The year is nearly over, so the Full Court Sound Off podcast reviewed all the biggest storylines for our 2021 Basketball Year in Review. Without searching on Google or consulting others’ memories, Solomon and Justin came up with what they remembered as the most memorable moments and stories in the sport from the past year and dove into each.
The conversation turned into a lengthy one, so the 2021 Basketball Year in Review has been broken into two parts. This is the first part, which covers the major happenings from the first half of the year, roughly.
2021 Basketball Year in Review
These are a couple of the topics Solomon and Justin covered in this first part of the 2021 Basketball Year in Review doubleheader:
James Harden Trade
On Jan. 14, 2021, James Harden was sent to the Brooklyn Nets as part of a four-team deal also involving the Houston Rockets, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Indiana Pacers. The trade gave the Nets a trio of Harden, Kevin Durant, and Kyrie Irving, which looked to be one of the best lineups in the NBA.
The repercussions of this trade have been massive in Houston, and the Nets are one of the favorites to win the 2022 NBA title in part because of this deal. For a move that big to happen in the middle of a season was seismic, and it said a lot about Brooklyn’s aims.
Roy Williams & Coach K Retirement Announcements
While not the exact same because Coach K is sticking it out for one more year and Roy Williams has already moved on, the situations in Durham and Chapel Hill are eerily similar, and it has the potential to upend the status quo in college basketball as we’ve known it for about 20 years.
Can Hubert Davis and Jon Scheyer fill those shoes? Can anybody? What is to become of two of the bluest of blue blood programs in the sport? It’s been a long time since coaching uncertainty surrounded either of these programs, but now they’re both transitioning at about the same time. How this unfolds will have massive ramifications on men’s college basketball at large.
