The 31 Best NBA Champs of the Last 31 Years, Ranked (Updated)

Regular Season Record: 53–29
Playoff Record: 16–4
All-Stars: Nikola Jokic
Accolades: All-NBA Second Team (Nikola Jokic)
Nikola Jokic is still just 31 years old. He’s not going to get any shorter, and it probably won’t matter if he gets any slower, so it’s entirely possible that the Nuggets get a supporting cast around him and pick up another championship or two in the next decade. But it’s far more likely they don’t, leaving just one title for Jokic’s all-time great career.

Ironically, the Joker’s lone championship season wasn’t one of his three MVP campaigns. Joel Embiid took the trophy in 2023, bookended by Jokic’s wins in ‘21, ‘22, and ‘24. Jokic still had a transcendent season, averaging 24.5/11.8/9.8, and his supporting cast was very good as well, with Jamal Murray, Michael Porter, Jr., and Aaron Gordon all going for more than 16 during the regular season. Still, the Jokic-era Nuggets have always seemed like a squad that was just a little less than the sum of its parts, getting past the conference semis only twice.

So let’s call this Nuggets championship team what it was: a good team playing in a year marked by league-wide parity that received a very fortuitous playoff draw on its way to a championship. The ‘22-’23 Nuggets notched 53 regular season wins, good for first in a Western Conference where only two teams won more than 50 games; they had a +3.4 net rating that was just sixth best in the league overall.

Three Eastern Conference teams finished with more regular season wins than Denver—and the Nuggets didn’t have to face any of them in the Finals after Miami ran the table as the 8 seed (with the seventh best record). The Nuggets didn’t have to face a team with more than 45 wins in the playoffs, easily taking care of the 8 seed Timberwolves, the 4 seed Suns, and the 7 seed Lakers, before dispatching the Heat in five games in the Finals.

Jokic was excellent throughout the playoffs, finishing half an assist shy of averaging a triple double (30.0/13.5/9.5), but the supporting cast came through as well, especially Murray, who contributed 26.1/5.7/7.1.

Regular Season Record: 46–26
Playoff Record: 16–7
All-Stars: Giannis Antetokounmpo
Accolades: All-NBA First Team (Giannis Antetokounmpo)
Like his fellow 6’11”, freakishly talented, stat box-filling, Eastern European, and substantially paler Western Conference counterpart Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo is a player who should have more than one championship to his name. Like Jokic, Antetokounmpo has also been surrounded by a very good supporting cast who seemed like they also should’ve won more titles: Jrue Holliday (who did win another chip with Boston in ‘24), Khris Middleton, Brook Lopez, and quintessential 3-and-D guy, P.J. Tucker.

At 46-26 in the Covid-shortened season, the Bucks were the 3 seed in the East. They got revenge on Miami in the first round, sweeping the Heat with Antetokounmpo averaging 23.5/15/7.8. Down 0-2 to the Nets in the conference semis, Tucker held Kevin Durant to 39% shooting and the Bucks eked out a three-point victory. Kyrie Irving went down with an ankle injury in Game 4 and the Bucks won a classic Game 7 in overtime on the road.

After beating the Hawks in the ECF (Atlanta had kindly taken out the No. 1 seed 76ers), Milwaukee faced Phoenix in the Finals, with Tucker’s defense coming to the fore. Again down 0-2 headed home, the Bucks turned to Tucker as a defensive stopper, with the veteran responding by helping to hold Devin Booker to 21% shooting in Game 3, beginning a four-game run to the championship, capped by the team holding Booker to 36% shooting in Game 6. Antetokounmpo won the MVP, as he clearly should have (averaging 35.2/13.5/5 and dropping 50 in the clincher will do that), but sometimes it’s the role players who make a championship-caliber team a champion.

Regular Season Record: 52–30
Playoff Record: 16–7
All-Stars: Dwyane Wade, Shaquille O’Neal
Accolades: All-NBA First Team (Shaquille O’Neal), All-NBA Second Team (Dwyane Wade)
“15 Strong” was the motto for the ‘05-’06 Heat, a slightly hokey/slightly inspiring mantra coined by head coach Pat Riley to convey a sense of unity on the roster, from the superstars to the last player on the bench. No disrespect to Michael Doleac or Jason Kapono, but it’s a lot easier to win a championship going 15 strong if one of those 15 is Dwyane Wade.

The ‘05-’06 Heat started the season at just 11-10, which apparently made head coach Stan Van Gundy long for more time with his family. After Van Gundy resigned, the team president then promptly reinstalled Riley as head coach. (Coincidentally, the team president was also named Pat Riley.)

With Riley at the helm the Heat finished the rest of the season 41-20, good for a No. 2 seed in the East, but 12 games back of the Pistons. And while Miami didn’t actually go 15 deep (fun fact: the “15 Strong” Miami Heat played 11 players in the ‘06 Finals), they did have significant depth and experience. In addition to Wade and O’Neal, the Heat featured seasoned vets like Gary Payton, Antoine Walker, and Alonzo Mourning.

The Heat bested the 64-win Pistons in the ECF, with Shaq averaging a double-double. But then the Heat appeared cooked in the Finals. Already down 0-2 after dropping the first two games to the Mavs in Dallas, Miami was trailing by 13 in the fourth quarter of Game 3 when Dwyane Wade decided to become a legend.

Wade finished with 42 points and 13 rebounds in Game 3, and proceeded to put on an all-time great performance the rest of the series: 36 points in a Game 4 blowout to even the series; 43 to steal Game 5 in Dallas; and 36 points and 10 boards to close out the championship in Game 6.

