Black Lives Matter

Programming note: With the NBA return on July 31 now official, we will be taking a brief summer break from now until the first week of August. We will run lists from the first week of August through the second week of October to coincide with the conclusion of the '19-'20 season and the 2020 NBA Draft. We will take another brief break from mid-October to early December, at which point we'll return with the 2020 edition of our top 500 players of all-time, then continue on in January with regularly scheduled programming.

As protests expand across the U.S. and the world, and the Black Lives Matter and Defund the Police movements gain steam, we take a look at several NBA players that are especially notable for their commitment to social justice and activism.

Limping to immortality

Not every moment of a championship season is necessarily a great one, and these blue-ribbon teams entered the playoffs looking less than stellar.

Lucky charms

When you win 11 NBA titles in 13 seasons as Bill Russell did, you don't just earn a lot of hardware for yourself, you also help fill up the trophy cases of plenty of teammates.

Body horror

In a special Halloween-themed list, we look at the scariest, gruesome, and downright most horrific injuries in NBA history that hampered the chances of a legitimate title contender. This is an update to a list that originally ran on 3/28/19.

Who's going to Disney World?

Starting with the first time it was awarded, the Finals MVP award has been an occasional source of controversy. Here are seven such cases, some of which forever altered the individual legacy of the players involved.

Adding insult after injury

For every glorious moment like Willis Reed coming through the tunnel to spark the Knicks to victory in the 1970 NBA Finals, there are numerous examples of star players getting injured either late in the season or during the playoffs, and their inability to return to play costing their team a potential championship.

One of these things is not like the other

Can it really be considered a rivalry if one side always gets the best of their opponent? These NBA match-ups, involving both individuals and teams, put that concept to the test to varying degrees over the years.