Thursday, June 11, 2009

Seriously?

John Hollinger just posted his list of the NBA franchises in order of greatness at ESPN.com; and while you could debate the Lakers and Celtics as the #1 team until the end of time, I have a major contention with him ranking the Spurs (he has them at #3) over the Bulls (at #4).

I know the Bulls only had one good decade and did nothing before and have done nothing since, but that is one of the best decades in sports EVER. Despite all of the Spurs' "continual success" they still only have four titles - the Bulls won SIX in that one 10 year span.

How is that not still more impressive?


And if nothing else, THEY DRAFTED THE GREATEST PLAYER TO EVER PLAY THE GAME. And it's not like they lucked into Jordan with the first pick, they took him at three.

Oh, and how does Hollinger have Phoenix at five with NO title wins? At some point doesn't common sense have to factor into all of the stats? Doesn't perception hold any weight on these topics?

Click here for Hollinger's list, but here is my Top 10:

1. LA Lakers
2. Boston
3. Chicago
4. San Antonio
5. Detroit
6. Houston
7. Philadelphia
8. Portland
9. New York
10. Utah

Let the debate rage...

8 comments:

Chris said...

You HAVE to put the Celtics ahead of the Lakers for the mere fact that the Celtics have 17 titles and the Lakers only have 14 (probably 15 within the next week). The Celtics took the title every year but 2 between '57 and '69...you can't place ANY team above that yet.

Just Being Josh said...

Yeah, that is a tough one. The head-to-head in championships for the Celtics over the Lakers is hard to ignore as well.

Hollinger got me with ALL of the Laker greats and I was trying to not let my LA hate cloud my judgement.

Like I said, you can debate that one forever but the Spurs over the Bulls is inexcusable

Unknown said...

Kantad (NYC)
John nice article on team rankings - my only change would be to switch the Spurs with the Bulls - MJ's intangibles should have been more like 500 as far as I'm concerned.

John Hollinger
Obviously the MJ years trump the Duncan years, but the Bulls also had some incredibly bad teams -- other than the Jordan years they had a bottom-five resume. San Antonio has been consistently excellent so they trump Chicago even with fewer titles.

From Espn LIVE CHAT

Unknown said...

#5. Intagibles *
New York Knicks: Most valuable Frachise in NBA History. +50 pts
Willis Reed Scam: Scored ONLY 4 points on a busted leg and he's superman? -50 points
Isaiah Thomas -50 points
They still deserve top 10.
PISTONS? Even with the Uniforms with the horse on them -100 points, they deserve top 10.
Mahler: Don't shoot me for this...the Spurs deserve to be ranked above the Bulls.

Sorry Michael.

Unknown said...

Is this just NBA all time great teams or are you bringing in ABA history as well?

Unknown said...

The Chicago Bulls with MJ is third no doubt. To leave and comeback and still be the best in Basket Ball speaks for it self

Carl Mahler said...

The Celtics are number one for me. They have clearly dominated the sport of basketball like the Yankees of baseball. Sorry, the Lakers are number two; similar to the LA Dodgers. Also, I would pick the Indiana Pacers to replace the Utah Jazz in your number ten position

Carl Mahler said...

Hey, I just took a look at what Kevin said. Kevin wanted to know if the ABA teams could be included in picking the top ten basketball teams of all time. That's a good point Kev. I used to attend a lot of the ABA games here in Virginia when I followed the Virginia Squires. You might want to give some consideration to the Kentucky Colonels, Carolina Cougars or the New York Nets. It was a treat to watch Dr. J do is his stuff with the Nets when he first came into the pros.