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The N.B.A. stuffed a lot into the last 10 years.
It was a decade book-ended by the first forays into free agency for LeBron James and Kawhi Leonard, both of whom shook the league with the choices they made and the manner in which they made them. It was a decade in which the Golden State Warriors made the N.B.A. finals their June home for five consecutive seasons, consistent excellence unseen since Bill Russell’s Boston Celtics in the 1960s. It was the decade in which Kobe Bryant shot himself into retirement with an incomprehensible 60-point farewell game — and it was the N.B.A.’s Twitter decade, too. Social media platforms, chiefly Twitter and Instagram, became the league’s 24-hour, seven-days-a-week, 365-days-a-year playground, resulting in increased relevance for the sport (and no shortage of side issues).
With 2019 dwindling down to its last days, let’s anoint 10 standouts from the 2010s.
Team of the Decade: Golden State Warriors
We will never be able to line up the peak Warriors against the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls of the 1990s in a fantasy series to determine which powerhouse was truly superior.
What we do know for sure, though, is that the Warriors’ run played out under the glare of a much more demanding spotlight. And I do award bonus points for that. The level of scrutiny is such in the modern game that it exacted an emotional toll on the Warriors that the Bulls, to some degree, happily avoided.
Kevin Durant lasted only three seasons as a Warrior after the polarizing decision to end his Oklahoma City union with Russell Westbrook and join his fellow All-Stars Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green in the Bay Area. Consider this a reminder nonetheless that your favorite newsletter has maintained since October that the Warriors will be back among the league’s elite by next season.
King of the Decade: LeBron James
Over and over and over, LeBron James did it his way, emerging as the face of what is now reflexively referred to as “player empowerment.’’
He formed a Super Team in Miami, alongside Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, via a widely scorned made-for-television event known as The Decision.
He announced his return to the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2014 in a Sports Illustrated essay — on the 11th day of free agency.
And then, having lifted one of the most infamous curses in sports by leading an unforgettable comeback from a three-games-to-one deficit in the 2016 finals against Golden State to bring Cleveland its first major championship in 52 years, LeBron agreed to try to haul the Los Angeles Lakers out of the deepest funk in Lakers history. That change of address was made public in a sudden 36-word press release on the first night of free agency in 2018.
James may have won only three titles in his eight trips to the finals in the 2010s, but make no mistake. The N.B.A. has been his kingdom — and still might be.
Revolutionary of the Decade: Stephen Curry
Choosing between LeBron and Steph for Player of the Decade is so excruciating that I felt the need to create separate categories for them.
It’s the least we could do to accommodate the most feared and influential shooter in the history of the sport.
Curry changed the calculus of basketball with his ability to make 30-footers (and beyond) both routine and acceptable. Elevating him further, Curry was also the face of the franchise and foremost entertainer for the decade’s most enduring team.
Lefty of the Decade: James Harden
Regular readers know much how we love our southpaws here at Stein Line HQ. Regular readers also surely remember last week’s ode to James Harden, which enumerated all the ways he is proving to be a worthy heir to Wilt Chamberlain.
Harden’s heavy usage and constant trips to the foul line are widely branded turnoffs, as is his spotty playoff resume, but the story of the decade can’t be told without him. It’s especially true now that Harden and Westbrook have been reunited in Houston, desperate for the championship validation that has eluded both.
The 40-something of the Decade: Dirk Nowitzki
Atlanta’s Vince Carter, still going at age 42, has an undeniably worthy case here. But Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki, on top of playing until he was almost 41, finally walked away in April after a record 21 consecutive seasons with one team and as one of just seven players in league history to record at least 30,000 points.
Don’t forget that the decade began with Nowitzki leading the Mavericks to a championship in 2011 that rewrote his legacy. Winning that ring, with no other All-Stars on the Mavericks’ 2010-11 roster, enabled Nowitzki to retire as both a revolutionary for changing the way his position is played (a la Curry) and a consensus top-20 selection all-time thanks to his title breakthrough.
Underachievers of the Decade: James L. Dolan’s Knicks
The Knicks are 319-484 since Jan. 1, 2010. They have won one series in three measly trips to the playoffs in that span. They are on course to miss the playoffs entirely for the seventh successive season.
A brief dose of Linsanity in 2012, followed by Curry’s breakout 54 points at Madison Square Garden a year later, were the most widely celebrated moments in what is supposed to be the league’s most storied building.
You know what to do, Jim Dolan.
