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The Chicago Bears have been owned by Aaron Rodgers, figuratively, ever since the three-time MVP became the Green Bay Packers starting quarterback in 2008.

That ownership could be coming to a close soon as Rodgers hinted that he could retire after the season.

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Part of the job of being an NFL head coach is to try and develop your young talent for future success. For Chicago Bears head coach Matt Nagy, that’s an area where he’s struggled.

Looking at how he has handled rookie quarterback Justin Fields, and how his offense simply doesn’t fit what type of quarterback Fields is, should be one of the main reasons the Bears fire Nagy.

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Wednesday night, the Chicago Bulls took on the Atlanta Hawks for the second game in a row, only this time at home. Fortunately for Bulls fans, this team played their best game of the year.

The Bulls came out firing in the first quarter, scoring a season-high 38 points in the first 12 minutes. However, the Hawks were feeling it too, as the first quarter ended 38-34.

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When the 2021-22 season began in October, it kicked off the first normal NBA schedule since the COVID-19 pandemic paused the league in March 2020. The 2021 playoffs were played in NBA arenas again after the 2020 postseason was held in the NBA’s Orlando, Florida, bubble.

Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks, who took the Eastern Conference, climbed out of an 0-2 hole to come back to beat the Phoenix Suns and win the title for the first time since 1971.

Kevin Durant returned from an Achilles injury to lead the Brooklyn Nets one shot shy of those NBA Finals. A consolation prize for Durant: leading Team USA to gold at the Tokyo Olympics.

The NBA offseason brought some change to the league, sending DeMar DeRozan and Alex Caruso to the Chicago Bulls, while Kyle Lowry headed to South Beach to team up with Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat. In the West, Russell Westbrook and Carmelo Anthony joined LeBron James on the Los Angeles Lakers. Stephen Curry moved into the No. 1 spot on the league’s all-time 3-point list on Dec. 14 with his 2,974th make from beyond the arc, and hit his 3,000th on Tuesday.

Among all of the on-court excitement of the past year, however, COVID-19 is still a major concern in the NBA as the year comes to a close. The league continues to update its protocols to adapt to the high number of players coming in and out of the health and safety protocols. Several other uncertainties remain unanswered into the new year, including the ongoing situations in Portland and Philadelphia regarding the futures of Damian Lillard and Ben Simmons, respectively.

With two days remaining in 2021, our NBA insiders reflect on the biggest moments and transactions of the past year and look at what lies ahead in 2022.

1. Fill in the blank: 2021 in the NBA has been ______.

Tim Bontemps: Unpredictable. While this certainly applies to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it includes on-court action, as well. The Milwaukee Bucks and Phoenix Suns both made returns to the NBA Finals for the first time in decades, and we saw several shocking moments in the postseason, including the Philadelphia 76ers’ Game 7 meltdown against the Atlanta Hawks in the Eastern Conference semifinals. It applies off the court, as well, if you count the Kyrie Irving and Ben Simmons situations.

Jamal Collier: Anyone’s game. The Nets and Lakers have spent all year looking more like super teams on paper than they have in practice, and it has created a feeling of parity around the league. The Phoenix Suns-Milwaukee Bucks showdown was one of the more unlikely NBA Finals matchups in history. There’s at least five or six teams right now that could make the case for winning the championship. In the aftermath of the height of the Warriors dynasty and LeBron James’ Finals streak, the NBA hasn’t felt this unpredictable in years.

3dDavid Purdum

23hJonathan Givony and Mike Schmitz

1dKevin Pelton

2 Related

Nick Friedell: Completed. The atmosphere was very strange, but for the most part, games have gotten played. It wasn’t the prettiest basketball at times, but the league followed up the 2020 bubble playoffs with a 2020-21 season in just over a year, which is a solid feat.

Kevin Pelton: Sporadically normal. After a 2020 that was anything but, this year began and is ending with teamwide COVID-19 outbreaks wreaking havoc on the schedule. In between, however, the arrival of vaccines and declining community transmission allowed us to have a representative postseason largely unaffected by the pandemic.

Ramona Shelburne: Better than nothing! I don’t think anyone had all that much fun playing or watching games in empty arenas while COVID-19 continued to ravage the world. The endless video calls and difficulties arranging even the simplest of meetings sapped the NBA of the personal connection we all find so much joy in. But I got to a place where I was just grateful we were able to have basketball at all during these times, and marveling when fans were able to return to arenas to give the playoffs a sense of normalcy.

