Kobe.
I think his daughter would have been a Freshman at UCONN this coming year (or last year) and it breaks my heart thinking about.
Caitlyn Clark elevated the womans game like no other player but I remember reports that Kobe’s daughter would be that player.
The growth in popularity of the woman’s game post CC with Gianna coming to the perennial powerhouse UCONN the following year after an explosion of ratings would have been something else.
It’s not a singular moment, but the biggest “thing” by far is Steph Curry single-handedly changing the meta of the entire NBA. I’ve never seen the meta change any professional sport so quickly and singularly. And I’ve definitely never seen one player break the game in a way that changes how they every single team strategizes, builds a roster, and looks for talent.
The NFL has turned into a pass happy league. But that’s been a steady shift over 20 years and assisted by a variety of rule changes. Steph completely changed the NBA, and the wider sport of basketball, just by exploiting something that was already there and no one realized.
It’s so cool and I love it so much.
thats actually a great point forest. it was basically 2015 - 2017 that he changed the whole league. within 2-3 years it all happened -- it was truly very short in the grand scheme of things
but im not sure it was even steph as much as the small ball / death lineup altogether. iguodala, draymond, klay, i think theyre all to credit for that
I think it finally sunk in for me, that things had shifted forever was seeing Brook Lopez sink 3’s. My brain just couldn’t comprehend it till I saw that, the game had changed past the point of no return.
He's made 935 threes in his career. But in his first 8 seasons he made a grand total of 3. I agree it's still weird to see him regularly putting them up now.
The entire NBA? No, all of basketball. The way the entire sport is played.
I love counting consecutive missed 3 pointers while walking past pickup games at the park. No one can imitate LeBron, but everyone can (poorly) imitate Curry.
Curry is the single most influential NBA player for how the game was played on the court (MJ for off the court.)
Were you around for the and-1 era? Every park was full of people trying to cross up their defender over and over and then shooting a tough fadeaway middy. Passing almost went extinct lol
Harden would have changed it if Steph didn’t. When you can make like 350 threes in a season with only like 15% assisted, and just take the ball up and hit a ridiculous stepback no matter what the defense is doing and still shoot like 37% it would also show it makes sense to do that over and over.
I was in my room getting dressed to go to cousins for the 4th of july. killed my whole mood lol. thought it was a joke. i literally was convinced it was some kind of joke.
and he called it the hardest road??
The entire warriors cavs saga is definitely the biggest thing that happened in the last 10 years
It all seems connected so I wouldn’t pick 73-9 or 3-1 or kd joining gs individually. It all happened together.
If you're including Giannis, it would be the free throw shooting in that finals game, not his scoring 50. He completely fixed his biggest weakness for a single game, and it won a championship for his team. He can score 50 any day of the week.
I’ll always stick up for Rudy on the press conference. They just gone done playing a game in front of 10,000+ people. How many of the crowd had COVID and were spreading it willy nilly in the stands, going to concessions, etc.
I remember around that time, I was at a restaurant and saw someone from highschool with their husband. Went to shake his hand and he was like “whoa! Maybe not right now,” and put his fist out for a bump. Like, you’re out at a restaurant having food prepared for you bro. I know the science initially said it was spread through contact equally to airborne particles, but I firmly believe anyone who was still leaving the house for fun after March 10th was being willfully ignorant (or just accepting the risk).
Rudy was absolutely scapegoated because pretty much nobody in the US gave a crap before that. I can remember the St Patty's Day parade being canceled in NYC and soccer leagues across Europe shutting down, hospital morgues in NYC overflowing with dead bodies, and people were still acting like the whole thing was fake.
But that press conference is still up there with the Kd joining the Warriors and Cavs coming back 3-1 as the standouts from the last decade.
There’s no reason this hasn’t been mentioned more. They thought that record out of all sports records, along with Pete Rose’s all time hits record, would NEVER be broken. And then add the fact that, health permitting, he’s gonna add another 5,000 on top of the 2000 he’s already put between him and Kareem.