Resilience of the Decade: 2014 San Antonio Spurs
San Antonio squandered the 2013 N.B.A. finals in heartbreaking fashion, narrowly losing the final two games in Miami after nearly finishing off the LeBron/Wade/Bosh Heat in Game 6. The Spurs, though, rebounded from the crushing effects of a storied Ray Allen 3-pointer to dismantle Miami in five games in the 2014 finals, establishing Kawhi Leonard as the decade’s dynasty disrupter.
Kawhi won finals M.V.P. honors that year at age 23, despite playing alongside a trio of old reliables (Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili) on what really should be known as one of the decade’s Super Teams. Then he did it again last season by leading the Toronto Raptors past injury-depleted Golden State to the first championship in franchise history — and the first won by a team based outside of United States borders.
Efficiency of the Decade: Klay Thompson
Thompson’s 11 3-pointers in Game 6 of the 2016 Western Conference finals, saving the Warriors in Oklahoma City when they were on the brink of elimination, represent the most important 11 in No. 11’s career.
Yet the mere 11 dribbles of the basketball that Thompson needed en route to ringing up 60 points in 29 minutes against Indiana on Dec. 5, 2016, were arguably more impressive.
In a decade so influenced by analytics, in which the average number of 3-point attempts per game rose from 18.0 in the 2010-11 season to its current 33.7 per game, no one ever did more with less than Thompson.
Veto of the Decade: The Aborted Trade of Chris Paul to the Lakers
Last summer alone provided too many doozies to list. I will also personally never forget parking myself in front of a computer for nearly 24 hours straight to track every tweet, emoji and crazy twist of DeAndre Jordan’s commitment to sign with Dallas in July 2015, followed by Jordan’s subsequent (and surreal) de-commitment, so he could return to the Clippers.
But no signing or trade (or vetoed trade) generates a reaction quite like David Stern’s refusal, as the acting owner of the league-owned New Orleans Hornets, to allow New Orleans General Manager Dell Demps to go ahead with a three-way deal in December 2011 that would have landed the disgruntled Paul with the Lakers.
It was one of the most controversial decisions of Stern’s 30-year run as N.B.A. commissioner and one that Stern, asked about repeatedly since stepping down in 2014, has never apologized for.
Invasion of the Decade: Giannis Antetokounmpo and Luka Doncic
Two of the five best players in the league this season are from Europe: Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee’s otherworldly force known as The Greek Freak) and Luka Doncic (Dallas’s 20-year-old Slovenian sensation). Let’s see where they and Joel Embiid, Philadelphia’s loquacious center from Cameroon, can take the N.B.A. in the face of countless challenges for Commissioner Adam Silver in the decade to come.
Among the issues at the top of Silver’s list are dealing with ever-declining interest in the regular season in this playoffs-mean-everything world, as well as the growing influence of the gambling industry in all professional sports and the incongruous nature of the N.B.A.’s seemingly hotter-than-ever popularity on its social media channels while TV ratings decline.
The Scoop @TheSteinLine
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Corner Three
You ask; I answer. Every week in this space, I’ll field three questions posed via email at marcstein-newsletter@nytimes.com. (Please include your first and last name, as well as the city you’re writing in from, and make sure “Corner Three” is in the subject line.)
Q: Why so little coverage for the defending champions? The Raptors are playing so well after losing Kawhi Leonard. A number of players are stepping up and it looks as though Kawhi’s DNA is still there. — Michael Roman (Toronto)
Stein: Respectfully disagree, Michael. Maybe I have expressed more of this on Twitter than via the various Times platforms but I would say praise for the Raptors and Coach Nick Nurse has been a staple of the early season from me and many others.
The way Toronto has handled not only Leonard’s free-agent departure but also a steady stream of injuries has established Nurse as an early Coach of the Year contender — alongside the likes of Miami’s Erik Spoelstra, Indiana’s Nate McMillan, Dallas’ Rick Carlisle and the Nets’ Kenny Atkinson.
And players such as Pascal Siakam and Kyle Lowry have been regularly celebrated for their post-Kawhi excellence, as evidenced Sunday when Toronto wiped out a 30-point deficit at home to stun Carlisle’s surging Mavericks. I don’t think anyone expected the Raptors to boast a higher winning percentage (. 700) than Kawhi’s Clippers (. 688) at this stage, but recognition for that surprise hasn’t been lacking.
Q: Nikola Jokic averaged the exact same numbers last season at this time, he’s lighter than he was in last season’s playoffs and he’s flipping the switch at the exact same time he did last season. — @elkevviiinnnn from Twitter
Stein: I’m getting the vibe that @elkevviiinnnn (great Twitter handle, by the way) does not agree with my assertion in last week’s newsletter that Jokic is carrying too much weight.
