25 Names That Defined, Changed Basketball in 2025

For better and worse, these 25 names left a resounding impact on the game of basketball in 2025 and beyond.

Watching a ball drop is a 365-day endeavor for basketball fans of all ages, hardly relegated to a night in Times Square.

The calendar year of 2025 draws to an end this week, with many viewing the closeout with equal bits of relief, trepidation, and yet a little hope. Similar sentiments reside on the hardwood, which featured its own share of triumphs and tribulations at both the professional and amateur levels alike.

Without further ado, BIL presents a lengthy, yet numerically appropriate, 25 names that changed basketball, for both better and worse, in the year 2025 …

(Names are listed in alphabetical order)

25 Names For 2025

Photo Credit: Getty Images

Chauncey Billups/Terry Rozier

Legal betting is an undeniable part of the game and it’d be silly to suggest that it’s going anywhere. But the fears foretold by the concept’s countless critics came to life in the early stage of this NBA season in the form of the arrests of Billups and Rozier. The latter’s saga began in January with a suspension stemming from fixed prop bets and he was later arrested in October, along with the Portland head coach Billups, who was taken in for his participation in illegal poker games hosted by organized crime groups. Further investigation into the matter hinted at further accusations of tanking and tinkering with injury reports, only drawing further scrutiny on the already-contentious relationship between professional sports and their newfound partners.

Cameron Boozer

The Duke Blue Devils have been downright blessed with recent NBA talent. One top pick could well beget another as the early stages of this college basketball season have been defined by Boozer’s early antics in Durham. Willing to compare his game to Anthony Davis, Boozer made it to Duke through a sterling farewell Christopher Columbus (FL) High School: he led the Explorers to the 2025 FAB 50 National title became just the fourth two-time winner of the “Mr. Basketball USA” presented by BallIsLife, joining Jerry Lucas, Lew Alcindor/Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and LeBron James.

Jalen Brunson

Hardwood jokers of the past, present, and presumed future often get a guaranteed laugh out of New York Knicks’ offseasons: some of their latest material came from the 2022 edition, which saw Brunson arrive as the latest consolation prize after a failed bid for Donovan Mitchell. Nowadays, Brunson’s original $104 million deal looks like an outright bargain and 2025 more or less killed off any doubt that Brunson can be a top option for a contending team. Shortly after securing the Clutch Player of the Year honor, Brunson helped guide the Knicks to their first conference final showing in a quarter-century. While there will be no commemoration, Brunson also brought New York its first brand of (men’s) basketball hardware since 1973 with a sterling showing in the NBA Cup proceedings, putting up an MVP effort in the win over the San Antonio Spurs.

Paige Bueckers

It feels like any and all lists such as these could include a UConn alumna. Bueckers is the latest addition to the list after a literal banner year: finally unabated by injury, Bueckers lived up to her astronomical hype and allowed the Huskies to end their relatively lengthy national championship drought. Further burdened what’s always expected out of the top pick of the WNBA Draft, Bueckers managed to keep her scoring pace against elite competition, notably putting up a 44-point showing in an August tilt against Los Angeles. The near-unanimous WNBA Rookie of the Year capped off her campaign by headlining the first United States Olympic camp and joining Breeze BC, an expansion club on the Unrivaled circuit.

Walter Clayton Jr.

The activity transpiring off the floor—whether its in boardrooms, lawyers’ offices, or the NBA Draft board—as well as the glaring lack of upsets put something of a pall over the 2025 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Clayton, however, was more than happy to embrace his “One Shining Moment” through a sterling showing that yielded another national title for the Florida Gators. Opting to stay in Gainesville for a second season, Clayton dazzled with clutch antics on both sides of the ball. The most recent tournament ended with Clayton’s sterling defense on Emanuel Sharp, which proved to be just enough for Florida to withstand a brutal challenge from Houston. For his efforts, Clayton did obtain first-round honors when the Association came calling, going to the Utah Jazz at No. 18 overall.

Napheesa Collier

The year was mostly business as usual for Collier, who oversaw both the WNBA’s top regular season with Minnesota before an injury derailed a return trip to the Finals. Prior to the season, Collier also kept the innovations within the sport rolling by headlining Unrivaled, the domestic three-on-three league she co-founded with fellow hardwood and business innovator Breanna Stewart. But Collier’s most significant contributions to the discourse surfaced after her work ended, as she unleashed a scathing critique of WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert before she went home for the offseason. It’s fair to wonder if Collier’s comments killed off good faith in already-tense dialogues but her comments were met with near-unanimous support from her fellow on-floor negotiators.

Here is the basket where Missouri-bound Jason Crowe Jr. of Inglewood scored his 4,000th career point at the #KingCottonClassic.

He broke the state scoring record on Dec. 9 (was 3,659) and could put it near 4,500 by the end of the season.

Game at tourney is now wrapping up. pic.twitter.com/9T5DmIDKR6

— Ronnie Flores (@RonMFlores) December 30, 2025

Jason Crowe Jr.

