The 64 best moments of an utterly absurd 2017-18 NBA season

The 2017-18 NBA season has stood out from previous years in part because of its otherworldly crop of offensive talents, but even more so because of its outright ridiculousness. A decade from now, we’ll still be talking about Kevin Durant’s exposed fake social media accounts and the infamous Clippers-Rockets fight that was(n’t).

The NBA is consistently the most entertaining sports league because of its diverse group of bold personalities who make each day feel like the next episode of a cable TV drama.

There were stretches of the season where Markelle Fultz, the No. 1 pick in the draft, was completely invisible, even though he was missing most of the season because he may or may not have forgotten how to shoot a basketball. That’s how wild a ride this year’s been, and will continue to be in the postseason.

To commemorate the pure glory of the last year, we created a 64-team NCAA tournament-style bracket ranking the most ludicrous events.

Editor’s Note: This was created before the Ben Simmons-Donovan Mitchell beef happened. Let’s say that’s in the 9-12-seed range.

Kevin Durant’s burner accounts: It doesn’t get any more ridiculous than arguably the second-best player in the best basketball league in the world needing to make fake accounts to talk trash to his haters online

2. Kawhi Leonard vs. the Spurs: Leonard’s mysterious hip injury morphed into a season-long problem, with reports that he and the Spurs were feuding about the nature of his treatment. Who would’ve guessed Leonard, the thought-to-be silent robot, would be at the center of one of the NBA’s biggest dramas with the SPURS, of all teams?

3. Bobby Portis vs. Nikola Mirotic: Remember when this NBA season started off with TEAMMATES PUNCHING EACH OTHER?

And then they became ... good friends, at least on the court?

4. Steve Kerr tweets a DM about James Harden getting too many foul calls: Hahahahahahaha.

5. Gordon Hayward’s Free Agency: A 4th of July craze had Hayward to the Celtics, and then not, and then to the Celtics again.

6. Blake Griffin traded to the Pistons: Nobody saw this coming

7. Steve Kerr let his players coach a game: Draymond Green with a clipboard was incredible

8. Uncle Drew movie: Remember those cute Pepsi commercials? They’re becoming a full-fledged movie.

9. The Warriors didn’t win the West (regular season): Who sees the Rockets overtaking Golden State?

10. David Fizdale was fired by the Grizzlies: An early-season shock that’s been buried by more recent shocking news. Still, Fizdale was just hired and seemed to be thriving in Memphis. That honeymoon period didn’t last.

11. Joakim Noah got exiled by the Knicks: This may have been the wildest news all season from New York, believe it or not.

12. Hoodie Melo: The meme of the NBA Year!

13. Lonzo disses Nas: Lonzo really did that.

14. Kobe got TWO jerseys retired: Baller.

15. LeBron’s still amazing: IN YEAR 15!

16. This kid’s perfect impression of Harden: The side-eye is perfect!

2. Rockets vs. Clippers tunnel fight: Some of it was real, some exaggerated, some never happened. Regardless it will be remembered as one of the greatest nights in NBA Twitter history

3. Joel Embiid’s Instagram locations: Embiid used the location feature as an art form all season to trash talk his opponents. The Sixers’ star makes the NBA fun every single night

4. Someone stole Charlie Villanueva’s toilet: This being a four-seed says a lot.

5. James Harden crossed up Wes Johnson: Put this on his MVP mixtape.

6. That ‘LeBron to the Warriors’ rumor: It was barely a rumor and there’s no way it ever happens, but the online panic that one day was tremendous.

7. Danny Green denied a Woj report: How far has the Kawhi drama gone?

8. LABron billboards: The LeBron free agency rumors will never die. And Los Angeles was hardly alone.

9. Klay Thompson became a legend in China: Klay cemented himself as an icon after a summer of many meme moments.

10. Shaun Livingston vs. a ref: The second-most unlikely beef, behind Kawhi vs. Spurs.

11. Isaiah Thomas being an on-court mess after a magical season: What a sad collapse. Thomas recovered slowly from a hip injury, looked awful once he returned, then was traded unceremoniously after badmouthing players on the Cavs.

12. Subway guy gets mad at LeBron: It was just a video, dude.

13. LaVar Ball wanted to start a basketball league: LOL, that didn’t work.

14. LeBron explained in-depth why he’s MVP: He’s clearly thought about this answer.

15. The Lakers started winning after LaVar called out Luke Walton: Coincidence? (Yes).

16. Anthony Davis’ fake unibrow shave: We knew this was a viral marketing hoax.

2. Eric Bledsoe - “I don’t wanna be here:” He was in the hair salon and definitely not talking about a desired trade. Nevertheless, he was traded soon thereafter.

3. Gordon Hayward’s injury that happened in the first six minutes of the season: How’s that for starting the season? At least Hayward is on the road to recovery.

4. A guy pretended to be a Pelicans player in warmups: And he succeeded! This man is an absolute legend.

5. J.R. Smith threw soup at an assistant coach: This is so J.R.

6. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope played with an ankle monitor: I mean...

7. The Warriors canceled practice after Steph Curry’s 30th birthday: Couple this with letting players coach the team, and this has been a wild season for Golden State

8. Bobby Portis and Nikola Mirotic became an amazing one-two punch: You can’t even try to write the NBA’s script.

9. Baron Davis is dating Laura Dern: The rare moment online when everyone was happy.

10. Enes Kanter vs. the Turkish president: This was — and continues to be — very scary.

11. Phil Jackson made Dennis Smith Jr. eat octopus: Just why?

12. John Wall and J.J. Barea had midget beef: This got rude, quick.

13. Paul Pierce’s retirement drama: Will Isaiah Thomas also be honored? Won’t he? Is Thomas trying to steal Pierce’s thunder? So much drama!

14. Cavs became the Arthur meme team: We learned that LeBron doesn’t understand memes.

15. Lonzo Ball raps: He’s actually not that bad!

16. Kevin Durant leads the league in ejections: Who woulda thought that KD would turn into Rasheed Wallace?

2. The Cavs blew up their entire team: Trade deadline day saw almost half of LeBron’s teammates go. Nobody expected that!

3. Kobe won a damn Oscar: What have I accomplished with my life?

4. Donald Trump uninvited Steph Curry to the White House: But Curry wasn’t going anyway.

5. Markelle Fultz comes back and breaks Joel Embiid’s face: The process needs so much trusting.

6. Someone stole Red Panda’s unicycle: I don’t know how anyone can be so cruel, but the NBA community really stepped up.

7. Paul George got traded to the Thunder!?: This feels like it happened ages ago, but remember how stunned we were? And remember how we thought the Thunder swindled the Pacers?

8. Jordan Clarkson thinks people used to own dinosaurs: I’m not even sure where to begin here.

9. Wolves became the Timberbulls: Head coach Tom Thibodeau hired all of his old guys.

10. LeBron’s all-star team got incredibly injured: The first drafted all-star game wasn’t what we wanted, because everyone got hurt.

11. Magic Johnson got a tampering fine for complimenting Giannis Antetokounmpo: So ridiculous!

12. None of the top controversies are the Knicks’: This NEVER happens.

13. Giannis wants to fight for Jason Kidd’s un-firing: This was an admirable fight for the Greak Freak, but one he’d never win.

14. The Bulls traded Jordan Bell for cash considerations: Not their best move.

15. Kyle Kuzma and Lonzo roasted each other online all year: The two young rookies never quit making the other look bad

16. Jimmy Butler capsized in a foot of water: Can’t stop watching.

We probably left a lot out, somehow. That’s how much fun this regular season was.