Even before referee Tim Donaghy became better known for making bets than calls, the NBA wasn't having a year for its scrapbook.
The new ball. Another brawl. A forgettable postseason in which the most replayed moment was probably a flagrant foul, leading to suspensions that possibly altered the best series the league had going.
"I'll say that good or bad, there were a lot of headlines about the NBA over the past year," said Knicks veteran Malik Rose, a member of the NBA players association executive committee.
Then came the worst. David Stern returned home from the lowest-rated NBA finals ever and got a visit from the FBI informing him that Donaghy was being investigated for wagering on games he officiated and providing inside information to associates to help them win bets.
Throw in accusations that teams tanked for a better chance at getting the No. 1 draft pick - who is injured and won't play this season - the sexual harassment trial ruling that embarrassed Isiah Thomas and Madison Square Garden, and ... OK, enough about the past.
Here comes the NBA again, with Kevin Garnett now in Boston, Kobe Bryant perhaps headed toward a departure from Los Angeles, Kevin Durant up in Seattle - for this season, at least - and the belief that things will get better.
"Over the years the league has made great strides in everything and they're not going to allow, the commissioner is not going to allow, any one thing to bring it down," Miami coach Pat Riley said. "It might come down for a minute, but he's always found a way to build it back up."
The San Antonio Spurs are the defending champions, sweeping LeBron James and the Cavaliers in a one-sided finals - or "foreshortened" as Stern called them.
The Spurs couldn't repeat after any of their first three titles, and it won't be easy to do so this time. Dallas and Houston will challenge them in the Southwest Division, and the Phoenix Suns added Grant Hill to a team that felt it would have beaten San Antonio in the second round last year without the Game 5 suspensions of Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw for leaving the bench after Robert Horry's hard foul on Steve Nash in Game 4.
And in a nice change, the East could be just as competitive. Helped by some of the West's best crossing the Mississippi, the conference that put three .500-or-worse teams in the playoffs last season looks a whole lot better.
"There are going to be six or seven teams in the West that are going to beat each other's brains out," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said.
"And the really neat thing for fans of the NBA is that in the East, I think the same thing is true, where in the past you'd say one of those two or three teams is going to be in the finals. But there are probably maybe five, six, seven teams in the East now, any one of which could be in the finals. So it could be a great season."
One of those teams is Boston, which acquired Ray Allen from Seattle and later landed Garnett when the Minnesota Timberwolves finally decided it was time to move the longtime face of the franchise.
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