The weirdest NBA stories of the past 12 months

A lion doesn't concern himself with the opinions of sheep. Tell that to the NBA's second-best player. Last September, Durant was outed for having at least one burner-Twitter account that he would use to defend himself online. The discovery was pretty surreal because it demonstrated just how much Durant cared about what people said about him. Obviously it was a lame move by Durant, but it goes to show that NBA players are just like us (besides being a foot or two taller and some of the most physically gifted human beings to ever walk the earth).

The consensus best prospect in the loaded 2018 NBA Draft class literally forgot how to shoot a basketball last season. Markelle Fultz, a smooth, immensely talented point guard prospect, developed a mental block (often referred to as the "yips") in his shooting motion that left him unable to shoot without having his elbow flail in awkward, ineffective directions. The hitch in his shot kept him in street clothes for most of the 76ers' surprisingly successful season. Even when he returned, he shied away from contact and never shot from outside 15 feet. Hopefully, for both his and the 76ers' sake, the reports of him being back to normal are true.

Kyrie Irving opened the door for other NBA truthers by claiming that the earth could be flat after he watched a video on Instagram. He later backtracked somewhat but still hasn't really acknowledged that hundreds of years of exploration and science have confirmed that the Earth is round. Jordan Clarkson continued the madness by dropping a theory that humans kept dinosaurs as pets (a theory that has more flawed logic than Clarkson's shot selection). Finally, rookie Lonnie Walker IV turned some heads (and probably hurt his draft stock) by claiming that the "Earth is not flat, in my opinion, but the Earth, on my conspiracy, the Earth is definitely an illusion." (Mind-blown emoji).

Is LaVar Ball is an exploitative father? Or should he be commended for how much he cares about his sons? Is he a genius who's tricked the media into caring about Big Baller Brand while he laughs his way to the bank? Or is he a scummy businessman who perpetually over-promises and underdelivers? Somehow, the answer is "yes." Much like a certain leader of the free world whom he quarreled with this past year on Twitter, everything this guy does is divisive, and thanks to society's fascination with controversy, everything this guy does is in your face all the time. Please make it stop, LeBron!

A few weeks before the start of the 2017-2018 season, the Spurs announced that Kawhi Leonard was out indefinitely with a quad injury. Leonard returned for nine games in the middle of the season then was ruled out again. Despite pleadings from his teammates and public call-outs by veterans, Leonard remained out "indefinitely" through the rest of the regular season and playoffs. Leonard never publicly addressed what exactly was wrong, but reports were that he felt the Spurs medical staff had misdiagnosed his injury and didn't have his best interests in mind when it cleared him. When the offseason began, Leonard demanded a trade and was shipped to the Raptors for DeMar DeRozan. The weirdest part of the Kawhi saga isn't that he left San Antonio — it's that we still don't really understand what exactly went wrong.

On Oct.17, 2017, Nikola Mirotic and Bobby Portis got into a scrap during practice. The incident resulted in Portis' fist fracturing Mirotic's face. Mirotic was out for over a month, and Portis was suspended for eight games. Unsurprisingly, the two stopped speaking to each other. Surprisingly, the two rejuvenated the Bulls after they both returned to the lineup, and they played well together until Mirotic was shipped to the Pelicans at the trade deadline.

In one of the season's first hilarious Twitter moments, Eric Bledsoe tweeted , "I Dont wanna be here" in late October. The obvious conclusion was that Bledsoe wanted out of the dumpster fire that was the 2018 Phoenix Suns. Bledsoe claimed he was at a hair salon with his wife, but the Suns' brass knew better and promptly fined, suspended, then traded him to the Bucks. Ah, the power of Twitter.

Sometimes a man's gotta eat. Buried on the bench for much of the season, the enigmatic Nerlens Noel got hungry and decided to grab a hot dog in the media lounge. Clearly, he didn't think that one through, considering the media was obviously going to tweet about it...or he just didn't give a damn. One way or the other, it unofficially ended Noel's tenure with the Mavericks, as the team did not attempt to re-sign him during the offseason. 

Try and explain this one to a baby boomer. Kelly Oubre wore a Supreme-branded sleeve on his leg for a game against the Nets in December. Apparently, it was "too wavy" for the NBA because Oubre had to switch sleeves during halftime. JR Smith wore a similar sleeve on his arm a few days later. Not to be deterred by the NBA's eventual ban, JR Smith decided to get the Supreme logo tattooed on his leg this past offseason. Touché, Pipe God.

Last season, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope did something no other player (to my knowledge) has ever done before: He played games with an ankle bracelet/monitor after violating his probation. Per the terms his 25-day work release program, he was allowed to play in games in the state of California while wearing the bracelet and had to report to a detention facility whenever he wasn't practicing or playing.

The title says it all. On Dec. 20, 2017, burglars broke into former NBA player Charlie Villanueva's home and stole, among other appliances, his toilet! Charlie V was absolutely beside himself on Twitter...and who could blame him? Who buys toilets on the black market anyway?

