We already know that the 2021 NBA Finals is going to make for a champion who hasn't won the Larry O'Brien Trophy in 50 years. The Phoenix Suns have never claimed a title in their 53-season history, while the Milwaukee Bucks last won the NBA championship in 1971. So this edition of the Finals is sure to be historic, but if history is any indicator, NBA fans are in for a treat, because every five years the NBA Finals has created something special.
Five years earlier, in 2016, the Cleveland Cavaliers ended a 52-year title drought for the city by becoming the first team to pull off a 3–1 deficit in the finals. In 2011, the Dallas Mavericks earned their first ring of the franchise against the Wanted Big Three of the Miami Heat. It avenged a loss five years earlier, when the Heat passed a 2–0 deficit to defeat the Mavericks.
While we wait in anticipation to see what Bucks & Sons will do to make history this year, let's look at some of the incredible adventures from past years.
2016: Cavaliers defeat Warriors 4-3
The Cavaliers' classic against the Golden State Warriors in 2016 was much more than those three late plays, but for a series that was already dripping with drama, with so much riding on the results in the final minutes of Game 7. came down. Truly made for one of the greatest games in basketball history. If one of those plays had gone in the Warriors' direction - it would have been JR Smith before Andre Iguodala swooped in from LeBron James' backboard to block his fixed layup, or Kyrie Irving's side-step jumper would have fallen short Is, or finds Stephen Curry. Way to get Kevin Love to defend him one-on-one beyond the three-point line - we're talking about a different outcome.
The ripple effects of the opposite result are immeasurable. Does Kevin Durant ever join the Warriors? Does James ever leave Cleveland without giving hometown title? Do those Warriors of 2015-16 get unanimous recognition as the unanimous team? This is all up for debate at the barbershop. What's undeniable is that over 30 million home viewers watched a game they'll never forget.
2011: The Mavericks beat the Heat 4-2
The Mavericks' nemesis since the final five years ago, Dwayne Wade held a post-shooting pose for some extra beats after rolling a corner 3 right in front of the Mavericks bench. LeBron James jogged, jogging Wade a few feet across the chest in front of his seemingly overbearing foe.
Game 2 had 7:14 left, and the heats were up 15 points, well on their way to a 2–0 series lead. Celebrating the Superteam—which actually began with "Not one, not two, not three, not four...", Free Agents James and Chris Bosch join Wade to take their talents to South Beach. Immediately after the pep rally/news conference - had resumed.
But the Mavs, enraged by the taunting, spoiled the party. Dallas rallied to win Game 2 with a 22-5 run, driving by Dirk Nowitzki and spinning to a lefty layup.
This wasn't the last time in the series that Dallas felt humiliated by the Heat's stars. Nowitzki and his teammates watched a video of James and Wade getting sick and coughing after Miami's Game 5 shootaround, mocking Nowitzki's story while having a 102-degree fever the night before in Dallas' series-tying win. (The second major story from Game 4: James is being held to eight points on a 3-of-11 shoot.)
The Mavericks won the final three games of the series, ending the heat off in Game 6, led by a skilled 27 points from Jason Terry, the only other player remaining from the 2006 team. Mark Cuban and the Mavs celebrated until sunrise at Club Liv in Miami Beach, where Nowitzki took a bottle of Ace of Spades champagne, the size of their finals MVP trophy.
In the fourth quarter of Game 3, Dwayne Wade and his Heat teammate were down double digits and facing the prospect of Dirk Nowitzki going 3–0 down to the Mavericks. It was Wade who led the charge as the Heat won 98-96 and never looked back. Wade's 42 points in Game 3 kick-started a four-game stretch in which he scored 36 in a Game 4 blowout win, 43 in a Game 5 overtime win (including a go-for free throw with 1.9 seconds to play) and 36 in a game 6 closeout win in which he also hit four clutch free throws down the stretch.
He became the sixth player in NBA history to score as many 40-point games in the Finals (LeBron James eventually became seventh) and his 21 free throws in Game 5 are still the most in a Finals game. His performance earned him the Finals MVP (becoming the fifth youngest player to win the award at the time, now sixth thanks to Kawhi Leonard in 2014) and helped Shaquille O'Neal earn his fourth and final championship.
