NBA: Top 10 moments of 2017

What a year it was!

2017 had everything, record-breaking moments, historic performances, new superteams and a lot of emotion, trash talk, and drama. Its also seen the rise of LaVar Ball, who has now seemingly talked his way into international stardom. We witnessed the conclusion of Part 1 in the Russell Westbrook-Kevin Durant drama with both men probably happy with the outcome for now.

2017 has also produced one of the best draft classes in recent times and these rookies will shape the future of this league. Elsewhere, the Process finally seems to be working and the Greek Freak and the Unicorn seem well on their way to establishing themselves as two of the very best in the league. With all that being said, we count down the best moments of an unforgettable 2017:

#10 Manu Ginobili's game-winning block on James Harden

For years, the San Antonio Spurs relied on their big 3 to come up big in late game situations, but 2017 finally seemed like the passing of the torch. With Tim Duncan having retired and Kawhi Leonard emerging as an MVP candidate, the old guys were sort of put at the back of the shelf. One of them, however, showed it's not quite that time yet.

Last season's playoff encounter between the Spurs and the Rockets which went to 6 games, wasn't exactly an all-time classic. Four games were blowouts, with Game 5 really being the only nip and tuck game and it produced one of the greatest moments in playoff history.

A back and forth game throughout, Ginobili tied it up at 101 with 34 seconds left, but Leonard went out injured soon after and the Spurs had to fend off the Rockets in OT without him. Danny Green picked up the slack and scored 7 and the Spurs led by 3 with 15 seconds remaining. After Houston won a jump ball with 8 seconds left, Harden had a chance to tie it up, but Ginobili made a huge play as he always does and blocked the shot from behind, as the Spurs won 110-107.

It was just some more food for thought for all the doubters who'd written the Spurs off after a crushing loss in Game 1. The old boys in San Antonio aren't going away anytime soon and expect them to make another deep playoff run this season.

#9 Zaza Pachulia knocks Kawhi Leonard out of West Finals

Sorry Spurs fans, we go from one great moment for the Spurs to their lowest point of the season. As the Spurs and the Warriors faced off in the Western Conference Finals, many expected a closely contested series, but the Warriors were the consensus favorites. It sure didn't start off that way, however.

The Spurs pounced on some careless Warriors turnovers and led by 20 at the half. The lead was 23 when the now infamous Zaza closeout occurred with 7:54 left in the 3rd. As Leonard came down after attempting a shot, Zaza took an extra step, which led to Kawhi landing on his foot and rolling the same ankle that had got hurt earlier in the game.

The Golden State Warriors went on to win the game and the series with ease after Leonard's injury. It's a shame that we'll never know how that series would have turned out with Kawhi in the lineup. Opinions flew all over the place as to whether he did it on purpose but of course we can't say that for certain.

Coach Pop, however, had some rather harsh words for Zaza, which seem a bit ironic considering he used to defend Bruce Bowen back in the day...

#8 Kyrie Irving shocks the world with a trade request

No one saw this one coming! After getting blown away in the NBA Finals by the Warriors, the Cleveland Cavaliers encountered a new problem in the offseason. Irving shocked pretty much everyone by demanding to be traded away from the Cavs, as he supposedly had had enough of playing with LeBron James. It was quite puzzling considering all the praise Kyrie had showered on James after the Finals loss.

With all the talk around moving Kevin Love to get a better 3rd wheel for Irving and James, the Cavs now had a whole new problem to deal with. After weeks of speculation, they traded him to the Boston Celtics and the deal might end up being a win-win for both sides, for Cleveland in the short run and the Celtics for the future.

After a rough start, Jae Crowder seems to be adjusting to new surroundings and Isaiah Thomas has finally returned from injury and looks good. The Nets pick, however, might not be a top 5 pick as they'd have hoped but it'll still be a pretty good one. Irving meanwhile is thriving in Boston and if Gordon Hayward was healthy, they might have had a chance at knocking off the Cavs in the playoffs. Nevertheless, this trade is likely to have serious long-term implications in the East and it has set up the Celtics to dominate the Conference for years.

#7 New Superpowers assemble out West

With the Warriors running over the Western Conference in the playoffs last season, their contemporaries had two options: A. Load up their teams with more talent or B. Wait for the dominance to end and plan for the future. Thankfully for us, 3 teams chose option A with Houston, OKC, and Minnesota making blockbuster trades to spice up the West.

Houston landed Chris Paul to take some of the workloads off James Harden and it's worked pretty well so far, but there have been plenty of questions regarding both of them in the Playoffs so we'll reserve judgment till then.

The Timberwolves who landed Jimmy Butler have had a steady start to the season and have somehow gone under the radar. They're just a couple of games off the Spurs for the 3rd seed and are set for their 1st playoff appearance in over a decade. The new OKC big three of Westbrook, Melo and Paul George have had their fair share of problems but seem to have finally worked things out.

While all this may still not be enough to dethrone the Warriors, the playoffs should be a lot more interesting this time around.

#6 Devin Booker drops 70 on the Celtics

A ray of sunshine in what was another dark year in the desert. The Suns continue to be awful but they do have a potential cornerstone in Booker who put in a performance for the ages. The competition is what makes the feat so impressive. The East-leading Celtics had no answer for the then 20-year-old as he dropped 51 points in the 2nd half, although it wasn't enough to dig the Suns out of a 23 point deficit as they lost 130-120.

