NBA Year in Review: 2010

All last week, magazines, newspapers, television, and websites all rolled out their "...of the Year" and "...of the Decade" editions.

Even Sports Central got in on the action, with our NFL All-Decade Team, our MLB Anti-Team of the Decade, and of course there was the three-part NBA All-Decade Team that ran last fall.

The fact is reading about an all-decade team is fun. Reading about the best plays/players/games of the year is fun.

So why should the fun be limited to just the last week of December? Why can't we keep this ball rolling?

Today, that's exactly what we're going to do. We're counting down the best headlines in the NBA for the Year 2010.

It's the NBA Year in Review: 2010.

It's been a year that's featured some truly bizarre incidents in the locker room, on the floor, and on the bench, but we'll get to all that in a minute.

First, we start off with the biggest headline of 2010 in the NBA:

Nate Robinson Receives Lifetime Achievement Award

At least, you think that'd be the headline after watching Nate Robinson's postgame interview with the MSG Network after the game on Friday.

Here's the setup: Nate Robinson got in Mike D'Antoni's doghouse a few weeks back and has been buried at the end of the Knicks' bench for about a month, receiving 14 consecutive DNP – Coach's Decision.

At some point during that time, Robinson demanded a trade. So far, there have been no takers.

On Friday, for the first time in exactly one month and for what seems like no rhyme or reason whatsoever, Mike D'Antoni decided to play Nate Robinson again.

Robinson responds by scoring 41 points and dropping 8 assists off the bench on the Hawks in a thrilling OT victory for the Knicks.

That right there should be the end of the story. It's a story of a lesson learned and how hard work will eventually put you back on the right path, right?

Of course not, not when Nate Robinson is involved.

Here is the postgame interview that Robinson did with Tina Cervasio of MSG after the game. I don't ask for much, but please take three minutes of your time and watch this; I promise it'll be worth it (it's the video on the right under the heading "112-108 Win Over Atlanta (1/1").

All finished?

Good. For those of you that took the time to watch it, here's the answer to the question you have: he thanked 23 people in the interview!

For those of you that didn't watch, that's what you missed. Think about that for a second: in a three-minute interview, he thanked twenty-three different people.

That's the stuff legends are made of at award shows. If this were the Oscars, the band would have cut him off less than half way through his speech.

Which begs the obvious question: why the hell is he thanking people?

I understand that he must have been pumped up. He hadn't played in a month and he just carried the Knicks on his back to an overtime win against one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference on the road. He has every right to be excited.

But really, twenty-three people?

And if we're being honest here, 23 is selling it short. I only counted "all the people on Twitter" and "all the people on Xbox" as one person thanked each (although it sort of evens out because I counted all three times he thanked God).

If you want to know why Nate Robinson has been buried on the bench for a month, why he was in the doghouse, and why no one is trading for him, look no further than this interview.

He called the benching "humbling experience," and turns around in the same interview and gives an acceptance speech for having a good game.

Some players get what it takes to succeed in this league, and some players don't.

Nate Robinson will always fall into the "don't" category.

Shake 'n bake, baby.

Kobe Does It Again

On the same day the league presented Robinson with his award, Kobe Bryant did what Kobe Bryant does. With the Lakers down by two and time running out, Kobe hit a three-pointer as time expired to give the Lakers the win at home over the Kings.

It was the third time in 31 days that Bryant has hit the game-winner as time expired. My guess is that 95% of NBA players won't hit a shot like that in their entire career. Kobe is doing it on a regular basis this season.

At some point over the past few years, Kobe has been sort of handed the "player you want taking the last shot" title, without really having a huge body of evidence to support it. Sure, he's hit a ton of huge shots in his career, and he certainly would have been number one on my list coming into this season, but you could have made the case for other players.

Not anymore. Kobe is hands down the best finisher in the game, and it's not even close.

As I was watching LeBron miss a tough three that would have sent the game into OT against the Bobcats on Sunday, I turned to my brother, smiled, and said, "Kobe hits that."

