Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Championship History
Although I consider myself a fairly active (at least in terms of following what's going on, if not in terms of watching games) NBA fan, at this point, I don't really care about the outcome of this year's playoffs. Neither the Jazz nor the Lakers made the playoffs, which means I don't have anyone to unconditionally cheer for or against. Then I wanted either Indiana or Boston to win (the former just in recognition of Reggie Miller's life achievement, and the latter in order to give Boston a perfect triumvirate of sports championships for my final year here). Now I just don't care.
I will make a prediction, though. I'm not saying who will make it to the Finals, but it'll be either the Spurs or the Pistons who comes out on top in the end.
How do I know? If you look at history, there are only five different teams who have won the NBA championship since 1987 (the past 18 years): the Suns and Heat are not on that list; the Spurs and Pistons are (along with the Lakers, Bulls, and Rockets).
In fact, if you go back even further, the lack of diversity among championship teams is perhaps more striking. Only 13 teams have won it all since 1959 (46 years). And 5 of them (Sonics, Bullets, Blazers, Warriors, Bucks) were one-hit wonders. Take them out, and eight teams have a combined 41 titles among them. If you go back to the beginning of the NBA in 1946-47, only 16 different franchises have ever won the championship. Considering there are now 30 franchises, that's better than 50%, but still, you'd think that in 58 years the winnings would be spread around a little more evenly.
Hm. Maybe that's an argument that the champion this year will be the Suns or the Heat...
I will make a prediction, though. I'm not saying who will make it to the Finals, but it'll be either the Spurs or the Pistons who comes out on top in the end.
How do I know? If you look at history, there are only five different teams who have won the NBA championship since 1987 (the past 18 years): the Suns and Heat are not on that list; the Spurs and Pistons are (along with the Lakers, Bulls, and Rockets).
In fact, if you go back even further, the lack of diversity among championship teams is perhaps more striking. Only 13 teams have won it all since 1959 (46 years). And 5 of them (Sonics, Bullets, Blazers, Warriors, Bucks) were one-hit wonders. Take them out, and eight teams have a combined 41 titles among them. If you go back to the beginning of the NBA in 1946-47, only 16 different franchises have ever won the championship. Considering there are now 30 franchises, that's better than 50%, but still, you'd think that in 58 years the winnings would be spread around a little more evenly.
Hm. Maybe that's an argument that the champion this year will be the Suns or the Heat...
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