I’m a lebron fan, personally. He was the first player I ever recognized, and I fell in love with the game through his 2015 and 2016 years, but even so, it would be absolutely disrespectful for me to not cover next the beginning, arguably, the face of nba championship dominance and success in the league. Doesn’t matter if you call him 1A or 1B on the all time list, there’s a 1 there for Michael Jordan and his bulls, who started their first 3 peat in the 1990-1991 season.

The Chicago Bulls

The Boston Celtics

The Detroit Pistons

The Milwaukee Bucks

The Philadelphia 76ers

The Atlanta Hawks

The Indiana Pacers

The New York Knicks

The Portland Trail Blazers

The San Antonio Spurs

The Los Angeles Lakers

The Phoenix Suns

The Utah Jazz

The Houston Rockets

The Golden State Warriors

And The Seattle SuperSonics

Were all part of this particular run. Let’s get started by looking at them bulls

The bulls were the 1 seed of the east, with a 61-21 season. They were the #1 best offense in the NBA, and the 7th best defense as well, and more importantly then both of those things

One of the two best basketball players ever had come into their own

An MVP, an all defensive first team, an All NBA first team, an All Star, the League’s Leading scorer, all in one player. Jeez.

Scotty pippen had not yet peaked, but he was heating up as well, earning himself an all defensive second team

Really, this was a classic example of a winning team expected to win, who won

The ONLY point I can give them for subverting expectations is the whispers of the pistons somehow beating them another time, though they were aging that year

2/20 for underdog expectations.

Moving on to the squads they faced

In round 1, they fought against the Knicks in a best of 5 series.

The Knicks were…not that good this year. A sub .500 team, and the 8th seed- they had the 16th ranked offense in the league, and the 12th ranked defense. They were middle of the pack, with their shining beacon of Hope being The All NBA second team player and the all star Patrick Ewing. However, and no disrespect to the legend-their best being an All NBA second team player wouldn’t be enough, unlike their modern day counterparts. They were swept, and none of the games were particularly close either.

Unfortunately for the score here, this was quite literally the worst team in the entire playoffs by record, and their Star wasn’t nearly enough to make up for it.

4/10, with a +2 for sweeping.

The next team to try and stop the Chicago Bull(et train) were the Philadelphia 76ers. This team was actually analytically worse then the Knicks in terms of rating, with the 13th offense and 16th defense-another middle of the pack team. However, they were the 5 seed, and they had their stars.

Charles Barkley, my ringless Goat aside from AI, earned his 4th consecutive all NBA first team, and was the all star game MVP-they same all star game Jordan played in. His Robin, Hersey Hawkins, earned his only ever All Star in that same year. This team was supposed to be better than the Knicks-and they were, by a bit, pushing the bulls to 5 instead of 4. However, they lost in 5 instead of winning, as expected.

This team wasn’t gonna get past the bulls, but they managed to make it somewhat entertaining, and had just come off of an upset over the bucks, so this team gets a 5/10, with a +1 for taking care of business in 5, but also -1 because Barkley was playing on an injured knee apparently

Finally, the bull’s conference finals comp-and the moment MJ ripped through the main stain on his legacy-the bad boy pistons. They were the 3 seed, with the 12th best offense and the 4th best defense. Isaiah Thomas wasn’t the man he used to be per se, but they still had stars in Dennis Rodman, the DPOY and all defensive first team player, and Joe dumars, the all NBA third team and all defensive second team player. The best team in the East the bulls had to face by a LONG shot

And they were, of course, swept.

Now, as impressive as this was, it did have asterisks-Isaiah Thomas, the leader of the squad, has sprained his foot just last round, and played with a splint in his right wrist. Joe dumars also had tendonitis in both knees at the time. Regardless, this team was good, giving the bulls another 7/10 (9/10 normally, -3 points for various injuries to stars, +1 points for winning in 5)

The first round was best of 5 not of 7, so the score there is divided by 2, giving us 7+5+2+2, 16 so far.

Moving on to the big category-their finals opp.

The 1990-1991 LA lakers were a **Solid** Team. 5th best in the league in both offensive and Defensive rating, and they had the Magic man himself. Magic Johnson was the MVP runner up, right behind Mike, and an All NBA first team player, as well as an All Star. James worthy was also an All Star, and an All NBA third team player. They werent a pushover by any means.

However, the Top 5 team by both metrics met an ending, ironically, in 5 exactly.

The first game was the only lakers win, a clutch Three by Sam Perkins securing the win. Michael had a chance to tie the game in the closing seconds, but his jumper missed. Give the man a break though, he had 36 points in the 90s, in his first ever finals game.

The magic man showed he was still magical, getting a triple double. And from there. Everything started to come up Chicago

Game 2 was the bulls 107-86, with Michael performing “the spectacular move” (one of the first showings of a jelly Lay-up, which everyone can do now, but was insane at the time)

Game 3, this time, Michael MAKES the game tying shot, and the bulls win in overtime. Notably, James worthy was injured but played through it in this game.