Regular Season Record: 54–28
Playoff Record: 16–7
All-Stars: Ben Wallace
Accolades: All-NBA Second Team (Ben Wallace)
No superstars, no problem. Going into the ‘03-’04 season, no one was talking about the Detroit Pistons.

The ‘03-’04 Pistons were coming off a trip to the ‘03 Eastern Finals, where they were swept by the Nets. They were anchored by two-time defending Defensive Player of the Year Ben Wallace, but the rest of the starting lineup—Chauncey Billups, Richard Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, and Rasheed Wallace—had two All-Star appearances between them (Rasheed’s nods in ‘00 and ‘01). The NBA is a superstar league, right?

Not that year, and in hindsight, we should’ve seen it coming. Detroit’s starting five was the platonic ideal of a perfectly matched lineup: a savvy floor general (Chauncey Billups); a savvy know-your-role shooting guard (Richard Hamilton); a savvy do everything small forward (Tayshaun Prince); a savvy, three-point shooting power forward (Rasheed Wallace); a savvy, mess-cleaning big man (Ben Wallace).

If you’re noticing a trend it’s because savvy was the trademark of the ‘03-’04 Pistons. They were challenged by the Nets in the East semis, forced to win a rugged Game 6 on the road, and the ECF against the Pacers was a taut, bruising six-game series as well. But the four Hall of Famer Lakers were no match for Detroit’s savvy group of gamers.

Regular Season Record: 58–24
Playoff Record: 16–4
All-Stars: Tim Duncan, Tony Parker
Accolades: All-NBA First Team (Tim Duncan)
The 2006-07 Spurs probably weren’t the sexiest team of San Antonio’s two-decade, five-championship run of excellence, but they might have been the most satisfying.

Here’s the listing of San Antonio’s win totals and Western Conference seeding in the 2000s:

2000-01: 58, 1st
2001-02: 58, 2nd
2002-03: 60, 1st
2003-04: 57, 3rd
2004-05: 59, 2nd
2005-06: 63, 1st
2006-07: 58, 3rd
2007-08: 56, 3rd
2008-09: 54, 3rd
2009-10: 50, 7th

It’s a comically consistent, mind-numbingly good output for most of a decade, but not without its share of heartbreak, including a Game 7 home loss in the 2006 West semis to the Mavericks.

In ‘06-’07 the Spurs ran it back with much the same lineup: a Big Three of Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, and Tony Parker, with Bruce Bowen and Michael Finley playing key supporting roles. They ended up finishing 16-4 in the playoffs, but with an important caveat: They missed having to play the 67-win Mavericks, who were stunned in the first round by the Warriors.

Regular Season Record: 53–29
Playoff Record: 16–6
All-Stars: Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Andrew Wiggins
Accolades: All-NBA Second Team (Stephen Curry)
Guess who’s back?

The Warriors 2022 Finals win might’ve been the oops baby of their dynasty, but it was also confirmation (as if any was needed) of the enduring greatness of the Steph-Draymond-Klay-Coach Kerr core.

At the time the 2019 Finals felt like the natural end to Golden State’s run of iconic excellence in the 2010s. The vibes would get worse: Durant was traded to the Nets in the offseason; Andre Iguodala landed in Miami; Klay Thompson missed the next season with his ACL tear; and Steph Curry missed almost the entire season with injurty. The Dubs finished 15-50, 15th in the Western Conference. The next season, 2020-21 was a little better; the Warriors finished eighth in the west and didn’t even make the playoffs after losing in the play-in.

But reinforcements were on the way. The Warriors had drafted Jordan Poole at the end of the first round in 2019, and acquired Andrew Wiggins for D’Angelo Russell (the key piece in the Durant trade) at the trade deadline in 2020. When the 2021-22 season began, Poole was a starter in Thompson’s absence; Wiggins would make the All-Star team that season.

With Steph averaging 25+ points and Klay chipping in 20 after his return in January, Golden State jumped out to a 41-13 start, ultimately finishing third in the West. At full strength for the playoffs, the Warriors were never pushed to a seventh game, getting contributions up and down the lineup, from players like Kevin Looney, Otto Porter Jr., and Gary Payton II. After the Dubs beat the Celtics in six in the Finals, you could squint and see the potential for an extension of the team’s dynasty.

Regular Season Record: 58–24
Playoff Record: 16–8
All-Stars: Kawhi Leonard, Kyle Lowry
Accolades: Most Improved Player (Pascal Siakam), All-NBA Second Team (Kawhi Leonard)
After setting a franchise record for wins in 2017-18, the Raps were swept in the playoffs for the third time in four years, and the second in a row by LeBron James’s Cavs. In response Toronto fired head coach Dwane Casey (who’d win the NBA Coach of the Year six weeks later) and traded the franchise’s all-time leading scorer DeMar Derozan to the Spurs for Kawhi Leonard, and traded another franchise stalwart, Jonas Valanciunas, for Marc Gasol at the trade deadline. Ultimately the moves, combined with the emergence of Pascal Siakam, would pay off with the franchise’s and Canada’s first NBA championship.

Despite winning two fewer games than the season before, the Raps were well positioned for the playoffs, developing depth that allowed them to withstand the loss of OG Anunoby to an appendectomy in April. In the playoffs the team still went eight deep, getting key contributions from Fred VanVleet and Serge Ibaka, to go with steady excellence from Lowry and Siakam.

But ultimately the 2019 playoffs were Kawhi’s coronation, from one of the most clutch shots in NBA history to a Finals MVP performance averaging nearly a double-double. The ultimate glory was short-lived of course—Leonard would sign with the Clippers in the offseason, and despite winning one more Atlantic Division crown, the Raps would fall to the Celtics in seven, dropping all four games at home.

