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Apricot wrote a great piece after the Golden State Warriors won the 2015 NBA Finals about the difficulty of repeating as champions.
As he noted then, “The Bird-McHale-Parish Celtics never repeated. The Julius Erving and Moses Malone (RIP) 76ers never repeated. Magic Johnson, only repeated once. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, only one repeat. In the legendary 80’s with Bird, Magic and Dr. J fighting it out, repeating was unheard of...No NBA team has EVER repeated without one of Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Magic Johnson, Bill Russell, Isiah Thomas, Hakeem Olajuwon or George Mikan.”
Some have added elite coaching like Phil Jackson and Red Auerbach to the necessary conditions to repeat, but you probably get the point: perhaps you can luck into one championship; winning two in a row is something special.
And no matter how you look at it, the Warriors have just completed one of the most dominant two-year runs in NBA history. History will not count them among the super elite that have won three in a row, like the 90’s Chicago Bulls (twice) or the legendary Boston Celtics. Yet as a dominant back-to-back effort in the midst of a four-year run of dominance, this is something unparalleled.
The Warriors are the first team in NBA history to win back-to-back titles with a double-digit average point differential in each playoff run. They were +13.5 in the 2017 NBA Playoffs and +10.0 in the 2018 NBA Playoffs.
— Justin Kubatko (@jkubatko) June 9, 2018
The following is a list of every repeat champion in NBA history, going back to the inception of the league along with their two-year regular season record and win percentage. The Warriors fell one win short of the 1996 & 1997 championship Chicago Bulls, which was the team that won 72 games.
The NBA’s back-to-back champions
| Team | Repeat championship years | Two-year regular season record (win %) |
|---|---|---|
| Team | Repeat championship years | Two-year regular season record (win %) |
| Golden State Warriors | 2017 & 2018 | 125-39 (76%) |
| Miami Heat | 2012 & 2013 | 112-36 (75.6%) |
| L.A. Lakers | 2009 & 2010 | 122-42 (74.4%) |
| L.A. Lakers | 2000-2002 (2) | 123-41 (2001 & 2001) (75%) |
| Chicago Bulls | 1996-1998 (2) | 141-23 (1996-97) (85.9%) |
| Houston Rockets | 1994 & 1995 | 105-59 (64%) |
| Chicago Bulls | 1991-1993 (2) | 128-36 (1991 & 1992) (78.0%) |
| Detroit Pistons | 1989 & 1990 | 122-42 (74.3%) |
| L.A. Lakers | 1987 & 1988 | 127-37 (77.4%) |
| Boston Celtics | 1968 & 1969 | 102-62 (62.2%) |
| Boston Celtics | 1959-1966 (6) | 121-39 (1964 & 65) (75.6%) |
| Minneapolis Lakers | 1952-1954 (2) | 94-48 (1953 & 54) (66.1%) |
| Minneapolis Lakers | 1949 (BAA) & 1950 | 95-33 (74%) |
(In case you’re wondering, the Cavs became the 10th team to lose back-to-back Finals)
What we’ve just witnessed this season — this past two seasons — is extremely rare and quite arguably unparalleled when you consider that only the Miami Heat (2011-12), Chicago Bulls (1991-92), and Boston Celtics (1961-63) have ever repeated as champions and had a repeat MVP (and obviously nobody has had a unanimous MVP, however arbitrary that may be). And only two teams have ever won a Finals rematch: the 1998 Chicago Bulls and, now, the 2018 (and 2017) Golden State Warriors.
For now, we really need to just sit back and enjoy this moment, setting aside gripes with players, opponents, rotations, moronic 3-1 jokes (RIP 3-1 jokes), what will happen next or whether they can three-peat — and by three-peat, I mean four-out-of-five-peat.
Right now, at this moment, the Warriors aren’t just the champions, but among the greatest champions the league has seen in the modern era.
And I will never stop saying this: all of this makes the years of futility worth it, even if I had to wait two extra years to finally publish this article.
