2024–25 NBA season

• 1. Introduction

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  On the 22nd of October 2024, the 2024-25 NBA season opened with a moment that had never happened before in league history. LeBron James and Bronny James took the court as Los Angeles Lakers teammates. No father and son had ever played together in an NBA game. Bronny had been selected 55th overall in that year's draft. Their regular season debut came in a win against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

  The season ran until the 13th of April 2025. Then came the playoffs, the Finals, and finally Game 7 on the 22nd of June 2025. The Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the Indiana Pacers in seven games. It was the first Finals to reach a seventh game since 2016. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was named the Finals MVP.

  Between opening night and that June climax, records fell in bunches. Coaches were fired in the middle of the season. A nine-year broadcast deal expired under the shadow of a lawsuit. How a rebuilt Oklahoma City franchise arrived at the top is a story worth tracing. So is what LeBron James continued to do with his body at age 40.

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• 2. Oklahoma City Ascendant

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  Shai Gilgeous-Alexander averaged 32.7 points per game during the 2024-25 regular season, the highest mark in the league. He won the regular season Most Valuable Player award. Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokic were the two finalists alongside him.

  Oklahoma City finished the season with a scoring differential of plus-12.9 per game, the best in league history. The previous record had been plus-12.3, held by the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers. The Thunder also broke the record for the most double-digit wins in a single season, reaching 51. That mark, too, had belonged to those same 1971-72 Lakers at 50.

  Against Eastern Conference teams, Oklahoma City went 29-1. Their one loss to the East came on the 8th of January 2025, a 129-122 defeat to the Cleveland Cavaliers. That night, Cleveland arrived with a 10-game winning streak of their own. No previous NBA game had matched a team with a 10-game streak against a team with a 15-game streak.

  Isaiah Hartenstein signed a three-year, $87 million contract with the Thunder in the offseason. Sam Presti won the Executive of the Year award for his roster construction. Mark Daigneault won the Western Conference Coach of the Month award in December, February, and March. The Milwaukee Bucks claimed the Emirates NBA Cup that season, defeating Oklahoma City in the final. Jalen Williams earned a spot on the All-NBA Third Team, giving the Thunder two players among the fifteen individual selections that year. The Cleveland Cavaliers and the New York Knicks were the only other franchises to also place two players on those teams.

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• 3. Records Without Precedent

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  On the 31st of December 2024, LeBron James became the first player ever to compete in the NBA both as a teenager and at age 40. Earlier in the season, on October 22, he had passed Kobe Bryant for the most field goals missed in NBA history. On the 3rd of January 2025, he passed Michael Jordan for the most 30-point games with his 563rd such performance.

  On the 6th of February 2025, at 40 years and 38 days old, LeBron scored 42 points against the Golden State Warriors. That made him the oldest player in league history to score 40 or more points in a game. On March 4, he became the first player with 50,000 combined regular season and playoff points.

  Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets recorded 34 triple-doubles during the season. On the 1st of April 2025, he put up 61 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists. That was the highest-scoring triple-double in NBA history. On April 11, he became only the third player to average a triple-double for an entire season, joining Oscar Robertson and Russell Westbrook. He led the league with an efficiency rating of 42.4 per game.

  Stephen Curry reached a milestone no player had reached before. On the 13th of March 2025, he became the first in NBA history to make 4,000 career three-pointers. He also led the league in free throw percentage at 93.3 percent and won the Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year award. Kevin Durant became the eighth player to score 29,000 career points on the 28th of October 2024. He crossed 30,000 on the 11th of February 2025.

  Jarrett Allen of the Cleveland Cavaliers finished the season having shot above 70 percent from both the field and the free throw line. It was the first time any player had cleared both thresholds in the same year.

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• 4. Legends Step Away

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  Derrick Rose announced his retirement on the 26th of September 2024, closing a 16-year career spent with six different teams. He had won the Most Valuable Player award in 2011 with the Chicago Bulls. Two weeks later, on October 10, Danny Green also retired after 14 seasons across six franchises. Green is one of only four players in NBA history to win championships with three different teams.

  Kemba Walker announced his retirement on the 2nd of July 2024. He accepted a role as a player enhancement coach with the Charlotte Hornets the following day. Ish Smith's playing career ended on October 2, when the Washington Wizards hired him as a pro scout. Smith played for 13 different franchises across 14 years in the league, the most of any player in history. He won a championship with the Denver Nuggets in 2023.

  Gordon Hayward retired on August 1 and Joe Harris on August 15. Rudy Gay announced his retirement on October 29. AJ Griffin also announced his retirement that same day, citing his desire to pursue a career in ministry.