The loss does take some shine off the performance as many would point out, but the numbers are still insane. He became the youngest player to score 70 in a game and just the 6th player overall to reach the mark. Booker also grabbed 8 rebounds and dished out 6 assists to round off a great individual performance.

Of course, he got stick from the Celtics players as he was stat padding in their eyes and took the L in the end as Jae Crowder pointed out. Booker did hit back with the age-old "You can't guard me" and it's kinda hard to argue against him on that night.

#5 Paul Pierce honored by Celtics

Paul Pierce is one of the greatest players in Celtics history and it was wonderful to see him being honored twice by the Celtics last year. Pierce spent 15 seasons in Boston, winning Finals MVP in 2008 as the Celtics beat the Lakers to win a record 17th title. The 10th pick in the 1997 draft, Pierce was a 10-time All-Star as a Celtic and one of the best scorers in the league.

The Celtics ran two tribute videos for Pierce, once in his last game at the Garden and the next, fittingly in a game against the Lakers in November to rapturous ovations from the crowd. Pierce is 2nd in the All-time scoring charts in Celtics history and ranks 1st in Steals. All that's left is for his jersey to hang up in the rafters and that's not too far off.

His jersey will be retired this February in a game against the Cavs, although it looks like it will clash with Isaiah Thomas getting a tribute video which Pierce understandably isn't too cool with.

#4 Russell Westbrook breaks the Triple-Double record

If someone had told me before the start of last season that Russell Westbrook would average a triple-double for a whole season, I'd have told them to get their head checked. Safe to say he proved me wrong eh. It's an otherworldly achievement which is unlikely to be duplicated is what I'd like to say but he's well on his way to doing it again, averaging 24.9 Points, 9.6 Rebounds, and 10.1 Assists which is just absurd.

I mean, just think about all the all-time greats who never managed to do it. Magic Johnson might have been the one most likely to do it, but he never got it done, neither did Jordan, LeBron and so on. While he has been accused by many of just stat padding at times to rack up triple-doubles, he still had to do it and it's not like they were losing when he got a triple-double. The Thunder were 33-9 when Russ recorded a triple-double and just 13-26 when he didn't.

A historic season culminated with a performance for the ages against the Denver Nuggets to break the record. With the Thunder down 13 with less than 5 minutes remaining, Russ found Semaj Christon for a 3 pointer to get his record-breaking 42nd triple-double and he could have mailed it in, but he didn't. Russ scored the final 15 points for the Thunder, with a 36-foot game-winner being the mic drop moment.

#3 Isaiah Thomas scores 53 on late sister's birthday

Last year was a roller coaster ride for Isaiah Thomas. He'd finally broken through as one of the elite players in the league, after years of being ridiculed for his size. He'd helped the Celtics clinch the Number 1 seed in the East and they looked set for their first proper run at a championship since the heydays of the big 3. Then, disaster struck. Isaiah's little sister, Chyna Thomas died in a car crash on April 15th, a day before the playoffs started.

An emotional Isaiah kept playing and on what would have been her 23rd Birthday, he put in the best performance of his career. Thomas scored 53 in a win over the rival Wizards, including 9 in Overtime. After the game, he said, "Today is my sister's birthday, She would've been 23 today, so the least I can do is go out there and play for her.".

We also, of course, learned later on that he was dealing with a nagging hip problem throughout the playoffs. One can only imagine the mental and physical pain the guy was going through during that stretch and to put up a performance like that was just incredible.

#2 Kobe Bryant's Jersey's get retired

It's the greatest honor for a player to have his jersey hanging from the rafters and better yet if two of them are hung up there. That was the honor bestowed upon the Black Mamba this past month. One of the greatest players of all time, Bryant had both his No.8 and No.24 retired by the Lakers.

When rumors started floating around regarding the jersey retirement, debates started flying in as to which jersey should be retired. The Lakers squashed all that by just retiring both of them and the explanation was pretty simple. He'd be a Hall of Famer either way if you just separated the accomplishments in both numbers. As 8, Bryant won 3 titles and was an 8-time all-star and as 24, he won 2 titles, an MVP and was voted 10 times as an All-Star.

He played his entire 20-year career with the Lakers and is the franchise leader in Games played, Points and Steals. Magic Johnson called him the Greatest Laker ever and while that is debatable, he's definitely top 5. In typical Mamba fashion though, there were no tears when the jersey was unveiled, just a grin as he soaked in all the adulation.

#1 Kevin Durant hits the shot of shots over LeBron James

Unquestionably the moment of the year. KD hit the shot of his life over LeBron James in what ended up being the defining moment of the 2017 NBA Finals. Down 4 with a minute left, Durant cut the lead to 2 and then after a Cavs miss, drilled a 3 pointer to put Golden State ahead for good.

No player single-handedly affected the landscape of the NBA in 2017 as much as KD. Him leaving OKC, resulted in Russ having the spotlight all for himself and he recorded his historic triple-double season and the teams in the West frantically made trades in hopes to compete with the Warriors.

Whether you like him or not, KD validated his decision by coming up big when the Warriors needed him the most. He wasn't riding the coattails of Steph Curry, he was the Man, the reason why they won the championship. Had the Cavs won Game 3, they might have gone on to pull off the shock upset again. Instead, Durant hit the shot of his life, silenced the crowd, gave the Warriors a 3-0 lead and eventually walked away with a ring and was the Finals MVP to boot.