Let’s face it: The guy is so good, so skilled, that he can continue to be an elite player if he doesn’t change a thing. Throw him into that same grouping with Giannis Antetokounmpo, Luka Doncic and Joel Embiid when we talk about this league’s most wondrous international talents.
But it will go down as one of the great what-ifs of the N.B.A.’s modern age if Jokic doesn’t decide someday to get serious about his body and pursue a leaner look — or if the Nuggets can’t make him.
Check out what slimming down has done for Andre Drummond in Detroit. A more mobile and better-conditioned Jokic would be downright scary, because he is already plenty frightening. His endurance and durability could only improve.
How the Nuggets fare has zero impact on my life, but I’m an unabashed Jokic fan. So I really hope there is an epiphany in his future — for his own sake. I know I wouldn’t want to spend those twilight years wondering.
Q: The modern N.B.A. is positionless. We all know this. So accounting for position when making All-N. B. A. selections is an outdated practice. The votes should be submitted instead via a 1-to-15 list. Being the No. 1 for a certain number of years could even factor into contract incentives and Hall of Fame résumés. Plus it would give us a “most outstanding player” race every season to complement the more narrative-driven Most Valuable Player race. Maybe this is not the best timing for this question, but I just listened to a Zach Lowe/Bill Simmons podcast on the topic that had me screaming. — Chris Hamilton (Texas)
Stein: I haven’t had a chance to listen yet to the podcast you referenced here, but I will get to it eventually — and I can imagine how deep into the weeds they went. While acknowledging that I have certainly been known to go on and on (and on) about a topic (or 10) that isn’t for everyone, I have marveled for years at the ability of Bill and Zach to keep themselves whipped into an endlessly fiery All-N. B. A. frenzy.
The proposal you shared is interesting. It’s certainly worth investigating. The merits are clear and perhaps we’ll even get there someday.
But the voting format hasn’t changed yet largely for historical reasons; longstanding N.B.A. policies on such matters aren’t easily tweaked. The reality, furthermore, is that changes to All-N.B.A. voting would have to be phased in methodically, even if they win approval, because so many current contracts include incentive bonuses for these specific honors and how they are currently doled out.
The Times does not permit its reporters to vote on year-end awards, in any sport, so I have not been an active N.B.A. awards voter since the 2016-17 season. And I don’t miss it — largely because of the millions (no exaggeration) that are often riding on All-N.B.A. votes.
The financial incentives tied to All-N.B.A. selections frankly make every reporter I’ve ever discussed it with uncomfortable to some degree. League officials know this, of course, but they have struggled to identify an alternative voting body (players, fans, team officials, you name it) that they believe would cast these votes as impartially as the media theoretically does.
So there is much to consider here beyond just the positional issues. As for where things stand this season, it’s way too soon for me to get too involved in trying to laser in on the league’s top 15 players when we haven’t even reached the 41-game mark — as much as I love the aforementioned pair of hoop nerds.
Numbers Game
60
The N.B.A. informed its teams in a memo last week that 60 percent of fans surveyed want a shortened regular season. The memo also said that 68 percent of fans surveyed are interested in the implementation of an in-season, soccer-style tournament and that 75 percent are interested in a play-in tournament to decide the final spots in the respective Eastern and Western Conference playoff fields.
22
If the N.B.A. adopts a proposed soccer-style cup competition for the 2021-22 season — with Board of Governors voting expected in April — 22 of the league’s 30 teams would drop from 82 games to 78. The eight teams which qualify for the knockout portion of the in-season tournament would play between 79 and 81 games.
2
A play-in tournament to determine the final two playoff berths in each conference that is also proposed for implementation in 2021-22 — for the teams that finish between seventh and 10th in the East and West — could add up to two more games in April for the teams involved. The seventh-seeded team in each conference would play the eighth-seeded team, with the loser to play the winner of game between the ninth- and 10th-seeded teams, meaning that the teams with the seventh- and eighth-best records in each conference would have to lose twice to miss out on the postseason.
38-17
With the Nets at 12-6 since losing Kyrie Irving to a shoulder injury, Irving’s teams are 38-17 (. 691) over the past three seasons when he is sidelined. Starting in 2017-18 with the Celtics, Irving’s teams are 82-56 (. 594) when he plays.
39
The Knicks’ recent offensive eruption in a 143-120 home victory over Atlanta marked the first time they scored at least 143 points in regulation since a 149-118 win over Detroit in November 1980 — 39 years ago.
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Source: Basketball - nytimes.com