This California dream has been a nightmare for opposing defenders: currently repping Inglewood High School, Crowe engaged in a different kind of countdown for New Year’s, reaching not only the 4,000-point plateau but also becoming the all-time leading scorer in Golden State high school history in early December. Crowe, a listed point guard, is currently committed to Missouri.

Cade Cunningham

It’s safe to say that the Bad Boys did good on this one: the top pick of the 2021 NBA Draft was inching toward the bittersweet status of prospects whose massive potential was derailed by injuries (i.e. Yao Ming, Greg Oden, Brandon Roy). But after clearing his throat the year prior, the 2020 Mr. Basketball USA out of Montverde Academy (Fla.) cashed in on his promise and oversaw one of the most, if not the most drastic one-year turnaround in NBA history. Under Cunningham’s watch, his Detroit Pistons returned to the hardwood’s promised land precursor and has them situated atop the Eastern Conference at the year-end landmark.

Cathy Engelbert

As the first person to hold the title of WNBA commissioner, Engelbert has overseen a stretch of unprecedented growth that continued this year. The latest windfall was the announcement of three new teams set to take the floor in Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia, each paying a nine-figure for their entry. But, fueled by Collier’s verbal warfare, Engelbert has become the face of player discontent with the ongoing WNBA labor negotiations and has faced other issues such the sale and potential move of the Connecticut Sun. All things considered, Engelbert is already poised to leave the league in a better spot than she found it whenever her tenure is up but the final yields of these CBA talks could wind up defining her ultimate WNBA legacy.

Cooper Flagg

Flagg is the latest teenage dream to take the floor in the NBA, the latest consensus No. 1 that served as consolation for the league’s not-so-finest as their inevitable dirges played out. True to his relatively messianic form, our 2024 Mr. Basketball USA out of Montverde Academy (Fla.) went where he was needed after a sterling season at Duke, which saw him beat out Auburn’s Johni Broome for the National Player of the Year title as a freshman. Afterwards, he was quickly snatched up by the reeling Dallas Mavericks with the top pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. While the Mavericks have festered in the mediocre middle stages of the Western Conference, Flagg spent the latter half of this year rewriting the rookie chapters of the NBA record book, placing himself in the company of LeBron James, Oscar Robertson, and more. Like Anakin Skywalker before him, Flagg and his career will be watched with great interest.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

Gilgeous-Alexander may go down as the finest Canadian import the NBA has produced but don’t expect the Toronto native to live up to the infamous trope of apology. With the narrative of being a “free throw merchant” following him around for a good bit of his career, Gilgeous-Alexander shook things up to officially declare a change of management on the NBA ledgers: an MVP effort culminated with the Oklahoma City Thunder’s first championship under such branding and he followed that up with a sterling start to the 2025-26 campaign. Gilgeous-Alexander might not win many fans with his style of play, but, armed with relative youth and a well-built team next to him, it’s hard to imagine him caring.

Tyrese Haliburton

The modern NBA perhaps isn’t a place for the Cinderella-style runs we’ve grown accustomed to in March, but Haliburton gave the world something fairly close: repping the mid-budget antics of the Indiana Pacers, Haliburton helped the fourth-ranked group tear through the East through clutch antics, his magnum opus likely being a dramatic equalizer at the end of an epic comeback against New York in the opening game of the Eastern Conference Finals. Aided by several other overlooked weapons, Haliburton then dragged Indiana into a seven-game set against the mighty Thunder. Alas, Game 7 may soon stand as one of the most unfortunate “what if” cases in NBA history when all is said and done, as Haliburton’s devastating Achilles injury left a somber impact that the Pacers, one they have yet to fully exorcise.

Adam Pantozzi/NBAE via Getty Images

Nico Harrison

The fact that Harrison was able to wrangle the title most scrutinized sports executive in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex from Jerry Jones is, at the very least, impressive. How he got there was equally awe-inducing, albeit in the worst ways possible: the ex-general manager of the Dallas Mavericks set forth a new simile for any ill-advised transaction in the word of sports and beyond with his jaw-dropping shipping of franchise face Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers, netting back a miniscule return headlined by the services of the oft-injured Anthony Davis. With “Fire Nico” becoming more of a Texas vocabulary staple than “Hook ‘Em” and “Gig Em” combined and the box score results becoming more unpleasant, Harrison was ousted less than a year after the trade was filed. Doncic has since settled in purple-and-gold, becoming the essential superstar co-star of what appear to be LeBron James’ final NBA hours.

Natisha Hiedeman/Courtney Williams

The rise of the “StudBudz” in the social hierarchy of sports personalities couldn’t have come at a better time: the Minnesota Lynx teammates’ behind-the-scenes look at WNBA All-Star Weekend, spanning a full 72 hours, turned them into viral stars and further endeared the negotiating players to the general public. Players expressing themselves in grandiose fashion is hardly anything new in this decade, but Hiedeman and Williams’ full-on commitment to the bit set them apart from prior and future attempts.

Kara Lawson/Erik Spoelstra

Shovels are in the ground as Team USA mines for local gold: Lawson and Spoelstra were respectively named the foremen in the project that will seek to continue American basketball dominance at the Olympic Games, which will descend upon Los Angeles in 2028. Spoelstra’s ascent could well be viewed as a lovely legacy title for his continued consistency at the helm of Miami Heat, while Lawson succeeding Cheryl Reeve generated some further though after her Duke Blue Devils got off to a rocky start in 2025-26. Lawson earned sterling endorsements from several major young names in the American program, who made their way to Durham for her first national camp.

