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spt_060307_nba_dynasties.appFooter = "Source: MSNBC.com contributor Bob Cook";
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spt_060307_nba_dynasties[i-1].body = "The Spurs won their third title in five years – enough to make them a true dynasty. There is no official definition of dynasty, but three in five years appears to be a minimum standard. Amassing four titles in nine years -– taking in the Spurs’ 1999 title -– doesn’t hurt their case, either.
Where do the Spurs rank among great NBA dynasties? Until they get a few more under their belt, probably among the bottom rung, not so close to the 1990s NBA Bulls. But this list is hard enough to make, much less rank at the top. It’s not being patronizing saying it’s honor just to be listed as a dynasty.";
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spt_060307_nba_dynasties[i-1].body = "
Title run: Three straight, 2000-02
What made them historic: These Lakers were the supernova of dynasties: spectacular and explosive for a short burst, outshining everything else in the NBA galaxy, and emanating shock waves that reverberate even after the team is fading from view. You know the story. Coach Phil Jackson came out of retirement to make Shaq and Kobe (do you really need their last names?) play nice. Thus was born a never-a-dull-moment soap opera that, for a time, threatened to become bigger than Jackson’s Michael Jordan Bulls teams.
The beginning of the end: Given Kobe’s allegations (backed up by Shaq) lately about the machinations of the Lakers front office and owner Jerry Buss, the formerly clear-cut story of Kobe's forcing Shaq out of town has become muddled. After failing to win titles in 2003 and 2004, Buss chose the younger, quicker Kobe over the older, stronger Shaq, and Jackson walked out with the big man. That is, until Buss’ daughter/Jackson’s girlfriend convinced her man to walk back a few years later, tail between his legs, to coach Kobe after ripping him in a book.
Epilogue: Shaq, with new sidekick Dwyane Wade, won a title in Miami in 2006, his second year there. Meanwhile, Kobe’s Lakers have floundered, either exiting the playoffs early, or not making them at all. Not that Kobe doesn’t have a right to complain ab out the Lakers’ roster. The players behind him and Shaq during the championship years were lottery-level, too.";
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spt_060307_nba_dynasties[i-1].body = "
Title run: Three in six years -– 1981, 1984, 1986.
What made them historic: Three-in-six doesn’t seem dynasty-like, but the Celtics’ rivalry with fellow 1980s dynasty the Los Angeles Lakers (subtext: Larry Bird vs. Magic Johnson) defined the NBA and made it truly major league. The first Celtics’ championship run that decade included games tape-delayed for after-the-11-o’clock-news showing on CBS. By the end of their run, the Boston-L.A. series (they played three times for the championship, with the Lakers winning twice) was prime time all the way.
The beginning of the end: Any Celtics fan will tell you Len Bias’ death from a cocaine overdose while celebrating being picked No. 2 overall by Boston in 1986 (a pick acquired from Seattle), was not only the beginning of the end of the Celtics dynasty, but of the franchise itself. The lucky leprechauns that seemed to guide the team in its first 40 years of existence have disappeared over its past 20.
Epilogue: Want more proof of the Celtics’ bad luck streak? They finished second-worst in the NBA this season, yet could only muster the No. 5 pick in the Greg Oden/Kevin Durant, life-changing draft lottery. Hope you enjoy the Yi Jianlian era, Boston. Just like nobody calls anything exquisite the Cadillac of its category anymore, nobody refers to the Celtics as the example of an incredibly successful sports franchise anymore. In all the wrong ways, the Celtics are the Cadillac of the NBA.";
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Title run: Five in six years – 1948 in the NBA predecessor the
Basketball Association of America, then 1950 and 1952-54 in the NBA
What made them historic: The Minneapolis Lakers were the NBA’s first dynasty. They also were the first to prove that no matter what style of basketball anyone plays, no matter what great forwards or guards anybody else has, any team that has the dominant big man of its era will win a fistful of championships (exception: the Jordan Bulls). That's why the Portland Trail Blazers are eager to take Greg Oden as their No. 1 pick in the 2007 NBA draft. In the Lakers’ case, that dominant big man was a bespectacled chap named George Mikan.
The beginning of the end: Mikan retiring after the 1954 season. He also set the NBA tradition of dynasties immediately descending to mediocrity if their dominant big man leaves.
