Looking back, 2016 was one of the best years in the history of sports. Peyton Manning rode off into the sunset after winning the Super Bowl with the Denver Broncos. There were tremendous individual and collective performances at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. Not to mention, the Chicago Cubs won their first World Series in 108 years.
On top of all that, the 2015-16 NBA season might just have been the greatest in league history.
Stephen Curry dominates the NBA…
Curry won the 2015 NBA MVP Award after breaking out for the finest season of his career, as the Warriors realized their full potential and won the NBA title. It turns out that his first MVP was only a harbinger of further dominance to come.
Simply put, Curry revolutionized the game in 2016. Not only did he lead the NBA in scoring by averaging over 30 points per game, but he did so while joining the 50-40-90 club and also leading the league in steals (2.1).
Curry was as lethal off the ball as he was on the ball. He would run off of multiple screens and use his quick release to fire up threes in a flash. He would pull up from anywhere on the floor, and a 30-footer was as good a shot for Curry as a floater. The end result was a breathtaking 402 made three-pointers for the year, which shattered his previous record of 286 that he set just one year prior.
Remember this?
As if Curry was not already flammable enough as a scorer, he also averaged a career high in rebounds per game (5.4) that season.
It is perhaps the defining MVP performance of the decade, and one that changed the game forever.
…as do the Warriors
With Curry leading the way, the Warriors re-staked their claim as an all-time juggernaut during the 2015-16 season.
Klay Thompson lived up to his half of the “Splash Brothers” moniker, shooting nearly 43 percent from beyond the arc and averaging 22 points per game. Meanwhile, Draymond Green became one of the best glue guys and two-way players in the league during his second season as a starter.
Green averaged 14 points, 9.5 rebounds and 7.4 assists to go along with 1.5 steals and 1.4 blocks, making his first All-Star team while also shooting 38 percent from deep himself, a surprising dynamic for a team that already drew so much attention to Curry and Thompson on the perimeter.
This team had elite and rangy defenders like Andre Iguodala and Harrison Barnes, and bench players like Festus Ezeli and Shaun Livingston defined the Warriors selfless nature.
Golden State stampeded through the league, winning an NBA-record 73 games.
Kobe's farewell
The 2015-16 season would act as a farewell tour for one of the greatest players in NBA history, Kobe Bryant.
The twilight of Kobe's career had been sabotaged by an Achilles injury that he suffered at the tail end of the 2012-13 regular season, but he still provided some indelible moments in his final year. Most notably, torching the Utah Jazz in his final game.
Bryant went off for 60 points – on a mind-boggling 50 shots, the most by a single player since the early 1980s – in front of a fawning crowd at the Staples Center, leading the Lakers to a comeback victory and calling it a career in fitting fashion.
LeBron's redemption
The 2016 playoffs had drama galore. The Eastern conference semifinal between the Raptors and Heat was one of the most underrated series in recent memory, a seven-game battle that featured plenty of drama and all of the intensity you could possibly ask for as a fan. Of course, that series was hardly the highlight.
Despite their regular season dominance, the Warriors fell into a 3-1 hole against the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals. Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook were dominant, ant the Thunder suddenly looked like the best team in the West.
However, Golden State won Game 5 on their home floor before “Game 6 Klay” was officially born in Oklahoma City. Thompson drilled a playoff-record 11 three-pointers and brought the Warriors back in a game they trailed for 44 out of 48 minutes. Golden State would win the series in Game 7.
Meanwhile, LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers breezed through the East en route to the NBA Finals. They were looking for revenge against a Warriors team that had defeated them just one year prior, but Golden State took a commanding 3-1 lead of their own. That's when the tide turned.
James and Kyrie Irving became the first pair of teammates to score 40 points each in an NBA Finals game in Game 5, then the Cavs dominated Game 6 in Cleveland.
Of course, we all know the rest of the story. A thrilling Game 7 came down to the wire, with James coming up with his own NBA Finals moment (“The Block”) before Irving sealed the greatest comeback in league history with a dagger three-pointer.
After 13 years, James had finally delivered on his promise to bring a championship to Cleveland in one of the most epic NBA Finals ever, capping a season for the history books and cementing his legacy as one of the greatest players in NBA history.
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