Giannis Antetokounmpo put on a historic performance in the 2021 NBA Finals, including scoring 50 points in Milwaukee’s title-clinching Game 6 win. Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE/Getty Images

2. What was the most memorable on-court moment of 2021?

Collier: Giannis Antetokounmpo’s game-saving block on Deandre Ayton in Game 4 of the NBA Finals. This is the play that best encapsulates what a generational talent Antetokounmpo is and what a special performance he delivered throughout the 2021 NBA Finals. His performance overall to clinch Game 6 is legendary, but for a single moment, Antetokounmpo pulled off something few players in league history could, guarding Devin Booker on a pick-and-roll, then recovering for a game-saving block on an alley-oop attempt by Ayton. This play will live on highlight reels for a long time.

Shelburne: Antetokounmpo’s 50-piece in Game 6 of the NBA Finals. I don’t often get emotional at games anymore, but when the weight of his journey from selling handbags on the streets of Athens, Greece, to NBA champion and Finals MVP culminated at that moment in Milwaukee, it was beautiful.

Bontemps: Antetokounmpo going for 50 points — including a 17-for-19 performance from the foul line — to close out Game 6 of the NBA Finals and deliver a championship to Milwaukee. It was the kind of iconic, all-time performance that we’ve seen so many great players have in those moments over the years, and allowed Antetokounmpo to move another level higher on the list of the elite players in the history of the sport.

Friedell: Antetokounmpo winning a title in Milwaukee. He has always said he wanted to win and stay in Milwaukee his entire career, and he made it happen. Through sheer will, he pulled the Bucks out of an 0-2 hole against the Suns and forever cemented his legacy. Regardless of what else he accomplishes in his career, Antetokounmpo’s accomplishment is a reminder that small-market teams can win if they have the right players around their star — and if they catch some breaks along the way.

Pelton: Jrue Holiday stealing the ball from Devin Booker in the closing seconds of Game 5 in the NBA Finals and lobbing an alley-oop to Antetokounmpo for the game-sealing and-1. I still can’t believe Holiday didn’t simply run the clock out in such a crucial situation, but I’m glad he didn’t.

3. Who was the best addition of 2021?

Collier: DeMar DeRozan to the Chicago Bulls. No other move changed the trajectory of a franchise like this one. The Bulls have gone from out of the playoffs for four straight seasons to currently one of the surprise top-three teams in the East. DeRozan has been the biggest reason. He’s having, perhaps, his best season at age 32, one that could change the perception about him as a player. He would likely finish in the top 10 in MVP voting if they took the ballot today.

Wednesday, Jan. 5
Warriors at Mavs, 7:30 p.m.
Jazz at Nuggets, 10 p.m.

All times Eastern

Friedell: DeRozan has helped wake up the Bulls and is one of the main reasons the city of Chicago is getting excited about its basketball team again. DeRozan has had a really strong start to the season and has fit in nicely alongside Zach LaVine. The question for DeRozan, as it was for him in Toronto, will be if he can maintain the same high level of play once the playoffs begin.

Pelton: James Harden. In large part due to Harden’s untimely hamstring injury, things didn’t work out for the Nets in year one as they hoped. Still, Brooklyn will have more chances at a title so long as Harden plays at a high level. His first two games since returning from the health and safety protocols, with Kevin Durant still sidelined, were encouraging.

Bontemps: Evan Mobley to the Cleveland Cavaliers. From the moment LeBron James left in July 2018, the Cavaliers have been floundering. This July, that floundering ended when they scooped up Mobley with the No. 3 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft. The combination of Mobley and another 2021 pickup, center Jarrett Allen, has turned Cleveland into one of the NBA’s best defensive teams, even projected to get home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. More importantly, Mobley looks like the kind of franchise player Cleveland desperately needed, and his arrival has completely transformed the franchise’s present and future.

Shelburne: Does Chris Paul count? Technically the Phoenix Suns traded for him before last season, but the full weight of his impact wasn’t felt until they went on their playoff run last year. If I can’t count CP3, I’ll go with Milwaukee acquiring P.J. Tucker at the trade deadline. They do not win a title without him.

One of the NBA’s biggest off-court stories of 2021 — the Ben Simmons saga — will surely spill over into 2022. Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images

4. Who is one player who had a rough/disappointing 2021 who you expect to rebound in 2022?

Bontemps: It’s hard to think of anyone more fitting for this distinction than Ben Simmons, whose last notable moment on a basketball court was passing up a wide-open dunk in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. For all of the drama that has surrounded him since then, however, whenever he does get back on an NBA court again, it won’t take long to remember why there’s so much attention paid to his absence in Philadelphia. Yes, he has flaws, but he’s a really good basketball player — and one team will benefit significantly from acquiring him at some point in 2022.