Regular Season Record: 59–23
Playoff Record: 16–7
All-Stars: Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili
Accolades: All-NBA First Team (Tim Duncan)
One championship is forever. Two titles are sublime. Three chips in six seasons? That’s the beginning of the NBA’s most unique dynasty.

After the ‘04 Finals Shaquille O’Neal was traded to the Heat and Steve Nash signed with the Suns, seemingly moving the balance of power in the West to Phoenix. But San Antonio—led by a guy nicknamed the Big Fundamental—remained largely the same. They were two wins better in ‘04-’05 but still finished second in the West to the high-flying Suns of Nash, Amar’e Stoudamire, and Shawn Marion.

But despite the Suns’ offensive fireworks, San Antonio was the better team (as evidenced by a superior Net Rating in the regular season) and it showed in the Western Conference Finals, with the Spurs winning a 5-game series that was tighter than it looked.

The Spurs faced the defending champ Pistons in the Finals. After stealing Game 5 in Detroit on a classic “Big Shot Bob” Robert Horry three, they finished off the Pistons in San Antonio in Game 7. Duncan won Finals MVP, but the entire playoffs was a national coming out party for Ginobili and Parker, who asserted themselves on a team that would win two more titles in the next nine years.

Regular Season Record: 57–25
Playoff Record: 16–7
All-Stars: Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol
Accolades: All-NBA First Team (Kobe Bryant) All-NBA Third Team (Pau Gasol)
Top to bottom, the 09-10 Lakers; primary rotation featured as good a collection of talent as any of their 21st Century champions: Kobe, Pau Gasol, Metta World Peace, Lamar Odom, Derek Fisher, and Andrew Bynum. The team sat 37-11 at the end of January, battling injuries to Gasol and Artest, but finished the regular season just 20-14 from February through April. It was still good enough for the No. 1 seed in a stacked Western Conference where all of the playoff teams finished with 50 wins.

In the playoffs the Lakers topped an Oklahoma City Thunder team just entering its Durant-Westbrook-Harden era in six games, swept the Jazz and overcame the Suns in six in the WCF to set up a rematch of the 2008 Finals with the Kevin Garnett-Paul Pierce-Ray Allen Celtics.

The 2010 Finals was a slugfest, with the teams combining for only two 100-point games in the entire series. Down 3-2 heading back to the Staples Center for Game 6, LA smothered the Celtics, forcing a Game 7 with a dominating defensive effort in an 87-69 win. Going into the 4th quarter of G7, Boston led 57-53, the result of putrid shooting performances all around. But in the 4th, the Lakers’ twin Hall of Famers Bryant and Gasol shined, with Kobe scoring 10 of his 23 points in the final 12 minutes and Gasol pulling down 18 rebounds for the game. It wasn’t the prettiest championship in the franchise’s history, but it was a ring nonetheless—and the last of Kobe’s career.

Regular Season Record: 46–20
Playoff Record: 16–7
All-Stars: LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh
Accolades: MVP (LeBron James), All-NBA First Team (LeBron James), All-NBA Third Team (Dwyane Wade)
As much a sigh of relief as a victory lap, the Heat’s 2012 championship felt both preordained and agonizing in its delayed arrival. When LeBron James joined fellow All-Stars/future Hall of Famers/banana boat co-riders Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, he famously predicted “not one, not two…” but seven NBA titles. But in James’ first season in Miami, the Heat were stunned in the Finals by the Mavs.

So the following season—delayed by a lockout—represented a chance for redemption. Which the Heat achieved, albeit not without some stumbles. Once again the Heat finished second to the Bulls in the regular season, but missed Chicago in the playoffs after Rose went down with a season-ending and career-altering injury in the first game of the first round. The Heat were pushed to seven games by the Celtics in the ECF, with Boston led by a geriatric roster headlined by Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen.

Still, the 2012 playoffs were notable for being the year that LeBron finally willed a team to ultimate victory. Down 3-2 to the Celtics and playing Game 6 in Boston, James delivered his most important clutch performance to date, scoring 45 while shooting 19-26 and pulling down 15 rebounds; he played all but 28 seconds in Game 7 and recorded another double-double.

LeBron was dominant in the Finals, averaging 28/10/7, and winning the Finals MVP in a five-game takedown of a young Kevin Durant-Russell Westbrook-James Harden OKC team.

Regular Season Record: 52–19
Playoff Record: 16–5
All-Stars: LeBron James, Anthony Davis
Accolades: All-NBA First Team (LeBron James, Anthony Davis), Assists Champ (LeBron James)
The 2019-2020 NBA season was a weird one for everyone, but it was especially strange for the LA Lakers. LA was coming off its sixth straight season without a playoff berth; LeBron James missed the playoffs for the first time in 14 years and didn’t play in the Finals for the first time in nine. Frank Vogel was a brand new coach and Anthony Davis was a brand new Laker, having arrived in a trade in the summer of 2019. And then in a six-week span one of the franchise’s most iconic players died in a helicopter crash and the world went into lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Between Kobe Bryant’s death and the onset of the pandemic, it’s easy to lose sight of how good the ‘19-’20 Lakers were: 17-2 through the end of November, a franchise best at that point in the season. Both LeBron and AD were named to the All-NBA First Team, only the third set of teammates to do so in the same season (after Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen in 1996 and Shaquille O’Neal and Bryant from 2002-2004). The Bubble Playoffs were both exhilarating (“There’s playoff basketball to watch!”) and a little uninspiring (the Lakers were never really challenged, dispatching Portland, Denver, and Houston 4-1, and beating the five-seed Heat in six). The following year injuries to LeBron and Davis would end the Lakers hopes for a full season of dominance from their stars, and the franchise has been in limbo ever since.

