The 2025 NBA Year in Review Awards

It’s the end of the calendar year, but the basketball has just begun.

It’s far too early to hand out awards with an MVP ladder with an entire season left for things to change, so let’s put a bow on 2025 with some awards about what we’ve seen and what to expect going forward in 2026.

The Summer I Turned Pretty Award for the Biggest Glow-Up // Jalen Johnson

The Hawks were at a bit of a crossroads this year, with consistent play-in tournament turned nothingness seasons with a slow-developing Zach Risarcher and the face of their franchise being Trae Young- a ball-dominant, undersized, shoot-first guard that has consistently been under fire about whether or not you can win with his style of play being your #1 option. For reference, the team is 2-8 in the games since Trae has returned from injury and 13-10 without him.

That doesn’t mean Trae is bad, and the root of the problem, but the rest of the team playing with NFL defensive backs running the offense through Jalen Johnson has given them a glimpse of what the team could be with him as a bona fide #1 option. Johnson was previously a spark plug rebounding fiend off the bench and is now second in odds for most-improved player, averaging a triple-double, getting more opportunities to slow the pace and share the sugar in Atlanta. The Hawks should go take a long walk and ask themselves who they want to be the guy going forward, like a mob boss deciding if they need to whack someone because of how pretty Jalen has gotten this… season.

The Labubu Award // Giannis Antetetekounmpo

The Lababu dolls are cute and fuzzy on the outside, making them an adorable collectable toy, until you see their demonic faces that could conjure all things evil and unholy, revealing the true colors of what is an absurd fad. That is the nature of Giannis Antetokounmpo’s drama. Giannis’s trade dilemma as the world’s aloof sweetheart and the man that brought them a title several years back is the facade he’s putting on to remain the good guy with the “I don’t know why you guys think I would ever request to leave! Why, I never! That was my agent!” meanwhile there are consistent shadowy rumors about all of the sunny contending places he would ideally like to play like the old realm of diva NBA superstar. He could make all of this go away if he just said “I’d like to stay here,” but he hasn’t.

The lack of transparency is that devilish Labubu face hiding in the fuzzy outfit of every 7-year-old’s keychain.

The Coldplay Concert Affair Award for Biggest Frauds // Los Angeles Clippers

The most viral “wow, you got caught red-handed, and this isn’t going to go well for you!” It’s almost even worse for the state of the Los Angeles Clippers because it’s even more than one singular moment of exposure for a team that went toe-to-toe with Denver in the playoffs last year.

Take your pick:

• Allegations of embezzling money to pay Kawhi Leonard via a tree-planting company to circumvent the salary cap
• Kawhi Leonard is still only playing in 21 games
• Shamefully releasing Chris Paul, one of the most important players of the franchise
• Starting off the year with a 6-21 record
• Blake Griffin is retired and would currently be the 5th-oldest Clipper
• Oh, and they will have one first-round draft pick in the next 3 years.

The Stranger Things: “What Took You So Long?” Award // Reed Sheppard

The boy hath become a man, much like all of the Stranger Things kids are now grown adults, since it took 4 years just to make this finale of a season that you had to watch YouTube recap videos from when you were in college to understand.

Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

Just last year, baby-faced Reed Sheppard was 20 years old and in and out of the G-League despite earlier Steph Curry shooting comparisons and averaging only 4 points per game in his limited time on the court under Ime Udoka. With this iteration of the long, defensive, rebounding-first Rockets team, he finally has a carved-out role to be the offensive dynamite we thought he could be with more minutes, more efficient 3-point shooting, and a change of pace for the Rockets. Those who labeled him a bust, unfortunately, had no idea that getting minutes and playing time can lead to some stranger things happening.

The Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce Best Engagement Award // Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe

The lovely couple has done the impossible: they’ve turned the Philadelphia Sixers into a team that is fun to watch! Remember the misery of old, decrepit Joel Embiid and his back pain, and Playoff P Paul George, who looked miserable and buried the idea of a team that was clearly phasing out of this era? They’ve turned the reins over to a young backcourt that has been one of the most electrifying, fun, and fast teams in basketball. (Ironically, now the only thing missing is the positions Embiid and George play reliably.)

Maxey has elite, terrier-like energy that is now paired with the thunderous VJ Edgecombe, who is just 20 years old, can fly high and shoot from deep, and is still figuring things out after lighting up the league in week one. The future of the franchise is going to be making sure this couple works and isn’t just an engagement for the clicks and engagement!

The Kendrick Lamar Super Bowl Halftime Show Award // San Antonio Spurs

No one wanted to publicly shame and ruin someone’s career than Kendrick Lamar did Drake, and he was given the grandest of opportunities to do so and cement the victory as the entire world watched the Super Bowl Halftime show that put the beef to rest.

A close second in that same vein is Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs wanting to decimate the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Thunder are the PROVEN southwestern team with another lengthy, versatile big man (Chet Holmgren) having already won the title last year, the depth to put the dynasty conversation into question, and the conversation is about what the ceiling can be (or if they ever lose again!).

The 10-day stretch for the Spurs, where they beat the Thunder THREE TIMES, once in the NBA Cup and once on Christmas, following the debate shows, wondering whether they could challenge the Warriors’ 73-win season, was their Super Bowl Halftime Show. We finally have a blood feud in the NBA with regionalism: Chet vs Wemby, where Wemby celebrates a title every time Chet makes a mistake, and young bloodhound guards that go at each other’s throats in the Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper vs SGA and Jaylin Williams wars.