What an epic championship series rematch NBA fans everywhere were just treated to. Ending with the surprise comeback from 3-1 down by the Cleveland Cavaliers. It capped a season that had so many story lines. From Kobe Bryant’s farewell tour, to the record regular season record set by the Golden State Warriors. Here are a few of the highlights – four to be exact.
Things We Learned From The 2015-16 NBA Season
America Loves Kobe Bryant
Just because he spent the last few seasons injured and on a team that consistently finished in the cellar does not mean that basketball fans forgot about Kobe Bryant. Au contraire – each city he visited this past season often saw record regular season ticket prices, especially towards the end of the year, just so people could catch one last glimpse of him in uniform. They didn’t come to watch him put up incredible numbers. The ability to consistently do that sort of thing left him with his recent rash of injuries. They came because they had respect for the man. He poured his heart and soul into basketball and the Lakers. At the end of the day, that has to be admired. America proved they understood this with the sendoff he received at each and every city that he visited, one last time.
Hack-A-Shack Is Just Plain Annoying
Made famous with the reality that many teams would purposefully send Shaquille O’Neal to the free throw line in the final few minutes of a game, fans are growing tired of it. For a while it might have seemed humorous to watch a man with hands the size of Shaq’s try to manipulate a small ball to go through the net, but those days are now over. The novelty has long since passed. Gans are crying out for the league to do something about the tactic that is employed on current stars like DeAndre Jordan and Dwight Howard. Perhaps they will finally listen…Oh wait, we seem to say that every year. We can at least continue to live in hope.
Records Are Meant To Be Broken
Many have openly expressed for the past two decades their feeling that the record for regular season victories held by the ‘96 Chicago Bulls would simply never be broken. It was, after all, Michael Jordan’s team. Even when the Warriors rushed out to such a great opening to the season, most felt that they would eventually fall back to reality. But that moment never came, and the Warriors in the most dramatic fashion ended up breaking the record by winning their last game of the season. The new question is obviously, will this one ever be broken.
Young People Can Coach
Many questioned the Celtics hiring Brad Stevens at such a young age. In just his second season, he had the Celtics competing. Many even had him for coach of the year before Kerr’s Warriors broke a record that “could not be broken”. We also have Tyronne Lue, leading the Cavaliers to the NBA Championship in his rookie year. He became the youngest ever coach to do so. The young are alive and well, leading veteran coaches to scramble for security these days.
What will next season hold in the NBA? Will it have similar storylines, or new ones we never expected? The only way to find out is to tune in on October 25th 2016!
Kobe Bryant (R) of the Los Angeles Lakers defends against J.R Smith of the Cleveland Cavaliers during their NBA game at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California on January 15, 2014. AFP PHOTO/Frederic J. BROWN (Photo credit should read FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images)