  The first round of the 2024 NBA draft took place on the 26th of June 2024, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The Atlanta Hawks selected Zaccharie Risacher, a French teenager, with the first overall pick.

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• 5. Nine Years on Television

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  TNT Sports had broadcast live NBA games since 1989. The 2024-25 season was the ninth and final year of a deal between TNT, ESPN, and NBA TV. New 11-year agreements with ESPN and ABC, NBC and its Peacock streaming service, and Amazon Prime Video were set to begin in 2025-26.

  The NBA rejected TNT's matching rights offer for Amazon's all-streaming package. TNT filed a lawsuit in a Manhattan New York state court, seeking to delay the new deals from taking effect. The two parties settled in November 2024. Under the settlement, TNT received live game rights in certain international territories. TNT also entered a sublicensing agreement to air its Inside the NBA studio program on ESPN and ABC. That arrangement was set to begin in 2025-26.

  Diamond Sports Group, parent company of the Bally Sports regional network chain, had been in Chapter 11 bankruptcy since March 2023. The company rebranded its network as FanDuel Sports Network on the 21st of October 2024. It signed agreements with 13 of its NBA partner teams, committing to broadcast their games through the end of the season. The fees charged were reduced by 30 to 40 percent. On the 2nd of January 2025, Diamond emerged from bankruptcy and renamed itself Main Street Sports Group.

  The Los Angeles Clippers moved to the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California, after 25 years at Crypto.com Arena. For the first time since the 1998-99 season, every NBA franchise had its own dedicated home arena. ESPN needed to rebuild its lead broadcast team mid-season after losing one of its analysts to a head coaching position. It eventually settled on Richard Jefferson alongside Mike Breen and Doris Burke for the rest of the year. Longtime analyst Hubie Brown called his final game on the 9th of February 2025, during a 76ers-Bucks matchup. He had called games over the years for USA Network, CBS, TNT, and ESPN.

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• 6. Benches in Flux

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  Seven NBA franchises changed head coaches before the 2024-25 season opened. The most notable hire came on the 24th of June 2024. The Los Angeles Lakers chose JJ Redick, a prominent ESPN analyst who had never held a professional coaching position.

  Kenny Atkinson's start in Cleveland rewrote the record books. On the 6th of November 2024, his Cavaliers beat the New Orleans Pelicans for their ninth consecutive win. That victory set a new record for wins to start a first-year coach's tenure with a new team. The winning streak extended to 15 games on November 17. Cleveland also became the first team in league history to win their first ten games while scoring at least 110 points in each. The streak ended on November 19, when the Boston Celtics won 120-117.

  Atkinson won the Coach of the Year award at the end of the season. J.B. Bickerstaff finished as runner-up. Bickerstaff had been fired by Cleveland in May 2024 after five seasons, then hired by Detroit in July to replace Monty Williams. The Pistons secured their first winning season since 2016, tripling their win total from the previous season. No team in league history had previously tripled its win total from a full prior season.

  Sacramento dismissed Mike Brown on the 27th of December 2024. Memphis fired Taylor Jenkins on the 28th of March 2025, after six seasons. Denver fired Michael Malone on April 8, ending his 10-year tenure as head coach. Phoenix fired Frank Vogel on the 9th of May 2024, after only one season. The Suns hired Mike Budenholzer two days later, giving him a full summer to prepare.

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• 7. Deals All Summer

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  On the 1st of July 2024, Jayson Tatum signed a five-year, $314 million contract extension with the Boston Celtics. It was the largest contract in NBA history at the time. Paul George signed a four-year, $212 million max contract with the Philadelphia 76ers. Klay Thompson left the Golden State Warriors for the Dallas Mavericks on a three-year, $50 million deal. Former MVP Russell Westbrook signed a two-year, $6.8 million contract with the Denver Nuggets.

  The Los Angeles Lakers acquired Luka Doncic, Maxi Kleber, and Markieff Morris from the Dallas Mavericks in a three-team deal. Anthony Davis and Max Christie went to Dallas as part of the exchange. ESPN moved Doncic's expected Lakers debut onto national television on February 8. Injury kept him out that night, and he did not appear until February 10. On February 25, he recorded a triple-double in his first game against the Mavericks.

  The New York Knicks acquired Karl-Anthony Towns in a three-team trade. Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo moved to the Minnesota Timberwolves as part of the deal. The Golden State Warriors acquired Jimmy Butler from the Miami Heat in a five-team trade. The Chicago Bulls traded DeMar DeRozan to the Sacramento Kings and received Zach LaVine in a separate three-team arrangement.

  On the 31st of March 2025, the Utah Jazz recorded their 60th loss of the season. They became the final franchise in league history to lose 60 games in a single year. Every other team had already reached that threshold at some earlier point.

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