A new NBA season is about to begin. The 2022-2023 Regular Season will open on Tuesday, October 18 with Golden State Warriors facing the Los Angeles Lakers on a very special night. A night in which those from Bahia will receive their championship ring and where they will begin a key course for a legacy that is already historic.
Few expected the Warriors to return to the top of the NBA and manage to win another ring. But in June 2022 they did it and now they will have it in their hands to fight to repeat the championship, which very few in history can achieve.
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In 76 seasons he played in the league There have only been 23 teams that could be crowned in back-to-back years and this number is reduced to 12 in the last 50 years. The increase in the number of franchises has made it more difficult for the semi-annual sectors to emerge as expected.
At the same time, It’s rare to see a defending champion fail to win a playoff series, what happened to the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2020-2021 season. In the case of the previous winner, the Milwaukee Bucks, they made it past the First Round but fell in the seventh against the Boston Celtics.
The story of the NBA champions next season
23. These are the teams that managed to repeat the title the year they won it. A landmark in the distance only seven different franchises.
The Lakers were the first two-time champions when they were still playing in Minneapolis, establishing themselves in the 1948-1949 and 1949-1950 seasons. Then they did it there too with one three feetwinning the Finals in 1952, 1953 and 1954. Those two glory runs were cut short by losses in the division finals.
The 60s were great for Boston Celtics by Bill Russell: champions from the 1958-1959 season to the 1965-1966 season. The following year, the 1966-1967 champion Philadelphia 76ers blew them away by defeating them 4-1 in the East Finals with Wilt Chamberlain averaging a triple-double in that series. The Greens would repeat once again after being champions in the 1967-1968 and 1968-1969, Bill Russell’s last two major league seasons as a player.
Since then, the NBA has entered an era of change, adding several new teams in the 1970s. No one repeated the title until the Los Angeles Lakers did it in the 1986-1987 and 1987-1988 seasons.
Previously, few had returned to the Finals in the year they were champions (Lakers in 1973, Bullets in 1979, Lakers in 1983, Celtics in 1985 and 1987). Showtime with Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had to show up to break that streak.
The NBA entered a very competitive period during those years, but still had four historic teams that repeated the titles by dominating the league until the end of the second millennium. Detroit Pistons celebrated in 1988-1989 and 1989-1990, Chicago Bulls topped for the first time with Michael Jordan in 1990-1991 and repeated in 1991-1992 and 1992-1993; Houston Rockets triumphed in 1993-1994 and 1994-1995 and Taurus they returned to dominate the league between the 1995-1996 and 1997-1998 seasons, until Jordan’s second retirement.
We had to wait a while to see a three-time champion again: The Lakers achieved the “three-peat” with the titles of 2000, 2001 and 2002thus achieving the fifth and final “three-peat” ever seen in the NBA.
Only three teams have come close to the three-peat since then, having won the championship twice: the same Lakers with his consecrations in the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 seasons, Miami Heat with the titles of 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 and Golden State Warriors having celebrated in 2016-2017 and 2017-2018. The latter two occasions were in the Finals again the year after the second title, but failed to win them.
How many teams returned to the finals after being champions?
The Philadelphia Warriors (now Golden State), the first NBA-recognized champion in its history (then in the BAA), were also the first to play in the Finals the following year. However, they lost 4-2 to the Baltimore Bullets.
Behind them, 35 of the next 75 defending champions immediately returned to the league title streakwhich gives a fairly high percentage, 46.6%.
Of the 10 champions before the Warriors, about 4 of them were in the following Finals, though Miami in 2013 and Golden State in 2018 were the only ones to beat them..
How many championship teams did not make the playoffs the following year?
There are hardly two examples of this style in the NBAboth are clearly marked by the retirement of great legends.
The Celtics After being champions in 1969 with Bill Russell as the leader, they did not reach the postseason in the season 1969-1970in which they barely won 34 games out of 82 in the Regular Season.
It was worse for Chicago Taurus when Michael Jordan retired in 1998 after his sixth ring and the team went into rebuilding, also seeing Dennis Rodman, Scottie Pippen and coach Phil Jackson leave. With Toni Kukoc and Ron Harper surviving as the only important pieces of the championship team, Chicago finished last in the East on the season. 1998-1999 with a record of 13-37.
How many championship teams did not win a playoff round the following year?
The example of the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2021 playoffs was the 12th time a champion did not win a round.
To these must be added the Baltimore Bullets in 1949,Philadelphia Warriors at 1957Portland Trail Blazers at 1978Los Angeles Lakers in 1981,Philadelphia 76ers at 1984, San Antonio Spurs at 2000, Miami Heat in 2007, Dallas Mavericks in 2012, San Antonio Spurs in 2015 and Los Angeles Lakers in 2021.
Of all of them, the only sweeps were the Philadelphia Warriors in 1957 (0-2 vs. Syracuse Nationals), Miami Heat in 2007 (0-4 vs. Chicago Bulls) and Dallas Mavericks in 2012 (0-4 vs. Oklahoma City Thunder).
The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of the NBA or its organizations.
