2016 was the GOAT NBA season. Warriors breaking the wins records, Spurs almost went undefeated at home, unanimous MVP, Kobe 60 point retirement game, multiple 3-1 comebacks, LeBron leading the Finals in every major statistical category

Fuck KD man. Just decided he didnt wanna compete and ruined the parity and tension of the league

yeah league was super top heavy but man it provided serious cinema

Lol what. Superteam cavs dominated the east that no east series was worth watching. West had 3 contenders at least

2016 was incredible for all major sports playoffs/finals

wait how did they only lose once at home tho

Not in the East

Some fun stats from that season:

• the Spurs were not mathematically eliminated from the first seed until the Warriors won their 70th game
• the Spurs led the league in NetRTG that season (+11.3), the highest mark since the 1997 Bulls
• Kawhi Leonard led the team in scoring, with 21 PPG
• the Spurs won by 25+ points 18 times
• the Spurs defense held teams to less than one point per possession

and then got overshadowed for the greatest comeback ever.

Which is why I don’t think 73 wins is getting broken for a while if ever

P sure draymond or someone said they had to keep winning to keep the Spurs off their tails and then when 73 wins became possible they were like ok fuck it let’s get it

Just some things falling place at the same time

Almost any other season in league history Kawhi wins MVP that year.

I understand why great teams don’t care about regular season but damn, it’s so fun when they actually try

When Timmy was walking out I looked at my dad and said, “that’s it, huh?” Sure enough, that was it.

The contrast between Timmy and Kobe that year was wild.

Kobe turning every stop into a glory bathing show about himself while the Lakers had their worst season in franchise history.

Duncan filling his role and battling till the last minute for one more playoff win at the end of another dominant year then walking off the court quietly.

Pretty much perfectly illustrated the difference between those two players.

manu leaving after 2018 first round vs warriors in Oracle and saying “nah i think im done” was bitter sweet

I remember with 2 or 3 minutes left the rest of the starters came out but Duncan gave Pop a look and stayed in. I was thinking “He knows this his last game and wants to just finish it.” He didn’t play any differently, didn’t ask everyone to screen for him or feed him so he could get some final scores, he just wanted to stay and play normal.

But at one point he was left open on the wing, took the pass, and went in for what looked like a surefire dunk to end his career. But with all that mileage, the age, and the bad knees, he couldn’t gather and get to the rim fast enough and Ibaka came over and managed to block it. He never touched the ball again, and that was it.

The only play I could compare it to was in game 7 of the 2013 Finals when he missed that baby hook with Battier pinned behind him and afterward was staring at the rim in dismay, like “how the fuck did that not go in?” Oddly enough he reacted much less to this one - I think b/c it didn’t matter for the team and he knew he was about to walk off for the last time either way.

And if they beat Bron and Ky in the finals?? Shit that would’ve been the greatest ring of all time

I honestly didn’t expect okc to get past the spurs in 2016

Why not? OKC was the perfect counter to that Spurs team. Y’all had a bunch of bigs to neutralize LMA and Duncan, and Westbrook vs Tony Parker was one of the most lopsided positional mismatches in NBA history among All Star level players. Westbrook had historically dominated Tony Parker since he got into the league, he was just way too fast and strong for Parker (and basically every other point guard in the league at the time).

Ironic that the rivalry has re-started with Wemby and Shai/Chet.

I hope that sudden decline won’t happen to LeBron.

That gets me thinking. When was the last time a star retired when he was still at least All-Star level? All the recent ones I remember have been basically role players (Dirk, Carmelo, etc)

I’m gonna buy you Spurs season tickets for next season

that was 2017 season

FUCK YOU BRUCE BOWEN

only to get whooped by Draymond

Kanter got every damn rebound it seemed like.

u wylin

Dirk and Barkley could not have anchored our defense like Tim did. Only KG would have an argument and Tim’s consistency is what sets him apart imo

Now now, ease up on the alcohol, it’s not weekend yet.

Stupid ass take but I would be lying if I said that KG on those spurs teams wasn’t a fun thought experiment.

If Men trio

Nobody cares about these hypotheticals, you can say whatever you want because it can’t be proven otherwise