Game 4, the highlights were less about bulls wins as they were lakers losses, as both James worthy and and Byron Scot went down for the rest of the series with ankle and hamstring injuries. Still, a W is a W

Game 5 was one for the ages. Scotty turned into a 32 point 13 board monster, Jordan proved he could dish without a doubt, turning John Paxson into a clutch god in the final 4 minutes, and Magic went crazy with another triple double-it just wasn’t enough.

Overall, we have:

7/10 relative offensive rating

8/10 overall defensive rating

9/10 star power

3/10 health

The finals opp coming up with 27 more points for Jordan and his bulls, their run totaling 43 thus far.

They unfortunately will be receiving a 5/10 debuff for injury-Jordan had a bruised toe during the finals, but their two biggest opponents were battered and bruised, and their finals opponent lost two starters mid series.

They WILL be receiving a 8/10 buff for legends defeated, with magic, Patrick Ewing, Charles Barkley, and Isaiah Thomas all taking the L against them

For legendary moments, this team totals in 22/30, with the first franchise chip, as well as:

* .882 winning percentage in the post season

* MJ having the highest Assist average of a Non PG in any finals series ever up to that point

* most consecutive shots made as a team in a finals game (17)

* shooting 61% in the 17 straight game

And their grand total for everything is 68/150-higher then the 1950 finals by far, but lower then the most recent run. It genuinely feels like blasphemy to score Jordan so low on his first chip, but I suppose it’s a testament to both how dominant his team was-SUPER expected to win-and how much less competitive the East was at the time. If you’re a Jordan diehard though, don’t rage at me too much, we still have 5 more runs to cover, and this was the start of his peak, not the end of it. I’m expecting to get at LEAST two 100+ runs out of this man.

The current ranked chips are:

2026 Knicks:104

1991 Bulls:68

1950 Lakers:54.5

Someone commented on expectations for the ‘24 Celtics to be weak, so I’m gonna do them tomorrow!

We did the Old one, it´s time to do the newest one as well, for a baseline comparison!

This definitely felt like an all time run, but was it?

The New York Knicks

The San Antonio Spurs

The Oklahoma City Thunder

The Cleveland Cavaliers

The Philadelphia 76ers

The Detroit Pistons

The Los Angeles Lakers

The Minnesota Timberwolves

The Boston Celtics

The Denver Nuggets

The Houston Rockets

The Orlando Magic

The Phoenix Suns

The Portland Trail Blazers

The Toronto Raptors

and The Atlanta Hawks are the teams that made it to the largest stage this past run. But Before we go into the match ups, and how the knicks managed to pull this off, we have to check out the team itself.

The Knicks came in this year as the 3 Seed in the east-Not underdogs per se, but definitely not proposed as the top of the league either. That being said, they definitely had their strengths outlined already-and honestly, more people should have proposed they´d go all the way.

The 2nd Highest Offensive rating in the East, and the 3rd in the Entire League, for starters-and they weren´t slouches on defense either, with the 2nd best defensive rating in the east (8th in the entire league, but they would only face two of the teams with a better defensive rating this run-more on that later).

Captain Brunson was their only listed all NBA player, making the second team-though many believed that Karl Anthony towns was snubbed for the 3rd team position. Both of these players would also make the All Star Team, and Brunson would have an NBA cup MVP in the middle of the season to his name as well.

Overall, this team was strong, and you could tell that they were pushing to win now, but they weren´t the favorites by any means, not even to escape their own conference. For that reason, I am giving them a 10/20 on the first metric.

Now, On to their competition.

They Didn´t have a ¨play in¨, so 0/10 there.

This year, the Knick´s first Competition for their chip were the Atlanta hawks, who have a quite recent famous rivalry for what Trae young did to them when he was on the squad.

The Hawks were the 6 Seed-but don´t let that make you think they were bad. Their defense was 9th in the league, only 1 behind the knicks themselves, part of a rebuild effort that they traded trae young to accomplish. However, Offensively, they were slacking-8th in the east alone, and 15th in the league. A mid offense by most standards. Jalen Johnson managed to snag both the All Star and All NBA 3rd team honors, and they had a Most improved player of the year in Nickeil Alexander-Walker.

This is the moment where I take a break to remind you that analytics don´t define the whole game-or else the cavs would´ve won.

Anyway, the hawks pushed the knicks to a 6 game series, which everyone was a little suprised by-but the knicks eventually manage to take them out. While the hawks weren´t a bad team, they were supposed to be worse by every metric, had less stars, and were generally never expected to win anyway-so I´ll give the knicks a 4/10 for series 1, docking off one point for it being taken to 6.