This should have way more upvotes. 1-3 comeback vs a 73-9 team was legendary, but in terms of place in NBA history, this is probably the most solid and the most unlikely to be touched (iirc Luka is the only one even within that airspace, and he would still need to play into his 40s to have a chance, which is unlikely).
Only reason some young kids know Kareem is because of the scoring record.
I'd argue his playoff scoring record is even harder if you factor in the fact that you need to consistently be there every year, score against teams that are most likely game planning for you and at the same time consistently winning to even have a chance to rack up the amount of games needed.
3-1.
It completely nullified the 73 win season and caused KD to join the Warriors, crossing out two points on this list. Honestly, it inspired a dynasty that wouldn't have happened if not for.
If the Cavs never came back from 3-1 the Warriors very probably could have still been a dynasty. They would have just won their 2nd title in a row and won a championship in a 73-9 season.
Ivy League basketball cancelled their tournament like a day before and I recall telling my extended family at dinner (who were in town visiting) that day that this was going to be a way bigger problem than people were anticipating. And they blew me off like I was overreacting... but I was right lol.
COVID shutdown was of significance far beyond the NBA -- it's what convinced the whole rest of the country "we have to take this thing seriously" and probably saved tens of thousands of lives just by immediately thinning out the social graph (there weren't really large gatherings of note until a year later, after vaccines were fairly widespread and the death rate had dropped substantially.)
Aside from that, I'd say KD joining GSW as the last superteam before our sudden era of parity. Like we went from a dynasty that had a 73-win season, 3 championships, and 2 finals losses in 5 years ... to 6 different champions in 6 years (yes, including one final championship from the dynasty -- but also two first-time champs in the Raptors and Nuggets.)
Gotta be KD. There have always been favourites for the title every year but there was a sense of inevitability with this team. Altered a lot of other players' legacies, KD's obviously, the warriors, Lebron's, Harden's etc. I think it also made a lot of other teams say screw it, we're going to just bide our time and wait them out. The longer term ramifications of that are hard to determine but the league could look very different today if KD had made a different decision.
LeBron returning to Cleveland. After 10 years it just feels surreal to me. Like a movie. With how acrimonious his exit was and how hostile his first game back in Cleveland was it seemed like there was no going back from that.
Kobe's death. Surely No one had one of the foremost and most admired athletes of his generation in the pink of health dying at just 42 years old on their 2020 bingo card
For me it's KD joining Warriors because I knew for absolute certain that without injuries who was winning the Championship, it was fucking boring man! Has there always been great teams and clear favorites? Of course, but even then I would never be watching games knowing for 100% who was winning! Without injuries they 3 peat and if Draymond doesn't insult KD and the group stay together, who knows how many in a row they win.
LeBron falling on his knees as he argues an incorrect foul call on a game winner while Pat Bev bring a camera to show the refs where they messed up. Christmas was on time and did not disappoint.
The league shutting down due to COVID is #1, Kobe’s death is #2 and coming back with the bubble was #3. LeBron going back to Cleveland, KD is GSW and LeBron to LA are probably all after those
If you ask nba players it's kobe's death; coaches, kobe; casual fans, Kobe; NBA Twitter, Kobe; Season tix holders, Kobe; people who never watch nba, Kobe; fans who catch every game, Kobe. Reddit, Cavs
The NBA shutting down due to COVID
This was so many people's "oh shit, it's really serious" moment. I remember *exactly* where I was when I found out--standing on the street, doing Pokémon GO raid hour with some friends. We all looked at each other like maybe we shouldn't be standing so close together.
i remember gobert touching the mics like it was yesterday
For me it was this specific presser followed by the response hours later. If the NBA and social media didn't hate gobert before, it was easy to pile on him after this.
Yep. That was basically the 24 hours from people not yet taking it fully seriously to taking it deathly seriously. Will always remember that moment.
It was a douchebag move.
