2010s NBA
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
50 free 2010s NBA trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The 2010s reshaped the NBA. Superstars changed teams and formed superteams, the three-pointer took over the game, and a handful of all-time greats traded MVP awards and championships from the first season of the decade to the last. This quiz is built around the best players of those ten years: the MVPs, the Finals heroes, the scorers and the defenders, along with the trades, draft-night steals, coaches and off-court stories that shaped their careers. Questions run from moments every fan remembers to deep cuts for people who watched every night. It suits anyone settling a debate about who owned the decade, and quiz hosts who need accurate questions with answers. Each one comes with a short explanation, so a miss still teaches you something.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which forward announced his move to the Miami Heat live on the 2010 ESPN special The Decision?
LeBron James
LeBron James revealed his choice from a Boys and Girls Club in Greenwich, Connecticut. The broadcast raised $2.5 million for the charity.
Q 02Which guard was voted the NBA's first unanimous MVP in 2016, after his team won a record 73 games?
Stephen Curry
Stephen Curry made 402 three-pointers that season, breaking a record that was already his own. No MVP before him had taken every first-place vote.
Q 03Which Lakers guard scored 60 points against the Utah Jazz in 2016, in the final game of his career?
Kobe Bryant
Kobe Bryant took a career-high 50 shots that night and outscored the Jazz by himself in the fourth quarter. He spent all 20 of his seasons with the Lakers.
Q 04Which undrafted Harvard graduate led the New York Knicks on a seven-game winning streak in February 2012?
Jeremy Lin
Jeremy Lin had been waived by two teams in 2011 and was sleeping on his brother's couch. The craze that followed was dubbed Linsanity.
Q 05Which team became the first to overturn a 3–1 deficit in the NBA Finals, winning its first title in 2016?
Cleveland Cavaliers
The Cleveland Cavaliers won the last three games against a 73-win opponent and ended their home town's 52-year wait for a major sports title.
Q 06Which Lakers forward legally changed his name to Metta World Peace before the 2011–12 NBA season?
Ron Artest
Ron Artest took his new first name from a Buddhist word for loving-kindness. In 2020 he changed his name again, to Metta Sandiford-Artest.
Q 07Which Clippers rookie won the 2011 Slam Dunk Contest by leaping over the hood of a car?
Blake Griffin
Blake Griffin cleared a Kia sedan and took 68% of the fan vote. The car was later auctioned to benefit Stand Up to Cancer.
Q 08Which Hall of Famer became the NBA's first former player turned majority owner, buying the Charlotte Bobcats in 2010?
Michael Jordan
Michael Jordan had held a minority stake since 2006, and the team took back the Hornets name under him. He sold his majority share in 2023.
Q 09Which Miami Heat sharpshooter hit a corner three-pointer to force overtime in Game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals?
Ray Allen
Ray Allen stepped back behind the line in the right corner and tied the game with 5.2 seconds left. Miami won in overtime, then took the title in Game 7.
Q 10Which guard averaged a triple-double across the 2016–17 season, the first player to do so since Oscar Robertson?
Russell Westbrook
Russell Westbrook finished with 42 triple-doubles, breaking Robertson's single-season record of 41, and was voted MVP.
Q 11Which Dallas Mavericks forward was named Finals MVP in 2011 after beating the Miami Heat for his only championship?
Dirk Nowitzki
Dirk Nowitzki, the first European to win the league MVP award, went on to play 21 seasons for the same franchise, something no other NBA player has done.
Q 12Which forward announced in The Players' Tribune in July 2016 that he was leaving for the Golden State Warriors?
Kevin Durant
Kevin Durant won the championship and the Finals MVP award in each of his first two seasons after the move.
Q 13Which forward was named Finals MVP with two different franchises during the 2010s, in 2014 and 2019?
Kawhi Leonard
Q 21Which reigning Sixth Man of the Year was traded to the Houston Rockets days before the 2012–13 season began?
James Harden
James Harden had failed to agree a contract extension with his old team. He finished the 2010s as the NBA's leading scorer of the decade.