If Thanos was an NBA team, it would be the 2000-01 Los Angeles Lakers. With Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal together at the peak of their powers, Phil Jackson pulling strings to raise an able group of role players around him, it's little wonder that LA made it to the finals that year. Was undefeated in the ensuing playoffs. Then Thanos met Allen Iverson and lost. No superhero comp needed. AI was one in itself.
Even though the Philadelphia 76ers only took one game from the defending champs that year, one was a masterpiece. Iverson helped the Philly to a 107–101 overtime win in Game 1, scoring 48 points and logging 52 of 53 minutes, preventing the Lakers from becoming the first team in NBA history to score 15–1 in the postseason. was ahead of 0. Shaq and Kobe would go on to collect the second of their three titles together by eliminating the Sixers in five games, but Iverson's footprint in Game 1 — from that stepover on Tyron Lew — has been frozen in time.
1996: Bulls beat SuperSonics 4-2
The Chicago Bulls entered the playoffs on the strength of 72 regular-season victories—an NBA record at the time—and T-shirts with the phrase "without a ring means a thing" on them. The group understood that the magnitude of the achievement would only happen if they finally won a championship.
The Bulls dominated the Eastern Conference playoffs—which included a four-game sweep over the Orlando Magic team buoyed by young stars Shaquille O'Neal and Anferney Hardaway, as well as former teammate Horace Grant, who won the playoffs at the time of Michael Jordan. put out of his retirement.
In the final, Chicago was pitted against the Seattle SuperSonics, led by Shawn Kemp and Gary Peyton and coached by George Carl, like Jordan a North Carolina alum. Jordan averaged 27.3 points per game in a six-game series win, earning him the fourth Finals MVP of his career. It is because of this particular finals win, combined with regular season dominance, that the Bulls are widely regarded as the greatest team of all time. The 2015–16 Warriors finished with 73 regular-season victories, but could not complete the championship journey after losing to the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 7 of the 2016 Finals.
The knock on Michael Jordan early in his career was that he was a great scorer who could not lead his team to the championship. The Bulls found no way to overtake the Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference, and there was at least some doubt whether they would ever break into the biggest stage of the game.
But Jordan's natives, Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant, continued to build together and eventually came out on top during an impressive run through the 1991 playoffs, including a four-game sweep of the same Pistons in the Eastern Conference finals. and included a five-game blitz. Magic Johnson and the Lakers in the final.
Backed by a strong, versatile defense, Jordan took his game to a whole new level—taking command of the NBA from Johnson and the Lakers in the process. Jordan averaged 31.2 points, 11.4 assists and 6.6 rebounds in the final, setting the tone for the rest of the decade as the game's most iconic player on the game's most influential team.
1986: Celtics beat Rockets 4-2
The 1986 NBA Finals marked the first time in league history that the league's championship round was officially called the "Final". Prior to this, it was called the "NBA World Championship Series". It also marked the third and final time that Larry Bird would be crowned NBA champion.
The '86 Boston Celtics have gone down as one of the greatest teams in NBA history, with a starting lineup that includes four future Hall of Famers — Byrd, Kevin McHale, Robert Parrish and Dennis Johnson — as well as Future Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Enge, plus Hall of Famer Bill Walton coming off the bench. Houston, meanwhile, was a team built around 7-foot-4 Ralph Sampson's "Twin Towers" and future Hall of Fame center Hakeem Olajuwon.
Ultimately, however, the Celtics' strength was too much to drive Houston away. While the Rockets managed to win a few games in Houston to extend the series, the Celtics blew the Rockets back in Boston in Game 6 to close the series and hand the Birds their third championship.
The win in Game 6 also gave the Celtics the best home record in NBA history. Boston went 40–1 at home during the regular season – a record held by the 2015–16 San Antonio Spurs for the best single-season mark at home – before perfecting 10–0 at home in the postseason.
1981: Celtics beat Rockets 4-2
The Houston Rockets finished the season 40–42, but behind the power of Moses Malone, he scored a shocking run in the finals, being the last team to make it with a losing record. He did so by defeating the defending champion Lakers in the opening round, but was, in part, helped by a best-of-three opening-round format. They defeated George Gervin and the Spurs in seven games in the second round, setting up a strange playing scenario for the Kansas City Kings, who also had a losing record.
