Draymond Green has been around the NBA for a while now, and he has been following the league for a couple of decades at this point.
He has seen the rise and fall of various dynasties and, on his podcast, The Draymond Green Show, listed out the individuals who are responsible for basically every title in his lifetime.
“The guys responsible for all the championships in our life, it’s a conversation I was having with a friend,” Green said. “Larry Bird, Magic (Johnson), Kareem (Abdul-Jabbar), Isiah (Thomas)/Dumars – Joe Dumars, Michael Jordan, Hakeem “The Dream” (Olajuwon), Kobe (Bryant), Shaq (Shaquille O’Neal), LeBron (James), D Wade, Steph (Curry), Klay (Thompson), Draymond, list skips, Phil Jackson, Gregg Popovich, Riles – Pat Riley, Dumars again – Joe Dumars, Steve Kerr…”
“Then you have the one-offs,” Green continued. “Boston in ’08, they beat Kobe and Phil, which are a part of this list, Dallas in ’11 beat LeBron, and D Wade and Pat Riley, which are a part of this list, Toronto in ’19 which beat Steph, Klay, and I, and Steve which are all part of this list. Then you got the Bucks in 2021, which are not a part of this list but is actually a one-off, they beat Phoenix. So that’s actually the one which is interesting, that no one on this list won but they also didn’t beat anyone on this list. All of the one-offs have actually beat teams that are on this list.”
(starts at 1:23 mark):
That is an interesting observation that just this group of players and coaches have been responsible in one way or the other for all but one of the last 40-odd titles. Green went on to say the Denver Nuggets hadn’t beaten any team on this list which gave him some doubts on whether they’d win the title, but they did beat LeBron James in the last round, for what it’s worth.
Can The Heat Or The Nuggets Not Be A One-Off?
Neither the Heat nor the Nuggets have any player or coach that Draymond mentioned here, so either of them winning it will be a one-off for now. Can one of these two potentially go on and join those teams he mentioned by winning multiple titles? Well, you’d give the Nuggets a much better shot at that, considering they are younger than the Heat.
Nikola Jokic just turned 28 this year, while Jamal Murray turned 26. They both have quite a few years left at the top and have a pretty good roster around them, which ensures they’ll be contenders for a while. For the Heat, Jimmy Butler will turn 34 later this year and once he starts declining, it is hard to see them competing for titles.
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