Pelton: Ben Simmons. If and when he’s traded — presuming Simmons feels mentally ready to play in a more supportive environment — I expect him to remind everyone what a valuable two-way contributor he can be outside the fourth quarter of playoff settings.

Shelburne: I know Anthony Davis has it in him to be a top-five player in the league because we all saw it in the Lakers’ 2020 championship run. I don’t know when or how he gets back to that level — but his legacy depends on it after what has been a rather dreadful 2021.

Collier: Damian Lillard. Between another first-round exit, in underwhelming fashion, and the current team lingering on the outside of the Western Conference playoff race, it’s hard to be excited about much with Portland right now. But Lillard, who turns 32 next summer, has been far too good to not bounce back in 2022. Hopefully he still has time in his prime to compete for a championship.

Friedell: It has already started at the end of 2021, but Draymond Green is set up to have a big 2022. He came into camp in good shape and is motivated after helping Team USA win gold at the Tokyo Olympics. He is mentally engaged at a higher level than at any point in the past two seasons because he knows his team has a legitimate chance to win a title, and he appears to be enjoying the role of mentor to a talented group of younger players coming behind him. Green’s 2021-22 season should end in another Defensive Player of the Year award, and maybe even another title.

5. Fact or fiction: A team that has never won an NBA title will win it all in 2022.

Collier: Fiction. I wouldn’t take that bet right now, not when the two safest bets on the board are two teams in each conference that have won championships recently in the Bucks and the Warriors. It’s far from a lock either of them actually make it to the Finals, but when healthy, the Bucks have continued to look like a juggernaut, and the Warriors look like their old selves.

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Shelburne: Fiction. Brooklyn is the most talented team in the league, but I don’t see the Nets winning it all with Kyrie Irving as a part-time player. I like Phoenix a lot and could easily see the Suns getting back to the NBA Finals. But I think I’d still pick Golden State or Milwaukee over the Suns right now. If there’s a dark horse, it’s Miami or Chicago — both of whom have previously won titles.

Bontemps: Fiction. While there are two teams that haven’t won an NBA title with clear opportunities to do so in each conference — the Nets in the East and the Suns in the West — I would put them behind the teams I currently expect to make the Finals in both conferences, the Bucks and Warriors. But if we were answering this question on a percentage basis, rather than a simple yes or no, I’d say this is a pretty sizable probability, as the Nets and Suns are both worthy championship contenders.

Friedell: Fiction. If I had to pick the Finals matchup right now, I’d have to go with Bucks vs. Warriors. And while I’d like to wait until Klay Thompson comes back to make the pick in that series, all signs point to the Warriors getting back to the top of the West this season if they stay healthy. Irving is going to have a major say as to whether the Nets make it out of the East, but if I had to pick a team right now I’d go with Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and the championship pedigree of the Warriors.

Pelton: More fiction than fact. Although potential first-timers Brooklyn, Phoenix and Utah remain leading contenders, I’d favor past champions Golden State and Milwaukee to win their respective conferences.

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Usually when the Blackhawks practice penalty-killing, it’s a byproduct of practicing the power play. Even though both units are on the ice getting reps, the emphasis is clearly on the latter.

That wasn’t the case Monday, though, as the Hawks ran a lengthy drill, working specifically on the penalty kill. They used all of their normal PK personnel and operated over the full length of the ice, letting the PK work on its neutral-zone structure and denying entries at the blue line as well as its in-zone defense.

“You forget about those things, right?” interim coach Derek King said. “You always go and you practice power play, and half of your PK guys are on the power play, so they don’t get to actually work on it. We really just wanted to focus on simplifying this PK, breaking it down for them again. And we’ll just keep on working on it.”

“It’s always nice as a penalty killer to do that, where you know guys’ minds are strictly on that,” defenseman Connor Murphy said. “It’s hard sometimes where we have plenty of guys who play both units . . . so they’re trying to work on both sides in one practice. Today was good to focus on that side of it and get everyone feeling those reps.”

In addition to the on-ice practice, the Hawks’ killers also have spent some time this week reviewing video with defense-oriented assistant coach Marc Crawford.

That’s far from the only thing they’ve reviewed — this week has become like a miniature training camp — but it certainly has been an emphasis. They’ve examined and refreshed their tactics regarding every tiny aspect of the penalty kill.