Epilogue: In 1960, the Lakers moved to Los Angeles and got back to championship-level strength with the drafting of Elgin Baylor and Jerry West. But with the players such as Rudy LaRusso filling the middle, they spent the decade playing bridesmaid to the Bill Russell Celtics, losing four titles series in five years between 1962 and 1966. They acquired Wilt Chamberlain later the decade, but lost three straight titles with him -– two to Russell, and one to the New York Knicks in Willis Reed’s famous inspirational one-legged appearance. That's finishing second in seven out of nine years, the greatest silver-medal dynasty of any sport, including the Buffalo Bills.";
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spt_060307_nba_dynasties[i-1].body = "
Title run: Five in nine years – 1980, 1982, 1985, 1987-88
What made them historic: Pairing one of the NBA’s greatest centers, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, with its greatest point guard, Magic Johnson. Johnson’s enthusiasm and omnipresent grin was the yin to Abdul-Jabbar’s serious-as-a-heart attack yang, revving up the Lakers’ Showtime era and, with Johnson’s college rivalry with Larry Bird carrying over to multiple championship battles, putting the NBA on the sporting map for good. By the way, do you realize how close we came to Johnson playing in Utah? The Lakers got the No. 1 pick to take Johnson because the Jazz had traded it for the aged Gail Goodrich. Although there was jazz in Johnson’s game, it is hard to imagine Johnson’s game in Jazz.
The beginning of the end: The seemingly ageless Abdul-Jabbar –- he was 41 in 1988 -– aged in a hurry in 1989, and retired after that season. Johnson stunningly retired only two years later, after announcing he had contracted HIV.
Epilogue: The Showtime era set in motion the intertwining of basketball and celebrity in Los Angeles, to the point that the Lakers can’t just win, but they must win with stars. In fact, having stars might be preferable. Even if the Lakers could trade Kobe Bryant for a strong, young nucleus, the dimming of star power would turn that team into just another Clippers.";
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spt_060307_nba_dynasties[i-1].body = "
Title run: Six in eight years – 1991-93, 1996-98.
What made them historic: This will be the NBA’s great what-if -– what if Michael Jordan hadn’t taken two years off in the middle of the 1990s? (Someday, someone is going to write a blockbuster book about what really motivated Jordan to, ahem, spend some time with his family and, later, pursue his dream of becoming a pro baseball player. Lest we forget, at the time of his 1993 retirement, various allegations about gambling and involvement with unseemly figures were swirling around Jordan. Just sayin’.) Would the Bulls have been the greatest dynasty of all-time? It’s ridiculous LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Harold Miner, et al, get tagged with Jordan comparisons, because no player will ever compare. No shooting guard is ever going to have the talent, competitiveness and Zen (supplied by Phil Jackson, the previously unknown coach who taught Jordan how to play nice with his Bulls unequals) to lead his team to such great heights. Even if he has a Scottie Pippen by his side.
The beginning of the end: Another blockbuster book is waiting to be written about the collapse of the Bulls after that 1998 title. Really, why did Bulls general manager Jerry Krause feel such a need to alienate Jackson and Jordan and blow apart the team? Why did owner Jerry Reinsdorf let him do that? Why didn’t Jackson and Jordan stay another year, or join another team, instead of riding off into the sunset? There are not necessarily any snide remarks about Jordan’s gambling here -– it might be as simple as egos on all sides raging out of control.
Epilogue: Krause blew the team into the cellar hard, and the Bulls are just beginning to come up for air. Jackson burnished his reputation further by getting Shaq and Kobe to cooperate long enough to win three straight titles with the Lakers, though he hurt it by coming back a second time to Los Angeles to oversee a struggling Kobe team. Meanwhile, Jordan’s carefully crafted image has taken some hits with his disastrous stint as an executive/old-guy player with Washington, and photos that surfaced of his disastrous affair with an Indianapolis lounge singer on the way to his divorce. Jordan is rehabbing his executive image in Charlotte now, but no matter what blockbuster book is written that tears away the Jordan facade, he’ll always be remembered as the greatest basketball player of all time.";
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spt_060307_nba_dynasties[i-1].body = "
Title run: 11 in 13 years. Take a deep breath – 1957, 1959-66, 1968-69.
What made them historic: These Celtics had the perfect recipe to create America’s greatest pro team sports dynasty. They had a great player (and big man) in Bill Russell, who galvanized the action on the floor. They had a great coach and even shrewder general manager in Red Auerbach, who got the players necessary to win titles and molded them. And they had an owner (also the team’s founder) in Walter Brown, who had only one question for Auerbach when he wanted somebody: Can the guy play? (Brown was the owner who broke the NBA’s color line by signing Chuck Cooper in 1950.) In the free-agency and salary-cap eras, winning 11 titles in 13 years seems impossible because you can’t keep players together long enough. But even in these Celtics’ pre-free-agency and salary-cap eras, this sort of winning was impossible to accomplish – except by Boston.
The beginning of the end: Brown died of a heart attack right before the start of the 1964-65 season. Auerbach retired as coach after the 1966 season, though he stayed on as general manager. But the final blow to the Celtics’ dynasty was the retirement of Russell as player and coach (he had succeeded Auerbach in that role) after the 1969 championship. The Celtics were left with John Havlicek as the only dynasty contributor left still in his prime, and in 1970 they didn’t even make the playoffs. But Auerbach, as a GM, still had five more championships to come. "; spt_060307_nba_dynasties[i++] = new Array("spt_060307_greatest_nba_dynasty","Vote: Greatest dynasty?","","","","", "lv2", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", ""); // END editorial data