On July 7, 2035, tragedy struck the NDL. New York Chargers executive Tom Takamine and his wife, Kimberly, were found stabbed to death in their vacation home in upstate New York. It was later determined that Kimberly’s ex-husband, Kris Williams, had broken in while the couple were asleep and attacked them with a steak knife. Things would only get worse when Tom’s father, Chargers majority owner Ryūsuke Takamine, turned on the TV to abruptly learn of the murder of his only child. In shock at the news, the elder Takamine would suffer cardiac arrest for the second time in 18 months, and would soon pass away as well. Within the span of less than 24 hours, the patriarchs of dashball in New York were both gone.

Both New York and Long Island would finish the season wearing patches containing the trio’s initials and their surname written in kanji: 高峰. Unfortunately, that would only be the beginning of the off-court drama for New York. It turned out that the succession plan for the franchise did not account for such a tragic scenario, leaving the fate of the Chargers organization up in the air. The only remaining Takamine descendant was Tom’s daughter Emma Takamine, but she had been almost entirely written out of her family’s inheritance after publicly distancing herself from her family, denouncing their accrual of wealth, and advocating for a higher tax on the rich. Given that Ryūsuke had always intended to pass the team to Tom, many believed it should naturally be handed down to Emma. Others, however, argued that the Takamines’ shares should be sold off, contending that the Takamines had never intended to pass control of the team to Emma, and that their lessening of her inheritance indicated as much. The two loudest voices in the latter camp were minority owners Austin Diamond and Daizuan Thomas, who were seen as likely candidates to buy the shares should they go up for sale. Ultimately, there would be a long legal battle ahead, and things would not be sorted out until after the season was over. In the meantime, the remaining board members of the Takamines’ holding company would control the team, with Brendan Schafer acting as chair.

While all this was going on, the Chargers still had to play dashball, and their season on the court mirrored the chaos happening off it. New York had a rough start to the season, but went on a tear through April and May, leading the front office to swing a couple big deals in the spring, adding F/ZB Dakota Valdez from Atlanta and B/K Trev Crawford from Orlando. Their most surprising trade, however, was a deadline move with yet another South Division team - the Miami Palms. The reigning champions had also stumbled out of the gate, but weren’t able to recover, and with a repeat looking more and more out of the picture, made the controversial decision to part with B/ZB Gerald Hartline. Hartline was 38 and on an expiring contract, but it was still a bold move given that he was less than a year removed from leading them to a title. The Chargers won the sweepstakes, and added Hartline to an already-strong roster. With all these roster moves, however, there was some difficulty getting everyone on the same page, and New York was frustratingly inconsistent for much of the second half. They were able to lock up a playoff spot with just over a week to go, and opted to rest many of their aging starters the rest of the way, dropping them from 6th to 8th. Overall, it was a true rollercoaster of a season, but a disappointing outcome for a roster with a lot of talent.

Another contributing factor was the division they had to play in. The DC Statesmen, led by B/ZB Ethan Keller and F/ZB Ziad Abdel, couldn’t replicate their run to the top seed a year ago, but did return to the postseason, claiming the seventh seed after leapfrogging the Chargers. Philadelphia, who had been floundering for the past couple of years, saw a return to form. The offseason additions of HC Dax Pistorius and W/ZB Horace Yazzie worked out wonderfully, with the latter posting 26.5 points and 24.4 points assisted per game on his way to winning Offensive Player of the Year. The Row also made their own deadline addition, trading for Yazzie’s former Hogs teammate, B/C Tiziano Torres, after losing their young star B/C Mario Avala to a season-ending MCL tear. Their season did come with some controversy, as shortly after B/ZB Kenton Snowberger suffered a season-ending quad injury in early May, the 39-year-old announced his retirement, allowing the Row to take his cap hit off the books and add more salary, like Torres’, from other teams. None of that is against the rules, of course, but that didn’t stop dashball Twitter from airing their gripes regardless. Philly finished at 38-28, good enough to claim the #5 seed. They did have to give up 24-year-old B/C Adrien Camfield in the Torres deal, and he looked like a stud in Toronto, a positive sign for the Hogs’ continuing rebuild.