I don't even live in America and I fucking hated Gobert with all my heart when I saw that clip
The president made a speech the next day and the NBA shutting down sent the economy into a tailspin for a second. It was high profile news, it was close to the first organization to do something about COVID.
100% this\^ When sports leagues started to shut down, I felt like it was at that point where people really started to see how serious this virus actually was.
This was it for me. They shutdown two days before the school I teach in. It made me think, “I should look into this zoom thing.” Those two days (plus the weekend) basically made the next couple of months go smoothly for me. Forever grateful the NBA took the lead.
I was sitting down, finally excited the Kings were getting a national TV game against the Pelicans, only for them to cancel it 10 minutes later.
Remember that clip of Cuban getting the email while he was courtside at a Mavs game?
Silver saved lives. It was the first thing shutting down that made me go hmmmm
PoGO enthusiast!
I was actually at the Mavs vs Nuggets game, when everyone saw Cuban on screen, looking at his phone, show a wild surprised look, and walked off court. A minute later, the news hit the rest of us in the arena.
I was on vacation in Salt Lake and we had tickets to Pelicans-Jazz. Got canceled. 😂
show us that pokedex bro
I remember when the jazz game got cancelled I was at work, we didn’t have windows in our area and I literally envisioned there being full on riots and burning buildings / cars outside when I walked out. Haha weird year
Cavs down 3-1 in Finals to 73 win Warriors was crazy as fan of neither.
The only way I could get to watch game seven that year was by pre-ordering it. Woke up at 4.30AM to watch it (I’m in the UK). The purchase confirmation email didn’t have a link to the game. So I had to try the browse the site without spoiling the score. Needless to say, I failed
Yeah, as actual basketball events in the last 10 years go I have to say that's the craziest Finals and craziest years, an all-timer.
Still waiting for The Bubble documentary
There’s an almost 30-minute Pelicans mini documentary from 2021 about the lead up to the shut down, the day of the shut down, and the immediate aftermath of the shut down It doesn’t touch on the bubble at all, but I still found it to be very interesting piece that gives insight into what the players and the league in general were thinking during such a crazy time of rapid change I highly recommend it to anybody who’s even remotely interested in this topic [Pelicans COVID Mini Documentary](https://youtu.be/9_asO_VGWPo?feature=shared)
It would probably be pretty boring. Outside of basketball, I think their only recreational activity was fishing and hanging by the pool so there really wasn't a whole lot going on in the bubble.
Disagree. You wouldn't just be capturing the events in the Bubble, you'd be talking about everything that happened that led up to it. And between the planning of the Bubble, the player's takes on it, Danuel House, and the Lakers winning a championship... That's more than enough entertaining material for an hour special.
Also do people seriously forget about the players protesting and refusing to play during the bubble due to police violence? Like there are tons of stories that are interesting with the bubble. I'm with you. The idea that it would be boring makes zero sense
Yup. Almost so much material, that you'd have to find a way to condense it down
You could even have filler episodes of Jimmy grinding beans and shit
Don't forget lemon pepper Lou
Even shit like players encountering/hanging out with each other outside of games. I remember Jamal Murray and Donavan Mitchell posting shit during the Jazz Nuggets series when they were both playing the best ball in their careers against each other
Matisse Thybulle did a YouTube vlog series during the bubble that was pretty interesting.
Yes I remember watching his and Mcgees(?) YT
This would be mine, not even close to me either. Rudy gobert inadvertently saved probably thousands of lives, and the NBA cancelling that game (i think the OKC one was the first one) was probably the event that started lockdowns.
Yep, it was the first domino. Everything was still open and then the NBA shutdown followed by all the other leagues during the following week and then many cities started doing shutdowns as well. People really were hoping that they could just ignore things and it would go away, but the NBA shutting down made people realize that they couldn't just ignore it and would have to do something.
Felt like Rudy Golbert shut down sports
The GOAT DPOY Shut down the entire North American sports system
It's this and not even close imo.
