2021–22 NBA season

• 1. A Season Reborn

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  The 2021-22 NBA season, the 76th in the league's history, opened on the 19th of October 2021, restoring a calendar that two pandemic-shortened years had disrupted. For the first time since the 2018-19 campaign, thirty teams played a full schedule from October through April. The previous two seasons had been shortened due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

  On the 7th of July 2021, the NBA announced plans to spend the entire year marking its 75th anniversary. A diamond jubilee logo appeared on uniforms and arena floors across all thirty teams. A panel of media members, former players, coaches, and executives voted on the 75 greatest players in league history.

  By the 16th of June 2022, the Golden State Warriors had defeated the Boston Celtics to claim the championship. Between those two dates, the season delivered some of the most statistically remarkable individual performances in the game's recorded history. A wave of notable retirements closed one era of the sport. The question that animated everything: who would define a season timed, almost deliberately, to the league's own milestone year?

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• 2. The Diamond Season

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  Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton's name was engraved on the Atlantic Division championship trophy, one of six new divisional awards created for the season. Wayne Embry received the Central Division honor, Earl Lloyd the Southeast, Willis Reed the Southwest, Sam Jones the Northwest, and Chuck Cooper the Pacific.

  Bob Cousy's name was attached to the Eastern Conference championship trophy, which had previously gone unnamed. Oscar Robertson's name went to the Western Conference equivalent. Players who rose to the top of each conference's finals would receive trophies named after Larry Bird and Magic Johnson respectively.

  The Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy was also redesigned. Its top circular disk was engraved with the first 75 NBA champions. Its bottom disk was left blank, representing space for the next 25.

  Nike and Jordan Brand logos on all uniforms received diamond embellishments. The standard league mark on the back was modified to display the number 75 in place of the NBA's wordmark. The Boston Celtics, Golden State Warriors, and New York Knicks wore Classic edition uniforms that season. Those three franchises were the only surviving teams from the NBA's founding 1946 season. The Celtics and Knicks wore modern versions of their 1946 designs. The Warriors wore uniforms based on their look as the Philadelphia Warriors during the 1946-1962 period.

  Alice Cooper served as the honorary celebrity captain for the Phoenix Suns, one of thirty such pairings arranged for the season. Snoop Dogg stood for the Los Angeles Lakers. Greta Gerwig was the Sacramento Kings' captain. Wolf Blitzer carried the role for the Washington Wizards. The list stretched from Usher in Atlanta to Anne Murray in Toronto. Joe Sakic served as the Denver Nuggets' celebrity captain that year. The Nuggets' center would go on to leave the most lasting statistical mark of the entire season.

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• 3. The Efficiency King

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  On the 7th of April 2022, Nikola Jokić reached a statistical threshold no player had ever crossed. He was the first in NBA history to accumulate at least 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds, and 500 assists in a single season. The Denver Nuggets center finished the year with a player efficiency rating of 33.01, the highest ever recorded for a single NBA season.

  Sixty-six double-doubles led the entire NBA that year, and so did Jokić's 19 triple-doubles. He also led the league in win shares, offensive win shares, plus-minus, and value over replacement player.

  On the 25th of January 2022, Jokić became the first player to reach both 5,000 career rebounds and 3,000 career assists within 500 career games. The category was novel; no previous player had combined those totals in so few appearances.

  Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks and Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers were the finalists for the Most Valuable Player award that year. Jokić claimed the award. Embiid had put together a historic campaign of his own. His race for the NBA scoring title came down to the final day of the regular season.

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• 4. The Scoring Race

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  Joel Embiid claimed the NBA scoring title on the 10th of April 2022 with 30.6 points per game. Giannis Antetokounmpo finished the year at 29.9. LeBron James averaged 30.3 but played only 56 games, two fewer than the minimum required to qualify; injuries had kept him below the threshold.

  Had James qualified, he would have broken Michael Jordan's record as the oldest player to win the scoring title. Jordan had set that mark at age 34. James was 37.

  Embiid's title carried several distinctions. He was the first foreign-born player to win the NBA scoring championship. He was also the first center to lead the league in scoring since Shaquille O'Neal in 2000. The last center to average at least 30 points per game was Moses Malone, also a Philadelphia 76er, back in 1982. Embiid was also the first 76er to lead the league in scoring since Allen Iverson in 2005. He was only the second player to average 40.4 or more points per 100 possessions. Michael Jordan is the only other to cross that threshold.

  Fifty points, 12 rebounds, and three blocks in 27 minutes: that was Embiid's output on the 20th of January 2022. He shot 17-of-23 from the field and 15-of-17 from the free throw line. Only Klay Thompson had reached 50 points more quickly in the shot clock era. Thompson's 52-point performance on the 29th of October 2018 had taken 26 minutes.

  LeBron James scored 56 points on the 5th of March 2022, a season high and his career high as a Laker. He became the fourth NBA player to score at least 50 points at age 37, joining Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and Jamal Crawford.

