Only room for 7 atop NBA
Mike Lopresti
Gannett News Service
Jun. 9, 2005 12:00 AM
Before the NBA Finals begin their long, slow march past Father's Day, let's review the champions from the past 25 years.
Please don't go. This won't take as long as you think.
Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Houston, San Antonio, Los Angeles Lakers.
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That's it. Seven franchises, 25 years. The NBA might spread from sea to shining sea, and Seattle coffee to Miami stone crab. The land of a thousand tattoos. But there must be a pretty good bouncer at the door to the champions' club, because not many people get in.
And because the Pistons and Spurs are in the NBA Finals, we can already update the number. Make that seven franchises in 26 years.
The question is why.
Why, since the past 25 World Series have produced champions from 18 franchises. Even though George Steinbrenner has tried to buy up all the trophies.
Why, since there have been eight different winners in the past 11 Super Bowls. Even though the New England Patriots seem to never lose.
Why just the Magnificent Seven, when all you need in this sport are five guys in short pants?
Part of it has been the family tree of NBA stars, spreading like a big oak over the past quarter-century. The Lakers' Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy beget Boston's Larry Bird and Kevin McHale. They beget Detroit's Isiah Thomas and Bill Laimbeer and Joe Dumars. Who beget Chicago's Scottie Pippen and Michael Jordan, who played baseball long enough to beget Houston's Hakeem Olajuwon. Then came San Antonio's Tim Duncan and David Robinson, followed by the Lakers' Shaq-and-Kobe Show.
"I think the answer lies in the size of the team," NBA Commissioner David Stern said over the phone, "where the great players have a more profound impact. A pitcher pitches only every fourth or fifth day. A .300 hitter needs a lot of help. But with two great players in basketball, you're talking about 40 percent of your team. Look at the people piloting those teams.
"If you start healthy and you start young . . . "
Then the les just keep on coming. And they have.
"That's why there have been only seven," Magic Johnson was saying Monday night when brought the question. "They're the teams that had the superstars you could build around."
Fair enough. But what of the current Pistons, who are not so much a marquee of a few big names, but a company picture?
The matter was taken to Dumars, now president and architect of the Pistons.
"It's really hard to build a basketball team in the NBA," he began. "I think that number is a testament to how tough it is. Not a lot of organizations have been able to do it.
"Name all the baseball (champions). Name all the football. There's a ton of them. That shows you how much tougher it is in this business. Basketball is so connected. One guy is connected to the other. I think it's different in baseball. The left fielder and the right fielder, they don't have to work together."
Next question. Seven teams . . . 26 championships. Good or bad for the game?
"Neither," Dumars said. "It's just the way it is in the NBA."
"Hugely irrelevant," Stern said. "Because in a funny kind of way, it's the journey. The Celtics and Lakers split all those championships (the Bird-Magic wars of the 1980s). If one team had won them all, that wouldn't have made the compe ion any less intense."
Stern will soon hand the trophy to a Piston or a Spur, to take home and place next to the others. Meanwhile, all the wannabes watch another ring-less year go by. The NBA has a long waiting list.
I have a hard time with Philly on that last. I know, technically it's true, but how can Philly with one championship even compare to the Dynasties of the Celtics, Lakers, Bulls and the upcoming possible Dynasties of the Spurs or Pistons?
Even the Rockets at least won Two Championships....
That Sixers team just might have been the greatest ever assembled...
That same team lost in the 1st round the next year.
To the NETS.
Did they stay intact or just get older? Honestly I don't remember....killed a few brain cells between then and now!That same team lost in the 1st round the next year.
To the NETS.
Moses Malone was 29. Mo Cheeks was 28. Andrew Toney was 27.
The only key sixers over 30 were Evring (34) and Bobby Jones (33).
In any case, there was no excuse from losing the deciding game at home to Otis freaking Birdsong.
very true.
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