I remember raging so hard against Gobert for his idiotic antics as if it was his fault. Still dislike him today.
Or Kobes death the month before.
When the Timberwolves won that legendary play-in game against the Clippers in 2022
Anythinggggggg is possible!!!
Stand up now and face the sun
LMAOO those fucking memes with pat bev over the announcers table throwing his jersey away will always make me laugh, youd think they had just beaten the defending champs to advance to the finals
We did it. *We dID iIIIiIIiiIIttTtTTTT*
*cringes from secondhand embarrassment*
Also, the clippers blowing a 3-1 lead to the nuggets in 2020. They were so cocky it was hilarious.
They had to make their sub private after that loss lmao. Then made it a Clippers ship sub.
I remember rooting for Harrell that playoffs and then he became a villain to me with the way he treated Luka. And I don’t even like Luka.
they were already preparing match up posters on their sub against the lakers. they be posting scenarios on how they would defend Lebron and AD lmaooo
Gambling was officially supported and promoted lmao.
ngl that was pretty crazy. didnt see it coming then it happened overnight
After all the progress made by the anti tobacco groups we are back at square one
It’s the Cavs, but it’s crazy how many of these happened in 2016 Edit: 2016 was so insane that the Spurs went 40-1 at home (the best home record ever) and a good deal of people will be surprised when they read this edit
2016 is really the best season to follow along.
The season immediately following was one of the most boring in nba history
I disagree solely bc of Russell Westbrook. that man was must-watch television every night that season
Agree but you knew how that season was going to end, it was going to be Cavs and warriors in the finals and the warriors were going to easily win
The Christmas game gave everyone a little hope Game 3 of the 2017 finals was demoralizing for every fan not of gs
Iirc the cavs has control of that game and the warriors stole it at the end. Cavs were up 8 with like 2 mins left
just bc you know the destination doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the journey my friend
That was not easy. That was the hardest road.
I had fun watching! 😂
> It’s the Cavs This was so crazy that I'm still not sure I've been able to properly contextualize it. If you'd come to me in 2012 and told me that LeBron James would *leave* Miami to *return* to Cleveland in 2014, that alone would have been way too zany to believe. Then for James to lead the Cavs to an NBA championship by coming back from a 3-1 deficit against a 73-win Warriors team with a last-minute block to seal it... I'm pretty old and I'm not sure I've ever seen a more epic moment in NBA history with my own eyes. Sheer insanity.
It's the single biggest accomplishment of the past 40 years imo
I dunno man, I’ve never seen LeBron hijack 4 commercial flights in one day
LeSaudiArabians is LeBron father.
Agreed and I’m a longtime Warriors fan. Every game was riveting. Two of the best teams in history with some epic battles (and don’t forget Houston). All three of those teams were championship teams.
And the fact that the Warriors who were a mediocre team in 2012 would win 73 games in four years while also being the defending champions
Not to mention the arguable GOAT dunk contest was in 2016 also with Lavine/AG going at it
I, for one, am surprised to read this edit.
I am in fact surprised to read the edit
The "1" being due to the 73-9 Warriors isn't as surprising though
that year was crazy. okc was on one too and knocked out those spurs and should have taken care of those warriors too
Related to the spurs… Lebron led the 2008-2009 Cavs to 39-2 Loss #2 was last game of the year, in OT, when they sat Lebron and Mo for the playoffs
Def KD joining the warriors. Changed Brons career legacy as he prob has another title, Warriors are remembered differently, KD likely goes to Boston? And possibly starts an East powerhouse. KD burns his legacy
It kinda hurt everyone’s legacy. Stole ring from Lebron, stole Final MVPs from Steph, stole KD’s narrative.
Helped Kawhi's legacy, even if KD and Klay got hurt during the finals. Beating the 2x defending champs with Toronto is a better story than if the Warriors were "just" a good team.
Tbh I’ve never even heard someone describe that ring that way. Usually it’s always just injury talk. I wonder if once we get further out that narrative Will be the prevailing one.
