Ranking the franchises from best to worst in history

[sonic21]

Jordan's Bulls? Are you ing kidding me?

Nobody in their right mind would pick Jordan's Bulls over the Showtime Lakers.

Magic and the showtime lakers were the reason i started following the nba.

[baseline bum]

Did you even watch the 80's? The league was well rounded that decade, unlike the 90's and 00's. The Spurs, Rockets, Sonics, and Mavericks of the 80's were all better than every team of the West in 2009. The Lakers were just a vast superior team in the 80's, much like we are now.

LOL. The West outside of LA was crap in the 80s, while Boston had to go through Philly, Milawaukee, and Detroit every year. I think you didn't watch that decade if you think those ty Mavs, Suns, Spurs, Nuggets, Sonics, and Rocket teams were . Houston had one year the whole decade where they were decent.

[Findog]

Celtics have more les than the Lakers, have just as much of a storied history and tradition, and have overall gotten the better of the two teams head to head over the years when they met in the Finals. The only thing the Lakers have on Boston is more consistency. Boston went 22 years without a championship and was actually quite bad during certain stretches of that drought. The Lakers had a losing season once in the mid-nineties and then once again the first post-Shaq year.

[Findog]

How are the Suns ranked so high for a ring-less franchise? I give the Colangelos their due for running a team that year in and year out tended to be compe ive and make the playoffs while being a class operation, but they don't belong up that high. And the Bennett City Hijackers dont get the Sonics history, so evaluate them the way you would a recent expansion team. On that score, they are a much better operation than the Charlotte Bobcats or the Memphis Grizzlies.

[Findog]

17 is about right for Dallas. A lone Finals appearance, and an 11-year playoff drought where the team was usually pretty ing terrible. The Mavs franchise should get kudos for becoming very compe ive very quickly after expansion and providing a blueprint for how to build a team into a contender. Cuban for all of his faults deserves a lot of credit for helping to resurrect a dead franchise and doing his part to keep the team contending year in and year out.

[JoeTait75]

The Mavs franchise should get kudos for becoming very compe ive very quickly after expansion and providing a blueprint for how to build a team into a contender.

They got a lot of help from Ted Stepien, Fin. A lot of help. Just saying.

[Vinnie_Johnson]

When I saw Detroit at 13, I decided to close this thread................... Hollinger.

So true The Bucks have to be near the bottom.

[Findog]

They got a lot of help from Ted Stepien, Fin. A lot of help.

Moneyball before it was Moneyball. Lots of draft picks > Expensive Vets.

[JoeTait75]

Moneyball before it was Moneyball. Lots of draft picks > Expensive Vets.

Yeah, well, that's one way of looking at it. To give Dallas credit, they did use those picks wisely. Derek Harper, Sam Perkins, Detlef Schrempf, Tarp. That was a fun team to watch.

[YellowFever]

LOL. The West outside of LA was crap in the 80s, while Boston had to go through Philly, Milawaukee, and Detroit every year. I think you didn't watch that decade if you think those ty Mavs, Suns, Spurs, Nuggets, Sonics, and Rocket teams were . Houston had one year the whole decade where they were decent.

Uh, no.

The West gave the East a pretty good run for their money and were superior (I think) more than half the time.

Boston was top notch but Philly was beginning to suck after Dr. J left. Moses Malone was getting old, Barkley was just a big blob that was fitting into the league and Milwaukee, while having one or two serious years, never challenged for a ring. Detroit was starting to get into the groove as they picked up more and more players (Microwave, Dumars, Laimbeer, Salley...etc) but I don't think they were really "elite" until Adrian Dantley join them and trading him for Mark Aquirre put them over the top.


Suns sucked, the Spurs sucked and the Nuggets semi sucked. Sonics were pretty decent wqith Jack Sikma and Dallas was a beast with Mark Aquirre, Rolando Blackman, and joined later by Roy Tarpley.
Sonics had a pretty good roster with X, Tom Chambers and Dale Ellis.
Rockets only made the finals once but they were a very good team with Olajuwan and Sampson. And ofcourse the Jazz had Stockton and Malone for a good portion of the 80's

[LnGrrrR]

For the record I have no problems with people claiming BOS to be the #1 franchise in the NBA.

It is my opinion that the Lakers have been consistently excellent from Day 1. More so than any other franchise.

Even though Day 1 to Day 38,000 or so doesn't really count since it's in a weak era.