I was only half-joking.

Kobe's closing in on Jordan for the greatest finisher ever. That's not blasphemous to M.J., it's just a fact. No need to debate it. Just enjoy it.

Tim Duncan: Sixth Man of the Year

You can, and some people have, make the case that Tim Duncan was the player of the decade of the 2000s in the NBA. He was as consistently dominant over the 10 years as any big man has been since Wilt, and he collected three rings along the way. Over the course of the past 10 seasons, he cemented his legacy as the greatest power forward to ever play the game.

So where does a player who was so good for so long in the 2000s start of the 2010s? On the bench, of course.

Wait. What?

That's right, for just the second time in his 1,088-game career (including playoff games), Tim Duncan came off the bench for the Spurs in Toronto on Sunday.

The Spurs went on to lose the game, 91-86. Duncan finished the game with 21 points and 12 rebounds in 29 minutes, but admitted after the game that not starting was "tough to swallow."

That's the most controversial thing Tim Duncan has ever said, and I agree with him.

I actually don't hate the logic behind the move. Gregg Popovich said that Duncan had played more minutes than he would have liked the night before, and that he wanted to give him his rest in the first quarter instead of the fourth.

That, in a weird way, makes sense.

What doesn't make sense: not playing your best player to start the game and then falling down 8 points after the first quarter.

I don't care who your opponent is, you never want to give any team a decent lead and let them play from ahead the entire game. Why not just rest Duncan to start the second half?

There are plenty of times throughout a game where you can find rest for players. The first few minutes of the game isn't one of them.

I'll do my best Vincent Vega impression here and say to Gregg Popovich, "I respect you man, you know that."

But this move, for the life of me, makes no sense.

It's hard to question a guy with four rings, and I don't want to overstate the importance of a road game in early January, but I just don't get it.

I guess the old saying it true: Pop works in mysterious ways.

A Mexican Standoff in Washington D.C.

I buried this headline as far down as I could, because deep down, I know that's how David Stern would want it. Surely the last thing the Commish wants is his newly "cleaned up" NBA making the top story because of teammates pulling guns on each other in the locker room, but alas, here we are.

Here's what we know: Gilbert Arenas has three guns locked in his locker at the Verizon Center, and somehow the team, the league, the local police, and even the Feds, caught wind of this and now everyone is pissed.

The rumors are that Arenas pulled a gun on teammate Javaris Crittenton over a dispute stemming from a gambling debt, and Crittenton then pulled a gun back out in self-defense.

Then there's the rumor the Arenas placed all three guns on a chair and told Crittenton to "pick one."

There's also a rumor that the two were arguing over who had the biggest gun (my favorite of all the stories I read, by the way).

Basically, all we know is that we don't really know what happened.

And that Gilbert Arenas is going to be in a lot of trouble.

Apparently, it's clear as day in the collective bargaining agreement that players are not to have weapons of any kind on NBA property.

Not only is Arenas facing the possibility of criminal charges, but he's also assuredly looking at a lengthy suspension and even the possibility of the Wizards voiding his $111 million contract.

It may take a few more days or so before all the facts come out on this one, but believe me, the league is going to make an example out of Arenas.

The NFL has had way too many embarrassing/tragic incidents involving guns over the past few years, and the NBA isn't about to go down that same road.

Maybe, and most likely, the rumors about exactly what happened are overblown, but the fact of the story is that NBA players (in you're crazy if you think Arenas and Crittenton are the only two) are bringing guns with them to the arena, and that is a recipe for disaster.

It needs to stop, and David Stern will make Gilbert Arenas poster child for what happens when you bring guns to the arena.

I suggest following Gilbert Arenas on Twitter, not just because it has the Stephon Marbury train-wreck-in-progress appeal to it, but because after the end of this week, it might be the last you hear from Agent Zero for long, long time.

2010, what a wild year it was. Can't wait to see what 2011 brings us!