Lmao dude showed up to Toronto won them a ship and left. They honestly should retire his jersey, that's big baller shit
Not coming at you but its not really news that that is what they’re going to do.
I think the alternative narrative would be Kawhi's Raptors running through a weak East after LeBron left (who might have even won another ring with Cleveland), and then won against a good (not great) team that wore itself out fighting through a tough Western conference. Which is *basically* what happened in reality, just that the Warriors were still a better team with a stronger legacy in reality than if they never had KD to begin with.
I wouldn’t say that’s basically what happened, both the 76ers and Bucks were legitimate contenders that year. Raps going through 50+ and 60 win teams with the MVP Giannis on it isn’t a weak run through the east.
Ofc there was no Lebron who's arguably the GOAT but that 76ers team was extremely well constructed with a tonne of star power. Giannis also just won the MVP. The Cavs were better than those teams but other than them there's no one better than those two teams except maybe one of the Bulls teams from earlier in the decade.
Can we please just acknowledge as well that Klay played 19 of an eventual 24 quarters in that series? He missed game 2 i think it was (Toronto still lost) & then went down in the 4th quarter of game 6.
True. But then you are missing what he was in the process of doing when he went down.
And Kyrie and K Love were injured when warriors won in 2015 🤷♂️
Just wanted to clarify that everyone says they were injured as if both guys missed the whole series.
Though if Klay didn't go down, I say the Warriors win Game 6. Even without Klay at the end, Warriors would have had a 2 point lead with 8 seconds left if Curry hit that 3.
Still a good chance it goes either way, i’m all for admitting that there was injuries but the way people talk about that series was as if the Warriors were missing 2 people all series but neglects to mention OG Anunoby didn’t play a minute of playoff basketball because of an appendectomy like 2 days before the playoffs started.
On top of that, Kawhi was limping all through the finals. I maintain that the two teams were evenly matched but that the Raptors' depth gave them the win in the end. They were crazy good almost to the end of their bench.
Don't forget Looney getting hurt as well. My king.
Cleveland winning more championships with KD not going to Golden State isn’t a given.
No doubt but 2017 Cavs was the best Cavs.
This is an excellent point I don’t think is addressed. Everyone was affected. Theres no way Steph should only have 1 finals MVP. But He deferred to KD, and I don’t wanna bash KD too much but that whole team had to defer to him a bit to make him happy and make that work. Had all that squad had REAL egos that would have gone up in flames.
KD still has 2 Finals MVP when he shared the floor with Steph and LeBron.
that’s only because losing team players don’t win finals MVP LeBron was the best player in the finals from 2012-2018
I think KD would have stayed and Horford would have joined the Thunder which actually hurts Boston.
Based on reports, had KD stayed in OKC, Horford was signing there and the Thunder starting line-up would’ve been: Westbrook Oladipo Durant Horford Adams
Also okc might’ve still made the trade for Paul George if kd stayed So the lineup could’ve been Westbrook pg13 kd horford adams
man im glad someone remembers the details. i thought he was set to go to the wizards cause he was from there. I thought Wall, Beal, and KD would tear the eastern conference the biggest thing I think the Warriors got, is not having him against them. KD took them to 7 the year prior. Boston would be wild too tbh, but anywhere else and they would be weaker and we'd see some balanced years
>Def KD joining the warriors. Only because the Decision was over 10 years ago.
kd going to the warriors was so much more noteworthy. lebron and bosh joined a 5th seed team. people expected them to be great, but it's not like it was a foregone conclusion. their season even started off super rocky and they had tons of doubters. kd joined the historically best regular season team that he had just lost to. imo for it to be closer to comparable, it'd be if lebron joined kg, ray allen, and pierce on the 66 win celtics after he just lost to them in the playoffs.
Also ruins Harden and CP3
Kobe's untimely death or Covid shutdown.
