NBA Year In Review: The Good and Bad of 2022

Looking back at the top story lines in the league this year.

Happy holidays, y’all. As so many people take this season to reflect on life, loss and love they’ve experienced this year, I’m no different. This year has been the best year of my adult life, and I’m incredibly grateful to so many of you for making it that way. Blood in the Garden, my first book and a project I worked on for the better part of three years, made the New York Times bestseller list for a couple of weeks because of how much you all supported it from the jump. Spike Lee is now set to make it into a Last Dance–style docuseries in the near future. This weekly newsletter launched right after the book’s release and has been a fun way to connect with y’all.

From the bottom of my heart: Thank you. These are things I never even really dreamed of, and ones I won’t forget anytime soon.

Without further ado, I wanted to leave you my 2022 Year in Review, NBA Edition.

Best trade: Indiana and Sacramento’s deal, swapping Sabonis for Haliburton

Gregory Fisher/USA TODAY Sports

Despite the early reactions suggesting that the Kings pulled a truly Kangz move and the Pacers got away with a heist by getting Tyrese Haliburton for All-Star big man Domantas Sabonis, the truth is, it has looked like a solid deal for both sides. The Pacers are in the playoff hunt, while Haliburton looks like an All-Star who could go on to be a Chris Paul type from an offensive perspective.

You have to imagine that this season’s results are exactly what Sacramento hoped for when getting Sabonis: a versatile big who could dominate his interior matchups because he has so much space to operate with and such a good point guard, in De’Aaron Fox, to get him the ball. Not to mention that the Kings—who’ve missed the playoffs for a record 16 consecutive seasons—are also in the postseason race. Trade fleecings generate headlines, but balanced deals are very cool for the sport.

Best new development: Light the Beam!

It’s merely symbolic, but if there’s any team that needs a symbolic reset of sorts, it’s this one. The fans in Sac are excited, as they should be. (I wrote a bit about Kings fans here.) And the beam gives them something to look forward to when they come away with a home victory.

Biggest surprise: The Jazz

Most of us figured the Pacers would struggle (and have been wrong). But the Jazz were a club just about all of us thought would stink, after dealing away Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert. They were given an over/under number of 23.5 before the campaign began. Just over a third of the way through the season, Utah already has 19 victories.

What does it show? You can’t completely write off a group of mostly solid veterans (and a guy coming into his own, in Lauri Markkanen) just because they’re now without a star. They’re skilled and difficult to guard because of their five-out style. They aren’t stopping much—especially not from inside the paint—but to watch them be formidable this season has been really fun.

Coolest comeback: Last season’s Pelicans

Playing without Zion Williamson, New Orleans started the 2021–22 campaign 1–12 under new coach Willie Green, prompting almost immediate questions throughout the media and the basketball world at large about whether Zion should start elbowing his way out of The Big Easy.

After that, though, the team clawed its way back into postseason contention, grabbing the No. 8 seed after a pair of play-in victories (without Williamson logging a single minute of action last season). With the addition of CJ McCollum, they pushed the top-seeded Suns as much as a team possibly can in six games before bowing out.

This season, with Williamson back on the floor and looking borderline dominant again, and with an identity as a gritty yet offensively talented club, the Pels look like a legitimate contender.

I often think about how easy it would have been for the team to fold last year with all those questions swirling. The fact that the Pelicans did anything but has propelled them a great deal.

Least favorite story line: Zion’s weight

During that time Williamson was out, there were soooo many pieces about how much weight he’d purportedly gained. So much speculation on social media about how his weight was the reason he couldn’t stay healthy. (And not nearly as much conversation about how difficult it must have been for him to shed weight without the ability to run due to his foot problems.)

Because of all that, a month ago, just before Thanksgiving, Williamson declined to answer a fun question on camera about which Thanksgiving foods were his favorites. It was honestly sad. I’m not new to how hollow and joyless some aspects of the internet are. But to watch a young, polite, smiley 22-year-old NBA superstar not even feel comfortable answering a relatively fun, basic question about food made me wonder what we’re even doing with our social media discourse these days. Money doesn’t immunize these guys from insecurities, which can be amplified by online chatter. I wish everyone understood that.

Watch the NBA with fuboTV. Start your free trial today.

