The season has notoriety attached for the fact that heralded big-market franchises Lakers, Knicks and Celtics all failed to make the playoffs for the first time in NBA history.[1]
On June 25, 2013, theNBA approved a trade of an unprotected 2015 NBA first round draft pick, which included an anti-trade clause prohibiting the Clippers and Celtics from engaging in future transactions between each other, including the exchanging of players for the duration of the 2013–14 season, for the release of the contract ofDoc Rivers from theBoston Celtics, freeing him up to sign with theLos Angeles Clippers.[22]
On February 9, 2014, theDetroit Pistons firedMaurice Cheeks of his head coaching duties and replaced him withJohn Loyer on an interim basis for the remainder of the season.
TheCharlotte Bobcats officially announced that the franchise would be renamed to theCharlotte Hornets for the 2014–15 season. This returned the Hornets name to Charlotte for the first time since the team now known as the Pelicans moved from Charlotte to New Orleans after the 2001–02 season.
TheCleveland Cavaliers win the #1 pick in the NBA draft for the second time in three years, as well as the fifth time in franchise history (1971,1986,2003, and2011 were the previous four times), and selected CanadianforwardAnthony Bennett ofUNLV.
ThePortland Trail Blazers officially announced that the Rose Garden would be renamed to theModa Center before the start of the season.
The NBA Finals returned to the 2–2–1–1–1 format for the 2014 Finals, with the owners approving the format on October 23.[82][83] The NBA originally decided to have the NBA Finals enter a 2–3–2 format starting in the1985 NBA Finals in order to accommodate commercial travelling from the east to the west and vice versa, as well as bring up economic advantages for marketing and newspapers at the time.
On October 29, the regular season opened with a record of 92 international players on the opening night rosters. TheSan Antonio Spurs set an NBA record of 10 international players.
TheBrooklyn Nets start out their season withJoe Prunty coaching their games against theCleveland Cavaliers andMiami Heat instead of their original head coachJason Kidd. The reason why Prunty was coaching at the start of the Nets' season instead of Kidd was due to Kidd serving a coaching suspension for having a DUI in July 2013. Prunty would start the year off with 1–1 for the Nets before Kidd came back and coached the team for the rest of the season.
Patrick Ewing coaches his first game ever as an interim head coach for theCharlotte Bobcats. He ended up coaching the Bobcats on November 8, 2013, against his former team, theNew York Knicks, due to their coachSteve Clifford having heart surgery around that time period.[85] He would end up losing that game 101–91.
In a double overtime game on December 3, 2013, rookiesVictor Oladipo of the Orlando Magic andMichael Carter-Williams of the Philadelphia 76ers recorded triple-doubles in the same game. Oladipo recorded 26 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists in 52 minutes, while Carter-Williams recorded 27 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists in 47 minutes. These were the first career triple-doubles for both players. This marked the first and only time in NBA history that two rookies have recorded triple-doubles in the same game. The last time that two players had recorded their first career triple-doubles in the same game was when Detroit PistonsDonnie Butcher andRay Scott did it on March 14, 1964 (they were not rookies). It was also the first time that two opponents had recorded triple-doubles in the same game sinceCaron Butler andBaron Davis had done so on November 23, 2007. Philadelphia won the game 126–125.[86][87]
On December 6, 2013,Kyle Korver of theAtlanta Hawks set a new NBA record for most consecutive (regular season) games with a three-point field goal made with 90. The previous record holder wasDana Barros.[89][90] The streak ended at 127.