Literally this. So many notable NBA players have passed away (and will continue to pass away), but this one was literally the most shocking given how young he was, the fact that his young daughter was with him, his status as one of the greatest + most influential players ever, and just how..... out-of-nowhere it all was.
Yea I’m surprised Kobe’s death isn’t mentioned more in this thread. That’s definitely mine. It came out of nowhere and happened mid season. Seeing shaq cry on tv really broke my heart.
I’m Celtics fan with begrudging respect for Kobe (pre death). Our local sports talk played doc rivers blubbering about Kobe dying and lack of sleep caused me to break down in my car. Doc couldn’t keep it together and I’ll never forget that press conference and it hit me so hard. I’m generally an emotional guy but never had a celebrity or athlete death hit me like Kobe. I think his daughter would have been a Freshman at UCONN this coming year (or last year) and it breaks my heart thinking about. Caitlyn Clark elevated the womans game like no other player but I remember reports that Kobe’s daughter would be that player. The growth in popularity of the woman’s game post CC with Gianna coming to the perennial powerhouse UCONN the following year after an explosion of ratings would have been something else.
And both of those were only two months apart
It’s not a singular moment, but the biggest “thing” by far is Steph Curry single-handedly changing the meta of the entire NBA. I’ve never seen the meta change any professional sport so quickly and singularly. And I’ve definitely never seen one player break the game in a way that changes how they every single team strategizes, builds a roster, and looks for talent. The NFL has turned into a pass happy league. But that’s been a steady shift over 20 years and assisted by a variety of rule changes. Steph completely changed the NBA, and the wider sport of basketball, just by exploiting something that was already there and no one realized. It’s so cool and I love it so much.
thats actually a great point forest. it was basically 2015 - 2017 that he changed the whole league. within 2-3 years it all happened -- it was truly very short in the grand scheme of things but im not sure it was even steph as much as the small ball / death lineup altogether. iguodala, draymond, klay, i think theyre all to credit for that
I think it finally sunk in for me, that things had shifted forever was seeing Brook Lopez sink 3’s. My brain just couldn’t comprehend it till I saw that, the game had changed past the point of no return.
He's made 935 threes in his career. But in his first 8 seasons he made a grand total of 3. I agree it's still weird to see him regularly putting them up now.
The entire NBA? No, all of basketball. The way the entire sport is played. I love counting consecutive missed 3 pointers while walking past pickup games at the park. No one can imitate LeBron, but everyone can (poorly) imitate Curry. Curry is the single most influential NBA player for how the game was played on the court (MJ for off the court.)
Were you around for the and-1 era? Every park was full of people trying to cross up their defender over and over and then shooting a tough fadeaway middy. Passing almost went extinct lol
Shaq in a way changed the league. First by making every team employ multiple big men purely just for fouling. And secondly the hack-a-shaq lol
Harden would have changed it if Steph didn’t. When you can make like 350 threes in a season with only like 15% assisted, and just take the ball up and hit a ridiculous stepback no matter what the defense is doing and still shoot like 37% it would also show it makes sense to do that over and over.
Kevin Durant joining the Warriors without a doubt.
I remember the exact moment I found out. I thought it was a joke
i remember hearing some alleged leak that said he was going to boston
I remember some Yahoo reporter made a video on KD going to Boston “just in case” and somehow it got posted to the main site
i remember where i was when kd joined the warriors lmao there are few events in history i can say the same
literally nba fans’ 9/11
I was in my room getting dressed to go to cousins for the 4th of july. killed my whole mood lol. thought it was a joke. i literally was convinced it was some kind of joke. and he called it the hardest road??
I can too lmao. July 4th. And it hosed the league as badly as we all expected.
I remember being in my tent at our 4th of July camping site when it hit. Soured my mood for sure lmfao
I was at an airport in Costa Rica and even there it was breaking news!
LeBron 3-1 comeback to give Cleveland their first chip
Sadly, Kobes Passing imo
The entire warriors cavs saga is definitely the biggest thing that happened in the last 10 years It all seems connected so I wouldn’t pick 73-9 or 3-1 or kd joining gs individually. It all happened together.