Finally, the Boston Commodores, widely expected to finally take the next step and make their first postseason appearance, did a little bit more than that. The Dores tore the league apart, finishing with the most points scored and the fewest points allowed, leading to a 57-9 overall record - the best in the league, and in fact the best anyone had achieved since the Row went 58-8 in 2031. Head coach Michael Stader won Coach of the Year, as nearly every single Commodore on the roster showed improvement over last season. This made for one of the deepest teams in the league, and they played like it, with just about every player able to pass, shoot, or make a stop on defense. The best player on the floor was different nearly every night, and while B/C Ryan Alamos continued to be the fan favorite, youngsters like B/ZB Aaron Gain, W/ZB Nkem Carter, and W/ZB Joel Turkiewicz also had excellent seasons. This marks the first time in NDL history that an entire division has qualified for the postseason, and it sets up an enticing Boston-New York matchup in the first round.

Another intriguing playoff matchup could be the 2-3 semifinal - assuming upsets don’t prevent that from happening. If not, we’ll see yet another iteration of Lights-Lions, as Minnesota and California finished with identical records for the second time in three years. Unlike last time, though, the Sea Lions won the tiebreaker, earning them the #2 seed for the third straight year and home-court advantage if and when they do face off. The teams’ paths to 48-18 were wildly different, though. The Lights saw their top two players, F/ZB Kevin Simmons and W/K Richard Singh, continue to play brilliant dashball, with Simmons winning MVP and Singh winning his third consecutive Defensive Player of the Year award. It marked the first time in NDL history that two different players from the same team won MVP in back to back years, and the first time that two teammates each won a major award. Minnesota also saw vintage seasons from seasoned veterans B/ZB Dewitt Golf and W/C James Pitts at 37 and 38, respectively. In San Jose, however, the Sea Lions’ top two players both missed huge chunks of the year with injuries. W/ZB Matt Powers spent much of the year on IR with a hamstring injury, but was able to return towards the end of the season. F/ZB Michael Basch wasn’t so lucky, suffering a torn Achilles in late May which would force him out until at least the start of the next season. Thanks to players like W/ZB Isaiah Graves, W/ZB Colton Harvey, and F/ZB Brent Justice, California was able to weather that storm, but many have wondered what they would have been capable of had they stayed healthy.

Adding to the Sea Lions’ impressive feat was that they did all that despite having to contend with a division rival breathing down their necks. The Sabertooths were expected to struggle after star B/ZB Roy Lalanne left in free agency, but they weren’t fazed in the slightest. Several players stepped into the vacated spotlight, including B/C duo James Gray and Ben Elkins, F/ZB pair Joseph Kirtland and Christian Casey, and 2029 first overall pick B/ZB Christopher Strine, who led the league in points assisted with 33.1 per game. They couldn’t keep up with California in the long run, but still finished 39-27 and earned the #4 seed, their highest finish since all the way back in 2022. Such a season from the Tooths must have frustrated Lalanne, who had a great season in Montréal, but much like his time in LA, didn’t get a lot of help from his teammates, especially in the scoring department. After quite the overperformance last year, the Magma underperformed this year and missed the playoffs despite Lalanne’s efforts. The good news is that their young players came along really well: B/ZB Riley Dobbins, the first overall pick in 2032, had a breakout season in his second year in the bigs, and W/C Andrew Romagna got called up from Laval and worked his way into the Magma’s starting lineup at just 22 years old.

