The long wait for the season is almost over for the world’s best sports soap opera. The 2024-25 NBA season will kick off on Wednesday morning (Manila Time) with a battle between the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks, along with a matchup between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Minnesota Timberwolves.

A lot of things can happen for each team in a gruelling 82-game regular season, which is part of the fun. Here’s my personal wishlist for things to happen.

LeBron James announces his retirement

Look, I can’t argue about LeBron James’ greatness. He continues to be an elite player over two decades after first suiting up in a Cleveland Cavaliers uniform, but I am simply tired of him dominating the headlines. The man has been an NBA player since the year I graduated high school, so seeing him just makes me feel old. 

James has a bajillion NBA records, including the most points ever scored, four titles, and has a legitimate argument for being the GOAT (I still think it’s MJ, but that’s a story for another day). He’s also already achieved his wish of playing together with his son Bronny, so what more does the man need?

With so many exciting young talents ready to take the spotlight, I feel that it’s about time for him to call it a career. The NBA is in good hands, and so it would be great if someone else could become the face of the league for the next decade or so. Luka Doncic has staked his claim as the face of the league with his gritty performance toward the NBA Finals this year, but other young talents like Anthony Edwards and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander are also just about ready to take the torch.

No back-to-back for the Celtics

It’s been a great indicator of league parity to see no title repeats in six-straight seasons, and I want to see more of the same. The Boston Celtics are stacked and have the best roster in the league, but there are plenty of other talented teams that can challenge for the crown.

Watching dynastic teams win every other year is a lot more fun than seeing the same people win every year. Also, it’s kind of fun watching Jayson Tatum fail since he’s so corny.

The Kings make it back to the playoffs

I’m a long-suffering Sacramento Kings fan who enjoyed that brief window of hope when we had the epic seven-game series with the Warriors in 2023. It was the highlight of the 2020s so far for me, and I am hoping that we can somehow will our way into the postseason without having to try to sneak in via the play-ins.

I have no idea how the DeMar DeRozan experiment is going to work out, but we have desperately needed someone who thrives in the midrange and getting to the basket when the threes stop falling. The Kings’ biggest weakness last season was not knowing what to do when the threes stopped falling, as only De’Aaron Fox and Malik Monk were good at creating opportunities off the dribble – with the latter falling a little too in love with his improved three-pointer at the cost of easier opportunities near the basket in crunch time. DeRozan solves that problem.

Domantas Sabonis also needs to step up since he’s earning max money now, so I hope he starts taking and making more midranges and threes considering that he had a decent percentage on his few long-range attempts last season.

The Knicks make a deep run

I thoroughly enjoyed watching the New York Knicks in the playoffs last season, especially since Jalen Brunson had one hell of a breakout in the playoffs. Brunson became must-watch basketball and now he’s got an insane supporting cast to play with since he’s teamed up with Karl-Anthony Towns, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby and Josh Hart. Losing Isaiah Hartenstein and Donte DiVincenzo is a big blow, since he was a great player for them, but the KAT for Julius Randle is a wash at worst. Towns brings a scoring and rebounding threat that Randle didn’t have and even though the latter was a better playmaker, there’s enough secondary ball handlers to make up for that.

The Knicks’ interior defense may suffer, but their wing defense is definitely going to be a force to be reckoned with. I except some crazy high-scoring games when Brunson and Towns both go off on the same night. I only worry that they once again physically break down in the playoffs after averaging 46 minutes per game under good old Tom Thibodeau.

A Victor Wembanyama and Chet Holmgren leap

Victor Wembanyama showed flashes of greatness in his first season, which was predictably low on wins due to the lack of firepower on their roster. He has already shown himself to be a defensive force, including having a game where his triple double came with 10 blocks. 

His ability to dribble, bring the ball up the court, find his teammates combined with his height is usually the kind of bullshit that only happens in video games.

I also strongly hope that Chet Holmgren continues to improve, because he is a perfect foil for Wembanyama, being another lanky giant with atypical skills for a center. I hope the two of them both blossom into superstars and stay healthy so I can watch at least 10 years of matchups between the two. There’s the potential for them to be the modern day Wilt Chamberlain vs. Bill Russell.

A more interesting play-in tournament

The play-in tournament was surprisingly more entertaining than I thought it would be, especially since it felt like a lot more players and coaches took it more seriously than I thought they originally would. I’m hoping the format continues to improve and become more exciting. One thing I really do hope for, though, is that the courts aren’t so fucking hideous this time. I get that they wanted things to look different but those goddamn neon colors were HORRENDOUS.