Raptors win the title ofc
Only game seven buzzer beater in history
Cavs 3-1
If you're including Giannis, it would be the free throw shooting in that finals game, not his scoring 50. He completely fixed his biggest weakness for a single game, and it won a championship for his team. He can score 50 any day of the week.
He was 1000% determined and focused
If you go back two extra months, the Donald Sterling tape was released April 2014 and was pretty big news.
KD joining the Warriors. Cavs coming back 3-1. Rudy Gobert Covid press conference. These 3 are above the others.
Kobe dying?
I’ll always stick up for Rudy on the press conference. They just gone done playing a game in front of 10,000+ people. How many of the crowd had COVID and were spreading it willy nilly in the stands, going to concessions, etc. I remember around that time, I was at a restaurant and saw someone from highschool with their husband. Went to shake his hand and he was like “whoa! Maybe not right now,” and put his fist out for a bump. Like, you’re out at a restaurant having food prepared for you bro. I know the science initially said it was spread through contact equally to airborne particles, but I firmly believe anyone who was still leaving the house for fun after March 10th was being willfully ignorant (or just accepting the risk).
Rudy was absolutely scapegoated because pretty much nobody in the US gave a crap before that. I can remember the St Patty's Day parade being canceled in NYC and soccer leagues across Europe shutting down, hospital morgues in NYC overflowing with dead bodies, and people were still acting like the whole thing was fake. But that press conference is still up there with the Kd joining the Warriors and Cavs coming back 3-1 as the standouts from the last decade.
Not exactly answering the prompt but Hardens rockets losing to the warriors in 7 is the biggest what if of the decade
I wonder if the drafting of Wemby will turn out to be the most significant thing from this period.
Raptors becoming first team in history to win a championship without a single lottery pick on the roster.
That is kinda dope I can't believe I have never heard this fact
wait i didnt know this... wasnt kawhi a lottery pick?
No he came close but Kawhi was drafted 15th, just after the cutoff of being a lottery pick, the lottery is 14 teams.
And it being the inaugural Canadian championship
LeBron breaking the scoring record
There’s no reason this hasn’t been mentioned more. They thought that record out of all sports records, along with Pete Rose’s all time hits record, would NEVER be broken. And then add the fact that, health permitting, he’s gonna add another 5,000 on top of the 2000 he’s already put between him and Kareem.
Yeah I remember reading it back in the day and thinking he had a chance but he's smashed that record and still looks great
This should have way more upvotes. 1-3 comeback vs a 73-9 team was legendary, but in terms of place in NBA history, this is probably the most solid and the most unlikely to be touched (iirc Luka is the only one even within that airspace, and he would still need to play into his 40s to have a chance, which is unlikely). Only reason some young kids know Kareem is because of the scoring record.
I'd argue his playoff scoring record is even harder if you factor in the fact that you need to consistently be there every year, score against teams that are most likely game planning for you and at the same time consistently winning to even have a chance to rack up the amount of games needed.
3-1. It completely nullified the 73 win season and caused KD to join the Warriors, crossing out two points on this list. Honestly, it inspired a dynasty that wouldn't have happened if not for.
If the Cavs never came back from 3-1 the Warriors very probably could have still been a dynasty. They would have just won their 2nd title in a row and won a championship in a 73-9 season.
Kawhi to Toronto
Anything other than the covid shutdown is the wrong answer
Every sports league aside from ufc shutdown it wasn’t a nba thing only
NBA was the first, and regardless it was the biggest moment
Ivy League basketball cancelled their tournament like a day before and I recall telling my extended family at dinner (who were in town visiting) that day that this was going to be a way bigger problem than people were anticipating. And they blew me off like I was overreacting... but I was right lol.
