Victor Wembanyama and Anthony Edwards can keep NBA’s 45-year streak going next season if Spurs or T-Wolves win title
NBA dynasties are officially a thing of the past.
The Boston Celtics proved that by winning the 2024 NBA championship against the Dallas Mavericks in five games.
3
With the Celtics capturing the 2024 title, it means the NBA has a different champion for the sixth straight season for the first time since 1980.
The 2019 Toronto Raptors, 2020 Los Angeles Lakers, 2021 Milwaukee Bucks, 2022 Golden State Warriors, 2023 Denver Nuggets and 2024 Celtics are the last six NBA champs.
No team has won consecutive titles since the Kevin Durant-led Warriors in 2018.
You have to go back the early '80s to find such a streak.
READ MORE NBA
Six different champions were crowned in six successive seasons between 1975 and 1980.
They were: 1975 Warriors, 1976 Celtics, 1977 Portland Trail Blazers, 1978 Washington Bullets, 1979 Seattle SuperSonics and 1980 Lakers.
The latest run means the likes of Victor Wembanyama (San Antonio Spurs), Anthony Edwards (Minnesota Timberwolves), Luka Doncic (Mavericks), and Kevin Durant (Phoenix Suns) can stretch the record to 45 years and seven consecutive seasons with a different NBA champion if their teams lift the Larry O'Brien Trophy in 2025.
Gone are the days of the Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers matching up in four straight Finals in the mid 2010s.
Most read in Basketball
3
3
The Association has always been a league of dynasties with select franchises dominating their respective eras.
Bill Russell's Celtics were virtually unstoppable in the '60s, Magic Johnson's Lakers and Larry Bird's Celtics tustled for supremacy in the '80s, Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls won, won, and won again in the '90s, Kobe and Shaq's Lakers were kings at the turn of the century, Tim Duncan's Spurs were consistent winners in the '00s and LeBron James' Heat/Cavs and the Golden State Warriors ruled the 2010s.
Charles Barkley reveals he was so distraught after losing to Michael Jordan in NBA Finals that he became depressed
Only in the '70s and present day has there ever been a stretch where no single team ruled the basketball roost.
More than ever, the NBA is a league of parity and equal opportunity.
The draft system, fatigue, injuries and perhaps most pertinently of all, salary cap restrictions, have all contributed to creating a more even playing field across the league.
The influx of international players also means the league is more talented and evenly distributed than ever before.
Legendary figures like LeBron James, Steph Curry and Kevin Durant are in the twilight of their careers, leaving a vacuum in their wake for any number of generational stars to fill.
Whereas in the past only a handful of teams from each conference could legitimately expect to win it all, nowadays seeds one through ten, in particular out West, have a chance to win the chip.
One only has to look at least season's regular season standings in the Western Conference.
The young Thunder and defending champion Nuggets shared an identical record (57-25), while the gritty Wolves were just a game back in third with a (56-26) record.
In simple terms, it is more difficult than ever to sustain success over a long period of time.
The Jayson Tatum-Jaylen Brown led Celtics may have something to say about that, though.
Read More on talkSPORT
The Cs went 64-18 in the regular season and swept throughout the postseason with a 16-3 playoff record.
Their ridiculously deep roster are already the bookies' favorite to repeat next season, and could well buck the recent trend of a different team winning every season.
Topics