Only three teams finished below Montréal, and strangely enough, all three finished with the same record. Even stranger, that record was 22-44, by far the best worst record in league history. It was enough to be an improvement for the Sawyers, who saw some development amongst a very young roster, but not enough to draw many fans in their final year in Seattle. They did get the favorable draw in the tiebreaker, so fans in Colorado will be disappointed that the team traded that pick two offseasons ago, meaning the rights to draft top prospect B/ZB Cameron Beaufort now belong to Orlando. The other two teams were not so happy to be there. The Chicago Frost kicked off the post-Tony Bennett era with a real whimper. Injuries played a part, but the team just didn’t have much depth past their few star players. Nashville dealt with a similar problem; after signing F/ZB Eddie McDonald and W/ZB Arthur Julian to a pair of eight-figure contracts, the team was forced to make sacrifices when it came to the remainder of their roster. Even worse, neither of those players performed as expected. The Fugitives and their fans are hoping that they can bounce back quickly, though, as they’ll have $15 million in cap freed up when W/K Will Orleans’ contract expires this offseason.

With Nashville in freefall and Miami selling at the deadline, the South Division was wide open. Atlanta was never going to win it after a 7-win season last year, but they did get a lot better, finishing tied with the Palms and beating them on the tiebreaker to technically finish as the first team out of the playoffs, even if they were 5 games back. Last year’s top pick, W/ZB Phil Jones, was especially promising, only spending a few months in Charlotte before the big-league Records called him up. He’s looked solid, if still a bit rough around the edges, against NDL talent so far. No, the South was won, almost by default, by the Orlando Orbits. W/ZB Frank St. Peter finally stayed healthy, and finally got some of his supporting cast to step up, with F/C Mike Mill returning to form and B/ZB Ben Umbs posting the best season of his career. It was honestly just an okay season, but it was certainly better than their last two, and it was good enough for a division title and a date with Minnesota in round 1.

That, finally, brings us to the Texas Redbacks. After nearly two decades of being the dashball gods’ favorite team, the Redbacks had begun to look mortal as of late. They had gone to Game 7 of the first round each of the past three years, but had lost every time. Even still, it was hard to believe they were really finished, especially after they nearly pulled off a historic upset last season. This year, though, Texas didn’t just look mortal - they looked dead. W/ZB Larry Whitt and W/C Elide Amigazzi looked every bit of 38 and 41 respectively, and a litany of injuries spanning the end of the lineup, the bench, and even the NDDL team in Fort Worth, left them lacking the depth to keep up over a full season. The Redbacks finished 26-40, their worst record by winning percentage in club history, and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2019. It was truly the end of an era.

Last edited by ItDoesntMatter (11/14/2025 8:01 pm)

Well, since my Palms are out, I guess I'll have to cheer for someone else. From who made it, I suppose that's Orlando.

It's always odd to see the Redbacks not dominating, but it's refreshing. More opportunity for teams to succeed gives more opportunities to build longterm fans, in my opinion.

Lets Go Lights!

Thanks everyone for your comments! Glad to see people still come back to this thread after so much time away.

Wallflower wrote:

So apparently there were knives...

Wild start to the season.

Yeah, no kidding! I've had a version of this story floating around for years now (both IRL years and in-universe years) so it's good to finally get it out on the page. (Readers who have a really good memory will remember that I foreshadowed it two offseasons ago). It wasn't gonna involve knives until H-Town popped in and asked about them, and I figured it'd be funny to tweak the story in that direction (before that, the Takamines were supposed to die in a boating accident). There's a lot more to come, so stay tuned.

Oh, and minor point - July 7 is actually around the middle of the NDL season, which goes from mid-March to late August. I'm sure you meant the start of the season post, however. 🤓

Dan O'Mac wrote:

It's always odd to see the Redbacks not dominating, but it's refreshing. More opportunity for teams to succeed gives more opportunities to build longterm fans, in my opinion.

Yeah, it's definitely odd for me too, lol. It'll be really weird having a playoffs without them; it's been almost eight real-life years since I'd last posted a season where Texas missed the postseason. I'm with you that it's a net positive for the league, but we'll have to see if fans stay engaged without being able to root against the Redbacks.

Last edited by ItDoesntMatter (11/17/2025 8:29 pm)