Who was the most talented team to not win a NBA championship? There are many reasons why it didn't happen. Injury, bad calls in the playoffs and breaking the team up too soon. A few rosters come to mind: 09 Rockets: Yao, Mcgrady, Brooks, Artest, Landry, Scola, Battier, Deke, Skip.. Injuries crippled the Mac-Yao era but this was the only year they actually had the talent to get over the hump. 2nd round. 7games with the eventual champs without Yao and Mcgrady 96 Lakers: 4 all-stars Shaq, Kobe, Eddie Jones, Van Exel. I guess they just needed Phil Jackson 04 Pacers: Stephen Jackson, Miller, J. O'neal, Artest. See Malace in the Palace 00 Blazers: Pippen, Sabonis, Smith, Stoudamire, Sheed, Bonzi, J. O'Neal. JailBlazers 07 Warriors: Baron, Monta Ellis, S. Jackson, J. Rich. The GM broke that team up right after the upset over Dallas 94 Warriors: Sprewell, Webber, Mullins, Hardaway (inj) Chemistry issues 00 Knicks: Houston, Sprewell, Larry Johnson, Camby, Ewing. Old?
I forget what year it was but I would throw in a different Rockets squad. I would say it was the year we had Yao, Tmac, Stromile Swift, David Wesley, Jon Barry, David Anderson, Rafer Alston, Chuck Hayes, Jo Howard, Deke... I say this because the best team in the league that year was the San Antonio Spurs and the 4 games we played them 3 of them were double digit wins for us and the 1 time they beat us they stole it from us at end of the game. I felt like THAT WAS GOING TO BE THE YEAR. Sure enough the one team we CAN'T beat due to matchups was the Utah Jazz and that's the reason why we didn't win it that year. Having Yao IN the game matched up with Okur was a liability. They were already a solid scrappy defensive team. They knew how to get fouls drawed on our big men to get them out of the game.
I don't think I'd call them the best team that never won a title, but Grantland had a very good article on the 80s Rockets titled The Greatest Team That Never Was.
2005 Suns. Nash/Joe Johnson/Shawn Marion/Amare. 1st year together. If they keep Johnson and Amare stays healthy, I think they win a title. By the way, I don't think '07 Warriors had anywhere close to championship level talent.
Yeah I can see your point about the 07 Warriors. Maybe I confused Young and Exciting with a Young and upcoming team.
This. Adelman was a genius. Refs completely screwed them and Tom Donaghy even admitted it in his book that they were told to.
2009 Rockets. Come on now, Yao was at his best, Mutombo was still playing decent, T mac could still be T mac(if he stayed healthy) and they had the best supporting cast. No doubt this team would have won that year if the team would of stayed healthy.
I'm old, losing my memory, but the Malone/Payton Lakers could have won that series. I blame Phil Jackson for that one. There were a ton of great teams in the 90's when the Bulls and Rockets were winning. That one Pacers team that took Chicago to 7 - they were interesting too. Better than the Billups Pistons.
'02 Kings is up there for sure, probably the #1 in my lifetime. '97 Pacers that took the Bulls to 7 - Reggie, Davis brothers, Smits, Rose, Mullin. '04 Pacers with Artest and Jermaine at their peak and Reggie was great too. '08 Rockets def had a shot with healhty stars but we didn't even have Tracy going into the playoffs so I can't count that.
Considering the '00 Blazers and '02 Kings got legitimately screwed out of sure-fire titles by a refereeing scandal, I'd say they both belong in the conversation. Hard to really think of many other teams considering the West's domination of the East pretty much since Jordan retired. The mid-2000s Pacers might have had a legit chance if not for the M@tP. The 1989-1991 Blazers also deserve a mention. So do the mid-90s Knicks.
Um. The Sonics? EDIT: From 92-98, Seattle's W/L record was 357-135 (.725). During that same period the Bulls were 362-130 (.736).
Gotta agree with this. Those Sonics teams were killer in the regular season. They took the Suns to 7 games in the Western Conference Finals in 93, and west to the Finals in 96 (with two epic first round chokes in between . I love my championship era Rockets (and with all due respect to Tinman), but I am not sure the Rockets win those titles without Seattle choking in the playoffs. The Sonics were a tough, tough team that really had our number.