Regular Season Record: 57–25
Playoff Record: 16–5
All-Stars: Dirk Nowitzki
Accolades: All-NBA Second Team (Dirk Nowitzki)
At the start of the 2010-11 season, it seemed like the Mavs’ championship window would close without a banner to show for a decade-long run of excellence. In 2000-01 the franchise began a run of 11 50-plus win seasons, including 60-win campaigns in ‘02-’03 and ‘05-’06 and a 67-win season in 2006-07, then good for sixth all time.

But the ‘00s Mavs were marked by repeated disappointment in the playoffs. So not much was expected of the ‘10-’11 edition of the Mavs, especially with the Lakers coming off back-to-back titles, the Spurs in the midst of their intermittent dynasty, and LeBron forming the Heatles. But the ‘11 squad was loaded with canny vets and proved a perfect combo to put a capstone on Dallas’ decade of excellence.

The team featured a still-in-his-prime Dirk Nowitzki plus fellow future Hall of Famer Jason Kidd. But it also included former All-Stars (Shawn Marion, Peja Stojakovic, and Tyson Chandler), a former 6th Man of the Year Jason Terry, and a 5-foot 10-inch sparkplug named J.J. Barea. After notching 57 regular season wins, the Mavs went on a revenge tour of sorts in the playoffs, sweeping the Lakers in the second round and besting the Wade-James-Bosh Heat in six games in the Finals. Dallas wouldn’t win another playoff series until Luka Doncic was leading the team, but the Mavs partying on South Beach after taking down the Heat is an all-time sports flex.

Regular Season Record: 60–22
Playoff Record: 16–8
All-Stars: Tim Duncan
Accolades: MVP (Tim Duncan), Coach of the Year (Gregg Popovich), All-NBA First Team (Tim Duncan)
A dynasty begins to take shape. After winning the Finals in 1999, San Antonio took a backseat in the Western Conference and the NBA as a whole to the threepeat Lakers. But quietly, the team that would contend for and win multiple championships over the next decade-plus was being built.

In the 2001 Draft, the Spurs picked up Tony Parker with the 28th pick (after such luminaries as Jeryl Sasser and Brandon Armstrong), and signed Manu Ginobili as an international free agent prior to the 2002-03 season. With two Hall of Famers added to a squad that already featured the reigning MVP in Duncan, the San Antonio set about displaying the quiet and fierce competence that would be its hallmark for the next 15 years.

While the Spurs “only” won 60 games and dropped eight games in the playoffs, the competition was stiff, especially in the Western Conference. Six WC teams finished with 50 or more wins in the ‘02-’03 regular season, and San Antonio took down the Stephon Marbury-Shawn Marion-Amar’e Stoudamire Suns in the first round; the Shaq-Kobe Lakers in the second; the Dirk Nowitzki-Steve Nash-Michael Finley Mavs in the WCF; and the Jason Kidd-Kenyon Martin Nets in the Finals. The Spurs would go on to win two more championships in the next four seasons, cementing their dynasty status.

Regular Season Record: 58–24
Playoff Record: 15–4
All-Stars: Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant
Accolades: All-NBA First Team (Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant)
Peak Lakers Threepeat Dynasty? Yes, but? ‘01-’02 was the first season Kobe was named to an All-NBA first team where he and Shaquille O’Neal became just the second set of teammates in the NBA’s modern era to be named to a first team in the same season, joining Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen from the ‘95-’96 Bulls. The ‘01-’02 Lakers also started the season 16-1.

But that’s where the “buts” come in. From December through February, the team was “only” 25-16, the equivalent of a good-not-great 50-32 regular season. Of course being merely good during the winter is fine as long as you put it together come spring, and the Lakers did exactly that beginning in March. If not for a very tight Western Conference Finals against the Kings, the Lakers would’ve gone 11-1 in the playoffs, including a 4-1 win in the Western semis in which every game was decided by 10 points or fewer.

But about that Western Conference Finals. The top team in the conference was the Sacramento Kings, who posted 61 wins with a squad that featured Chris Webber, Mike Bibby, Doug Christie, and Peja Stojakovic. Playing without Stojakovic for the first four games, the Kings took a 3-2 lead into Game 6, before losing one of the most controversial games in league history. So, yes, the ‘01-’02 Lakers deserve to make this list, but we’ll pour out a little something for the ‘01-’02 Kings.

Regular Season Record: 37–13
Playoff Record: 15–2
All-Stars: N/A (All-Star Game cancelled due to shortened season)
Accolades: All-NBA First Team (Tim Duncan)
It’s tempting to write off the ‘99 Spurs for winning the first championship of the Tim Duncan era dynasty at the end of a lockout-shortened regular season. Don’t do that. San Antonio finished 37-13, equivalent to a 60+ win mark in an 82-game season, but the Spurs took eight of those losses in February (the first month of the season). In the modified regular season the Spurs went 31-5 after March 1.

This first San Antonio championship team also set the formula for subsequent Spurs winners: take two Hall of Famers (in this case, Duncan and David Robinson), add key role players with deep organizational experience (Sean Elliott, Avery Johnson, and Jaren Jackson), and throw in a handful of vets who know their way around deep playoff runs (Mario Elie, Jerome Kersey, Steve Kerr, and Will Perdue). The result was a dominant playoff team that dropped just two games in the postseason and swept the young Shaq-Kobe Lakers and a deep Trail Blazers squad featuring Rasheed Wallace, Damon Stoudamire, and Arvydas Sabonis, before dispatching a plucky Knicks team in five games.