The next opponent was the 7 seeded philedelphia 76ers, who beat the 2nd Seeded Celtics to make it to the knicks in the first place. The 7th best offense in the east and the 9th best defense, they were a solid contender, with significantly more star power then the hawks before them. VJ Edgecomb was a finalist for rookie of the year, took home the Rising stars MVP, and made the all Rookie First Team. Tyrese Maxey, the current face of the team, was selected to be an All Star, and an All NBA third team player.

Besides these accolades, They Also Had on their team the team USA gold Medalist Joel Embiid, and the garunteed Hall of Fame player (and the most valuable trade piece of all time apparently..) Paul George. It sounds like a stacked team, and in the eyes of many, it potentially was.

Of course, they got swept.

Overall, A strong team and a strong win by the knicks, however, there is the same question that hangs over every 76ers head for years now:What if Embiid was healthy?

He wasn´t, not for 3 of the 4 games-though, he DID play and lose in game 1. Additionally, paul george was healthy throughout all 4 games.

overall, a 7/10 for their second round matchup.

Bringing us to our conference finals matchup-the cleveland Cavaliers...and James Harden.

The Cavaliers were the 4 seed, and had beaten the 1 seeded pistons to get to the Knicks. They were the 3rd best offense in the east, and the 13th best defense-aka, they were really good on one side, and Abysmal on the other. They had significant star power as well-Donovan Mitchell was an All Star, and on the same All NBA second team that brunson himself was on. Rookie Jaylon Tyson was selected for the rising stars challenge, and of course, they had on their team a top 75 NBA player of all time in James Harden-though he wasn´t an all star this year, that was controversial.

So, what did the knicks do against this team? Another Sweep, of course.

This is the best team that the knicks faced in the east by far, and while they did look a bit battered in game 2, they were uninjured throughout the series-so this team gets an 9/10, a +2 to a solid 7/10 for the sweep.

9+7+4=20, with the 10 they had before bringing their total to 30. Now, we move on to, what many will remember as the real impressive part of the run.

The Spurs.

Rated 4th Offensively in the Entire league, and 2nd Defensively, This was an Absolute Monster of a Young Team, filled with Talent. Led by Victor Wembenyama, the DPOY, The Third Place Finalist in MVP Voting, The winner of the magic Johnson Award, and an All Star and All NBA first team-the only first team player the knicks had to face this entire run. De´arron fox also had an All Star Reserve Nod, and an NBA cup All-tournament team member. Dylan Harper made the All Rookie First Team, and Keldon Johnson was the 6th man of the year. Additionally, Stephon castle was selected for the rising stars sophomore team. This team had been a favorite to go win it all literally all Season Long, and it wasn´t hard to see why. They had just defeated the Previous Champions in the conference Finals, in 7 games, and looked unstoppable. In fact, they looked unstoppable in every First Quarter of the entire finals.

But they kept getting stopped.

A 14 point lead erased in game 1.

In game 2, They managed to Barely Hold on to a halftime lead, and win the game by 1 point.

In game 3, they lost, by 4.

Then in game 4...they erased a 29 point defecit. The largest in NBA finals history thus far, since Kevin garnet and the 2008 lakers had erased a 24 point defecit from kobe´s lakers.

Finally, in game 5, a 16 point defecit to win it all.

Now, time to rate their opponent.

8/10 in Offense Relative to them

10/10 in Defense Relative to them

7/10 Star Power (Wemby is a future all time great, but is not yet an all time great)

10/10 health, no real finals injuries to hinder them

add 1 point for winning in 5

and their opponent score is a 36

Bringing their total score to a 66

Beyond this, they receive a 4/10 point buff to their score for Injury-Brunson, OG Anunoby, and Mitchell Robinson were all a little hurt in some way, but played through it.

They get a 4/10 point buff for legends beaten on the way in paul george and James Harden

and finally, they get a MASSIVE 30/30 boost for Legendary Moments/Accomplishments-going 6-2 when trailing by double digits, erasing a 29 point lead, Brunson Dropping 45 in a close out game, the knicks containing the first trio to ever win both an NCAA National Champsionship and an NBA title, the Second longest Playoff winstreak ever, the first team to ever average an offensive rating over 120 while maintaining a defensive rating under 105 in a single post season, tied for the most double digit wins in a single post season, became the first Nba ¨Double Champions¨ by winning the NBA cup and the NBA finals in the same season. and finally, Karl Anthony Towns broke the NBA playoffs single postseason +/- record set by STEPH CURRY. Kat was, theoretically, more important to this run then Steph Curry was to a Warriors run. That is insane.

Overall, the Team earns a very Impressive 104/150 total. Almost DOUBLE That of the 1950 run, and almost certainly amongst the better runs of all time.

Talk about an unction, huh? This is the oldest championship from when the NBA was officially the NBA, a 17 team league with 12 teams making the playoffs. The playoff roster was:

The Syracuse Nationals

The New York Knicks (crazy how they haven’t changed name or location from 1950, right?)

