In a league where numerous events shape the course of history, the NBA has seen many game-changing scenarios fail to ever materialize as well.
Hypotheticals are a dangerous game to play when it comes to sports and that is especially true for the NBA. There are so many variables at play, the tiniest of altercations could cause ripple effects that stretch across years into the future and can’t completely be tracked down.
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And yet, analyzing alternative realities is one of the most popular activities among NBA fans both casual and hardcore.
It’s a game that allows its players to dream of a world where basketball is different, for better or worse, and escape the familiar and sometimes boring ways of the present game.
Every team has been affected by at least one what-if moment at some point or another. Sometimes it’s a trade that doesn’t work out or an injury that derails a bright future.
There are a select number of events, however, whose polar opposite could have the league looking drastically different with shock waves sent across nearly all 30 teams.
These type of scenarios have been around well beyond 2010.
Seeing as how the decade will come to a close in January, however, it’s only right to take a look back at important events that formed 10 years ripe with some of the most entertaining drama — both on the court and off — that have come to define the NBA.