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These NBA Playoffs Will Determine the New Face of the League

matthew roberson
·6 min read
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Photo illustration by Keir Novesky

Brace yourselves, millennials: you’re about to hear some stuff that will make your lower back ache even more. Ready? OK: the last time the second round of the NBA playoffs did not include LeBron James, Steph Curry, or Kevin Durant was 2005. That was just LeBron’s second year in the league, several years before Durant and Curry even showed up, and also three presidents ago. A lot has changed in the nearly two decades since, but as those three each became faces of the league, establishing themselves as the stewards of their basketball generation, they were a constant every April and May.

This year, that trio is nowhere to be found—unless you happen to be vacationing in the same tropical destination as them. And they’re not alone. The NBA you grew to know and love is trickling away like sand in an hourglass, and the list of well-established, highly-paid stars in their 30s who will not be participating in the second round is long and nostalgia-inducing. Along with James, Durant, and the Curry/Klay Thompson/Draymond Green triumvirate (who didn’t make it past the play-in tournament), Joel Embiid, Anthony Davis, Damian Lillard, Paul George, James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Jimmy Butler, and Bradley Beal are all at home now. You could almost see Beal coming to this realization in real time, as Anthony Edwards took his lunch money possession after possession and spawned one of the spring’s best basketball memes.

In their place are children of the 21st century: Edwards, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luka Doncic, and Tyrese Haliburton, the eldest of whom was born in 1998. Guys like Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, Jalen Brunson, Jayson Tatum, and Karl-Anthony Towns find themselves somewhere in the middle, generationally, but all grew up watching the ‘80s babies who paved the way (and eventually playing against them). Now, they have forged a new era out of the flickering embers of the previous one.

This gives these playoffs an additional level of intensity, and makes them a wildly exciting, pivotal moment in basketball history. The dudes listed above aren’t just competing for the 2024 NBA title—they’re competing to become the new faces of the league. Anyone who’s been paying attention knows that Edwards has charisma out the wazoo, making him the obvious candidate. All that’s left is for him to put together the type of iconic playoff run—think LeBron singlehandedly beating the Pistons in ‘07, Durant bringing the Thunder to the Finals as a 23-year-old, or any of Curry’s heroics from the Warriors’ gold-plated dynasty—to turn his status from could be to very much here. Luckily, for the purposes of legacy cementing, Edwards’ current opponent is none other than the defending champion Nuggets, who he dismantled on their home court in Minnesota’s Game 1 win on Saturday, dropping a cold-blooded 43 points. This series provides the toughest test of Ant’s young career, and gives him a chance to plant his flag at the top of NBA mountain—but it will also showcase the immense personality clash between the crotch chopping Edwards and Denver’s top dogs, who clearly have no interest in being the face of the league.

In the other corner, we have Jokic and Murray, subscribers to the “let your play do the talking” mentality. Great for grabbing the Larry O’Brien trophy, not exactly ideal for the type of star making that transcends basketball. Edwards, on the other hand, has already held his own alongside Adam Sandler in a movie, has his own signature shoe, and is pretty clearly the funniest dude in the NBA. He’s one of the rare people that can be identified as a potential face of the league and actually embody the spirit necessary to be one. Watching him inevitably try to poke the bear against Denver is sure to be high-level cinema—especially because Denver knocked the Wolves out of last season’s playoffs with a gentleman's sweep in the first round.

If Edwards can pull off the upset, not only does the remaining competition in the Western Conference get easier, there’d also be very little resistance for him in becoming the league’s main character. There is a world, of course, where Edwards and the T-Wolves meet Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder in the Western Conference Finals. That battle of young, handsome hoopers would certainly get the league office excited, but also do wonders for introducing both players to the casual fans that only really lock in for the playoffs. Gilgeous-Alexander’s incessant “What A Pro Wants” commercial is unavoidable on broadcasts right now, which seems like a not-so-subtle effort to get the Thunder point guard on as many television screens as possible. Because, for as great as they’ve played this year (and as great as SGA looks wearing luxury clothing), the fact of the matter is that neither he or Edwards are quite household names yet for people who don’t have League Pass. A trip to the Finals, though, would go a long way toward changing that.

It happens that there’s another title up for grabs, too—nothing less than best player in the world. Right now, it belongs to Jokic. But Doncic is fiercely nipping at his heels. He’s not as drawn to the spotlight as Edwards is, but he’s a better all-around offensive player, and the specifics of the Mavericks’ offense makes it so Doncic has the ball in his hands seemingly all the time. With each stepback three, geometry-defying pass, and cathartic scream after taking some poor defender’s soul, Doncic reminds us that there is nobody on earth that can do the things he does. An overwhelming majority of his peers have made it very clear that they worship the late Kobe Bryant, but in terms of embodying Bryant’s borderline psychotic on-court demeanor, no one is coming close to Doncic. Like Bryant, Michael Jordan, and Charles Barkley before him, people tend to gravitate to basketball players unafraid to be dicks when necessary. If that trend continues into the back half of the 2020s, especially if he can take down the ascendant, No. 1 seed Thunder, the league is Luka’s.

The NBA Officially Belongs to International Players

Just ask a couple of the guys who helped pave the way for the likes of Joel Embiid, Nikola Jokic, and Giannis Antetokounmpo.

The beauty of the playoffs—at least now that we can’t pencil Golden State and Cleveland into the Finals every year—is the unknown. Even if Denver and Boston meet for the championship, as most prognosticators expect, there will be several moments along the way that etch other players into NBA lore forever. Fifteen years from now, as we welcome our new Gen Alpha basketball overlords and wax poetic about the dying days of the Edwards vs. SGA rivalry, perhaps we’ll be looking back at the 2024 playoffs as the one that started it all.

Originally Appeared on GQ

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