The regular season has been in the can for over a week a now, and while we obviously know the playoffs are in full throttle, we couldn't resist one more opportunity to revisit and roast some of the more meaningful, eventful, newsworthy, and downright ridiculous moments from the season's first 82 games.
We're not here to offer up our MVP picks (you can read all about the debate between LeBron James or James Harden somewhere else). We're here to recall the most gloriously disrespectful moment we've maybe ever seen on a basketball court. We're here to memorialize Eric Bledsoe being fed up with the Suns. We're here to honor Nick Young and call out Russell Westbrook. That's the kind of wave we're riding here. So without further adieu, please enjoy the 2018 Complex Sports Alternative NBA Awards, resurrected from the dead after a taking a few years off.
Best Posterization: LeBron James
This was fairly easy to narrow down—LeBron over Jeff Nurkic in Portland. A man playing in his 15th season simply shouldn't be able to put a guy on a poster like this. The elevation was insane and Nurk had no chance to get out of the way. That's not to say there weren't plenty of worthy dunks this year (there were a TON), but LeBron surely takes the cake here. — Z.F.
"He made Jusuf Nurkić a screensaver!" - @CavsFredMcLeod pic.twitter.com/4GgAopsb20
— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) March 16, 2018
The NBA is the king of petty. It's almost as much a part of the game as actual basketball at this point. This season had no shortage of petty moments, from John Wall literally fighting with his teammates on national TV, to LeBron rocking the "King of NY" sneakers in the Garden, but the Rockets raid on on the Clippers locker room has to be the easy winner here. Like, Chris Paul legit used secret tunnels to try and confront his former teammates. The NBA really is the best. — Z.F.
The last laugh in the Rockets locker room. pic.twitter.com/7dUiLEXkpO
— Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) March 1, 2018
Most Savage Ankle Breaker: James Harden
We were in the building for this one, the hotly anticipated rematch between Houston and Los Angeles in Staples Center after the two squads infamously almost squared up postgame in the Clippers locker room.
The crowd was expecting things to be chippy, maybe a brawl would break out. Bad blood still had to be simmering between the two squads only a month removed from an incident that fired up NBA Twitter like few events.
What we got instead was maybe the most gloriously disrespectful play in NBA history and a bloodbath of different sorts that saw the Rockets smoke the Clippers. But all we'll ever remember/talk about from this one was James Harden condemning the soul of Wesley Johnson to Twitter Hell on national television.
OH MY GOODNESS. 👀#BEARDING pic.twitter.com/wNVNCNFUPo
— Houston Rockets (@HoustonRockets) March 1, 2018
Harden's crossover was so brutal, so devastating, so disrespectful that the Clippers limited Johnson's media availability in its wake just so he wouldn't have to answer too many embarrassing questions.
After the game, Harden tried to downplay the ankle breaker heard round the world, but his teammates and head coach were more than happy to speak up on his behalf.
"Wasn’t too bad, was it?" Mike D’Antoni said.
"It was crazy. You don’t see things like that all the time," Rockets sixth man Eric Gordon said.
We've never seen anything like that in an NBA game before. And we may never again. But for that one moment that felt like it took three minutes but in reality lasted a mere three seconds, it was absolutely mesmerizing and maybe, just maybe, the highlight of the season. — A.C.
The two nutmegs LeBron got off this season put all others to shame, especially the CP3 one y’all tried to hype up when he made Laker big man Ivica Zubac look crazy. A point guard nutmegging a tall benchwarmer isn’t really that impressive. Any number of us can pull that off. I did that shit in my cousin’s backyard the other day, been seeing moves like that my whole life, chief. LeBron not only did a no-look pass nutmeg, he nutmegged his own teammate and passed it to himself. He’s in his 15th year doing shit we’ve never seen done on a court before.
First we have his no-look assist to Dwyane Wade against Orlando:
Then there’s the greatest nutmeg in the history of nutmegs in which he passes the ball to himself through Tristan Thompson’s legs. You will never see some shit like that again ever in your life. — A.D.
Best Social Media Burn: Eric Bledsoe
The NBA dominates social media, for better or worse. It's usually for the better, tbh, with guys like Joel Embiid firing off hilarious jokes in between games. Or there are guys sending out shade because they don't make all-star teams. Or there are guys with burner accounts. Or maybe that is just KD. But, the best social burn of the year easily goes to Eric Bledsoe, who famously tweeted out:
I Dont wanna be here
— Eric Bledsoe (@EBled2) October 22, 2017
He never played for the team again and was eventually traded to the Bucks. He even later said that he wasn't talking about basketball with the tweet, but was simply referring to being at a hair salon. That is an A1 excuse. What a time to be alive. — Z.F.
We kind of cheated with this one because it went down in the postseason. But Nick Young wore boxer shorts and a silk robe to Game 1 of the Warriors-Spurs series.
Certified. Legend.
Now Out of Bounds star Gilbert Arenas clowned his pal, revealing he lit into Swaggy P for not taking the playoffs seriously with that fit. But if rocking that absurd ensemble isn't quintessential Nick Young, we don't know what is.
Business casual 😎 @NickSwagyPYoung pic.twitter.com/TmdDWkWLu9
— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) April 14, 2018
Do you, Nick, and never apologize until the league fines you for wearing pajamas to the Game 1 of the NBA Finals. — A.C.
There are a lot of things to love about Russell Westbrook. His pastel suit sans shirt that he wore to Game 1 of the Thunder-Jazz series is not one of them.
The NBA's reigning king of fits did not, in our humble opinion, get one off to open up Oklahoma City's run through the NBA Playoffs. You gotta throw on a shirt, Russ. And for once, maybe we can't even give the fashion forward former NBA MVP credit for being a trendsetter considering we saw Damian Lillard rock something similar earlier in the season. But at least Lillard had the wherewithal to rock a three-piece suit, meaning going shirtless wasn't nearly as egregious as what Westbrook tried to pull off. Now, technically Westbrook's faux-pas falls in the postseason content bucket, just like Swaggy P above, so maybe we should be give the nod to Lillard. But upon further review, we can't give Russ a pass because you need to be shining during the playoffs, not experimenting. — A.C.
Scrappy White Guy Award: T.J. McConnell
During the first quarter of an April game versus the Hornets, Lance turns the ball over, stuffs Dwight Howard at the rim, but is too busy celebrating and allows Michael Kidd-Gilchrist to get the dunk. Classic Born Ready. — A.D.
