What Was the Best NBA Moment of 2016?

The staff members of 16 Wins a Ring weigh in…

Adam Howes

Watching Bean going out shooting on his own terms and giving zero F’s in true Kobe fashion was by far my favorite NBA moment of this wretched year. Added to the thrill of the experience were the cavalcade of megastars in attendance — Hov, Kanye (rocking a sweet ‘I Feel Like Kobe’ tee I couldn’t resist purchasing), Kendrick, and Laker die-hard Snoop, to name a few. And it was also cool seeing their reactions throughout the game as Kobe kept his finger firmly on the trigger, because for one night only, they were reduced to plain old fans like the rest of us mere mortals watching in joyful disbelief the shooting display the retiring 37-year-old Laker was gifting us.

Watching that unfold live on television was one of those games you’ll never forget exactly where you were and the excitement you felt while you watched it. “Mamba out.”

Allana Tachauer

I realize I’m throwing myself into a pit of fire here, but I was genuinely so happy for the Cleveland Cavaliers when they won the title in 2016. Of course as a Miami Heat fan, part of me was still salty that LeBron James went back home. But as a long-time supporter of his, I knew how much earning that ring for his city meant to him.

And the entire team deserved it. From Kyrie Irving to JR Smith to Tristan Thompson to Kevin Love, everyone really gave the game their all last year. Surely for themselves, but also for James and the promise he made to Cleveland. Those final post-game interviews will go down in history, and I’ll never forget watching the championship parade on television either. And naturally, the fact that it was all despite the Golden State Warriors’ 73–9 record made it that much better.

Pete Toal

I was born in Philadelphia, so my favorite moment of the 2016 NBA season so far has to be Joel Embiid finally debuting for the Sixers. The long awaited first game for Joel was much anticipated and worth all the hype. As a lifelong Sixers fan, I believed in “Trust the Process” and it has surely been a joy to watch this season. Joel Embiid is a sure future NBA All Star and will only continue to get better. His array of moves in the post, mixed with his patented pump fake and drive skills, make him lethal to stop. Embiid at full strength and no minute restriction will be scary to watch as he climbs the ranks among the best centers in the NBA.

Troy Tauscher

I think my favorite moment was The Block. Nothing personal against Warriors fans, but that moment was probably the most epic thing I’ve seen in sports. The legacy-altering nature of that play was just awesome.

Mara Averick

Words can barely describe the inordinate amount of joy brought to me by the 2016 Dunk Contest. Given the amount of “old man shaking fist at cloud” commentary out there (*cough* Chuck *cough*) throughout the 2015–16 season, it was great to have at least those few moments of exaltation and “DAAAAMN did he just do that?” for the collective NBA-loving body politic. From Dikembe Mutombo to the Timberwolves’ young pups, you simply couldn’t not* lose it watching AG00 & Zach LaVine out there!

George Kondoleon

Kobe Bryant’s final game was the most Kobe Bryant game that Kobe Bryant has ever played. It was the “vintage Kobe” game because he literally shot the ball 53,325 times in one game. It was awesome seeing one of my childhood heroes go out the way any superstar should, by not giving a sh*t.

Nicholas Arguelles

As default of an answer as it may be, the Cavaliers coming back from a 3–1 deficit to win the NBA Finals was my favorite moment of 2016. When the series reached 3–1 in Golden State’s favor, it was almost a forgone conclusion they’d close the Cavs out. We were in the midst of a Golden State dynasty and another failed attempt to bring a championship to Cleveland… or so we had thought! Ironically, Klay Thompson’s “This is a man’s league” quote after Game Four was the beginning of the end for the Warriors.

What happened after that was nothing short of amazing, the duo of LeBron James and Kyrie Irving combined for 146 points over the next two games and forced a deciding Game Seven at Oracle Arena. Whether it’s LeBron’s chasedown block on Iguadola or Kyrie’s step-back three over Curry in the final seconds, Game Seven was one for the ages and history was made that night. LeBron claimed his third NBA championship, but it’s the five words he yelled in his post-game interview that will be set in stone forever, “CLEVELAND, THIS IS FOR YOU!”

Shy

My favorite NBA moment was when the Grizzlies stunned the Cavs on March 7, 2016. The Grizzlies won (106–103) with an eight-man roster consisting of Tony Allen, Mario Chalmers, Lance Stephenson, Vince Carter, Ryan Hollins, JaMychal Green and Jarell Martin that stunned the reigning Eastern Conference Champions. Tony Allen led the Grizzlies with 26 points (11-of-17), five steals, four assists and two rebounds.

Adam Joseph

The Oklahoma City Thunder giving me the briefest hope and satisfaction that things were finally coming together after years of injuries, heartbreak and pain, until of course they blew a 3–1 lead to the Warriors in one of the greatest ever Western Conference Finals.

Cleveland’s incredible comeback in the NBA Finals made people forget, not to mention Kevin Durant’s departure to Golden State, beheading Oklahoma City in the process as a contender to their greatest on court rivals but that Western Conference Finals was one of the greats. It had it all.