Regular Season Record: 65–17
Playoff Record: 16–7
All-Stars: Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol
Accolades: All-NBA First Team (Kobe Bryant), All-NBA Third Team (Pau Gasol)
When Kobe Bryant entered the GOAT chat. After the Lakers experiment in running an old folks home (aka signing Karl Malone and Gary Payton) flamed out in a Finals defeat to the Pistons in 2004, the Purple and Gold became unquestionably Kobe’s team. Shaq was shipped to Miami and Phil Jackson took a sabbatical and Bryant became the Lakers centerpiece.

The initial results were…not good. But Jackson came back prior to the 2005-06 season and the Lakers returned to the playoffs, with Kobe clocking 81 points in a January ‘06 game against the Raptors. Still, LA was bounced in the first round of the playoffs against the Suns, with the typically not shooting averse Bryant putting up just three shots in a Game 7 loss.

The Lakers lost in the first round to the Suns again in ‘07, but regained their Finals form in ‘08 after Derek Fisher returned to the franchise and being gifted Pau Gasol at the trade deadline. They lost to the Celtics in six, but the foundation was set. In 2008-09 LA went 65-17 and mostly cruised through the playoffs, the exception being their second round series versus Houston when the Rockets took them to seven games. After the Lakers finished a five-game domination of the Magic in the Finals, Kobe won the first of his Finals MVPs and had finally attained the rep that was his birthright—top dog.

Regular Season Record: 68–14
Playoff Record: 16–7
All-Stars: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams
Accolades: MVP (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander), All-NBA First Team (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander), All-NBA Third Team (Jalen Williams), Scoring Champ (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander)
For much of the ‘24-’25 season, the Thunder flirted with a 70-win pace; a tough loss to the Rockets on April 4 put an end to that run, but it shouldn’t obscure just how dominant this edition of the Thunder was.

The ‘24-’25 Thunder’s 12.8 net rating is second only to the ‘95-’96 Bulls, and their 12.9-point average margin of victory is a full half-point better than the previous all-time margin of victory mark set by the ‘71-’72 Lakers (for context those teams won 72 and 69 games respectively). That they did all this while being the second-youngest team to win an NBA championship (after the ‘77 Trail Blazers) makes it all the more scary.

OKC was not quite so dominant in the playoffs, getting taken to seven games by a veteran Denver team in the second round, and getting pushed to the brink by a scrappy Indiana team in the Finals. But given their youth and the possibility of a dynasty in the making, the slight tarnish to an otherwise dominant season may be soon forgotten.

Regular Season Record: 58–24
Playoff Record: 16–5
All-Stars: Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green
Accolades: All-NBA First Team (Kevin Durant), All-NBA Third Team (Stephen Curry)
High on the list of reasons sports dynasties come to an end? Injuries. High on the list of reasons sports dynasties start in the first place? Guts. The 2017-18 Warriors were the perfect example of how the latter can overcome the former.

After beating the Hawks on March 8, 2018, they were a borderline dominant 51-14, with a clear path to a third title in four years. And then injuries struck, headlined by an MCL sprain to Steph Curry that kept him on the sideline for the last 10 games of the regular season and the first round of the playoffs.

But without Steph, the Warriors trounced the Spurs in the first round, four games to one (KD averaged 27+ per game, Klay went for 22, and Draymond averaged a double double). With Steph back in the mix beginning in Game 2, Golden State handled the Pelicans 4-1 as well (Draymond averaged a triple double). In the Western Conference Finals the Warriors came back from a 3-2 deficit against the Houston Rockets, with Klay dropping 35 in Game 6 and Steph going for 27/9/10 in Game 7. The Finals sweep of the Cavs was an afterthought (maybe Cleveland pulls out a game if J.R. Smith doesn’t come down with a case of brain lock in Game 1). By that time, the Warriors were putting a lot of miles on their odometers, something that might’ve contributed to the dynasty’s ultimate downfall the following year, but in ‘18 the champs showed why they deserved to be mentioned with the best.

Regular Season Record: 53-29
Playoff Record: 16–3
All-Stars: Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns
Accolades: All-NBA Second Team (Jalen Brunson)
There’s an argument to be made that the 2025-26 Knicks were one of the worst NBA champs of the past 30 years. They were only 53-29 during the regular season and didn’t even win their division. Two weeks after winning the NBA Cup in mid-December, they embarked on a three-week stretch where they went 2-9 (aka the number of losses the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors accrued during the course of an entire season). They started the playoffs 1-2 and were able to miss three teams (the Celtics, Pistons, and Thunder) that could’ve given them the most problems. No one on their roster has made an All-NBA first team.

And yet.

Since the NBA adopted its current format of four best of seven series, only one team has a better playoff winning percentage than the ‘26 Knicks: the Destroy the World Hamptons Five 2017 Warriors; those same Warriors are the only team in the era with a longer playoff winning streak than the Knicks’ 13-game run. The Knicks may have avoided some of the league’s heavy hitters, but they obliterated the opponents they did play, beating the Hawks, 76ers, and Cavs by 51, 30, and 37 points in those series’ closeout games. And of course New York authored two 20-point-plus fourth quarter comebacks in the span of three weeks.

The team itself resembles the mid-aughts Pistons in its Voltron-like blend of (mostly) non-superstar talent: bench players with defined jobs to do (Landry Shamet, Deuce McBride, Mitchell Robinson); not one but three glue guys (OG Anunoby, Josh Hart, Mikal Bridges), and a mullti-dimensional big man (Karl Anthony Towns). And then there’s the superstar who wasn’t supposed to be a superstar.

