Throughout the 1990s, the Chicago Bulls were the kings of the NBA castle. Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen led them to six championships in eight seasons, and the only two years they failed to reach that goal were when Jordan decided to pursue an MLB career. Other than that, the NBA was ruled by the red and black.
Since then, the NBA has seen many different teams take the reins and dominate the league. Teams like the Golden State Warriors, Miami Heat, and San Antonio Spurs have all been great. But which championship run since Jordan’s final title was the best?
According to Kevin Pelton of ESPN, the answer is the 2016-17 Warriors, who, coming off their 73-9 season, added Kevin Durant and absolutely destroyed the NBA.
“What happens when you take the core that won an NBA-record 73 games but not a championship (making the 2015-16 Warriors ineligible for this list) and add former MVP Kevin Durant? Predictably, the result was arguably the greatest team in league history and more clearly the best of the past quarter century,” Pelton wrote.
In addition, Pelton pointed out Golden State’s playoff run, which is the greatest of all time.
“Despite integrating Durant and then losing him to an MCL sprain for all of March, Golden State still won 67 games, tied for the seventh-best winning percentage in NBA history,” Pelton wrote. “The Warriors then swept their way through the Western Conference playoffs, aided by Kawhi Leonard’s ankle sprain in Game 1 of the conference finals, and took the first three games of the NBA Finals before suffering their only playoff defeat in Game 4 at Cleveland.
“Golden State’s 16-1 playoff record is the best of all time.”
Who was better, the Warriors or the Bulls? It’s a subjective question that may never be answered, but they may be the two greatest teams ever constructed.