Worst story: The drumbeat of ugly off-court storylines in the NBA

Vincent Carchietta/USA TODAY Sports

Just as we were going into Christmas weekend, newsbreaker Adrian Wojnarowski dropped a piece of information that provoked strong reaction: Star wing Miles Bridges and the Hornets are discussing a new deal that could be done in the near future, mere months after a domestic violence incident that yielded a medical report citing “assault by strangulation, brain concussion, closed fracture of nasal bone, contusion of rib, multiple bruises, strain of neck muscle.” The Los Angeles County district attorney said the assault took place in front of the two children he’d had with the woman in the matter. (Bridges pleaded no contest in the felony case and was sentenced to no jail time, but with three years of probation.)

If he signs on with an awful Charlotte team again, it remains to be seen how long he’d be suspended before getting a green light to play again. But even aside from his story, the league has had a number of ugly headlines this calendar year.

• To start the season, there was a homophobic video that Wolves star Anthony Edwards posted on his Instagram before apologizing and being fined by the league for $40,000. On a broader, more organizational scale, there were the results of the Robert Sarver workplace environment investigation, which seemed damning enough to force a sale of the Phoenix basketball franchises. But commissioner Adam Silver decided to raise it to the level of a $10 million fine and a year suspension instead. (After additional pressure from players league-wide and sponsors, Sarver said he’d seek to sell.)

• There was the stuff around the reports involving Ime Udoka, who was suspended for violating multiple workplace policies while having an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate woman working in the organization. And then, just weeks later, reports that the Nets—dealing with their own controversy over Kyrie Irving’s immensely slow choice to rebuke antisemitism—were primed to hire Udoka as their new coach. (Also noteworthy: The Celtics, when deciding who would replace Udoka at a time of instability following multiple conduct violations involving a woman, promoted assistant Joe Mazzulla, who had been arrested on domestic battery charges in 2009. Mazzulla discussed that incident in a story here with my teammate Chris Mannix.)

• And as the Deshaun Watson suspension was taking place in the NFL, the NBA landscape suddenly involved the Joshua Primo story, which stemmed from an accusation by a former Spurs team psychologist who said the 2021 first-round pick exposed himself to her repeatedly, but that the club failed to take appropriate steps to protect her upon being informed of the problem in early ’22. (The Spurs cut Primo shortly before the lawsuit was filed against them and Primo. The parties have since settled it legally, but a criminal investigation is still ongoing in Texas.)

Biggest letdown: The Suns’ performance in Game 7

Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY Sports

Rarely do I try to put myself in the shoes of a fan, or a member of a fan base. But I couldn’t help but think what Suns fans must have felt watching their team—one that won more games than any other NBA club by far last season—lose by 33 at home in a Game 7.

It’s the kind of shellacking that probably would’ve made me numb had I been a Suns fan. The game was such a blowout to where there might not have even been enough time to get angry or sad. The result just blitzed you and almost seemed too bizarre to be true as it was playing out.

The defeat (and the fallout from it, which prompted questions about coach Monty Williams’s relationship with center Deandre Ayton) was so total to where it made many of us reassess whether we could seriously list the Suns as contenders this season, even after they brought back nearly the entire roster from a 64-win campaign.

Most emotional moment: Steve Kerr’s comments following the Uvalde school shooting

With where we are on the issue of guns in America, thoughtful commentary on common-sense policies we could implement regarding the all-too-easy access to them is welcome from anyone at this point. But such commentary hits differently when it comes from Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who lost his own father to gun violence. His comments after the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, were heartfelt and full of rage all at the same time.

On another personal note, I really loved the moment recently between Monty Williams and Rockets coach Stephen Silas, who lost his father—a tough, highly respected former NBA player and coach—earlier in the month. If you know Williams’s wrenching personal story of loss, and the way the league coalesced around him as suffered it, you know he was the perfect person to be doling out that hug to Silas as he seeks to heal from the loss of his father.

Best swagger: Ja Morant and the Grizzlies

It requires a certain level of audacity to even try otherworldly stuff like what Morant tried to do on Christmas Day.

The best part is, Morant and the Grizzlies talk exactly the same way they play. With an “either you like it, or you don’t” mentality. An unapologetic, we-think-we’re-the-class-of-the-league swagger, even if they haven’t exactly proven it with a conference-title crown coronation yet.