Jalen Brunson is everything critics said he wasn’t when the Knicks signed him in 2022: He’s a 1, 1a, superstar, the man, Him, all of it, and definitely not too small for the biggest moments. Both the Cavs and Spurs seemed to have thought they “won” their series against the Knicks, despite going a combined 1-8 against them. So yeah, strictly using the eye test, these Knicks might not look like they belong in the upper echelon of champs from the last 30 years. Maybe ‘17 Draymond Green can actually fluster Anunoby; maybe ‘98 Rodman fully neutralizes KAT; and maybe ‘01 Kobe or ‘14 Kawhi can actually contain JB. Maybe. But would you be surprised if the Knicks still won?

Regular Season Record: 62–20
Playoff Record: 15–6
All-Stars: Michael Jordan
Accolades: All-NBA First Team (Michael Jordan) All-NBA Third Team (Scottie Pippen) Scoring Champ (Michael Jordan), Rebounding Champ (Dennis Rodman)
Thanks to “The Last Dance,” the ‘97-’98 Bulls are arguably the most documented and dissected team in NBA history. The turmoil around the team is well known, including a sluggish 8-7 start to the season. Scottie Pippen missed much of the first half of the season recovering from an injured toe suffered in the ‘97 playoffs and Dennis Rodman had his own injury issues, plus a 48-hour mid-season vacation with Carmen Electra. Given those absences, the 62-20 record the Bulls eventually posted looks impressive in retrospect.

Powered by Jordan’s apparent personal grievance with approximately half of mankind (not to mention a supporting cast that included Toni Kukoc, Luc Longley, and Ron Harper), the Bulls finished first in the Eastern Conference. The Indiana Pacers gave Chicago its toughest test in the playoffs, taking the Bulls to seven games in an Eastern Conference Finals where six of the seven games were decided by six points or fewer. And then MJ poked the ball away from Karl Malone and juked/shoved Bryon Russell out of his shoes (that was personal, too).

Regular Season Record: 67–15
Playoff Record: 16–5
All-Stars: Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson
Accolades: MVP (Stephen Curry), All-NBA First Team (Stephen Curry), All-NBA Third Team (Klay Thompson)
The Curry-Kerr-Green-Thompson and friends Warriors were so good for so long, it can be easy to forget they were once plucky up-and-comers, and not the era-defining juggernaut they became. Before Curry changed the sport and became the 11th best player of all time, he was an undersized point guard with a baby face that at least one front office thought was too injury-prone to trade for. Before Draymond Green became a widely despised old player with an old man’s game, he was a widely respected young player with an old man’s game. And before he was a Hall of Fame coach, Steve Kerr had no previous coaching experience at any level before he took over the Dubs in 2014.

The Warriors team Kerr inherited was a classic squad on the cusp in search of the right voice to push them to the top. Mark Jackson had navigated Golden State’s rise to relevance, going from 23 wins in the lockout-shortened ‘11-’12 season to 47 in ‘12-’13 and 51 in ‘13-’14. But after dropping a first round series to the Clippers in the first round of the ‘14 playoffs, Jackson was fired and Kerr brought on.

The results were immediate. The Warriors won their first five games and spun off a 16-game winning streak early in the season to open the campaign 21-2. Golden State finished 67-15, with Steph winning his first MVP, Draymond finishing second in the DPOY voting, and the team finishing second in offensive rating and first in defensive rating. Those stats, plus the team’s dominant playoff run, make a plausible argument for this first Warriors championship team actually being better than the following season’s 73-win edition.

Regular Season Record: 64–18
Playoff Record: 16–3
All-Stars: Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown
Accolades: All-NBA First Team (Jayson Tatum)
The Jayson Tatum-Jaylen Brown Celtics had been teasing a season like this since they first broke through into the 2022 Finals. Like the other Boston teams from this era, the ‘23-’24 Celtics were built on defense. Both Jrue Holliday and Derrick White finished in the top 10 in Defensive Player of the Year voting, and the team as a whole held opponents to 111.6 points per game, good for third in the league. But it was Boston’s jump in scoring that carried the team in 2024; the Celts finished the year scoring more than 123 points per game, good for an +11.6 net rating.

Boston got a relatively easy draw in the playoffs. After finishing 64-18, seven games better than the rest of the league, they managed to avoid the second and third place Knicks and Bucks in the east, and the top four teams from the west. But that doesn’t diminish the playoff run the Celtics went on, dropping just three games, with Brown taking home MVP in both the Eastern Conference Finals and the NBA Finals.

Regular Season Record: 62–20
Playoff Record: 16–7
All-Stars: Tony Parker
Accolades: Coach of the Year (Gregg Popovich), All-NBA Second Team (Tony Parker)
The NBA in 2013-14: Kevin Durant wins MVP and, alongside Russell Westbrook, leads OKC to 59 wins. LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh run it back again (for the last time it turns out) and the Heat win 54. The Warriors’ Splash Brothers era begins while the Clippers’ see the peak of Lob City. But the team with the best record and the one left standing, quietly (how else?) at the end of this star-studded season? The San Antonio Spurs.

The ‘13-’14 Spurs were the last and arguably best team from the franchise’s Intermittent Dynasty that saw the club take home five chips in 15 years. Tim Duncan was the only player on all of those Spurs squads, and while he was two years from retirement, he still put up a 15.1 points 9.7 reb per game season at age 37. Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili did their usual thing, but where the rest of the league had the stars, the Spurs had depth, with Boris Diaw, Patty Mills, Tiago Splitter, Danny Green, and Marco Belinelli making significant contributions. And the ‘14 Finals were the coming out party for Kawhi Leonard, who made Duncan look like a chatterbox in comparison, and took home his first Finals MVP.