This set up a David vs Goliath matchup in the final against the Celtics, which had the best record in the league. With their Big Three - Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parrish - the Celtics were overwhelming favourites. But after four games, the Rockets looked like they belonged, taking a 2-2 split in Game 5. Malone was feeling a little off himself, talking about something smack after Game 4, saying, "Boston isn't that good," and "I saw four guys on the street in Petersburg [Virginia, Malone's hometown]. could take down and beat them."
The Celtics won Game 5 to 29, then got a few clutch buckets to win Bird in Game 6 to 11, giving Boston their 14th title and Bird their first.
While the Boston Celtics defeated the Phoenix Suns in six games to win another NBA title, the series will forever be remembered for the triple-overtime thriller the two teams played in Game 5 at the Boston Garden, a game that Widely considered one of the best in NBA history.
The reason for holding such historical significance, apart from having only three overtimes, is the unlikely things that helped raise the game many times over. With a late tie at game 95 in the fourth quarter, Celtics forward Paul Silas appeared to be calling for a timeout, while Boston did not have one, but officials missed it. Had the timeout been granted, the Suns would have been given a technical foul, potentially winning the game in regulation and giving the Phoenix a 3–2 lead in the series.
However, it paled in comparison to the last 20 seconds of the second overtime. The two teams exchanged possession several times. Three shots were fired in the final six seconds, one by Phoenix's Gar Hurd on the buzzer to send the game to the third overtime. Fans stormed the court, causing a delay of several minutes, and Paul Westphal of Phoenix intentionally called a timeout when his team had no one, resulting in a technical glitch, but the Sun was forced to kick the ball in from midcourt. Allowed to leave, setting up Hurd's shot.
Eventually, the Celtics won the game in that third overtime and later won the title in Game 6 back in Phoenix.
50 years before Giannis Antetokounmpo turned the paint for Milwaukee, the Bucks had another major MVP big man. Lew Alcindor, who later passed to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, was in his second season with the Bucks during the 1970–71 season. The Bucks would pair Oscar Robertson with Alcindor, and the pair were unstoppable.
Milwaukee had the best record in the league that season, winning 66 games, including a 20-game winning streak. Alcindor won the first of six MVP awards and led the Bucks to playoff victories over the Los Angeles Lakers of San Francisco and Wilt Chamberlain. They won both the series 4-1.
Standing in their way were the Baltimore Bullets, led by final opponents Earl Monroe, Wes Unseld and Gus Johnson. Unfortunately for the Bullets, their stars were contested and no match for Alcindor, Robertson and Bob Dandridge. The Bucks won their first championship with ease, as Alcindor averaged 27 points and 18.5 rebounds to win the finals MVP. Robertson averaged 23.5 points, 9.5 assists and 5.0 rebounds in his 11th season. And Dandridge averaged 20.3 points and 9.8 rebounds. The 6-foot-7 Unseld did his best to fight Alcindor and had a triple-double of 11 points, 23 rebounds, and 10 assists in Game 4. But the Bucks still completed the sweep - just the second sweep in Finals history. that time.
In their third season in the league, the Bucks Championship became the fastest any expansion team to win a title in the history of major professional sports.
The 1966 NBA Finals were historic for a number of reasons, starting with the Celtics in their record-setting 10th straight NBA Finals, a feat that will certainly never be matched. It also became notable when, after the Lakers won overtime in Game 1, legendary coach Red Auerbach – who had already stated that the 1966 season would be his last – announced that future Hall of Famer Bill Russell would be a team player— There will be a coach. The following season, he became the first black head coach in NBA history.
However, the drama did not end there. As the rivals played against each other in the NBA Finals for the fourth time in five years (what would eventually be six meetings over a nine-year period, all won by Boston), the Celtics found themselves in a 3–1 series. lead, only to see the Lakers claim victory in Games 5 and 6 to force Game 7.
The Celtics came back and dismissed Aurbach as champions, winning Game 7 95–93 by 25 points and Russell's 32 rebounds. Still, the Lakers' resilience was impressive. Neither team would reach Game 7 after going 3–1 in the final until 50 years later, when LeBron James led the Cavaliers to the title.