That’s been Klay Thompson’s critique a couple of times now. But we’ve also seen that Memphis won’t back down. And to be clear, the Grizz aren’t a team that only feels comfortable chirping, because they have Morant out front. (Although Morant’s “We climb up the chimney; we ain’t ducking no smoke!” line was pure brilliance.) Keep in mind: Memphis was 20–5 without him last season. And remember that the team’s starting five—including Morant, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Desmond Bane—literally just logged its first game together last week, an incredible stat, given that the relatively young club is a single game out of first place in the West.

Best milestones

Gregg Popovich notched the NBA’s all-time regular-season wins record, a cool feat for a 73-year-old whose teams annually made deep playoff runs, but now, in the midst of the early stages of a rebuild, seems to continue coaching, because he can’t imagine anything else. From afar, it seems there might be a certain beauty in that, particularly given how his life has changed in recent years.

LeBron James logged his 10,000th assist last season, making him the only player in league history to notch at least 10,000 points, 10,000 rebounds and 10,000 assists. (To be clear: James—who turns 38 on Friday—has more than 37,000 points to his name.) That, of course, is a precursor to the fact that the Lakers star is poised to become the league’s all-time leading scorer in the next month and a half or so if he can stay healthy. Enjoy him or not; the moment will be cool. It’s still surreal to think about how obnoxiously high the expectations were on James from the time he was a teenager. And he’s somehow exceeded them all with flying colors, even as his current team struggles standings-wise.

Best performance: Steph Curry’s 43-point Game 4 performance in the 2022 Finals

David Butler II/USA TODAY Sports

It always felt kind of stupid that Curry had never won a Finals MVP in his career. But his showing in this most recent iteration was undeniable (even with Andrew Wiggins playing the best, most complete basketball of his life).

The Game 4 performance was Curry’s masterpiece. He had 10 rebounds, making him just the second point guard of all time, after Magic Johnson, to log a 40 and 10 Finals game as a floor general. He connected on 7-for-14 from distance, including a number of high, high-difficulty jumpers, with almost no space. But he artfully used his long-range assassin skills to blow past overly aggressive defenders and score underneath a number of times. It all helped keep the Warriors within striking distance in the second half, just long enough for Curry and the Dubs to earn the enormous road tilt to tie things at two games apiece when the Celtics had previously been ahead, 2–1. (Not that it’s on the same level, but Steph also connected for an NBA-record 16 threes in the February All-Star Game, in which he dropped 50.)

One last cool moment: Jokić accepts MVP award from his horse stable in Serbia

For years, people have said how embarrassing it is for a league MVP to not be able to celebrate the award victory in front of a home crowd while still in the playoffs. That wasn’t possible here after a while: Nikola Jokić, on an injury-plagued Nuggets club, had been eliminated in the first round by the defending-champion Warriors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCvMAVz0syk

So, naturally, that meant the team and the league surprising Jokić with the MVP award while he was tending to his horse stable in Serbia. It was an amazing scene that spoke to how global a sport the NBA has become, with many of the perennial candidates—Jokić, Giannis, Luka and Joel Embiid—all being players born outside the U.S.

Meat and potatoes: Good reads from SI and elsewhere this past week

Jerome Miron/USA TODAY Sports

• Rohan Nadkarni spoke with Milwaukee’s Brook Lopez, who’s making a great case so far for Defensive Player of the Year. Rohan also had pieces that analyzed the winners and losers from Christmas Day, and a separate one that puts the Nuggets’ defensive concerns lately under a microscope. Can a team this poor on defense win a title?

• Howard Beck spent time talking with Klay Thompson, asking what keeps him motivated as he tries desperately to consistently regain the All-Star level of play he showcased before a pair of surgeries.

• In separate pieces, Mannix ran down the once-streaking Knicks, the finally rolling Nets and Jayson Tatum’s MVP candidate drumbeat.

• I wrote a piece setting up the Celtics-Bucks Christmas game, outlining how refreshing it is to watch a contest between two really good teams that bring this level of physicality.

• NBA editor Jarrel Harris wrote about Morant’s shoe deal, which will make him Nike’s first signature athlete from Generation Z.

• Draft analyst Jeremy Woo wrote a takeaways column from the G League’s Winter Showcase.

• For an outside story that I found to be really interesting and unfortunate this past week: Madison Square Garden uses facial-recognition tech to stop certain people—largely enemies of Knicks owner James Dolan—from coming out and enjoying the games inside the area.

Thanks for reading The Playmaker. Feel free to forward this email to a friend or tell them to sign up at SI.com/newsletters. If you have any specific questions, just reply to this email or send a note to nba@si.com and I may answer it in a future edition.