Regular Season Record: 67–15
Playoff Record: 15–8
All-Stars: Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant
Accolades: MVP (Shaquille O’Neal), All-NBA First Team (Shaquille O’Neal), All-NBA Second Team (Kobe Bryant), Scoring Champ (Shaquille O’Neal)
In the summer of 1996, the Lakers signed free agent Shaquille O’Neal and pulled off a draft day heist—er, trade—to acquire Kobe Bryant. Bryant played sparingly in his rookie season (at the time he was the second youngest person to ever play in the NBA), but in Kobe’s second year the Lakers won 61 games before getting swept by the Jazz in the conference finals; in the lockout-shortened ‘99 season the Lakers were again swept in the playoffs, this time by the eventual champion San Antonio Spurs.

With Phil Jackson brought on to provide Zen guidance, the ‘99-’00 Lakers launched a dynasty, going 67-15 behind a No. 1 ranked defense. Shaq won the MVP; Kobe averaged 20+ points for the first time in his career, and both finished top 5 in Defensive Player of the Year voting. LA was challenged in the playoffs—the Kings took them to five games in the first round and the Blazers were up 15 on the Lakers in the 4th quarter of Game 7 of the conference finals—but it seemed inevitable that a new era of purple and gold excellence had begun.

Regular Season Record: 66–16
Playoff Record: 16–10
All-Stars: Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen
Accolades: Defensive Player of the Year (Kevin Garnett), All-NBA First Team (Kevin Garnett), All-NBA Third Team (Paul Pierce)
For all of the talk of how it takes superstars to win in the NBA (which, to be fair, it does), it’s instructive how often purpose-built teams of superstars fail. There’s the “just add old HOF’ers!” 2004 Lakers featuring Karl Malone and Gary Payton joining Kobe and Shaq; the “Brooklyn is the new coolest place in New York” Durant-Irving-Harden trifecta for the Nets; and on and on. But while the ‘07-’08 Celtics might be the ring-chasingest of the ring-chasing teams of the past 30 years, they’re also the rare one that worked out.

Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, and Paul Pierce were all in their primes when they joined forces on the Celts in 2007. Joined by James Posey and a young Rajon Rondo, they dominated the regular season, winning the Atlantic Division by a staggering 25 games, clinching with more than a month left in the season. KG won Defensive Player of the Year, the team matched its previous season’s win total on December 27, and Brian Scalabrine became perhaps the most Celtic-looking Celtic of all time. The party was nearly ruined in the playoffs—Boston needed 7 games to get by Atlanta and Cleveland in the first two rounds of the playoffs, but they righted the ship, taking down the Lakers in 6 in a ‘80s throwback Finals.

Regular Season Record: 57-25
Playoff Record: 16–5
All-Stars: LeBron James
Accolades: All-NBA First Team (LeBron James)
It’s the morning of June 11, 2016, and no one is thinking this Cavs team will be considered an all-time great, in any era. The night before, Cleveland had lost in Game 4 of the Finals at home to the Warriors to go down 3-1 with the series returning to Golden State. This was the 73-9 regular season Warriors, too, the team with the best regular season record in league history. And then? Well, the Knicks haven’t won a championship in more than 50 years, but don’t let that distract from the fact that the Warriors blew a 3-1 lead in the Finals.

The ‘15-’16 Cavs finished the regular season as the Eastern Conference’s top seed. Their rotation featured two Hall of Famers in their prime (Kyrie Irving and LeBron) and a borderline Hall case near the end of his prime (Kevin Love). They swept the first two series of the playoffs, and annihilated the Raptors in six in the ECF, winning their four games by an average of 28 points. But no one thought they stood a chance in the Finals against the Warriors.

The team’s three-game sweep to take the Finals featured twin 41-point performances from Kyrie and LeBron on the road in Game 5 (a game Draymond Green missed after he was suspended for collecting his fourth flagrant foul of the playoffs in Game 4); LeBron’s 41/11/8/4/3 Game 6 aka the greatest single game performance in NBA Finals history (aka the moment LeBron knew he had the Warriors “f*cked up”); and “The Block” from LeBron and “The Shot” from Kyrie in Game 7. Sometimes greatness takes years to achieve; the 2015-16 Cavs did it in a week.

Regular Season Record: 67–15
Playoff Record: 16–1
All-Stars: Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green
Accolades: Defensive Player of the Year (Draymond Green), All-NBA Second Team (Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant), All-NBA Third Team (Draymond Green)
If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. And if you can’t beat him, have them join you. Famously, Draymond Green called Kevin Durant from the parking lot of Oracle Arena following the Warriors Game 7 loss to the LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2016 Finals. Green was recruiting Durant—then at the peak of his powers—to join a Warriors team that had won 73 games the year before but also blown a 3-1 lead in the Finals. Durant’s own Oklahoma City Thunder team had pushed those Warriors to seven games in the Western Conference Finals, blowing their own 3-1 series lead in the process.

Durant joined a Warriors team that already featured Green, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Andre Igoudala. That squad would go 67-15 in the regular season, with Durant missing most of the final quarter of the season with an MCL sprain. With a healthy Durant, the Warriors superteam demolished the competition in the playoffs, going 16-1, its lone loss coming in Game 4 of the Finals to LeBron’s Cavs. Durant may have sacrificed his nice guy image to chase a ring, but it worked (it worked the next year, too, when the Warriors again took down the Cavs in the Finals).

