Good-bye NBA!

Well, the NBA is officially in lockout mode now and it sadly seems like some or even all of next season will be canceled. I don't think I'll be able to really enjoy hockey, so hopefully college basketball will be able to hold me over. Until then, let's remember one particularly interesting 2010-11 NBA season.

The Decision

Everything got off to a kickstart last summer with the most anticipated free agency class in NBA history. This was largely because LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh decided five years ago that they wanted to play together. Everyone knew LeBron wanted out of Cleveland, but nobody knew where he wanted to go, so we saw teams frantically trying to clear up cap space to sign him. New York, Chicago, and even Los Angeles (Clippers) would have been legendary choices, but instead the two-time MVP decided to be the sidekick to someone who was drafted four spots behind him. But it wasn't just that he went to Miami, it was how he did it.

I remember his hour-long special on ESPN started half an hour before I had to go to work, and I almost was late because he dragged it out for so long. I was surprised that he never once thanked Cleveland or the fans for the seven years he spent there, and instead just seemed angry with everyone who didn't support him with his decision — an attitude that would carry over throughout the season and especially the post season. The most beloved basketball player in the world instantly became the most hated basketball player in the world in just one hour. Things only got worse with Miami's big party the next day, with the theme "We Did It!" as if they needed to justify themselves to the world. They partied like they already won the title and LeBron famously said they weren't going to win one, or two, or three, or four, or five, or six, or seven championships. He still might be right — they might end up with zero.

Everything went wrong for the Jazz

We started the season with bringing back the old original logo and giving it better colors, which was very nice. I love the Jazz note, which is the letter J, a music note and a basketball all in one — truly a brilliant design. Then came the roster changes. We were very happy to see Carlos Boozer leave, a little sad to see Kyle Korver go, and really sad to lose Wesley Matthews. But we did bring in Al Jefferson and Raja Bell, and actually got off to a good start for the season. We had a 15-5 record and put together a string of impressive comebacks against tough teams like Orlando and Miami. But as nice as it was to see how resilient we were, it was a little troubling to see us constantly falling behind by 10 and 20 points in almost every game. Memo Okur missed most of the season, came back for a couple of games and looked really good for a few minutes, but wasn't able to sustain it and had to go back to the injured list. Millsap played great, Jefferson was OK, but still learning the system, C.J. Miles would occasionally light it up, but the team really belonged to Deron Williams. He was our most consistent player, but he started to slowly annoy me and a few other fans. He didn't really seem to make any of his teammates better and often blamed others for the Jazz's poor performance. Everything fell apart around Martin Luther King Day.

From what I've heard, Jerry Sloan was sick of D-Will's attitude and wanted to punish him, but Greg Miller would not hear of it. When Sloan realized he wasn't getting anymore support from the office or the players, he left. He stayed with the same team for 23 years, but D-Will and Greg Miller were finally able to drive him out. This broke my heart. The Jazz stopped being the Jazz for me at that point. Luckily, I had the Jimmer to keep me entertained during this, so I wasn't even fazed when D-Will was traded. Although I do think it was the right move, I still think it was odd that we couldn't have convinced Sloan to wait for two more weeks until we traded Williams. Oh well.

The season dragged to a disappointing conclusion, where we became the first team in NBA history to start 15-5 and fail to make the playoffs. To make matters worse, we won too many worthless games at the end to hurt our lottery odds. We did get the No. 3 pick from the New Jersey trade, but if that No. 12 were a couple of spots higher, we could have drafted Jimmer. Again, oh well.

Changing of the guard

Another interesting thing in the NBA this year was the decline of several old dynasties and the rise of some new ones. The first was the San Antonio Spurs, who finished with the best record in the West, but got knocked out of the first round by the young, upstart Memphis Grizzlies. Then the defending champion Lakers got swept in the second round. The Boston Celtics also went down with very little fight to the new-look Heat. The only exception to this was the Dallas Mavericks, who won the title in probably their last chance with Dirk and Kidd. Among the new dynasties this year were the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Chicago Bulls, who won the most games last season, despite the incompetence of Boozer.

Back to LeBron

We have to end where we started, with the most intriguing player in the NBA. In the Eastern Conference Finals, LeBron handled the scoring load while also shutting down the MVP, Derrick Rose. But in the NBA Finals, LeBron played terribly, and disappeared for large, important stretches of the game. Unfortunately this overshadowed everything Dirk and the Mavericks did.

So now I have to wait and see how long it will be before I get to watch Jimmer in a Kings jersey and see the Jazz's new rookies — a center who didn't play at all last year and a shooting guard who can't shoot. Sigh ... Is it football season yet?