10's

 

    Now let's talk about the last decade which will see the game evolve to favour 3-point shots, the Big Men are still very important of course, however they are not necessarily the basis of a team's construction anymore.

The 10's

    The major event that will open the decade and have a huge impact on the league is "The Decision", a show made by Lebron James that he will do on national air to announce that he is leaving Cleveland to join the Miami Heat and form a superteam with fellow draftees Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade. The Heat will dominate the league at the beginning of the decade making a Back2Back in 2012 and 2012 and going to the finals from 2011 to 2014, this process of creating a team had never happened at the time and will multiply thereafter, this decision has evolved the rights of players on the issue of their transfers. the team in addition to being dominant will practice the "Smallball" which is a way of playing that will spread throughout the league, although much criticised, this team is one of those who have changed the mentalities of people on the sport.

    Another important topic of this decade is the rivalry between Stephen Curry's Warriors and Lebron James' Cavaliers, who returned in 2014 to his original team. The 2 teams met each time in the finals between 2015 and 2018 (bringing the total to 8 finals in this decade for Lebron), the Warriors won 3 titles in 2015, 2017 and 2018 leaving a historic title to the Cavs in 2016 when they were leading 3-1 in the series, one game away from winning. The Warriors had also created a superteam integrating Kevin Durant in the summer of 2016, there too followed a lot of criticism, even more than for Lebron since the Warriors had just finished the best regular season in history with 73 wins, people thought it was almost cheating to integrate such a player in such a strong team.

    In 2014 David Stern will leave his place of commissioner to his second, Adam Silver, and will thus retire after 30 years at the head of the league leaving a huge legacy for this sport behind him, he will pass away on January 1st 2020. To stay on this not very happy atmosphere, Kobe Bryant will retire at the end of the 2016 season and will score 60 points for his last game, he knew how to do things well to score events, he will however die on January 26th 2020 in a helicopter accident. To come back on better news, Russel Westbrook will achieve a triple double season in 2016-2017, a historic season as the last one to do so was Oscar Robertson in 61-62. To achieve a triple double you need more than 10 units in 3 different statistical categories (points, assists, rebounds, steals, cons), achieving it in one game is very hard so a full season is close to unachievable.

Links:

End of the 2016 NBA Finals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgVOgGLtPtc

Highlights of Warriors 2016 season: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RECdKuQz3NA
Best play of the decade: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t22flliJLTQ

Thank you for reading this blog, I hope you have taken an interest in this league and perhaps even in the sport in general. Feel free to read more about it as a single blog like this one can't summarise the whole history of the league.