Beating a team that went 73–9, with one of the greatest regular seasons of all time from Steph Curry seemed an impossible task but the Thunder came so close. Klay Thompson’s All-Time great Game 6 was the pivotal moment, but it was Games 3 and 4 that made me write this.

No team beat the Warriors the way the Thunder did in those games. 133–105 in Game 3 and 118–94 in Game 4. They didn’t just beat them — they destroyed them by over 50 points, with an offensive rating of 114.7 and defensive rating of 93.5 (Net +21.1).

All that potential, all that promised finally realized. Sure, there was pain afterwards. Too much of it. Say what you like about all of the controversy and downsides, but I’ll never forget those two games and how that felt as a Thunder devotee.

Chris De Silva

It’s from the 2016 NBA Finals, Game Six to be precise. The whole season, Steph had been touted as the best player in the world, ahead of LeBron. All season, you knew it irked LeBron but you never ever got a reaction out of him as always. Until this moment — a definite reclamation of the throne.

Keith Smith

Buzzer beater! Isaiah Thomas scoring 52 points just December 30th, with 29 in the fourth quarter. IT carried Boston and it was a really special night.

Spencer Davies

Being from Cleveland, I have to go with the most obvious answer and say when the Cavaliers brought home our city’s first championship in 52 years. I know it’s cliché, but it truly is a moment that I will never forget.

It’s not just something sports-related, but just being around your family that’s been along for the ride even longer than you have, and the emotions that came out was just an unforgettable experience.

Brandon Anderson

It was the year of Curry, and no moment was more Stephalicious than the final play of one of the greatest regular season games in NBA history in February between the Warriors and Thunder. Oklahoma City had led by 12 in the fourth quarter before the 52–5 Ws came roaring back, and two huge free throws by Iggy with zeroes on the clock sent it to overtime. And as the clock ran down again in overtime, this happened:

Everything about that moment is incredible. I love that they don’t bother taking the timeout. I love that Curry shot it from Kansas. I love that Enes Kanter knows they lost while the shot is still in the air. I love all the horrified reactions as 18,000 Thunder fans all take the Surrender Cobra in unison. I love the BANG!!! to punctuate the whole thing.

It was a game winner and it also tied the all time record for threes in a game and broke Steph’s own record for threes in a season while clinching a playoff spot for Golden State. And it did all of that in February (!!) and gave us a preview of what was to come in May — and KD a little taste of what he’d join five months later. My favorite NBA moment in 2016 was five or ten or a hundred Warriors moments, but this was the best of them all.

Cameron Stewart

My favorite NBA moment from 2016 was a selfish one — Kobe Bryant dropping 60 points in his final game. I’ve never been a fan of any athlete like I have been for Bryant. After seeing his body break down over the last few seasons, seeing him pull out a monster performance in his final game was the best way for him to go out.

Sure, it took 50 shots. Yes, it was against a Jazz team with nothing to play for and without Rudy Gobert and Derrick Favors. Whatever. It was incredible. Bryant gave us the ultimate fan experience, and punctuating his historic career with a 60-point outburst was a great parting gift for Kobe loyalists.

Tom West

For me, it’s hard to choose anything other than “The Block”. Even as someone who’s never been a fan of a LeBron James team, I was rooting for the man himself to pull off the unimaginable and defeat the Warriors after going down 3–1 in the Finals. It was the kind of ending that genuinely only seemed attainable in fairy tales. Something to silence critics badgering on about him “not being clutch enough.” Something never done before, let alone against the first 73–9 team we’ve ever seen. Yet, in a clutch, jaw-dropping moment that instantaneously depicted LeBron’s will, talent, effort, and physics-defying athleticism, he took off from a mile away and impaled Andre Iguodala’s layup into the backboard.

serge

What should define 2016? I don’t know. I mean, instinctively I want to say it’s the year of the “3–1 lead” joke. The internet took that joke then ran with it until it was gasping for air, then crawled further, saw it die, buried it, dug it up, reanimated it, ran with it some more, shot it in the head, then tied it to it’s own body and is still Bernie-ing with it somewhere on Twitter. Please, for the love of God, let it go! It could also be the year of the 73–9 record.

It could be the year of the block and the almost “I ended Draymond Green’s career” dunk. Like we get it, it’s a great athletic feat but how did it make you feel? Did you run around your living room blocking everyone doing anything for five hours? Did you call every friend who’s a Golden State fan and yell at them and then block their number? Did you write down a love poem to LeBron James and put it in a time capsule to open at a later date when everyone is superhuman and they’d be like “what’s the big deal?”

But to me 2016 will always be the year where one era died, the era I grew up with. I grew up watching Kobe, Timmy and KG. They were the greats of my time, the era that finally moved past Michael Jordan into its own existence and basketball was on the rise. They changed the game, made it into something more in so many aspects both by their skill and personality. They defined the league for over a decade and they lasted in it for so long.

To have all three dim the lights on their respective careers all at once… was heartbreaking. To see the legends and the idols that played basketball for as long as I’ve been interested in basketball and the mathematical implication of final scores. It was… I don’t know. I don’t have a description. In many ways 2016 was a year of loss (outside of basketball) and this is no different. That’s what it’s about for me.

Now I’m crying.