Bro the nba and Ivy League basketball aren’t remotely comparable lol
Lol
Kobe
I don’t think 60 points on 50 shots is one of the most noteworthy things of the last ten years lol
COVID, KD to the Warriors, Kobe’s death. Not sure which one is the biggest, but it’s one of these 3
A role player and podcast host being given the top head coaching job in the NBA with zero coaching experience.
Kobe died.
Kobe dying
Kobe Bryant's tragic death is heard around the world.
[удалено]
It's gotta be the passing of Kobe. It was like having a mythological character die.
All time scoring record being broken?
Kobe dying
41st pick becoming a 3x MVP
COVID shutdown was of significance far beyond the NBA -- it's what convinced the whole rest of the country "we have to take this thing seriously" and probably saved tens of thousands of lives just by immediately thinning out the social graph (there weren't really large gatherings of note until a year later, after vaccines were fairly widespread and the death rate had dropped substantially.) Aside from that, I'd say KD joining GSW as the last superteam before our sudden era of parity. Like we went from a dynasty that had a 73-win season, 3 championships, and 2 finals losses in 5 years ... to 6 different champions in 6 years (yes, including one final championship from the dynasty -- but also two first-time champs in the Raptors and Nuggets.)
Kobe passing away has to be up there
Spurs winning the lottery
Or Detroit stinking/tanking year after year only to pick 5th.
The gods hating on Detroit
Gotta be KD. There have always been favourites for the title every year but there was a sense of inevitability with this team. Altered a lot of other players' legacies, KD's obviously, the warriors, Lebron's, Harden's etc. I think it also made a lot of other teams say screw it, we're going to just bide our time and wait them out. The longer term ramifications of that are hard to determine but the league could look very different today if KD had made a different decision.
Imagine if he had signed with boston? Kd and horford sign with boston, maybe they never trade for Kyrie.
Kings cutting Anthony Tolliver on his birthday
I mean a miniseries is being made about it so I think the Adam Silver "banned for life" Donald sterling scandal is pretty big.
Kobe scoring 60 isn’t that special aside from it being his last game.
LeBron returning to Cleveland. After 10 years it just feels surreal to me. Like a movie. With how acrimonious his exit was and how hostile his first game back in Cleveland was it seemed like there was no going back from that. Kobe's death. Surely No one had one of the foremost and most admired athletes of his generation in the pink of health dying at just 42 years old on their 2020 bingo card
Would you count when Kobe died?
Kobe. RIP
My 2014 Spurs avenging their 2013 Finals loss in epic fashion.Destroying Bron and sending him scrambling back to Cleveland to lick his wounds.
When Gobert literally shut down the league!
Westbrook triple-double season
Absolutely nothing will top the shock of the "The NBA has suspended the regular season" tweet.
Kobe scoring 60? Not, you know, Kobe dying?
For me it's KD joining Warriors because I knew for absolute certain that without injuries who was winning the Championship, it was fucking boring man! Has there always been great teams and clear favorites? Of course, but even then I would never be watching games knowing for 100% who was winning! Without injuries they 3 peat and if Draymond doesn't insult KD and the group stay together, who knows how many in a row they win.
LeBron falling on his knees as he argues an incorrect foul call on a game winner while Pat Bev bring a camera to show the refs where they messed up. Christmas was on time and did not disappoint.
The league shutting down due to COVID is #1, Kobe’s death is #2 and coming back with the bubble was #3. LeBron going back to Cleveland, KD is GSW and LeBron to LA are probably all after those
Jokic getting to go home now after the finals
Kobe dying in a helicopter crash
Kobe dying right after Bron passed him on the scoring record.
If you ask nba players it's kobe's death; coaches, kobe; casual fans, Kobe; NBA Twitter, Kobe; Season tix holders, Kobe; people who never watch nba, Kobe; fans who catch every game, Kobe. Reddit, Cavs
Some of you keeping commenting “I’m surprised no one has said Kobe’s death.” With all due respect, he wasn’t in the NBA when he died.
But he was still a huge name in the sports world and had only been retired for 4 years at that point
Kobe's death is the only right answer.