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What Celtics can learn from last five NBA champs that didn’t repeat originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
There was a time, not too long ago, when a team repeating as NBA champions wasn’t an uncommon result. Sure, winning a title in just one season is tough, so it goes without saying that doing it back-to-back years is certainly difficult.
But when you look at other sports, being the last team standing in consecutive seasons had been easier to achieve in the NBA than the NHL, NFL or MLB.
For example, the NFL has had two repeat champions since 1998 — the New England Patriots in 2003/2004 and the Kansas City Chiefs in 2022/2023. The NHL has had two repeat champions since 1998 — the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2016/2017 and the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2020/2021. The MLB has had zero repeat champs since the New York Yankees’ three-peat from 1998 through 2000.
After the Chicago Bulls’ second three-peat in 1998, the NBA has had four instances of repeat champions. The Los Angeles Lakers three-peated from 2000 through 2002, then won back-to-back in 2009 and 2010. The Miami Heat won consecutive rings in 2012 and 2013. The Golden State Warriors won back-to-back Finals in 2017 and 2018.
But since the Warriors repeated, we’ve had six different champions in the last six years.
Interestingly enough, none of the last five champions even made it past the second round the following campaign.
Pro basketball has seen a remarkable amount of parity lately. In fact, the last time the NBA had a six-year span with six different champions was 1975 through 1980.
1975: Golden State Warriors
1976: Boston Celtics
1977: Portland Trail Blazers
1978: Baltimore Bullets (currently the Washington Wizards)
1979: Seattle SuperSonics (currently the Oklahoma City Thunder)
1980: Los Angeles Lakers
If there’s a team that could end this trend and win back-to-back titles, the Celtics are well-positioned to do it.
They are bringing back nearly their entire championship-winning roster from last season. The top 11 players in minutes per game all are returning. They also added first-round draft pick Baylor Scheierman from Creighton.
This roster didn’t just win the 2024…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/celtics-learn-last-five-nba-193544868.html
Author : NBC Sports Boston
Publish date : 2024-09-23 19:35:44
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