The NBA regular season ends Sunday, and the Oklahoma City Thunder have spent most of it making the rest of the league look like a developmental exercise. At 64-16, OKC holds the best record in basketball. [1]

The East belongs to Detroit. The Pistons, at 58-22, claimed the conference's number-one seed in a remarkable turnaround few predicted. A franchise that spent years at the bottom of the standings now enters the postseason as the team to beat in the Eastern Conference. [1] Atlanta clinched the Southeast Division, while Miami's season was marred by the waiver of Terry Rozier over gambling issues — a reminder that the league's off-court problems have not paused for the playoff push. [1]

The season's most indelible moment arrived March 28, when Bronny James found LeBron James for the first father-and-son assist in NBA history. [2] LeBron, in his twenty-third season, caught a pass from his son and scored, and for a few seconds the arena understood it was watching something that had never happened in the sport's 79-year existence.

Jayson Tatum's emotional return to Madison Square Garden this week carried its own weight — nearly a year after tearing his Achilles tendon at MSG in May 2025. [1] The WNBA, meanwhile, announced expansion franchises in Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia. [2]

The playoffs begin next week.

-- AMARA OKONKWO, Lagos