Following a very contentious game in Los Angeles between Blake Griffin and the Clippers and Chris Paul and the Rockets, sources say that Paul (a former Clipper) led James Harden and two other Rockets players through a secret tunnel that connected the two locker rooms to confront Austin Rivers, who had been trash-talking the Rockets all game from the bench. The story gets better, though. To divert the attention of security guards, the Rockets allegedly sent Clint Capela as some sort of a Trojan Horse to the main entrance of the Clippers' locker room. All of this was "alleged," of course, as all parties involved vehemently denied the reports after the game. For the Capela aspect of the story alone, let's hope it actually happened.

Despite being one of the better traditional pick-and-roll combos in the NBA, John Wall and Marcin Gortat apparently hated each other. With Wall out with a knee injury, Gortat tweeted “Unbelievable win tonight! Great “team” victory!” after a win in February. Wall took exception and responded by publicly wondering why Gortat was attacking him as Gortat "gets the most assists from me and gets the most spoon-fed baskets ever.” The two somewhat settled their beef later in the season, but it was clear that Gortat needed to go and he was shipped to the Clippers in the offseason.

Fergie had an absolute layup getting to sing the national anthem after Kevin Hart butchered the player introductions. (Side note: Do people actually think Kevin Hart is funny?) However, Fergie's rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" was so bizarre it even temporarily snapped Draymond Green out of his hungover daze following 72 straight hours of All-Star Game Weekend partying.

God bless JR Smith. The NBA would be about 10 percent less interesting without him. For reasons that still remain unknown to the general public, Smith chucked a bowl of chicken tortilla soup at Cavaliers assistant coach Damon Jones this past winter. Smith was suspended for one game for wasting such a tasty snack.

Kobe Bryant refuses to be mediocre at anything. When he couldn't play basketball at an elite level anymore, he turned his attention to the arts...and had immediate success as his poem-turned-short animated film, “ Dear Basketball,” won him an Oscar. Can we get Kobe to direct "Space Jam 2?"

Drew Bledsoe had a random renaissance this past spring as a focal point of the Terry Rozier-Eric Bledsoe feud in the first round of the Eastern Conference Playoffs. After Rozier accidentally referred to Eric Bledsoe as "Drew" Bledsoe, Eric Bledsoe pretended to not know his foil in the Bucks-Celtics series despite being outplayed by Rozier up until that point. Next thing you know, Drew Bledsoe was tweeting his support of Rozier, appearing at the Boston Garden with a Rozier jersey and even giving a press conference at the end of the series.

While LeBron was busy usurping Drake of his status as unofficial mayor of Toronto (now called LeBronto), Drake was busy talking junk to Kendrick Perkins, of all people. Never one to back down, Perkins went right back at Drake and the two had to be separated at the end of the first half of Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals The feud resulted in the NBA warning Drake to stand down and LeBron eviscerating the Raptors all series. 

Despite leading the Raptors to 59 regular season wins and the top seed in the Eastern Conference, Dwane Casey was fired after losing to the Cavaliers for the third straight year in the playoffs. Casey was nominated as a Coach of the Year candidate less than a week later...and awkwardly congratulated by the Raptors' official Twitter account. Adding insult to injury, Casey would later win the award and act with nothing but class toward the Raptors organization during his acceptance speech. 

This may take the cake for the weirdest NBA story of the year. On May 29, 2018, The Ringer dropped a story out of the sky that linked the 76ers' team president and general manager, Bryan Colangelo, to five secret Twitter accounts that, among other things, criticized and gossiped about 76ers players and disclosed non-public medical information about Jahlil Okafor. Colangelo maintains that he had nothing to do with any of the burner accounts, and eventually his wife, Barbara Bottini, admitted to running the accounts. (Although, many are skeptical that it wasn't Colangelo himself.) Colangelo ended up resigning on June 7 and the 76ers went without a GM until Elton Brand was hired earlier this week.

Anyone who watched Game 1 of this year's NBA Finals will never forget how regulation ended with JR Smith grabbing an offensive board and dribbling out the final seconds of a tied game as LeBron James frantically screamed for the ball. Smith's blunder not only robbed the Cavaliers of a shot at stealing a Game 1 on the road, but it robbed basketball fans of a potential game-winner to end all game-winners. Standing wide open at the top of the key stood James who, up to that point, had played the finest game of his career and was, as Steve Kerr put it after the game, "playing at a level I'm not sure anyone's ever seen." Wide. Open. Unfortunately, James took out his frustration on a white board and "basically played with a broken hand" the rest of the series. Only he didn't tell anyone until he showed up to his post-game press conference in a soft cast after the Warriors won Game 4 for the series sweep.

First, Draymond Green and Tristan Thompson got into a "hold me back" scuffle at the end of Game 1 of the Finals. Thompson left the court and signaled Green to meet him outside (presumably to fight). They didn't fight. Then after Game 4, Thompson went to shake Green's hand and Green recoiled, telling him, "We ain't cut from the same." Finally, at an ESPY's after-party hosted by LeBron James, Green approached Thompson and either tried to make amends, or teased him about LeBron and Khloe Kardashian both wanting to leave him. (It was probably the latter; this is Draymond we're talking about.) Some sort of fight ensued, but there are conflicting details as to what exactly happened (most stories involve Thompson landing a punch though) before the two were separated by James and Kevin Durant. 

