Heartbreaking Warriors moment is the NBA’s No. 8 play of 2024

The Warriors didn’t have any plays of their own in the NBA’s Top Ten plays of the previous year, but they were on the losing end of Nikola Jokic’s game-winning half-court shot

Once upon a time, a list of the NBA’s top plays of a calendar year would be full of highlights from the Golden State Warriors. In 2024, the only Warriors play that cracked the top ten was a miraculous shot from Nikola Jokic that gave the Denver Nuggets an improbable comebac

On January 4, the Warriors dominated the Nuggets in the third quarter, and led by 18 points with 6:51 to go in the 4th quarter. But the Nuggets closed the game on a 25-4 run, capped by Jokic’s banked-in 39-footer to win the game.

Not only was this a bad loss for the Warriors, one that ultimately dropped them from 8th place to 10th place and a one-and-done play-in tournament, it was a loss that created huge tension between Steve Kerr and Jonathan Kuminga. Kerr sat Kuminga for the final 18 minutes of the game, despite the young forward starting the game and scoring 16 points in 19 minutes.

One day later, Anthony Slater and Shams Charania were reporting that Kuminga had “lost faith” in Kerr. Thanks for celebrating our pain, NBA account on X.com, the everything app!

It wasn’t all bad in the NBA’s year-end roundup. The No. 8 dunk of the year went to then-rookie Trayce Jackson-Davis for his left-handed jam over Rookie of the Year Victor Wembanyama. Hey France, we’ve got a Statue of Liberty for you, too!

Still, the NBA just had to antagonize the Warriors with their list of top 25 plays of the last 25 years, where No. 2 was LeBron James’ chasedown block on Warriors forward/angel investor Andre Iguodala in the 2016 NBA Finals.

Then, at No. 6, they put Kyrie Irving’s go-ahead shot from Game 7. I guess the list makers couldn’t be bothered to watch 25 different games for the 25-year list.

They even put Irving’s shot behind Curry’s 40-footer to beat the Oklahoma City Thunder earlier that season, a clear example of the NBA’s pervasive anti-babyface bias.

Sure, a Curry play was also No. 20 on the list, but that doesn’t make up for the earlier slights. Also? Way too much Kobe Bryant in the Top 20 plays on this list. Scoring 81 points isn’t a “play.” These Kobe-centric selections at the expense of Robert Horry’s objectively more amazing game-winning shot shows that the NBA’s social media is clearly in the pocket of Big Mamba. Sad!

Will the Warriors land on the positive side of 2025’s Top Plays list? Three days into the new year, they haven’t given up a single gut punch of a game-winning shot, so fingers crossed!