Regular Season Record: 69–13
Playoff Record: 15-4
All-Stars: Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen
Accolades: All-NBA First Team (Michael Jordan), All-NBA Second-Team (Scottie Pippen), Scoring Champ (Michael Jordan), Rebounding Champ (Dennis Rodman)
This Bulls’ season doesn’t have the easy narrative of either the Destroyer of Worlds ‘95-’96 version or the Last Dance ‘97-98 team, but it was defined by excellence and dominance nonetheless. Karl Malone won the regular season MVP, but Michael Jordan was the league’s leading scoring scorer and Dennis Rodman the leading rebounder (16+ per game!). Malone’s Jazz and the Miami Heat in Pat Riley’s second season had very good regular seasons, with 64 and 61 wins respectively, but the Jordan-Rodman-Pippen-Kukoc-Phil Jackson Bulls notched 69 Ws, a number that would’ve tied the record for most victories in a season had not largely the same Bulls team put up 72 the year before.

And of course these Bulls cruised past the Heat in five games in the Eastern Conference Finals, and handled the Jazz in six, including Jordan’s Game 5 “Flu Game” performance. Boring? Maybe a little. But if a 84-17 cumulative record and a repeat Finals win are boring, almost every other team on this list would trade up for boring.

Regular Season Record: 66–16
Playoff Record: 16–7
All-Stars: LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh
Accolades: MVP (LeBron James), All-NBA First Team (LeBron James), All-NBA Third-Team (Dwyane Wade)
There was a time about halfway through this 30-year epoch of NBA excellence where some people thought the Heat would appear on this list not two, not three, not four, not five, not six, not seven times. Alas, it did turn out to just be twice, but this is the team that provided a glimpse of the awe-inspiring excellence that was envisioned when LeBron James decided to take his talents to South Beach.

Start with the obvious: on February 1, 2013 the Heat lost in Indianapolis to the Pacers. They wouldn’t lose again until they fell in Chicago to the Bulls on March 27, a span covering 54 days and 27 consecutive wins; it's still the second longest winning streak in League history. LeBron won his fourth MVP (and somehow likely his last), D Wade averaged 21/5/5, and the roster featured all-time role players like Shane Battier, Udonis Haslem, and a late career Ray Allen. But the team also showed glimpses of why it never reached its full potential: its maddening tendency to falter in the playoffs. The ‘13 Heat needed seven games to get past the Pacers in the ECF and a miracle Allen 3 in Game 6 of the Finals to extend the Spurs (in a finish a lot of Miami fans didn’t even see).

Regular Season Record: 56–26
Playoff Record: 15–1
All-Stars: Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant
Accolades: All-NBA First Team (Shaquille O’Neal), All-NBA Second Team (Kobe Bryant)
Don’t let the ‘00-’01 Lakers’ good-not-great 56-26 regular season record fool you; this team’s picture appears next to the entry for “flipping the switch in the Playoffs” in the imaginary dictionary. The Shaq/Kobe/Phil Lakers had won 67 regular season games in ‘99-’00, but faced adversity in the Playoffs, including entering the 4th quarter of Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals down 15 to Portland. The only Playoff adversity the ‘01 squad faced was Tyronn Lue being the victim of the most vicious stepover in League history (which, as psychic adversity goes, probably ranks pretty high).

With unsung threepeat hero Derek Fisher missing 20 games the regular season, LA finished second in the Western Conference behind San Antonio. And then the Lakers put together the most dominating postseason in NBA history, sweeping the Trail Blazers in the first round; a 55-win Sacramento Kings team featuring Chris Webber and Peja Stojakovic in the conference semis; and the Tim Duncan-David Robinson Spurs in the conference finals, capping the series with 39- and 29-point victories in Games 3 and 4 at Staples Center. The only Playoff L the Lakers took that season was in Game 1 of the Finals against Allen Iverson’s 76ers, before finishing off Philly in five.

Regular Season Record: 72–10
Playoff Record: 15–3
All Stars: Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen
Accolades: MVP (Michael Jordan) 6th Man of the Year (Toni Kukoc) Coach of the Year (Phil Jackson), All-NBA First Team (Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen) Scoring Champ (Michael Jordan), Rebounding Champ (Dennis Rodman)
Basketball has a Dream Team and a Redeem Team and Bad Boys and Splash Brothers, but never has the sport had a team more hell bent on simple revenge than the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls. The lore is well worn by now: After winning a third consecutive NBA Finals in 1993, Michael Jordan retired from basketball and eventually pursued a career in baseball, the sport that his late father loved best. Jordan spent 1994 playing baseball, before announcing a sudden return to the hardwood just before the 1995 NBA Playoffs. Jordan was still excellent in his return, scoring 55 points in a pair of old shoes in his sixth game back, but the Bulls were bounced in the Eastern Conference Semis by the Orlando Magic, with Magic guard Nick Anderson claiming MJ had lost a step.

Jordan, of course, took this personally (to be fair, he was finding slights pretty much everywhere in the ‘90s), and, along with the Robin to his Batman (Scottie Pippen) and the Rodman to his Batman (Dennis Rodman), proceeded to eviscerate the rest of the league. The ‘95-’96 Bulls started 41-3 before finishing a then-record 72-10, leading the league in both offensive and defensive rating. Chicago blitzed the Eastern Conference in the Playoffs, dropping just one game and sweeping the Shaq/Penny Hardaway Magic in the ECF. The Seattle Supersonics stretched the Bulls to six games in the Finals (despite the Bulls jumping to a 3-0 series lead), but Chicago prevailed on Father’s Day at home, powered by a Finals MVP performance by Jordan and a maybe-should’ve-been-Finals-MVP performance by Rodman.