The 2018 NBA Draft was supposed to harken back to the good ol' days when NBA insiders didn't tweet out draft picks before the commissioner announced them at the podium. Before the draft, top pundits Adrian Wojnarowski and Shams Charania allegedly agreed to not spoil picks (probably expecting that other insiders would follow suit). That was not the case. Upon realizing that he was getting beat at his own game, Woj made a mockery of those who tried to out-WojBomb him by grabbing his thesaurus and tweeting out euphemisms of which prospect each team intended to select. Some of his best tweets included: "Atlanta has zeroed in on Maryland’s Kevin Huerter with the 19 pick, source tells ESPN"; Source: Utah Jazz have no plans to pass on Grayson Allen with the 21st pick"; and "Phoenix is determined to select Zhaire Smith with 16."

We've become accustomed to WojBombs, but #BoogieBombs? Well, that was something new. Late on July 1, the 2018-19 NBA season became a foregone conclusion in many people's minds (if it wasn't already) as DeMarcus Cousins signed with the Warriors for only the mid-level exception. While he's coming off an Achilles injury that will sideline him for a couple of months, at the very least, Cousins gives the Warriors yet another superstar to exploit mismatches with. 

For some bizarre, misplaced reasons, two of LeBron James' beautiful murals in Los Angeles were vandalized earlier this summer shortly after James signed with the Lakers. The culprits were never caught, but it's a near certainty that the vandal has at least one Kobe Bryant jersey in his/her closet.

Shortly after his arrival in Los Angeles, LeBron James tweeted that there'd be a free Blaze Pizza giveaway at a particular spot in the city. Because he's an investor in the franchise, fans took that tweet to mean that James himself would be at the event, and they hurried over to the spot. Three hours went by, and the only sign of James during that time could be found on his wife's Instagram account, which showed him relaxing in his pool. Oh well, I'm sure James will find a way to make it up to his fans these next four seasons in the purple and gold.

Unlike with his previous decisions, LeBron James acted quickly this offseason and signed with the Los Angeles Lakers on the first night of free agency, giving the team plenty of time to surround him with shooters...or so we thought. Instead of gravitating toward the traditional three-and-D types that flanked James in Cleveland, the Lakers signed a bunch of flamboyant misfits including the likes of JaVale McGee, Lance Stephenson, Rajon Rondo and Michael Beasley. The roster Magic Johnson put together isn't just weird, it's borderline insane. Good luck, LeBron!

In one of the more curious transactional moves of the summer, the Hawks agreed to acquire Carmelo Anthony and buy out his contract for $25.5M in exchange for Dennis Schroder. Then, after paying Melo to not play for them, they sent him a jersey and posted a mocking tribute to him on the team's official Twitter account. Anthony signed with the Rockets later in the summer. Life's good being an aging superstar and salary cap albatross, isn't it Melo?

In one of the most bizarre and possibly troubling stories you'll ever hear on a podcast, JJ Redick revealed that while getting a ride across NYC with his family, they noticed a person hiding in the back of the car they were in. After asking the driver to let them out, Redick told the driver about the person. The driver checked the back and then vehemently denied there was anyone back there. Unsure of whether it was merely a family member of the driver or a human trafficking victim, Redick notified the authorities of the incident. Hopefully, it was the former.

It was an interesting summer for one of the NBA's most media-savvy stars, CJ McCollum. First, Kevin Durant told him "you know you're not going to win a championship" on his own podcast. A few days later, Durant called him a "snake" after McCollum called him "soft" on Twitter. After an old video surfaced of him in China referring to superstar congregating as being "disgusting," the Twitter trolls took aim, including, a lady named Jennifer, who told CJ to "win a playoff game then talk". McCollum's reply, "I'm trying, Jennifer," instantly became the meme du jour the rest of the week on Twitter and even made its way onto T-shirts. The internet always wins, CJ.

Frustrated with the apparent lack of work ethic of Karl Anthony-Towns and Andrew Wiggins, a disgruntled Jimmy Butler demanded a trade from the Timberwolves less than a week before training camp. Then all hell broke loose. First, Andrew Wiggins' brother Nick tweeted "Hallelujah." Butler saw the tweet and posted a video of him working out where he says "Hallelujah" to the camera and "keep that same energy." Retired NBA player and TV personality Stephen Jackson then decided to join the fray and posted a video of "how the conversation should have went" between the Wiggins brothers following Nick's post, where he compares Andrew to the heartless Tin Man in "The Wizard of Oz." 

Andrew Wiggins responded on his Instagram story, "Old dudes stay hating like he was anything special bum ass ... I keep that same energy everywhere I go." Nick also clapped at Captain Jack with a very misinformed post about his NBA career. Finally Jackson, after exhaling some smoke, put an end to everything by wishing Andrew good luck this season but also warning him to "make sure ya head is straight when you see me" and "keep that same energy, I'll catch ya in traffic." No idea what that means, but somebody might want to reel the Wiggins brothers back in because that is not a tree you want to go barking up.