Seven biggest NBA stories of 2025, starting with the Luka Doncic trade

2025 was filled with seismic NBA stories, many of which will play out into 2026 and beyond. True game-changers in the literal and figurative sense.

On New Year’s Eve, let’s take a look back at the 10 biggest NBA stories of 2025.

Advertisement

1. Luka Doncic trade

On Feb. 1, we all thought Shams Charania had been hacked. No way this was real.

Turns out it was very real — Dallas Mavericks GM Nico Harrison had convinced a new ownership to trade a fan-favorite 25-year-old, top-five player in the world entering his prime to the most hated empire in the NBA. For pennies on the dollar. It was unfathomable.

It changed everything. Before the year was out Harrison had been fired. Dallas fell apart without Doncic, slid into the lottery, then got blessed by the basketball gods when its 1.8% chance ended up getting the Mavericks the top spot in the NBA Draft and Cooper Flagg. The Lakers instantly became a threat again, although they are still figuring out how to build a team around Doncic that works.

Advertisement

This trade out of nowhere will be one of the biggest NBA stories of the decade, maybe the first half of the century. It was seismic in the changes, and nothing in 2025 was as big.

2. Chauncey Billups, Terry Rozier arrested, indicted

Federal authorities arrested and indicted current Miami Heat player Terry Rozier and Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups as part of two illegal gambling investigations. Also arrested was former NBA player and assistant coach Damon Jones (who was charged in both cases). One of those indictments alleged Rozier worked with illegal gambling consortiums to rig player prop bets by leaving a game early due to an “injury” (with the gamblers betting big on his unders). The other had Billups as the face of a rigged poker match, where being with the Hall of Famer and coach was the draw to bring in people who lost at the fixed games.

Both Rozier and Billups pled not guilty as their cases work their way through the court system. The NBA reopened its investigation, and both men are on unpaid leave from their teams. And through all of this, the NBA continues to have strong ties and promote legal…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/seven-biggest-nba-stories-2025-173934280.html

Author :

Publish date : 2025-12-31 17:39:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.