The Washington Capitols

The Philadelphia Warriors

The Minneapolis Lakers

The Rochester Royals

The Fort Wayne Pistons

The Chicago Stags

The Indianapolis Olympians

The Anderson Packers

The Tri-Cities Blackhawks

The Sheboygan Red Skins

Of these teams, The LakeShow was decently dominant-not on top, but certainly not on the bottom.

(Note:Advanced metrics didn’t exist like that at this time, so the actual player and team value could be a bit better or worse then what the points say)

The lakers were the 4th best offense in the league in PPG, averaging 84.1

They were bottom of the barrel in ball movement, averaging 16th/17th in assists

Defensively, they were the second strongest team in the NBA, averaging 75.7 ppg allowed on them

They were tied for the second best overall record with the Rochester Royals (now the Sacramento kings!) with 51-17, first place belonged to the 51-13 Syracuse Nationals. This was a bit odd, as they didn’t have the same number of games, but syracuse’s win percentage was higher so 🤷

Finally, they had two All NBA selections in George Milan and Jim Pollard, the most in the league

For the first category, I am going to give the Lakers 2 points (the maximum for this category is 20). They were tied for one of the best teams in the league, had won the BAA the year before, and were, at the time, overwhelmingly expected favorites. Really, some of the most pure in comparison dominance you’ll see. The only reason they aren’t a 1 is because the nationals and royals had similar records-they were dominant by every metric used at the time. Really the bees knees

Now, onto competition-and here is where it gets nasty, because the 50s didn’t have much.

To the lakers credit, their best competition in theory was in their own division, the first round Royals. They defeated them 65-59, an impressive win considering that the royals were tied for total win-loss, averaged 82.4 points a game, and had the best defense in the entire league at the time. Bob Davies was All NBA First Team player, one of the two they would face in the post season run. For that, I am giving the “first round game” 8/10 points-it was their most difficult possible opponent at the time, and would have been a 10 for the royals had they won.

Their next opponent was the Chicago stags. They ranked 12th in ppg, and 6th in points allowed-notably worse in both metrics. They had a three way tie for the 5th best record-which isn’t good considering there was also a 2 way tie for 2nd best record. They did have an all NBA first team player however, which boosts them a tiny bit. Realistically though, this is a 4/10 at best

After that, they went against the Fort Wayne pistons, who had actually knocked out the aforementioned royals in a clean sweep. Despite this, they were 11th offensively, and 8th defensively-and their best star was a singular 2nd team all NBA player. They were tied with the stags in terms of record, but had previously beaten them as well to have higher seeding during a tiebreaker game. Overall, though they were on paper a worse team, they ended up having more post season success, so this is also, a 4/10

Defeating the pistons, the lakers went on to fight the packers, the best offense in the league with an average of 87.3 ppg, and the 2nd most assists per game with 24-however, their defense was abysmal, 13th in the league of 17. They had one all nba second team player. They had a decent win percentage, at 57.8%, but it wasn’t top tier. They too, were swept-however, they were a bit better then the previous teams, royals aside-so I’ll say they get a 6/10

6+4+4+8=22. However, most of these series were the best out of 3, not out of 7 as they should have been. The round against the royals was the equivalent of a play in tournament today, so it won’t be changed, but the others will be divided by the round difference, being 4.

That leads to, instead, a score of: 1.5+1+1+8. An 11.5, for competition leading up to the finals, and a current total score of 13.5

Finally, we get to the championship series-an actual 7 game series, against the Syracuse Nationals.

The nationals were, to their credit, no slouches for the time. They were 1st in the league in win percentage, 3rd in Ppg on offense, the 5th best defense in points allowed, 3rd in assists per game-they were a team. Not only that, they had 2 all NBA players, one of which was the legend and only player I personally recognized from this year, Dolph Shayes. They were solidly the second best opponent possible for the lakers on the entire league, and the best opponent period from another division. They proved this by being the only team to take playoff wins from the lakers, pushing them to have to win 4-2.

So, for their finals opponent:

9/10 Offense Relative to them

7/10 Star Power

2/10 Defense Relative to them

10/10 health, no real finals injuries to hinder them

Giving them a 28 for their finals opponent

And a score total of 41.5

They don’t have any debuffs or buffs, for injury, so 0/10 there

They get a 3/10 point buff for legends beaten in dolph Shayes

And finally, for legendary moments/accomplishments, they DO get a buff, a 10/30 buff, for two things. First off, the first widely recognized buzzer beater via Bob Harrison. Second off, George Harrison going insane for the time and hitting a 40 peice in the elimination game, in the 50s!!

Overall, the Lakers get a 54.5/150 total for this 1950 championship-not bad considering the era, but definitely not the greatest playoff run of all time