Q 22Which Miami Heat guard, the 2006 Finals MVP, was joined by two All-Star free agents in the summer of 2010?
Dwyane Wade
Dwyane Wade, nicknamed Flash, reached four straight Finals with the pair and won titles in 2012 and 2013.
Q 23Which guard scored an NBA-record 37 points in a single quarter against the Sacramento Kings in January 2015?
Klay Thompson
Klay Thompson made all 13 of his shots in that third quarter, including nine three-pointers, itself a record for one quarter.
Kawhi Leonard, nicknamed the Klaw for his exceptionally large hands, won the second award in his only season with his new team.
Q 14Which point guard became the youngest MVP in NBA history in 2011, at the age of 22?
Derrick Rose
Derrick Rose took the record from Wes Unseld, who was 23 when he won in 1969. A year later he tore a knee ligament in the first game of the playoffs.
Q 15Which team won its first NBA championship in 2019, beating an injury-hit Golden State in six games?
Toronto Raptors
The Toronto Raptors became the first team based outside the United States to win the title. Their opponents lost two All-Stars to serious leg injuries during the series.
Q 16Which guard's three-pointer broke an 89–89 tie in the final minute of Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals?
Kyrie Irving
Kyrie Irving made the shot with 53 seconds left for a 92–89 lead. Five years earlier he had been the first overall pick of the NBA draft.
Q 17Which team drafted Giannis Antetokounmpo with the 15th pick in 2013 and saw him named MVP in 2019?
Milwaukee Bucks
The Milwaukee Bucks watched him grow into the Greek Freak, a two-time MVP who led them to the 2021 title, their first in 50 years.
Q 18Which coach won his eleventh and final NBA championship with the Lakers in 2010 before retiring a year later?
Phil Jackson
Phil Jackson had broken his tie with Red Auerbach for the most titles by a head coach a year earlier, in 2009.
Q 19Which San Antonio Spurs forward retired in 2016 after winning five titles in 19 seasons with one team?
Tim Duncan
Tim Duncan, nicknamed the Big Fundamental for his simple but effective style, was also league MVP twice and Finals MVP three times.
Q 20Which former Microsoft chief executive bought the Los Angeles Clippers for about $2 billion in 2014?
Steve Ballmer
Steve Ballmer made the winning bid weeks after the league banned owner Donald Sterling for life over recorded racist remarks.
Q 24Which forward, nicknamed the Brow, went first in the 2012 NBA draft after one college season?
Anthony Davis
Anthony Davis was picked for the Olympic team that same summer and won a gold medal in London before he had played a single NBA game.
Q 25Which Portland Trail Blazers guard eliminated Houston from the 2014 playoffs with a three-pointer as time expired?
Damian Lillard
Damian Lillard's shot gave Portland its first playoff series win since 2000. Five years later he ended another series at the buzzer, from 37 feet.
Q 26Which New Orleans point guard's 2011 trade to the Lakers was blocked by commissioner David Stern?
Chris Paul
Chris Paul's team was owned by the league itself at the time. He joined the Clippers instead, where a run of alley-oop dunks earned the nickname Lob City.
Q 27Which Golden State forward was suspended for Game 5 of the 2016 NBA Finals with his team leading 3–1?
Draymond Green
Draymond Green had picked up his fourth flagrant foul point of the playoffs in Game 4. No player had been suspended from a Finals game for ten years.
Q 28Which Golden State forward was named 2015 Finals MVP after starting the series on the bench?
Andre Iguodala
Andre Iguodala had not started a single game in the regular season, a first for a Finals MVP.
Q 29Which team's record of 72 wins in a season did the Golden State Warriors beat by one in 2015–16?
Chicago Bulls
The Chicago Bulls set the mark in 1995–96 with Steve Kerr on the roster, and he was head coach of the team that broke it 20 years later.
Q 30Which team reached the 2012 NBA Finals with three future league MVPs on its roster, then traded one away?
Oklahoma City Thunder
The Oklahoma City Thunder won the first game at home, then lost the next four to Miami. All three future MVPs were 23 or younger at the time.