“[We’ve talked about] pressuring down the ice — when to go, when not to go,” King said. “In the neutral zone, what we’re doing, what our responsibilities [are]. And then especially in the D-zone, not getting seamed, not getting up too high. Everybody’s on the same page and running our routes. [It’s the] exact same thing we do with our power play, but you never really work on your PK. Obviously ours has been struggling a little bit, so we needed to work on it.”

The Hawks’ kill endured a rough stretch between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

In those 11 games — their most recent 11 games — they conceded 13 goals on 33 opportunities, a 39.4% conversion rate for opposing power plays. They also allowed 1.98 shots and 1.05 scoring chances per minute during that span, ranking 32nd and 24th, respectively, in the NHL.

The last four games were particularly bad, with eight power play goals allowed on 19 opportunities. After the Stars went 3-for-8 against the Hawks in what turned out to be their last game before the pause, King admitted they had adjusted their PK forechecking strategy slightly that night to no avail.

“You’re killing against good teams that have decent-or-better power plays, and one guy is maybe missing [his mark] by a foot here or a foot there or a bad stick is not in the right spot, and it’s in the back of our net,” he said.

That comment, as well as the full-rink PK practice Monday, suggests the Hawks might employ a more aggressive killing approach in January. It seems like a worthwhile plan.

“It does happen sometimes when you’re struggling, letting up goals,” Murphy said Monday. “Your natural tendency is to sink and defend passively in certain areas on the ice. [We’re] going back to being comfortable with our routes and pressuring and getting on top of their guys, whether it’s in the neutral zone or as they’re entering [the zone] — to make them have to dump it in, and we can out-battle to get clears. That’s a big key.”

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2021 was a very trying year for the Chicago Blackhawks. However, they have been a much better team since firing Jeremy Colliton and hiring Derek King to be the new head coach. They need to be the best team in the league to come back and make the playoffs but they have certainly been playing some respectable hockey.

Unfortunately, the National Hockey League took a little bit of a pause thanks to COVID-19. It came right before and after the three-day Christmas break that was already built into the schedule so it feels like forever since we have seen the Blackhawks play.

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In the last big game the Bears played — in the playoffs against the Saints — they moved safety Eddie Jackson to slot cornerback on some passing downs. When they needed someone big in Week 5 to combat Raiders all-world tight end Darren Waller, they did the same thing.

It took a whiff of desperation to bring the strategy back. When injuries decimated the Bears at cornerback, Jackson jumped into the slot mid-game against the Packers. After he — and the rest of the Bears’ starting defensive backfield — sat out the Vikings game because of coronavirus protocols, Jackson served as the nickel cornerback at times Sunday against the Seahawks.

“You play closer to the line — it’s like you’re more involved,” Jackson said Wednesday. “You get more targets, chances to make plays. And it’s really nothing special, just going out there and winning your leverage and playing off of instincts, reacting and stuff. And it’s fun honestly. You know, I like playing with it.”

Defensive coordinator Sean Desai liked Jackson’s veteran savvy in the situation, while defensive backs coach Deshea Townsend said playing Jackson in the slot allowed the team to get another safety on the field. That physicality helps against both the run and pass.

Asked whether it was something he could do in the future, Jackson was direct.

“I embrace the role of playing it, being able to switch it up,” said Jackson, who played both cornerback and safety at Alabama. “So I would hope so.”

Anything that would add to Jackson’s value would be welcomed by the Bears’ next coach, whomever he may be. Despite being the fifth-highest paid safety in the league — Jackson got $33 million in practical guarantees, per Spotrac — he hasn’t had an interception since signing his contract extension in January 2020.

“I haven’t made the plays that I want to make,” he said. “The goals I set this year, haven’t been able to do that, put the numbers up that I wanted to . . . My focus is, like I told the team, these last five [games], I’m going to give it all I got. I don’t want nobody questioning my effort.”

Jackson’s tackling has been subject to question all season, though it has been better in the second half. Ironically, one reason Jackson had to play slot against the Packers was because his own errant tackle caused cornerback Xavier Crawford to suffer a concussion.

“[The season] just didn’t go how I wanted it to,” Jackson said. “But you just continue to learn off these things, these types of seasons, these types of games. You learn about adversity. It points that back in your head and lets you know you’ve gotta continue to come out and work harder and get better.

“That’s the thing — that’s the true thing about the NFL. You just gotta continue to come out and keep fighting, week in and week out.”

Even if it’s out of position. Over the last two games of the season — starting Sunday against the Giants — Jackson figures to get more chances to work on his new skill set.

It might come in handy next season.

“I’m not scared to go down and press or challenge nobody,” Jackson said. “So I’m with it. I like it.”

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