NBA in the Past: The 2000s
This story first appeared on Blazin Sports by my good friend Vivek Patel.
As someone born in the early 1990s, I spent that decade watching cartoons, but spent the 2000s immersed in sports. I recently began reminiscing back over the best 2000’s basketball moments, players, seasons, etc. and realized that it was a great time to reflect over. Here is a unique recap of the previous decade.
Best regular season game of the 2000s:
In honor of Steve Nash’s retirement, I think back to his MVP season in 2006 when he faced off against Jason Kidd and the New Jersey Nets and were in a scoreboard-breaking, double-overtime game that ended in a 161–157 victory for the Phoenix Suns. It was a game of matchups, where Kidd faced off against Nash, battling for best point guard title. Shawn Marion and Raja Bell put in their defensive efforts against Richard Jefferson and Vince Carter, although there obviously was not much defense in this game.
A close runner-up is the Kobe Bryant, 81-point game against the Raptors. That was one of the greatest basketball performances of all time and that is not hyperbole. The reason I put it second, is that was an individual performance from one team.
All-2000s Team:
PG: Jason Kidd
SG: Kobe Bryant
SF: LeBron James
PF: Tim Duncan
C: Shaquille O’Neal
This team has five future Hall of Famers and to me seems to be a no-brainer. What is interesting is how would the team change if you want the team to actually be able to compete against any other all-decade team? Could you still put Kobe and Shaq together? Would you choose championships and resumes over what player you thought were better? Here is the team I would want to go against any other team.
PG: LeBron James
SG: Ray Allen
SF: Kobe Bryant
PF: Kevin Garnett
C: Tim Duncan
While Kobe is no SF, I would feel comfortable putting him in that position so that I could have both him and Ray to go along with our generation’s Magic Johnson, LeBron James. I would also feel comfortable having both KG and Duncan go up against any two big men with their defensive prowess. The leadership on this team would vary from Tim Duncan’s lead-by-example style to Kobe’s in your face style. I do not see any problems arising from this team either, with the personalities and their playing styles complimenting each other perfectly.
Forgotten Player of the Generation:
Every generation has players that are forgotten for what they truly were or maybe just forgotten altogether. Players like Kevin Johnson, Tim Hardaway, Chris Mullins, and Shawn Kemp. From the 2000’s, I think that player that my kids will not know in twenty years could be the original Agent Zero, Gilbert Arenas. In his prime with Washington, he was a brilliant scorer and in his prime seasons he had a PER that is higher than what Kyrie Irving, Jimmy Butler, and Marc Gasol had this past season and Usg % on par with what James Harden’s was this past year year. We definitely should remember Gilbert and not just for the “pulling his gun out” incident.
Honorable mention goes to Brandon Roy, who lost a promising career to injury. He was one of the best 2-guards in the league when healthy, but unfortunately had his career shortened.
Best Team of 2000s:
The best team of the last decade was the 2007/2008 Boston Celtics, who went on to win the championship against the Lakers. That team consisted of a great Big 3 of Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, and Kevin Garnett. Unlike the first year of the Miami Heat Big 3, that Boston team was deep. The starting lineup included Rondo and the immortal Kendrick Perkins and their bench had James Posey, Glen “Big Baby” Davis, Tony Allen, Eddie House, Sam Cassell, and of course the internet G.O.A.T., Brian Scalabrine (who was actually a decent player when given the right role). The team lead the league in basketball-reference’s Serial Rating System and had one of the best point differentials of the decade (10.2 which is similar to what the Warriors just posted).
The runner-up would be the 2000–01 Los Angeles Lakers who went 15–1 in the playoffs with their sole loss coming in the NBA Finals to the Philadelphia 76ers.
Best Moment:
The best moment of the 2000s for me was when the 5th pick in the 2003 NBA draft occurred and it rounded out five picks that produced some of the greatest players of our decade. It gave us Lebron James, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh, and Dwyane Wade. Joe Dumars ruined a bit of the mystique by grabbing Darko Millicic (we could have had Chris Kaman or Kirk Hinrich in the top 5 at least), but nonetheless that draft will be debated as the greatest draft of all time. I will forever be thankful to it for giving us so many good memories with future Hall of Famers.
