NBA's defining moments of 2016

Two-thousand and sixteen may not be remembered fondly by some people for various reasons, but in the NBA it was a year of iconic storylines. Here are six:

The rise and fall of Stephen Curry

The first five months of 2016 saw nothing but wins for Stephen Curry, the meteoric megastar who redefined the game of basketball with his deadly jumpshot. Curry was shattering records while posting a season for the ages before taking home his second straight MVP (the first unanimous award winner) while leading his Warriors to 73 wins.

Everything changed once the playoffs came around. Curry sprained his knee after slipping on a wet spot and never looked the same. His Golden State Warriors managed to get past the Thunder (springing Kevin Durant in the process), but Curry looked lifeless on the big stage as the Warriors staged an epic collapse following a 3-1 series lead. The Cleveland Cavaliers mercilessly exploited Curry on defense (immortalized by Kyrie Irving's Finals game-winner), while Curry struggled to replicate his regular-season form when it mattered most.

What came afterwards with the addition of Durant could go one of two ways for the two-time MVP. Curry could either find himself back atop the league with his second title in three years, or Durant could inherit the title from Curry of being the best player on the league's best team. Right now it's looking like the latter.

Either way, Curry isn't under the spotlight anymore. Reporters have flocked to Golden State, but the story isn't just Curry anymore - it's Durant, it's Draymond Green, it's Klay Thompson, it's Steve Kerr. Curry has faded into the background.

Kobe Bryant's farewell

On Nov. 29, 2015, Kobe Bryant announced he would retire at the end of the season. While he supposedly didn't want a Derek Jeter-style farewell tour, that's essentially what he got, as each NBA city represented a final visit and a chance for opposing fans to show their appreciation. Kobe was not a particularly efficient player in 2015-16, but the Los Angeles Lakers and then-coach Byron Scott basically geared the rebuilding team's season around his swan song.

In a six-game stretch from March 28 to April 8, 2016, Bryant shot 27 percent from the floor and averaged only 13 points. For the season finale on April 13 - with the Lakers long ago eliminated from playoff contention - Kobe took the floor at the Staples Center one final time.

Given the circumstances, what followed was storybook.

Bryant was a polarizing player for most of his 20-year career, and on the back end much of it came from the criticism of his game as a volume shooter whose tendencies didn't fit in the "new NBA."

His performance against the Utah Jazz that night was basically a "f--k you" to all that. He took a career-high 50 shots, scoring 60 points for the sixth time in his career as the Lakers won 101-96 (Bryant responsible for 59.4 percent of the team's points). Like Kobe, it was a one-of-a-kind night.

Golden State Warriors - 73 wins but no ring

Hindsight is 20/20 vision, so there's no point in criticizing the Warriors' dogged pursuit last season of an NBA-record 73 wins. While Kerr (a member of the previous record-holder, the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls) said he didn't care about the mark, it was clear that his players did.

The Warriors were beyond excellent in 2015-16. A historic season by MVP Curry, three All-Stars, no back-to-back losses, a record 34 road victories, and one of the most efficient, entertaining teams in basketball history.

Yet, as they say, it don't mean a thing if you don't win that ring. With their blown 3-1 lead to the Cavs in the Finals, the Dubs became a dubious footnote that has now affected all four major professional North American sports; every team that set the present regular-season wins record has failed to punctuate it with a title.

LeBron brings home championship to Cleveland

Back in the summer of 2010, if somebody had suggested LeBron James would ultimately return to Cleveland and lead the Cavaliers to the city's first major pro sports title in half a century, you'd have thought they were crazy. But while the road was winding, James followed up his one-man performance in the 2015 postseason with probably the crowning jewel of his career in 2016.

The moment had a moment, too. His chasedown block on Andre Iguodala with under two minutes left in Game 7 will go down in NBA history as one of its iconic moments.

Durant changes sides

Summer '16 turned everything on its head.

Flashback to 2010 when James formed the Big Three in Miami. James was branded the villain for switching sides, while Durant was heralded as the hero for quietly inking an extension to remain in OKC. Durant even fed into that narrative by subtweeting James.

Six years later, Durant draws hate for joining the self-proclaimed "super villains," while James is beloved for breaking Cleveland's 45-year title drought. James is celebrated for his charitable works within the state of Ohio, while Durant takes meetings with a quarter of the league in the Hamptons before picking the 73-win team.

Durant stepping into the fray bolsters the NBA's most compelling rivalry since the Celtics and Lakers faded into irrelevancy - Durant represents the bourgeois Warriors, while James captains the blue-collared Cavaliers. The two sides are fated to meet for a third straight season in the Finals with their respective legacies on the line.

A new CBA for a new NBA

These are the halcyon days for the burgeoning cash cow that is the NBA. The new national TV broadcast deal totals $24 billion. Revenues are expected to approach $8 billion which explains why the salary cap is ballooning. There are a half-dozen marketable megastars in the league that appeal to fans all over the globe.

A new Collective Bargaining Agreement was drafted to govern the years of prosperity to come, thus avoiding any chance of a work stoppage. That's a win unto itself, but a new CBA could bring new challenges for the league.

Namely, superteams like the Cavs and Warriors will be hard to come by in the future. The new CBA put into place a stricter set of incentives for superstars to remain with the team that drafted them. There will be no subsequent sagas on the level of Durant unless stars want to ditch millions in salary and years of security.

But there are unintended consequences with even the most well-meaning policies. The new CBA might help teams retain stars, that further incentivizes tanking. Having stars stay put also introduces more parity in a star-driven league that thrives when superteams dominate the landscape.