Kelsey Mitchell

Booting A’ja Wilson from her de facto residence atop the WNBA MVP rankings tends to be a tall ask. If not for Wilson’s literally historic outputs, the Indiana Fever star Mitchell would have an undeniable case for defining the title’s middle initial: what started as a celebration of Caitlin Clark’s sophomore season quickly spiraled out of control due to various injuries, headlined by the face of the league’s recurring lower body issues. While the subsequent rise from the medical depths was no doubt a team effort (and gave rise to new fanbases for Aliyah Boston, Sophie Cunningham, Lexie Hull), none took on a bigger burden than Mitchell, who had been granted core designation in the offseason. As her teammates kept vanishing “Avengers”-style, Mitchell kept her composure and dragged the Fever to the doorstep of the WNBA Finals where a literal full-body shutdown known as rhabdomyolysis kept her from attempting to make the last leap home. Despite the WNBA’s questionable status for 2026, Mitchell will be back on the floor in the coming week as a new member of Unrivaled.

The @NCAA has not and will not grant eligibility to any prospective or returning student-athletes who have signed an @NBA contract (including a two-way contract). As schools are increasingly recruiting individuals with international league experience, the NCAA is exercising…

— Charlie Baker (@CharlieBakerMA) December 30, 2025

James Nnaji

A second-round pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, Nnaji is the latest trailblazer in the roaring new 20s of college sports: mere hours before Christmas, the Nigerian-born center ended the year with a bang by enrolling at Baylor and joining its basketball team, able to do so since he never signed an NBA contract. Time will tell if Nnaji’s move to Waco will open the floodgates for similar transactions but his entry has further chiseled the already paper-thin line between the pro and college game.

Sam Presti

Checkmate, NBA: Presti kept uncharacteristically quiet during the calendar year, his biggest moves perhaps being extensions for depth stars Ajay Mitchell and Jaylin Williams. But the Thunder’s General Manager got to reap what he sowed for the last several seasons, situating his squad in handsome territory both now and later. Veteran pieces Alex Caruso and Isaiah Hartenstein proved to be the finishing touches in his championship puzzle, joining the core headlined by Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, and Jalen Williams. The scary fact of the matter is that Presti’s Infinity Gauntlet is far from exhausted: OKC current owns multiple first-round picks from abroad, many of them burdened with only limited layers of protection. So while Presti essentially earned a year off, the culmination of his work no doubt set a tone on the hardwood this season.

Jayson Tatum

Achilles ruptures tragically proved to be undefeated this NBA season, as Tatum was another one who fell victim to such an ailment. His was suffered as he desperately tried to drive momentum toward another Boston Celtics championship during their second round set against the Knicks. That 42-point night, and Boston’s subsequent defeat in the six-game series, gave rise to a mini-fire sale in Beantown, as title contributors Jrue Holiday, Al Horford, and Kristaps Porzingis were all shipped elsewhere after the injury. To its credit, Boston has kept a bit of a pace with the East’s finest but there’s no doubt that its championship case loses a bit of panache with Tatum watching in absentia.

Victor Wembanyama

To combat the rolling Thunder, the NBA world put out a desperate plea: help us, Victor Wembanyama. You’re (maybe) our only hope. OKC had its fair share of challenges in what it expects to be the first year of its Association dictatorship (such as a seven-game second round set with Nikola Jokic’s Denver Nuggets), but none proved more frustrating than Wembanyama’s Spurs: entering New Year’s Eve, sterling outings from Wembanyama have accounted for 60 percent of the Thunder’s three losses in this season. It’s a banner end to the year from the prized French phenom, whose rise to power was temporarily interrupted by deep vein thrombosis in his shoulder.

Claudia Ann Wilken

This entrant works in a different kind of court: few have influenced basketball, and more, over the past decade than Wilken, a California judge that indirectly placed the once-amateur games on their current paid paths in the famed 2014 lawsuit filed by ex-UCLA star Ed O’Bannon. Judge Wilken returned to collegiate spotlight earlier this spring, presiding in a landmark ruling that would essentially create a salary cap of sorts as an attempt to control the NIL monster continues.

A’ja Wilson

Denied a three-peat by the New York Liberty and another a year of working with Kelsey Plum through a trade with the Los Angeles Sparks, the Las Vegas Aces were not exactly mainstays in the playoff portions of WNBA preseason picks. That apparently didn’t sit well with Wilson, who restocked her trophy case with a vengeance: Wilson would oversee a 16-game winning streak to end the regular season and became the first woman to earn the vaunted MVP award four times … all before turning 30. Though she shared with Minnesota’s Alanna Smith, Wilson also earned her third Defensive Player of the Year title. To cap it off, Wilson reprised another familiar role in the WNBA Finals, needing but four games against the Phoenix Mercury to don her third ring and raise her second MVP award, becoming the first woman to post such a trifecta in one year.

Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags