Sports Illustrated's NBA All-Decade Awards
It’s nearly impossible to sum up the last decade of the NBA. The number of important events that took place should have happened over a lifetime, not 10 years. LeBron James, arguably the greatest player ever, switched teams not once, not twice, but three times. Stephen Curry and the Warriors revolutionized basketball. Kevin Durant decided he wanted to create probably the greatest team of all time. James Harden moneyball’d scoring. The Sixers Process’d. Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, Chris Bosh, and Dwyane Wade (among others) retired. And we haven’t even touched on the players seizing power, the lockout, Donald Sterling, the cap spike, Bryan Colangelo’s collar, free-agency hostage situations, and so much more stuff I’m either forgetting or don’t feel like listing.
A sweeping, comprehensive review of every important story would take us forever. But that doesn’t mean we can’t still try to celebrate the last decade of hoops. Here now are SI’s All-Decade Awards from the 2010s, honoring the people that made the last 10 years perhaps the most memorable in league history. Here are the awards for...
Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
Most Unstoppable Season: Stephen Curry
Was Curry the most unstoppable player year-in, year-out for the last 10 years? No, certainly not. But the NBA has never seen anything like Steph at his absolute peak during the 73-win season, and I’m not sure we’ll ever see anything like him again.
With all due respect to the Wilt Chamberlains of the world, what Steph did to the modern NBA was truly, legitimately absurd. During Curry’s 2016 unanimous MVP season, he averaged 30.1 points per game while being a member of the 50/40/90 club. The volume and accuracy of his three-point shooting was unprecedented. And perhaps more than anything, Curry seemingly broke basketball. Until the Finals, nobody had an answer for him. Teams were basically rendered useless if they couldn’t match up with the Warriors’ Death Lineup.
Curry’s marksmanship made it all possible. His shooting ability was so singularly spectacular, the entire league had to figure out how to defend him, and basically no one had the personnel to stop both him and the rest of the Dubs at the same time. Golden State losing in the Finals in such shocking fashion has made Curry’s 2016 season more of a meme than a triumph. If anything, history should look back more kindly on a campaign that was equal parts unbelievable and mesmerizing as it unfolded.
Best Shot, Regular Season: Stephen Curry
While we’re talking about Curry, his OT game-winner against the Thunder was both disrespectful and cool-as-hell. You only shoot this kind of shot when you have supreme confidence and want to rub it in the face of a rival just how confident you are. Also, Mike Breen’s call is perfect.
Most Polarizing Superstar: James Harden
Harden’s production can’t be argued. But the means to his end will always cause debate. Is it entertaining to watch? Is it somehow unfair? And can it work in the playoffs? Harden was probably one healthy Chris Paul hamstring away from playing in the Finals. But he also has some baffling postseason duds on his ledger.
Harden serves as perhaps the greatest rorschach test of the 2010s. In his game you either see a brilliant scorer or someone who’s taken the analytical approach to its cold, unmoving extreme. The only way Harden can probably win over those who doubt his prowess will be to have success in May and June. It’s a little bit of an unfair bar for someone who ran into historically great teams at the height of his powers. But as long as Harden racks up points in his unforgiving manner without the same hardware his peers have acquired, he’ll have to hear the questions about what his scoring binges ultimately mean.
Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports
Strangest Season No One Talks About: Kawhi Leonard
Kawhi won Finals MVP in 2019... one year after no one still fully knows what happened between him and the Spurs. Imagine if LeBron or Kevin Durant endured a season under similar circumstances. I’m not trying to drag Kawhi’s name through the mud. The NBA is better when he’s at the peak of his powers. I would love nothing more than to watch another season in which Kawhi, KD, LeBron, and Steph were playing fully healthy while on different teams. But Kawhi’s lost year in San Antonio in some way is reflective of who he is as a person: The Anti-Superstar.
Kawhi has no use for building his own narrative. He’s not interested in the public trappings that typically come with being a player of his stature. His off-court approach to the game is unflinchingly unique. Whereas Kevin Durant will go back-and-forth with fans on Instagram or LeBron James will write letters in SI, Leonard is loathe to reveal basically anything about himself beyond what we see on the court. Kawhi’s commitment to anti-stardom is unlike any other great of this era, and it’s arguably what sets him apart from his contemporaries as much as anything he does with a basketball in his hands. We may never fully understand the circumstances that drove Kawhi away from one of the most stable organizations in sports, but he undoubtedly brought a championship prowess to the two cities he went to next.
Best Shot, Playoffs: Ray Allen
Honorable mentions include Kyrie’s go-ahead three in Game 7 of the 2016 Finals and Kawhi’s walk-off winner against the Sixers in 2019. But Allen gets the nod because of the stakes. The other two games were tied—both of those teams still had life if the shot didn’t go. (And Irving was also playing for a massive underdog.) Allen not only saved the Heat’s season, he arguably saved the Big Three experiment. The chaos of that entire sequence—from LeBron’s missed three, to Bosh’s rebound, to Allen’s footwork, combined with the gravity of the situation makes Ray’s shot the standout. (And it’s another classic Breen call for good measure.)