On December 13, 2013,Kevin Garnett of theBrooklyn Nets surpassed 14,000 career rebounds, becoming only the tenth player in NBA history to do so. In reaching the milestone, Garnett also joinedKareem Abdul-Jabbar andKarl Malone as the only players to reach 25,000 points, 14,000 rebounds and 5,000 assists. He reached the milestone in the third quarter of a 99–103 road loss to theDetroit Pistons.[92]
On December 16, 2013,Joe Johnson of the Brooklyn Nets scored 29 points in the third quarter of a 130–94 win over the Philadelphia 76ers. In the quarter Johnson made 10 of 13 shots from the field and tied an NBA record with 8 of 10 three-pointers.[93]
On December 23, 2013,Dirk Nowitzki of theDallas Mavericks passedAlex English for 13th place on the NBA's all-time scoring list with a 13-foot jumper in the opening minute of the third quarter of a 111–104 road win over the Houston Rockets.[94]
On December 25, 2013,Russell Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder recorded the eighth triple-double on Christmas Day in NBA history. He recorded 14 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists in 29 minutes in a 123–94 road victory over the New York Knicks. The win was also the largest margin of victory in a Christmas Day game in NBA history.[95]
On January 16, 2014, theHouston Rockets scored a season-high 73 points in the first half, and a season-low 19 points in the second half. That 54-point disparity is the largest by a team in a game in NBA history. They ended up losing to theOklahoma City Thunder 104–92.[96]
On January 24, 2014,Carmelo Anthony of the New York Knicks scored a career, franchise, and league season-high 62 points against the Charlotte Bobcats.
On January 25, 2014,Terrence Ross of theToronto Raptors scored a career-high 51 points against theLos Angeles Clippers. His 51 points tied a franchise-high.[97] Ross recorded the lowest season scoring average the year of a 50-point game,[98] averaging only 10.9 points.
On January 31, 2014, theBrooklyn Nets recorded an all-time low of 17 rebounds in a 125–90 blowout loss to theOklahoma City Thunder. This broke a record low of 18 rebounds that was originally recorded by theDetroit Pistons in a November 28, 2001 game against theCharlotte Hornets.
David Stern officially retires as commissioner of theNBA on February 1, 2014.Adam Silver would end up taking his place as commissioner in the process, withMark Tatum taking on the role of deputy commissioner in the process.
TheNew Orleans Arena that theNew Orleans Pelicans played under was re-branded as theSmoothie King Center on February 5, 2014. Therefore, while some of the earlier games played in New Orleans were under the New Orleans Arena name, further home Pelicans games, as well as the All-Star break that happened from February 14–16, 2014, ended up being mentioned as the Smoothie King Center from now until at least 10 more NBA seasons.
On February 23,Jason Collins signed a 10-day contract with theBrooklyn Nets, becoming the first openly gay athlete in North America's four major professional sports.[99]
On March 4,Russell Westbrook recorded the fastest triple-double since 1955. He recorded 13 points, 14 assists and 10 rebounds while playing only 20 minutes and 17 seconds against thePhiladelphia 76ers.[101]
On March 16, 2014, with a 122–104 victory over theUtah Jazz, theSan Antonio Spurs notched their 50th win of the season and extended their 50+ wins in a season streak to 15 seasons.
TheSan Antonio Spurs won their franchise-record 18th straight win against theIndiana Pacers. The Spurs also finished March with a 16–0 record, the second time in franchise history that they recorded a perfect month going back to the1995–96 NBA season during the same month.[105]
TheBoston Celtics and theLos Angeles Lakers failed to qualify for the playoffs. This marked the first timein 20 seasons that both teams missed the playoffs in the same season. For the Lakers, it marked the first timein nine seasons that they missed the playoffs.[106] With theNew York Knicks also missing the playoffs, this marked the first time in NBA history that none of the three teams qualified for the playoffs.[107]
On April 25, 2014,TMZ leaked an audio recording ofLos Angeles Clippers ownerDonald Sterling allegedly making racist comments to his girlfriend, causing the NBA to launch an investigation.[108] The team held a meeting the following day to discuss the incident. Both coaches and players reportedly expressed anger toward the comment and they briefly raised the possibility of boycotting Game 4 of their series against theGolden State Warriors before deciding against it.[109] On April 29, 2014, CommissionerAdam Silver banned Sterling for life as well as fining him $2.5 million. Silver also began proceeding of forcing Sterling out of the league.[110]
On April 29, 2014, the Memphis Grizzlies and Oklahoma City Thunder played in their fourth straight overtime game, the first time in NBA playoff history that there have been four straight overtime games.[111]
