The Bounce Newsletter | This is The Athletic’s daily NBA newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Bounce directly in your inbox.
Happy New Year! We’re wrapping up 2025 today and preparing for what’s ahead in 2026. We won’t have a Bounce tomorrow, but we’ll be back Friday to admit our resolutions are already abandoned. Enjoy tonight and tomorrow, and be safe! See you in 2026!
2025, wrapped
The top 10 moments from the NBA this year
The last day of 2025 is a great time for reflection. You start looking back on the things you loved from the calendar year we’re about to leave. You take stock of the things you didn’t like from this past year. And then you acknowledge the biggest moments in between because you’re just nervous that you’ll forget to mention someone or something, and comments or messages will claim you don’t actually follow the sport or watch the games. (Maybe that got a little too specific.)
We’re going over the 10 biggest moments of 2025 for us here at The Bounce. No, Thanasis Antetokounmpo did not make the top 10. That seemed too easy and obvious. But I know some of you sickos were waiting for it.
10. Premier franchises sold. In March, we received word that the Boston Celtics were being sold by the Grousbeck family to Bill Chisolm for a record $6.1 billion. It immediately raised questions about how the Celtics might gut their roster to fall under the second apron. Then the Jayson Tatum injury answered it for us. A couple of months later, Boston’s rivals, the Los Angeles Lakers, beat that sale price. Jeanie Buss sold to Mark Walter for at least $10 billion. That’s a worldwide record for a sports franchise. Can I borrow a couple million from either of these groups?
9. Aspiration investigation. Pablo Torre went snooping around some documents of a defrauded carbon footprint company, and the next thing we knew, the NBA was investigating whether the Clippers circumvented the salary cap for Kawhi Leonard with a no-show sponsorship job. The ramifications of this scandal could include future picks being taken away, owner Steve Ballmer getting suspended and even Kawhi’s contract being torn up. We expect a decision in the coming months.
8. Gambling scandals. On the second day of the season, the FBI arrested Heat guard Terry Rozier and Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups. Rozier was charged in connection with an illegal betting scandal which the NBA had already cleared him on. The feds disagreed. Billups was allegedly linked to an illegal poker game run by the actual mafia.
7. Cooper Flagg and the Mavs’ lottery. We’ll get to how the Mavericks found themselves in this situation, but with just a 1.8 percent chance in the draft lottery, they secured the No. 1 pick. That meant Cooper Flagg, the uber-competitive player on both sides of the floor who just happens to be the rare White American superstar prospect, fell into their laps. And he helps reconfigure a future that looked bleak after a massive trade.
6. Wemby’s DVT and return. Victor Wembanyama’s stunning early career suddenly was called into question when it was discovered he had a deep vein thrombosis (aka blood clot) situation. That ended his season in February, although he still led the NBA in total blocks. When he returned for this season, he reminded everybody why so many teams were desperate to win the 2023 lottery. We’ve never seen someone like this before, and he refuses to give us his actual height.
5. Gregg Popovich retires. The bigger blow to the Spurs organization was the retirement of Popovich. For my money, he’s the best coach the NBA has ever seen. However, he suffered a stroke in November 2024 that effectively ended his coaching career. The Spurs went internal with Mitch Johnson instead of a heavy search to coach Wemby. And so far, it’s working out quite well.
Tyrese Haliburton was all the rage in the 2025 playoffs until his injury in Game 7 of the NBA Finals. (Trevor Ruszkowski / Imagn Images)
4. The Tyrese Haliburton/Pacers run. Clutch play after clutch play defined a second-half regular season and postseason run by the Pacers that became the main story of the NBA playoffs. They smoked the Bucks and Cavaliers in five games apiece. They shocked the Knicks time after time in the conference finals, as Haliburton channeled his inner Reggie Miller. And then they pushed the Thunder to Game 7, and we’ll never know how that might have ended if Hali didn’t rupture his Achilles minutes into the game.
3. Achilles’ tears. Speaking of Achilles’ tears, they suck! And there were a lot of them this year, especially in the playoffs. Jayson Tatum, Haliburton and Damian Lillard all suffered them in the postseason. And now the words “calf strain” have become the boogeyman of NBA injury reports.
2. Thunder win the title. Sixty-eight wins. Historic margin of victory. And surviving two seven-game series against the Nuggets and Pacers. The Thunder became the second youngest team in NBA history to win the championship, and they’re hoping to end Adam Silver’s era of parity with another march toward a title. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander won the MVP, and OKC commanded the respect and fear of nearly every team in the league.
1. The Luka Dončić trade. It still feels like a surprise at times to see Luka in a Lakers jersey. But late on Feb. 1, Nico Harrison shocked the world with the news that the Mavs were sending Dončić to L.A. for Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a first-round pick. It wasn’t nearly enough, and it completely cratered Harrison’s reputation as a GM. It made the rest of the basketball world mad at the Lakers. It made Nico a target among Mavs fans. Luka’s emotional return to Dallas was pure cinema. It’s the worst trade in NBA history. Nico was fired less than a year later. And neither franchise will ever be the same.
The last 24
What was the best Jordan shoe ever?
👟 Jumpman’s best. Some of us from The Athletic gathered to talk about the Jordan Brand’s influence: 40 shoes in 40 years and a lot of heat.
🤝 Let’s make a deal. Our Sam Amick takes a look at five teams under pressue to make a trade. The Hawks and Bucks are at the top.
🎓 School daze. A player who was drafted is going to play in college. How is this happening?
👀 Are they back? The Clippers and Kawhi Leonard have been on fire. Is this sustainable?
📋 Top 25. Our Sabreena Merchant put together the best moments of the last 25 years in women’s basketball. Money is at the top of the list.
🎂 Unhappy birthday? LeBron James played his first game as a 41-year-old on Tuesday. It showed why his unreal longevity isn’t enough for the Lakers.
Stream the NBA on Fubo (try it for free!) and catch out-of-market games on League Pass.