Most Memorable Decision: Kevin Durant
We really don’t need to re-litigate Durant to the Warriors. Ultimately, here’s what I’ll always wonder about it: Was Durant happy in Golden State? Did he enjoy his time there? By the end of his tenure, he seemed pretty over the whole situation. How much satisfaction did those championships bring him, or did he feel the need to just check a box so he didn’t retire as one of the greats to never win a ring? Because if Durant was never really happy with the Warriors, what bothers me is not that he went there, but that the media/fans/the NBA machine created a culture in which players are so desperate to win championships, they have to prioritize rings over everything else. Obviously players are in this sport to win. The pendulum doesn’t need to swing to championships don’t matter. But there probably needs to be a wider definition of success in the NBA.
Durant’s decision created the league’s most feared juggernaut. The Warriors went 16–1 in their first postseason with KD, then swept the Finals with him the next year. And Golden State would have almost certainly won a third title in 2019 if the team didn’t almost quite literally start falling apart one limb at a time. The league was still entertaining, but the Finals suffered, and it felt like no one, not even the players on the Warriors themselves, was particularly satisfied with the journey. Durant single handedly threw the NBA into a bit of a panic. That’s how great both him and the Warriors were.
Most Memorable Televised Decision: LeBron James
Imagine explaining to a nine-year-old that this actually happened.
Most Overlooked Finals Performance: Dirk Nowitzki
An honorable mention goes to LeBron in 2015, who deserved to win MVP in a losing effort. But Dirk was unreal during his entire 2011 postseason run, which culminated in a scrappy Mavs team humbling the Heat’s Big Three. The Mavs are probably the strangest team to win a title in the 2000s. It was Dirk and then a bunch of cagey, later-career vets like Shawn Marion, Tyson Chandler, and Jason Terry. Jason Kidd was 37 years old and averaging the second-most minutes per game for Dallas in this series. Brian Cardinal appeared in five games. It all started with Dirk, who thoroughly outplayed a 26-year-old LeBron. It’s crazy to read that sentence considering everything that’s happened since, but Nowitzki was just that good in 2011.
Coach of the Decade: Gregg Popovich
In 2003, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili defeated the Lakers, ending their three-year reign as champions en route to a championship. In 2014, the same trio—and the same coach—defeated the Heat one year after a bitter Finals loss to end Miami’s two-year reign as champions for San Antonio’s fifth title. The players obviously deserve a ton of credit, but Pop is forever. He may have tailed off toward the end of this decade, but his run of success with the Spurs deserves recognition. Popovich’s alchemy with his stars—and his front office—created an extended run of success rivaled only by the Patriots in the NFL. The Spurs endured longer than so many other superteams. Popovich’s steady hand guided them through everything. He pioneered load management, and his 2014 team played arguably the most aesthetically pleasing basketball of any outfit this decade. Pop is a living legend, and few coaches in any sport have been as accomplished while constantly shifting styles as he has for such a long period of time.
Best Game: Game 7, 2016 Finals
Honorable mention goes to Games 6 and 7 of the 2013 Finals, but good lord, Game 7, 2016 is something I think about probably once a week to this day. The talent on the floor. The Warriors playing for either the greatest season ever or the most shocking Finals loss ever. LeBron putting up a triple double. The heart-pounding, nail-biting, sweaty-palm-inducing fourth quarter. Game 7, 2016 was the hottest club of the 2010s, because this one had everything. Do yourself a favor and re-watch at least the fourth and see if you don’t yell at your screen multiple times. This game was a classic through and through, and it’s legacy has only grown because of the fallout it caused immediately after and the havoc that wrecked on the rest of the league.
Best Play, Maybe Of All-Time: The Block
I get chills, goosebumps, whatever you want to call it every time I watch this play. It makes me emotional. And for the love of whoever you believe (or don’t believe) in, there’s no way Mike Breen is being paid enough.
Most Captivating Superstar: LeBron James
I don’t know a better word to describe LeBron other than captivating. Everything he does carries so much weight and importance. Whether you loved him or hated him, LeBron made basketball worth watching. His career has been endlessly entertaining. His journey has included incredible highs and shocking lows, and the full range of emotions he’s inspired in people is what makes him not only indispensable to the very fabric of the NBA, but American culture in general. His career has also been stranger than fiction. Here’s an attempt at a very brief recap of Bron’s decade:
2010: The Decision
2011: Humbling Finals loss
2012: MVP, Boston Game 6, Finals MVP, Olympic Gold
2013: 27-game win streak, Finals-clinching shot, Finals MVP
2014: Returns to Cleveland
2015: 36/13/9 in the Finals in nearly 46 minutes per game
2016: Back-to-back 41-point Finals games, 3–1 comeback, Finals MVP
2017: Averages triple double in the Finals
2018: Pacers game winner, Raptors game winner, 50-point triple double in Game 1 of the Finals, signs with the Lakers
2019: Groin injury, misses playoffs, teams up with Anthony Davis
Whatever hype was placed on LeBron’s career, he’s exceeded it. And over the last decade, he turned the drama up to 11. If the NBA is about entertainment, no one has provided more fodder than James both on and off the court. For someone so incredible at his craft, he’s also managed to stay unpredictable. And for someone so dominant at his sport, he’s also flawed, which makes James even more interesting. Some nights you tuned in and watched him be head and shoulders everybody else. Other nights you tuned in when his demise seemed imminent, only for him to rise above the competition yet again. There were also times he lost and was overmatched. In any case, LeBron demanded your attention. The NBA orbits around him, and will continue to do so probably until the day he decides to retire. As someone who has an unhealthy love for the sport of basketball, I feel lucky to watch a career as relentlessly riveting as James’s continue to take its twists and turns. I wouldn’t mind if he gave us another decade.