  On the 19th of March 2022, James passed Karl Malone to move into second place on the NBA's all-time scoring list. He had already become the first player in history to compile 30,000 career points, 10,000 career rebounds, and 10,000 career assists. He crossed all three thresholds within the same season.

  James became the oldest player to average at least 25 points per game over a qualifying season. That distinction paired with one he had long held. He had also been the youngest player to do so, averaging 27.6 points per game in his sophomore season at age 20.

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• 5. Three-Point Dominion

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  On the 14th of December 2021, Stephen Curry made the three-pointer that surpassed Ray Allen's all-time record. He became the most prolific long-range scorer in NBA history.

  Thirteen days later, on the 27th of December, Curry crossed 3,000 made career three-pointers. He was the first player in NBA history to reach that number.

  Curry hit his 150th three-pointer of the season in just 28 games, the fastest that milestone had ever been reached in league history.

  On the 1st of January 2022, Curry broke his own consecutive-games record for making at least one three-pointer. The new streak reached 158 games. His previous record of 157 had ended on the 5th of November 2016.

  The All-Star Game in Cleveland on the 20th of February 2022 provided another stage. Curry's three-pointer total for that contest set new All-Star records for a single quarter, a half, and the full game.

  Six three-pointers in a single All-Star quarter, eight in the first half, and 16 for the full game: those were the marks Curry set in Cleveland. No player had matched any of those counts in an All-Star setting.

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• 6. COVID's Shadow

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  By December 2021-97 percent of NBA players had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. That figure had not insulated the season from disruption.

  In mid-December, the Chicago Bulls lost two consecutive games after ten players and additional staff were placed in the NBA's COVID protocols. The Brooklyn Nets had ten players in protocols later that month, losing two home games as a result.

  Four cities had imposed vaccination requirements for spectators at sporting events: Los Angeles, Toronto, New York City, and San Francisco. Unvaccinated players competing for franchises in those cities were barred from home games and forfeited pay for games they missed. On the 3rd of January 2022, an indoor vaccine mandate in Philadelphia added the 76ers to that list.

  The season produced a record 225 ten-day contracts, as teams used hardship exceptions to fill depleted rosters throughout the year.

  The Toronto Raptors returned to Scotiabank Arena in Toronto at the start of the season. They had spent the previous year at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida. The Canada-United States border closure had prevented a Toronto return while COVID-19 vaccines were not yet widely available.

  On the 9th of January 2022, Klay Thompson played his first game after an absence of 941 days. His last appearance had been on the 13th of June 2019, in the decisive Game 6 of the 2019 NBA Finals. Two injury-shortened seasons spanning the pandemic years had kept him off the court.

  The NBA mandated that all guests seated within 15 feet of the court be vaccinated or present a negative COVID-19 test. Masks were required for those spectators unless they were actively eating or drinking. The playoffs began on the 16th of April 2022, by which point most arena-specific restrictions had been lifted by local authorities.

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• 7. An Era's End

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  Pau Gasol announced his retirement on the 5th of October 2021, ending a nineteen-year NBA career. He had won back-to-back championships with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2009 and 2010.

  Jamal Crawford retired on the 21st of March 2022, carrying the longest career of any player who left the league that season. He had played for nine teams over twenty seasons. JJ Redick had announced his departure on the 21st of September 2021, ending fifteen years across six franchises.

  On the 11th of August 2021, J. R. Smith enrolled at North Carolina A&T State University, effectively ending a sixteen-year NBA career. He had won championships with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016 and the Los Angeles Lakers in 2020.

  Kyle Korver became a player development coach with the Brooklyn Nets on the 12th of August 2021, ending a seventeen-year playing career. J. J. Barea took the same role with the Dallas Mavericks on the 15th of August, after fourteen seasons.

  Wilson became the official game ball supplier for the first time since 1983, when Spalding had taken over the role. Wilson's original partnership with the league had begun in 1946 under the NBA's predecessor organization and had lasted 37 seasons before Spalding replaced it.

  On the 4th of February 2022, Gregg Popovich became the first coach in NBA history to win 1,500 games, regular season and playoffs combined. He then surpassed Don Nelson to become the all-time regular season wins leader on the 11th of March.

  On the 9th of February 2022, an ESPN broadcast of a Warriors-Jazz matchup became the first in the network's history with an all-women production team. Beth Mowins handled play-by-play, Doris Burke served as analyst, and Lisa Salters was on the sideline. An additional 33 women filled production roles in Salt Lake City and at ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut.

  For Game 1 of the 2022 NBA Finals, analyst Jeff Van Gundy was absent due to COVID-19 protocols. Mark Jones called the play-by-play, alongside Mark Jackson and sideline reporter Lisa Salters. They became the first all-African-American broadcast team in the history of the NBA Finals.

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